Travel Blogs New Way to Promote Tourism

Blogs are a trendy way to publish online, and if done right, they can be an effective way to maintain solid relationships with Internet customers. While blogs may be used regularly by the techno-savvy, only 38 percent of all internet users know what blogs are, according to a January 2005 Pew Research Center survey. And their use as a marketing tool is still in its infancy.

(Blogs are personal websites where the owner/writer or “blogger” writes about a subject dear to his heart for anyone to read, and provides links to useful sites on the subject.)

Most people in business use the blog to direct people to their business site (and vice versa). For example, when a certain destination or specific type of tourism product is mentioned in the blog, the reference is hyperlinked to a page featuring the product on the blogger’s business site. The blog could also include banner ads promoting the business.

Costs include the salaries of the blogger and tech staff to create and maintain the site, hosting costs for the site and ancillary costs. However, if the passionate blogger is also the business owner, the labor could be free.

And community blogs, which have free or practically free hosting and software, are a popular and cheap option to consider.

The trade-off, though, is not being able to control the advertising. Experts say the best road is to use a qualified expert who is honest in his opinions to write the blog.

Sometimes, reviews about products sold on the blogger’s site may be negative.

But the experts say it’s best if the goal is to be honest as people can sense when someone’s been bought.

Specialists agree that an unbiased approach is important and generally don’t recommend that marketing and PR people write the blog posts for a business blog. Instead, they suggest you find someone who the public doesn’t usually have access to, someone with real experience and knowledge, who can write personally and directly to the audience. Blogs aren’t about spin or marketing-speak, they say.

They say it’s also preferable to have a contact e-mail address on every page of site, and that the blogger answers all incoming questions and leads very quickly.

As well, the blog should be updated daily, a task that can be time-consuming for an entrepreneur trying to handle the entries on his or her own, but you have to have a certain consistency, or it will die, say the experts.

Publishing a blog won’t necessarily guarantee more sales, they add, but it can be a powerful way to connect with prospects and customers.