Social media Archives - Page 2 of 63

Meet Astrid Emmanuelli Ruiz: 2022 Emerging Tourism Star From Discover Puerto Rico

May 3, 2022 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

Congrats to Astrid Emmanuelli Ruiz, Social Media Manager at Discover Puerto Rico. She’s one of nine winners in the second annual Emerging Tourism Stars program in partnership with MMGY Global.

Readers will meet more of the winners in upcoming issues of The Travel Vertical and they’ll be recognized in person during the 23rd Annual eTourism Summit on June 6-8, 2022 in Orlando.

What’s an Emerging Tourism Star? Savvy individuals (of any age!) in destination marketing and attractions that are new to the eTourism Community of digital travel and tourism professionals or have risen to the challenges of a role.

Winners will be directly connected with a travel and tourism leader as a mentor
Winners receive a scholarship to attend eTourism Summit
Winners will participate in a panel conversation at eTourism Summit moderated by MMGY Global
One winner will fill the eTS Emerging Tourism Star Advisory Board Seat (an annual appointment)

**Black Sand Beach in Vieques, Puerto Rico**

Q: Tell us about your professional journey beginning with your master’s degree and how social media has been a part of your life for the past decade.

Social media sneaked into my life without me even noticing and took me by storm, and ever since that moment I can truly say I found my passion – or maybe it found me. When I was in Spain in 2012 doing my master’s degree on journalism for TV, social media was starting to become something big. I was so impressed with the impact it was having at the moment on TV, that it became my thesis topic. Later, when I was doing an internship in a Spanish television channel working on the creation of a new TV show, one of the channel’s executives saw how I was always glued to Twitter on my breaks and thought it would be a great idea for me to open an account for the show. When it finally aired, the docuseries turned out to be a huge success, winning many awards with record-breaking TV ratings in Spain and an engaging social media presence on Twitter. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of a 10-year career to this day.

When I returned to Puerto Rico, I had the opportunity to become the social media manager at one of the most famous and historic resorts of our Island, La Concha Resort. There, I was able to finesse and further develop my skills getting certified in social media management and winning medals from Marriott International.

After almost five years at La Concha Resort, I started my journey with Puerto Rico’s destination marketing organization, Discover Puerto Rico, as their social media coordinator. Before my two years, I was promoted to social media manager, and I can truly say that this has been the most rewarding professional experience I’ve ever had, having the honor of promoting my Island and its unique beauty to the world.

Talking to graduating students about promoting brands and big events on social media at the
Ana G. Méndez University in Carolina, Puerto Rico

Q: Sounds like social media is running in your veins? Just a guess…what’s the first and last thing you do every day?

I am not kidding when I say that the first thing I do when I wake up is checking my social media and it is also the last thing I do before going to bed. I love what I do so much that it is also my hobby! As a devoted street art fan, I love going around the Island and using my personal Instagram account to show beautiful murals and artsy spots people can enjoy in Puerto Rico. As you can see, social media is my 24/7.

Q: What’s your favorite social media platform and why? Do you think sometimes an image can tell a story in ways that words cannot, especially about Puerto Rico’s diverse, natural beauty?

My favorite social media platform is Instagram. Because of its visual power and the emphasis it gives to images, this is the ideal platform to show the world why a visit to Puerto Rico will redefine their definition of travel. One single picture can be the tiebreaker in the decision-making moment of a traveler. And with the landscape variety that Puerto Rico offers a visitor with beaches, mountains, rainforests, and even three of the bioluminescent bays in the world, most of the time a picture taken on our Island will leave a person speechless. Pictures taken while on vacation in Puerto Rico don’t need a caption – the Island’s beauty will speak for itself.

**Left: Finca de Girasoles (Sunflower Farm) in Guánica, Puerto Rico. Above: View from the mountains of Cayey, Puerto Rico.**

Q: How are you able to develop regional tourism via social media and what does that mean to you?

