What are your destination’s “accidental” brands?

You don’t have to go to Jamaica to know that it has great beaches, rivers, waterfalls and flora. Then again, several Caribbean islands have those.
But, I don’t think anyone can leave Jamaica and not know what is unique and innate to Jamaica:

• Blue Mountain Coffee
• The Jamaican Bob Sled Team (with its own restaurant and merchandise at the airport)
• The colors of the Jamaican Flag (used in every imaginable tourist-related product)
• The colors of the Rastafarian movement (see above)
• Braids
• Jamaican Jerk
• Chicken-every-imaginable-style
• *Bob Marley*
  

What a great diversity: music, food, colors, entertainment, “boutique” java, sports and fashion.
And most sustainable and renewable.

Three Questions for you:

1. What are your destination’s unique and innate accidental brands?
2. How can they be exploited, preferably in a sustainable way?
3. Is there something for every taste?

Ask for the business and make it personal

On a recent visit to Jamaica, the Jamaicans impressed me with the fact that every Jamaican asks for the business, consciously or subconsciously. Everybody asked: “When are you coming back?”

The most impressive of all was Keith, the driver on the airport shuttle. He welcomed us aboard with a nice, personal flight-attendant-like speech. The kill came as we arrived at the airport. He said, paraphrased:

“Did you enjoy your time in Jamaica? .... I hope you come back. And remember to tell your friends what a good time you had, so they will come too. It’s because people like you and your friends keep coming to Jamaica that people like me have a job. So, thank you for coming and have a safe flight home.”

Now, that hits home.

Social Media in Tourism

A few weeks ago I attended a meeting of the Curacao Hotel and Tourism Association (CHATA), of which I am a member. There was a lot of discussion about the official Curacao website, www.curacao.com and the plans for improvement. Online marketing & technologies and tourism are not (yet) my areas of expertise, but as I drove away, I realized how little talk there was about social media.

What is social media? Follow this link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media. (I said I was not an expert)

"Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share content, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media itself.[1]
Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. The social media sites typically use tools like message boards, forums, podcasts, bookmarks, communities, wikis, weblogs etc."

We know that customers' attention and belief in "sponsored" advertisements online and offline is decreasing. Word-of-mouth, and social media is the ONLINE equivalent of word-of-mouth, is increasing more influential. I tried to remember when, if ever, word-of-mouth was not the primary reason that I chose a vacation destination.

So, maybe we should start talking about social media, for tourism as well as for other industries?

If you are still in the dark, here is a list of social media listed by Wikipedia.
A few prominent examples of social media applications are
Wikis: Wikipedia
Social networking: MySpace and Facebook
Presence apps: Twitter and Jaiku
Video sharing: YouTube (video sharing)
Virtual Reality: Second Life
Events: Upcoming
News aggregation: Digg and Reddit
Photo sharing: Flickr and Zooomr
Livecasting: Justin.tv
Episodic online video: Stickham, YourTrumanShow
Media sharing: Izimi and Pownce
Social bookmarking: del.icio.us
Online gaming: World of Warcraft