Tourism

From Barahona to Boerne: The Essence of Community

Kathryn — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:24:12 +0000

From Barahona to Boerne: The Essence of Community

Kathryn Wed, 11/26/2008 - 11:24am

This year has been a whirlwind. In 2008, I somehow managed to move across town (again), turn 23, hear Oprah deliver a commencement speech, endure the loss of a beloved dog, leave a big company in pursuit of a dream, travel to the Dominican Republic, become engaged, get robbed at knife point, learn to wake board, and find my new job here, at Digett. In that order.

Choosing just one occurrence to describe in this short blog post leaves me feeling that no matter what I write about, I'll be leaving out something I shouldn't, because inevitably I'll pass up an opportunity to divulge an equally pivotal lesson. But nothing could have prepared me better for my current role as the Editor of Boerne Today than what happened in August during my trip to Barahona, a small province about three hours south-west of Santo Domingo approaching the Dominican Republic-Haiti border.

Lessons learned the hard way

It was in this small Caribbean town that I was proposed to and aggressively robbed, within a one-hour time span. As my new fiancé and I walked hand-in-hand on the isolated, idyllic pebbled beach back toward the village, a masked man and his accomplice followed us until they were close enough to attack. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. They were screaming at us in Spanish as we both struggled to fight for our bags. Determined to keep my things, I struggled against one of the men until a long fishing knife was put to my new fiancé's throat. At that point, we surrendered and gave the men our things. They immediately sprinted back down the beach in the opposite direction. The keys to our lodge, the digital camera, and my engagement ring were among just a few of the belongings the thieves made away with.

Jolting moments reveal a path of purpose

By my estimates, the likelihood of something like that happening to a couple just after becoming engaged is slim to none. Nothing like that had ever happened in Barahona. Despite this tainting episode, it was the people of this small town who revealed to me friendship beyond language and the soul-satisfaction of a community forged around true compassion.

The whole city rallied around us. The friends we made rode through the streets looking for the culprits. The police force escorted my fiancé back to the beach to look for any evidence. They found my beach bag, torn and empty. Our driver's mother sewed it back together. Our amigo, Heidi, took us on a long hike through the woods and taught us how to find mangoes. We swam together in a natural pool with freezing water. People gave us gifts, invited us into their homes, and prepared food. I had never seen a community come together in such an all-encompassing way.

Significance for Boerne Today

I continue to find myself fascinated by the challenges of building an online, niche community. It's become increasingly apparent that in order to distinguish ourselves from other local news sources and paint a true portrait of our purpose we need to clearly define our fundamental values and core message. These fundamental values are no different than many of the principles the Dominican culture already holds. There's a striking similarity between it all.

This endeavor of establishing a firm code of ethics is not only critical in fashioning engaged users, but for the staff as well. It will be these standards of simple living, quality of life, sustainable living, and spirituality that guide our content and provide context for the thriving Boerne community. I wish we could create something of such caliber and quality for every small-town community across the world. If we could, Barahona would be first on my list.

So, yes—some truly great experiences, and some very bad. The important thing about these experiences is not so much that I've had them, but what I'll take from them and carry with me throughout my life and in the work that I do. Each of these annual snapshots has armed me with a new perspective for my time ahead and I hope it becomes apparent as we progress with the development of Boerne Today.

Ecotourism Begins in the Marketing Department

Zachary — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:25:29 +0000

Ecotourism Begins in the Marketing Department

Zachary Fri, 11/14/2008 - 11:25am

Ecotourism, green travel, limited-footprint vacationing—call it what you like, more and more travelers are taking into account the environmental effects of their vacation choices. Even the RV world is beginning to get a little green. Promoting your venue or destination to environmentally aware consumers can bring rewards.

With earth-friendly concerns on the rise, we can't help but wonder why the focus in ecotourism seems squarely on the destination or activity. There are a lot of steps in between, beginning with how destinations or attractions market to potential visitors. What's being done on that level in the name of sustainability?

Not enough, we tend to think. Granted, we have a bit of history with visitor packets, but let's face it: traditional marketing techniques—in this case, printed information packets and rack cards—are often wasteful and, perhaps, blunt a given organization's claims to promote environmental stewardship. Yes, we recognize there have been advances in recycled printing materials and sustainable processes; however, we want to focus on how shifting some marketing resources to online techniques can help burnish an organization's eco-friendly credentials—as well as increase ROI.

Use less paper, more PDF

Just don't make the mistake of taking the same brochure PDF you send to your printers and slapping it on your website; as we've mentioned before, online and offline reading habits are different. Instead, design an information packet for the sole purpose of online display—while reducing the number you have printed and mailed. In addition to sparing a small forest and bolstering your eco-cred, there are other benefits:

Efficiency. You can design and post quickly. Changes also can be made quickly and with little (or no) cost. More importantly, visitors to your website will have information immediately available to them, at all times.
Measurability. Direct mail response rates are often low and notoriously hard to identify. However, if you capture contact information from those downloading your online packet, you may see better metrics on your efforts.
Savings. Printing and mailing costs money; in some cases, making a PDF online costs only time. Moreover, it won't cost you an arm and a leg when you inevitably misspell "cryptosporidium" for the fifth time.

In an age when people demand immediate satisfaction, it's hard to expect consumers to wait weeks for a brochure. It's even harder to show environmental sensibility when said brochure reeks of the benzene used in the glossy coating.