Being from a beautiful small town in the south of Puerto Rico called Peñuelas, shining a light on every corner of our Island has always been a goal of mine since the moment I started working in Discover Puerto Rico. With the help of our organization’s social media coordinator, Miguel Bahri, we’ve been able to create initiatives and activations that have put center stage towns that are not used to be protagonists in the vacation experience of a visitor. Activations like our “Holidays in the Mountains of Puerto Rico: The Live Takeover” in which we shared the traditions and showed our audiences what it feels like to experience the holidays in two towns of the mountainous regions of our Island through Instagram Lives, or “Monday Coffee Break” in which we highlighted four towns known in Puerto Rico for their coffee production and coffee culture through engaging infographics.

Our goal is to show visitors that there is more to see beyond San Juan, our stunning capital. It feels amazing giving other towns and regions a chance to show their beauty, and nothing fills my heart with more joy than seeing messages from small towns thanking Discover Puerto Rico and showing their increase in visitation since our organization presented them to our audiences.

Q: What do you hope to achieve by attending eTourism Summit?

My goal by attending eTourism Summit is to acquire all the possible experience and advise from the admirable professionals I will meet. I am extremely excited for the mentorship program this experience provides and I can’t wait to acquire the knowledge that will be imparted to then pass it along and serve as a bridge to open doors for future Emerging Tourism Stars in Puerto Rico.

Meet Frank Filice: 2022 Emerging Tourism Star From Sonoma County Tourism, California

Meet Courtney Spiess: 2022 Emerging Tourism Star From Visit Marietta GA

Meet Reshonda Perryman: 2022 Emerging Tourism Star From Visit Jackson, Mississippi

Do You Tweet? A Brief History of Twitter + eTourism Summit

April 26, 2022 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

San Francisco, Calif. — The year was 2013. eTourism Summit delegates arriving a day early were treated to a (mind-blowing at the time) private field trip to Twitter and Google headquarters before Twitter attended eTourism Summit (building on their earlier visits in 2011 and 2012) to explain to tourism marketers what this curious digital animal was all about.

“Think of hashtags as word-of-mouth,” explained Dan Greene, then Director of Online Sales @Twitter. He encouraged thinking about large-scale events where it made sense for a travel brand to “interject yourself into conversations.” Attendee reaction was mixed. Reducing a thought to 140 characters felt like a challenge to some, others embraced the update in the spirit of penning old-fashioned “Wish You Were Here!” postcards.

Every occasion, every behavior, every holiday is a moment to connect.
— Dan Greene, Formerly Director of Online Sales, Twitter

Twitter traction for the concept introduced in 2006 had recently grown, thanks to core users and key events such as SXSW, FIFA World Cup, the death of Michael Jackson, a tweet from the NASA space station, and the Arab Spring.

@eTourismSummit sent its first tweet in October 2008, about 2.5 years after co-founder @Jack sent the first tweet ever. (Good news: Although Jack Dorsey’s first tweet sold as an NFT last year for $2.9 million, ours is still available!)

Early DMO Adopters: By mid-2009, some CVBs had already caught on. An eTourism Summit email highlighted a study by Development Counsellors International that showed Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Tampa Bay were the top U.S. destinations to market their cities (54% of these tweets were for upcoming event promotion) via Twitter in May 2009.

More DMOs Tweet: By 2010, research published by eTourism Summit showed more top Twitter-friendly DMOs had embraced the channel. The largest following was on @VisitChicago with 10K; @VisitPhilly had 7K. Also active: @PureMichigan, @VisitSavannah, @VisitMusicCity, @ColumbiaSC, @VisitPA, and @VermontTourism. An interesting approach from @VisitFlorida, “often tweeting questions people have asked on their Facebook discussion board and directing users to respond to the person on Facebook.” And @ScottsdaleAZ had “taken travel content production to a new level by uploading photos and videos to their Twitter profile.”

The Chorus Grows: By the 10th anniversary of Twitter in 2016, we reported on “The Tweet Elite,” 25 mayors (or mayors with social media staff) who had mastered Twitter. According to Development Counsellors International, only 112 of them had more than 1,000 followers, led by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, former Mayor of Baltimore. (Note: Although out of officer since 2016, @MayorSRB now has 118.7K followers.)

Looking back, co-founder Jack Dorsey, who was an undergrad at NYU at the time, explained the origin of the “Twitter” name:

…we came across the word ‘twitter,’ and it was just perfect. The definition was ‘a short burst of inconsequential information,’ and ‘chirps from birds.’ And that’s exactly what the product was.”

