SocialMedia Web2 PR Tourismus| FastenYourSeatbelts.at | Karin Schmollgruber

When you think of Chile, what comes to your mind? No, no politics please!  Think again. Yes, earthquakes, and the rescue of 33 miners  in 2010. Here is something you probably do not know: Despite Chile being an attractive travel destination, when Eduardo Aresti joined Chile’s Destination Marketing Organisation Sernatur as new manager for digital [...]

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Okay, ladies and gentlemen, it has been quite a while since the last time I published an English post on FastenYourSeatbelts.at. Almost two years to be precise. And it has been 200 years since the last eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland which has caused some major travel chaos, after thousands of flights were [...]

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Last year Aaron Schwartz stayed at the Marriott Renaissance Ocean Suites in Aruba. He posted a video on YouTube. The management liked it so much, that they awarded him a free 7-night, all-inclusive trip back. I highly recommend reading this USA today-article Guests’ videos star in hotels’ online ads about how hotels are approaching the [...]

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I was surprised when I met a very passionate hotel owner last year who had never ever heard of Web 2.0, let alone hotel review platforms. When I mentioned Holidaycheck.de – the Swiss-based Tripadvisor for German speaking travelers – he joked there should be a platform for hotel owners to review guest too! Guestcheck or [...]

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I have been traveling quite a lot these days. And as they say, traveling expands the horizon. Some of my readers know how much my husband and I love hiking. And having the Weinviertel in Lower Austria as one of my clients I love to explore that wine lovers’ paradise just outside of Vienna as [...]

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After my last post Be brave, leave a gap II some readers have asked what my snarky remark "If the Vienna Tourist Office can do it, you can do it" was supposed to mean. Well, I wrote about my former colleague conveying some of her tips to the readers of the Italian version of the [...]

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There is an excellent article on Future trends in hotel e-business at Hotelmarketing.com reporting from the HEDNA conference currently taking place in Lisbon. Many key points apply to other branches of the tourism industry as well. Henry Harteveldt from Forrester says, you have to evolve from selling to engaging. "To truly engage digital travelers, hotel [...]

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In my last article Web 2.0 in Tourism Marketing – be brave, leave a gap I suggested thinking hard and then making baby steps when it comes to deploying Social Media in your marketing strategy. There is no need to wait until the next relaunch in the making (since God knows when) is finally online. [...]

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In German there is a well known phrase called "Mut zur Lücke". It refers to having the courage (Mut) to leave a gap (Lücke). We use it when referring to taking exams, learning new skills and meeting new challenges. To me "Mut zur Lücke" pretty much sums up what I suggested in my workshop on [...]

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Gone are the days when only hotel managers and some destination marketers would bemoan authentic customer rating platforms like Tripadvisor & Co. as a potential threat to their business. Think again, more and more of these platforms have quietly added other subjects as well. It is not a matter of hotels and destinations anymore. Would [...]

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