Make your website an equal attraction

Posting pretty pictures on a website is easy. What's challenging is using pictures and descriptive copy to create a concise, yet compelling, narrative that intrigues a potential customer who's weary from seeing the same blue waters and room descriptions on every site. Your website isn't a digital postcard; it's an opportunity for your markets to experience a piece of your destination, even when miles away.

What does this have to do with environmental stewardship? For starters, if you make your site compelling and effective, interested customers won't have a need to request that printed packet we already talked about. Better yet, you'll be able to explain the significance of your LEED certification and educate users about its role in sustainable practices.

Email more than reservation confirmations

Want to run seasonal promotions or highlight your eco-friendly spa? Stick with email. It costs pennies compared to direct mail and, like PDF information packets, has multiple benefits. It also won't leave a single golden-cheeked warbler homeless.

Go the extra mile in showing your environmental commitment, and your customers will show their appreciation. You might also just save a penny or two.

Submitted by Guest on Sat, 12/06/2008 - 8:00pm

Good article, I could not agree more on so many points as many businesses pretend themselves going green whereas they are still not implementing common sense measures. Do you have some examples of successful businesses???

Submitted by Zachary on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 9:24am

Unfortunately, much of the tourism industry still clings to traditional—and, in many cases, wasteful—marketing practices. It's hard to give up those glossy brochures and rack cards. The recent economic upheaval, however, may have interesting side effects that reduce some of the green washing.

As is custom, many organizations are cutting back on traditional marketing efforts. Interestingly, many are actually redirecting resources toward online efforts. Thus, the environment may be the unintended beneficiary of the slowdown. What remains to be seen is if these organizations will simply go back to old habits once things pick up.

Digett Goes Mobile at the 2008 TTIA Summit Conference

Zachary — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Digett Goes Mobile at the 2008 TTIA Summit Conference

Zachary Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:00am

I couldn't be happier about representing Digett at this year's Texas Travel Summit (September 21-24), hosted by the Texas Travel Industry Association. For starters, I haven't been to Galveston since I was a kid, and I'm itching to erase the memory of a brutal sunburn. Better yet, I'll be bringing many of you with me.

No, I'm not springing for plane tickets. I am, however, offering everyone an opportunity to experience the conference with me through the use of several online tools—tools that anyone can effectively use to connect with and engage the markets and individuals they seek. From blogs, to Twitter posts, to photo uploads to Flickr, I'll be doing it all.

This isn't just an exercise in how much coffee and ginseng I can consume to keep me going. It's an opportunity for you to participate—as actively as you wish—in an event that may be hundreds of miles away. It's also a way for you to experiment with communication tools that allow you to bring authentic conversation back to an increasingly isolated business world.

If you think that's a little more exciting than late-night reruns, then check back here to get the latest details and updates about how you can come along. In the meantime, check out the first part of our ongoing blog series about social media featuring Twitter, one of the tools I'll be using at the conference.

What's Wrong With Visitor Packets

Mark Figart — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 05:00:00 +0000

What's Wrong With Visitor Packets

Mark Figart Sat, 08/12/2006 - 12:00am

Yesterday I received yet another visitor packet from some local Texas Hill Country Chamber of Commerce from whom I made a request some six weeks ago.

Hmmm ... six weeks. Need I elaborate further?

Six weeks is a horribly long time to wait on information when planning a trip. Imagine a scenario in which a tourist and their family may not have decided on a destination. I don't know about you, but it sure would make it easier for me and my family to decide to go somewhere that we knew something about. This is a major challenge with the traditional snail-mail type of visitor packet. Exercising the discipline to get these things out the door promptly is a never-ending—and very expensive—process. Envelopes, printed materials, postage, labor. Geez, too bad we haven't figured out a better way to distribute information in this modern age.

Of course, timeliness is less important if the information contained in your visitor packet is dreadfully poor to begin with. This, in fact, is my biggest complaint of all regarding the materials we received from the 30-some-odd towns from which I was able to conjur any sort of response to my initial request. Few visitor packets had any information that really made me want to jump out of my lazy boy recliner and say "Honey, I found the perfect place!" This just stuns me. Nobody seems to get it, and dollars just keep being poured down a leaky well in spite of what should be obvious by now.

Here's what we at Digett would like to see:

(1) A visitor packet on demand. Not a form I fill out and submit to the Internet gods in hopes that I'll be blessed with a response. Rather, an immediately downloadable PDF. Speed translates directly to effectiveness, and this miracle form of information distribution saves a lot of dough on staff time, postage, and tree-killing, space-consuming, landfill-bound printed brochures.

(2) Valuable information. Huh? You know, good stuff. Don't give me a glossy, four-color, 100+ pages of fancy advertisements. Give me something I can use to help make some decisions. Give me some ideas for how I can feed my thirst for an intimate meeting with Mother Nature. Tell me a story about how your town will feed my children's lust for a performing arts experience. Show me—through cleverly-written prose and narrative—what will occupy my wife's time while I seek to feed my addiction to a rush of adrenaline. Is this so hard to do?

Tourism

From Barahona to Boerne: The Essence of Community

Lessons learned the hard way

Jolting moments reveal a path of purpose

Significance for Boerne Today

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Ecotourism Begins in the Marketing Department

Use less paper, more PDF

Make your website an equal attraction

Email more than reservation confirmations

LEAVE A COMMENT

Digett Goes Mobile at the 2008 TTIA Summit Conference

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What's Wrong With Visitor Packets

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