Video, Video, Video: In 2014, Vine was introduced to eTourism Summit, a 6-second looping video that lasted only two more years before Twitter shut down this $30 million product investment. Periscope, a video streaming app that was a Twitter acquisition at $100 million in 2015, shut down last year.

The Next Chapter: In November 2021, Jack Dorsey resigned as CEO, handing the role over to a long-serving 37-year-old software engineer who had worked his way up to Chief Technology Officer. Now, less than six months into his promotion, it appears that he may get sacked following this week’s buyout.

Don’t feel bad. The Economic Times of India reports, “Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal is set to receive $42 million if terminated after Elon Musk deal.” As for co-founder @Jack? He pockets $974 million cash on the @elonmusk deal. Sounds good.

Flashback: Just for fun, watch this classic video clip from 1994 when TODAY show hosts (L to R: Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel, Elizabeth Vargas) on NBC-TV were trying to figure out what the internet is. And by 2000, eTourism Summit was founded to take the travel and tourism vertical there.

Elon Musk Tweets ‘Oh hi lol.’ And More News Snippets to Know About

April 5, 2022 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

Twitter shares soared more than 26% on Monday with the news that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has bought 9.2% (73.5 million share purchase worth $2.9 billion) of the social media company, making him the company’s largest shareholder. Observers were puzzled about Musk’s strategy; Max Chafkin at Bloomberg Technology reported that he’s “…interviewed Musk many times over the past 15 years and can attest that he means this sincerely, even if he also can be impetuous, vindictive, hotheaded and goofy. Since the news broke, the closest he came to offering an explanation was a tweet later Monday morning that read: ‘Oh hi lol.'”

By Tuesday morning, there were reports that Musk is joining the Twitter board, promising change whilst being blocked from buying majority share. Most of all, we LOVE this tweet and emphatically say “yse.”

Truly Good

Did you have a campaign that worked in the past? Consider dusting it off and levering its power by using it again.

Although “Malaysia Truly Asia” was launched worldwide in 1999, it is back with a bang as the country reopened borders last weekend. Malaysia has 30 global offices and six marketing representatives abroad.

Pure Winners

Remember, “Virginia is for Lovers” dates to 1969 and “I Love New York” was introduced in 1975. More recently, “Pure Michigan” came along in 2008.

Japan on Sale

Everyone thinks Japan is expensive…and it was. Now that the Japanese yen is very weak, we might expect that the destination will dream up a post-Covid campaign relating to prices. In a recent article in Nikkei Asia, a Tokyo-based financial analyst suggests the “mother of all tourism booms” may be coming when Japan opens its borders. Peter Tasker says the yen “has halved in value against the dollar since 1995, taking it back to levels not seen since the early 1970s.”

CALIFORNIA — The national historic landmark nicknamed “America’s Castle” reopens on May 11 after being closed for more than two years. Atop a hill overlooking the Pacific, Hearst Castle experienced “unsustainable” visitor traffic climbing toward one million per year that peaked pre-Covid when the Neptune Pool refurbishment was completed and the road from Big Sur was restored after a mudslide. Now? Watch this space.

AIRLINES — JetBlue Airways has offered to buy Spirit Airlines for about $3.6 billion and break up a plan for Spirit to merge with rival budget carrier Frontier Airlines.

ALBUQUERQUE — A hard-earned victory by Visit Albuquerque, which successfully formed the first such district in the state of New Mexico.

ARIZONA — Last Friday, Governor Ducey signed a bill continuing Arizona Office of Tourism as the state’s DMO for an additional eight years.

CRUISES — The CDC removed its “Cruise Ship Travel Health Notice” after more than two years of high level warnings. Just three months ago at the height of the Omicron variant, the warning was Level 4: high risk. Meantime, with 22 of its 23 ships back in business, Carnival Cruise Line said the one-week period from March 28 to April 3 was its busiest booking week in the company’s history, showing a double-digit increase from the previous record seven-day booking total.

CANADA — It’s official: As of last Friday, fully vaccinated passengers no longer need to provide a negative COVID test to enter Canada by land, sea or air.

