That’s how much for a baseball card? IBM Watson® on the tennis court, social media platform updates, valuable stuff from the non-virtual world and DMO partnerships from cooking competitions to wellness and T-shirt designs.
The 2022 #USOpen is in full swing! See how the USTA and IBM Watson® are acing the fan experience with AI technology to analyze millions of expert opinions and player performance metrics to transform data into meaningful insights. See how Match Insights with Watson® works to crunch the numbers and develop Likelihood to Win for 10 million online fans.
Emirates Airlines has a new brand ambassador — Gerry the Goose. New TV and online advertising campaign takes playful look at the airline’s “Fly Better” philosophy. The ad is running in 25 countries for one month, starting on August 30.
Twitter is rolling out Circle this week, a feature that allows users to send tweets to a select group of followers. Twitter Circle enables users to include up to 150 people for semi-private messages and exclude the general public. Get a quick user guide from Twitter on Twitter.
More layoffs are hitting the tech world, and this time there are deep cuts inside Snap Inc.
Word has it that the maker of Snapchat is planning to lay off roughly 20% of its more than 6,400 full-time employees starting this week. Snap stock has already fallen 79% this year.
Huntsville, AL is ranked #1 best place to live and Myrtle Beach, SC is the fastest-growing place in the nation for 2022-2023. In an annual report that’s been popular for years, U.S. News analyzed 150 metro areas in the USA. Data geeks can find the sources and methodology for the math here.
Forget meta. Never mind NFTs.
Last weekend, a mint+ condition 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card sold for a record-breaking $12.6 million, indicating that the experience of owning the real thing is worth a mint. This is the most valuable piece of sports memorabilia ever to be sold at auction to date, just sayin’.
Did you know that you can calculate the carbon footprint of your trip on the website of Sonoma County Tourism? They’ve partnered with Sustainable Travel International to offer a carbon calculator on the website. Check it out here AND get a calculator for your own website here.
Visit Myrtle Beach has partnered with The WorkShop Content Studios to develop Chef Swap at The Beach, a new cooking competition television series that will highlight the culinary talents of chefs throughout the Grand Strand. Six 30-minute episodes featuring Chef Amanda Freitag will premier on The Cooking Channel on October 1.
In each episode, Amanda will take two local chefs out of their comfort zones by swapping them into each other’s kitchens. Chefs have no idea where they’re going, what ingredients they’ll have, or what type of dish they’ll cook. They’ll grab only one ingredient to bring with them and have just 60 minutes to make a dish that might earn them their very own Chef Swap knife and major bragging rights. Throughout the Chef Swap at The Beach series, Chef Freitag and her fellow judges will visit 12 Myrtle Beach restaurants.
Visit Stockton now provides Recite Me US assistive technology on their website to enable web visitors to customize a digital experience to suit their needs. To check it out at VisitStockton.org, click the the #accessibility button at the lower left. Features to provide users access to online information and services barrier-free. include:
• Screen Reader
• Language Translations (over 100 options)
• Styling Options
• Reading Aids
Visit Sarasota has launched a relocation guide, “Careers on the Suncoast,” in collaboration with the Sarasota County Economic Development Corporation to encourage relocation tourism to Sarasota County, Florida. It features amenities and profiles its residents by highlighting their careers and quality of life living in the community.
Visit Orlando is partnering with Orlando Health to launch health and wellness support that includes a new staffed health clinic with virtual doctors at Orange County Convention Center. There’s also a newly-established concierge telephone number to access to visitor-specific wellness tips (such as tips on hydration, how to stay sun-safe and instructions on what to do in an emergency) and health resources on 321-265-4200. News release here.
Tourism Ireland is going with a new PR strategy, shifting its focus to social media. The government-backed plan will pay over €300,000 this year to influencers TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. The DMO is said to be using the Meltwater product called Klear for vetting influencers’ engagement and effectiveness, choosing not to simply rely on the luck of the Irish.
Visit Arvada, Colorado is crowd sourcing six options for a new graphic as a T-shirt, hat, and mug design via their website and Facebook group. To vote, an email is required. (Full disclosure: The Travel Vertical voted for ‘B’ — 50% VOWELS 100% AWESOME.)
