The focus of this weekend’s CTO Conference in San Juan is Web 2.0 and Social Networking. This is all the buzz within the web development community – which is looking for new ways to entice Tourist Boards to incorporate ‘new media’ and ‘interactive media’ into their online marketing.
Most people we’ve spoken to don’t have a good idea of what any of this means.
Caribbean Consulting spent last week working with the US Virgin Islands Department of Tourism to see how elements such as videos (ie: YouTube), photo posting sites, music, blogs, forums, podcasts, social networking (ie: facebook, myspace) and user-generated content (ie:TripAdvisor reviews) might enhance their new website.
There are lots of companies developing technology and software to facilitate adding these elements to Destination Websites. Marie and I have looked at a few of these and they range from basic software tools to very elegant online ‘communities’.
Alarms immediately went up when developers explained how simple it all was!
We had one of those Deja Vu flashbacks to our days at IBM/Prodigy (all over again).
In the early 90’s – we worked on similar concepts with Prodigy’s ‘Communities of Interest’ and IBM created state of the art software to bring people together to share content interactively.
The software was the easy part.
The marketing was exciting – bringing people together to share experiences online.
The MAINTENANCE was a NIGHTMARE !!!
Not in programmers – but in human resources in order to review, screen and verify the information that was posted by tens of thousands of people every day!
After all, every word that appears on your destination website reflects on your destination – whether its true or not…
Before considering Web 2.0 and social networking, think about your ability to review every bit of content.
Do you have the staff to monitor every video, forum posting, photo, review or blog entry that is posted on your website?
How you implement and maintain interactive features can determine if Web2.0 and Social Networking increases tourist arrivals, room nights, economic development and GDP – or exposes your destination to spam, negative commentary, misinformation, ‘ambush’ marketing, copyright infringement, slander, libel or even pornography.

Caribbean Consulting can help you understand which components of Web2.0 will create the greatest benefit to your destination and use the best aspects of this very powerful evolution of the internet to increase tourism without the potential risk of ‘open’ interactive content.