FLORIDA — Visit Florida is raising rates for marketing partners for the first time in 15 years, with the changes moving forward in April and expected to remain in place for at least a few years. Partnership fees currently bring in about $1.2 million a year; the new structure is projected to raise that to about $1.75 million. Visit Florida is set to receive $50 million as part of the state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

MISSISSIPPI — In 2021, a new state flag was revealed. Last week, lawmakers passed a bill that removes “Go, Mississippi” as the official state song. However, there was no agreement on just one new official state song, so now there’s a committee considering having three songs at once. Sounds good…

WEST COAST — No joke…On April first, Alaska Airlines canceled 120 flights affecting 15,000-plus passengers, mostly in cities on the West Coast. Off-duty pilots picketed in several major cities over an impasse in nearly three years of contract negotiations, and the airline said more cancellations were possible through the weekend.

DOWNTOWN, USA — Who’s at their desk? The pandemic has changed the face of downtown in US cities, some predict permanently. There’s plenty of recent research and surveys, such as this one from Robert Half, revolving around office workers’ and employers’ preferences for hybrid, remote, flexible, and WFH preferences.

NEW YORK CITY — The new Halal Travel Guide is out. It contains halal dining recommendations, prayer places, Muslim-friendly hotels, plus tips and advice from Muslim travel experts.

Now the first U.S. city to publish an official guide for Muslim visitors, this project by NYC & Company is in partnership with Crescent Rating and Halal Trip.

Fish That Can Walk & the Tiny Frog That Won | National Parks, Alabama’s Freshwater Coast, Hawaii, Puerto Rico

March 29, 2022 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

Destination Inspiration

https://youtu.be/KcI_xfryMD0

“A fish that can walk. Surfing hippos that want to catch the waves. Species found nowhere else on earth.” Barack Obama has a new job. He narrates a new five-part docuseries that uncovers the world: “Our Great National Parks,” beginning April 13 on Netflix.

In the USA? Monterey Bay merits an appearance.

Know a fourth-grader? Obama’s initiative to grant all fourth-graders free admission to U.S. National Parks remains active.

Lake Martin, Alabama has some swish fish. The tourism association has tagged and released 200 fish so folks get a chance to win cash, boats, a truck or maybe the grand prize of a million dollars. Huh?

“How To Catch The Million Dollar Bass That Is Swimming in Lake Martin” is all about people engaging with the brand and visiting the lake. (Frankly, plenty of people would do that for a fraction of $1,000,000.)

The tournament entry fee goes toward funding community high school fishing teams. Let the fishing begin.

By any account, David Beckham is another big fish. The former England soccer captain and Manchester United star has 72 million followers on Instagram. He put his social media reach to work last week when by handing over control of his account to a Ukrainian doctor working at a maternity hospital in the city of Kharkiv under dire conditions so she could get the message out. Good use of an Instagram takeover from an influencer instead of by an influencer.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by David Beckham (@davidbeckham)

Did you know? It’s been six years since algorithm-curated feeds were introduced, and now Instagram users will once again be able to view their feeds in chronological order. How it works: Users can choose between Favorites and Following, to either show the latest posts from a specific list of accounts or show posts from those they follow. Note: the algorithm-based feed remains the default.

Another big fish. Hawaii Tourism Authority is shopping for a partner to help in the pivot from destination marketing to destination management. The five-year contract is worth $100 million. Read more: Hawaii Senate Bill 1065.

The votes are in and the tiny frog from Puerto Rico won! Readers may recall the contest around endangered species, one of which would earn a portrait painted onto the tail of a Frontier Airlines jet. (The Travel Vertical, 2/8/2022)

Now consumers have the opportunity to help choose a name for the tiny coquí. Choices include ‘Rios,’ ‘Atabey,’ and ‘Bori.’ Visit Frontier Airlines on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter between now and April 4 to vote.

The one-inch Puerto Rican coquí, a small frog native to Puerto Rico, heartfully named after the sound it makes, has also been announced as the winner of Frontier’s Tropical Tails contest. As a result, it will be featured on the tail of one of their aircraft to highlight the need for conservation.

*Aguadilla, P.R. (courtesy Discover Puerto Rico)*

Frontier Airlines has just launched a new route between Orlando International Airport and Rafael Hernandez International Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The service will operate three to four times weekly and is the airline’s thirteenth route to Puerto Rico from destinations in the U.S. and Caribbean.

