How mobile is changing tourism and travel, and what you can do to get ready NOW. Keynote presentation for the Lehigh Valley regional tourism organization's Annual Meeting 2011.
My team and I do online and in-person training in social media for tourism and hospitality at Tourism Currents - http://www.tourismcurrents.com
3. Because a bunch of people are getting a lot of smartphones very quickly
4. 95.8 million Smartphones + wireless PDAs in the US as of June 2011 (A 57% increase from June 2010) Source: CTIA semi-annual survey Oct 2011
5.
6. Biggest smartphone age group: 25 – 34 Age group with most growth in smartphone ownership: 55 – 65+ Source: comScore Data Mine Sept 2011
7. Social networks and blogs the #1 place Americans spend their time online (….then online games, then email) Source: Nielsen Social Media Report Q3 2011
8. Facebook The top mobile social network Source: Nielsen Social Media Report Q3 2011
9. The pace and force of mobile growth is unlike anything I've ever seen .... Real-time social features are accelerating mobile usage. Analyst Mary Meeker at Think Mobile, Feb 2011 Source: Mobile Marketer Feb 2011
35. Thanks very much! Sheila Scarborough Co-founder, Tourism Currents www.tourismcurrents.com
Notas do Editor
Are you ready for visitors to all have the web in their purse or pocket?
Yeah, yeah, they've been saying that mobile is coming for YEARS.
Here's why the Year of Mobile is really here.
It's not just the numbers, it's the percentage increase.
Whoa. Crazy.
Note – mobile is NOT just a young person's thing.
Social media finally overtook porn. :)
No getting around it....
She's been around a long time, and this is blowing her socks off.
If you fiddled around about the web being for real, you do NOT have time to make that mistake with mobile.
It's a mindset.
References Becky McCray's blog post about her first long road trip with a smartphone: http://www.smallbizsurvival.com/2011/06/how-i-found-hotels-and-restaurants-on.html
How I found a good meal in San Francisco entirely on my phone. This is my meal on Foodspotting.
Content goes everywhere from a phone. Here's my TwitPic of the same meal.
Here's the blog post I wrote about it later (ok, not written from my phone, but still....)
Different meal – Carriage House Crossing in Yoder, Kansas – but illustrative of sending content to Facebook from my phone.
What a Foodspotting search in Lehigh Valley turned up, from my phone in my hotel room.
Here's what my Lehigh Valley where-to-eat search looks like on my phone when I check Yelp, my other smartphone resource when I travel.
I loved this invitation to send in TripAdvisor reviews, so I took a pic and sent it to the Tourism Currents Facebook Page from my phone. The display was on a table next to the elevator in my hotel; I hadn't even gotten to my room yet. The key: immediacy
Other things you can do with a phone.
Basic steps to get your head in the game.
You really won't get it until you use it yourself. This includes making the boss use it (for more than just email.)
Drive into your town with some CVB/DMO staff, each with a different device, find a place to park in your downtown, and each of you do these things on your mobiles....
Behold, the wonders of local search on a mobile browser. Are you surprised by what you see?
Travelers want to eat, and many of them want a place to work, with WiFi. Search for this yourself, like a visitor. What comes up? Surprised?
Imagine doing it with a carful of tired, itchy kids. Parents need good info right NOW.
Give everyone on staff Admin access to your Facebook Page, and train everyone. That way, anyone can shoot pictures up to your Page (and photos get a lot more interaction than text) plus you can do them on weekends with little effort. Spread the publishing joy!
KNOW when people are talking to you! And answer in a timely fashion. Use your phone to tell you when someone's talking about you. Sorry, this isn't a M-F, 9-5 gig.
This is Becky McCray's nephew and our mutual friend Deb Brown, using a mobile device to plan their NYC trip....while sitting in an NYC restaurant.