Discover Puerto Rico has partnered with Conservación ConCiencia, a Puerto Rico-based organization dedicated to environmental research and conservation that promotes sustainable development. Why not “adopt” a coquí? The $25 adoption is symbolic and commemorates support of conservation, sustainability and climate resilience efforts in Puerto Rico. Adopt a coquí here.

DMOs Making a Splash: Cincinnati, Newport Beach, San Antonio, Minnesota

March 26, 2022 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

Great job, tourism. Let’s keep up the good work on social.

“The words that comprise our convention and visitors bureau name have served this region well for more than 75 years. But the world – and this destination – are very different places. With a place so vibrant, we need a name and brand to match. Today, the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau is now VISIT CINCY!

Visit Cincy is more than a name. It’s an invitation. When we say ‘Cincy’ we mean the entire region.”

“The Visit Cincy brand will be an exciting catalyst to rally our regional partners and meet new growth opportunities,” said President & CEO Julie Calvert. “Visit Cincy is more than a name, it’s an invitation that conveys our mission and invites the world to visit Cincy.”At a time when the vision for improving and expanding our convention and tourism assets has never been clearer, the Visit Cincy brand will be an exciting catalyst to rally our regional partners and meet new growth opportunities head-on.”

Forget the Super Bowl. Visit Newport Beach made its Oscars® advertising debut on ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles’ entertainment special, “On The Red Carpet After the Awards,” marking the destination’s long-standing history with Hollywood.

“This year marked the 94^th Annual Academy Awards, and well before the first Oscar was handed out nearly 100 years ago, Newport Beach has enjoyed a long-standing history with Hollywood serving as a silent film set, to a haven for Hollywood’s Golden Era actors and actresses to inspiring stories for TV and film today,” said Gary Sherwin, President & CEO, Visit Newport Beach in a press release.

Newport Beach got its big break during the silent film era as a set in the original Cleopatra in 1917 to and later in All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930. Hollywood stars made Newport Beach a coastal hideaway, and today, Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is one of the nation’s leading film festivals. It attracts 58,000 film and food fans to over 100 feature films, 30 short film programs, and a dozen public parties featuring more than 60 culinary partners.

Eating is always a good idea. David Gonzalez, VP Media Relations & Communications at Visit San Antonio writes, “So proud of our team making this announcement with The James Beard Foundation! Kudos to our leader Marc Anderson for dreaming up this collaboration.”

Visit San Antonio and Culinaria San Antonio announce the first-ever statewide festival partnership with the iconic James Beard Foundation. Tasting Texas Wine + Food Festival debuts on Oct. 27-30, 2022 in Travis Park, the heart of downtown.

Explore Minnesota is marketing itself as the ‘Dream State’ in a new campaign introduced at the governor’s conference on March 1 in Minnetonka, MN. In addition to targeting travelers from traditional markets—including bordering states, Illinois, Nebraska and Colorado—this summer the reach will extend to include Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

Lauren Bennett McGinty, who took over as Director of Explore Minnesota in November said, “While we don’t anticipate a complete return to pre-pandemic levels until late 2023 or early 2024, we are working our way back and anticipate stronger travel volume in 2022. Minnesota is a unique, four-season destination, and we have a major opportunity moving forward to position the state as a top 10 travel destination. After nearly two years of pandemic constraints, Explore Minnesota is ready to execute a new strategic direction to attract travelers from our state, around the country and across the globe who are eager to get back out, explore, and reconnect with the people and places they care about most.”

Newly released snapshot from the Meetings Information Network database (MINT+), looked at the top non-sports events with a minimum of 3,000 rooms on peak night that book in changing locations. A collaboration between Destinations International and Simpleview, MINT+ produced the 2022 Top 250 Conventions Report.

The busiest month in 2022 is June with 14% of the top conventions and second busiest month is October. The second quarter is strong, with one-third of the year’s meetings. Least busy months are December, January, and February.

Speaking of meetings in Orlando, we’re looking forward to seeing you at the 23rd Annual eTourism Summit at Orange County Convention Center.

« Previous Page

Staff

Categories

Archives