Tag: Tourism and social media

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Blog Florida USA

Gulf coast beaches are NOT all oil slicks

If you’re planning a family trip to the Gulf coast beaches, don’t assume that they are all an oily mess from the BP oil spill.  Here are 6 reasons to visit the Gulf Coast now, in case you were wondering, and the Traveling Mamas have a post on October Gulf Coast travel deals and free concerts.

Tourism and visitor numbers are way down all along the coast, often for no reason other than people are assuming that the beaches are full of tar balls and such.

I’m not discounting the tremendous damage that some areas have experienced, but many places are suffering from a lack of visitors because people aren’t calling ahead or checking online.

For an overall view of coast conditions, go to the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) oil/tar tracking map.  It….

“….tracks the history of closures, advisories, and notices by county for beaches that have been affected by the oil spill. The tar ball icon indicates counties with any historical or current beach actions related to the oil spill. The sand pail icon marks counties that have not had official closures, advisories, or notices due to the oil spill.”

For Florida, go to the Florida Live site set up by Visit Florida and including beach webcams and local CVB (Convention and Visitor’s Bureau) tweets.

For anywhere, make some calls ahead to the local hotels and even restaurants.  They’d love to give you their perspective.

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Blog Texas USA

Psyched to visit Lubbock, Texas. Really.

Eclipse Windmill and horsedrawn water tank at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock TX (courtesy West Texan on Flickr CC)Way back in 2006, I wrote a post on this blog entitled “Why the bleep would I want to go there?”

In it, I wrote about taking the kids to visit places that seem crummy, but really aren’t, and how you can’t have an opinion about seemingly crummy places unless you’ve been there yourself.

I wrote….

“Let’s take Lubbock, Texas, for example.

The city that Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings got the heck out of. Sights include, hmmm, the National Ranching Heritage Center (exhibits of spurs and bits!) and ummm, the American Wind Power Center (windmills!)

“Lubbock or Leave It,” sing the Dixie Chicks.

The legendary folk/country Texas vocal group the Flatlanders (Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore) didn’t name their group “Guys from a Nifty Place,” they named it “Flatlanders.” ‘Nuff said.

OK, so why am I whipping up on poor Lubbock? Because I just don’t think you can designate a place Yuckyville until you have physically been there to investigate.

Ergo, I need to travel to Lubbock before I can pop off about it.”

What was amazing about that post was that people showed up to leave comments on it about how much they liked Lubbock, including someone from the Buddy Holly Museum. I was touched and even more intrigued after that.

Well, I’m pumped to announce that my chance to investigate has finally arrived – I’ll be speaking with my Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray in Lubbock, Texas on August 12 at the annual conference for TACVB (Texas Association of Convention and Visitor’s Bureaus.)

Our topic is blogger fam (familiarization) tours and press trips with today’s wired writers and content creators.

Before and after we speak, though, I get to explore Lubbock and its environs, plus check out what’s between Lubbock and the Austin area when I drive there (like a museum about women pilots during World War II who flew from Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.)

Yes, I’m psyched to finally see Lubbock. Really.

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Blog Product Reviews Texas Tips USA

Gowalla and Foursquare lead traveler to House of Pies

Slice of Bayou Goo pie from Houston's House of Pies (photo by Sheila Scarborough)In my tourism training hat, people often ask me about the utility of location-based services like Gowalla and Foursquare.

Here’s an example of why they’re so handy….

I was speaking in Houston at the TFEA (Texas Festivals and Events Association) annual conference, and I needed a quick meal near the hotel.  It was a rather ritzy area – at one point I tweeted, “I’m looking for a Taco Bell in a Smith and Wollensky part of town” – but I did find a sandwich joint where I could run in and out and get something to go.

While parked, I checked in on both Gowalla and Foursquare, because I’m experimenting with them for my tourism-related clients. Both services use the GPS function on my T-Mobile Android smartphone to figure out where I am, and then show me nearby places that are listed in their database.

Both kept showing a nearby House of Pies.

Who wouldn’t want pie after a long drive and before a big speaking gig the next day?  Who has kids and spouses who like pie?

I rest my case.

Without the digital insights from Gowalla and Foursquare (and Yelp if I had launched that app, which also has a location-based function and checkins) I would not have noticed the neon-lit House of Pies building diagonally across the parking lot from me on Westheimer, a major Houston thoroughfare. There’s also a House of Pies on Houston’s Kirby Drive and they’re on Twitter as @HouseofPies1967.

One slice of their house specialty later, I was a fan of their Bayou Goo pie (a “pecan crust with a layer of sweet cream cheese, then a layer of vanilla custard swirled with chocolate chunks and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings”) and even more of a fan of location-based services that bring me the information I need, when I need it, where I am located.

It’s hard to beat that convenience at 9 pm in an unfamiliar city, I’ll tell you!

Take a close look at privacy and notification settings before you use these; the default setting tends to be a public broadcasting of your location via Twitter, Facebook, etc. and you need to think through those implications. You can choose not to inform anyone when you check in, of course; Foursquare calls it “off the grid.”

If you have a smartphone, consider getting one of these free travel apps – I’m partial to Gowalla because it has a scavenger hunt aspect that kids will like, and lots of cool Trips for travel ideas. For more insights, here’s Gary Arndt’s post Gowalla vs Foursquare as tools for travel.

These services can really help with the “what’s around here?” question as you travel.

(This post was included in the 21 July edition of Wanderfood Wednesday. Check it out for other foodie posts!)

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Blog Podcasts

Travel, tourism and the social web on Blog Talk Radio

Radio....City Music Hall! (Courtesy CarbonNYC on Flickr CC)Last week I enjoyed spending 30 minutes on Blog Talk Radio with Australian entrepreneur and coach Des Walsh.  He has a regular program called Des Walsh and Friends, with a wide variety of guests all discussing some aspect of technology and business.

The noteworthy advantage of Blog Talk Radio (or any “Internet radio” service) is that not only can you listen live, but the shows are usually archived if you can’t be there at broadcast time, plus they’re also downloadable for later listening on your iPod or other digital audio player.

It gives radio/audio the worldwide reach that it never had before, as I discussed in this post about online radio and destination marketing for the Beaumont, Texas CVB (Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.)

Des and I talked about my background in travel, how Becky McCray and I launched Tourism Currents to teach tourism professionals about social media, and why businesses need to ensure a strong Web presence as customer search and interaction preferences shift online.

I loved having a fun chat with someone halfway around the world, and the time zones worked in my favor since it was afternoon my time, but very early morning for Des.  🙂

Here is our episode:  talking social media, travel and tourism with Des Walsh.

(This is cross-posted on my Sheila’s Guide to the Good Stuff blog.)

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Blog

Sleep? What sleep? My new business launches in about a week

Sheila Scarborough, Liz Strauss and Becky McCray at SOBCon in Chicago, where it all started (photo courtesy Sheila Scarborough)Actually, it’s not that bad, but I’m certainly getting some of the frenetic startup-flavored experience as my partner Becky McCray and I prepare to launch a new online business next week.

I’ve been writing about tourism and the social Web on another blog for a couple of months (Sheila’s Guide to the Good Stuff) and now we’re preparing to open the digital doors to a learning community for tourism professionals.

We’d like to think we know something about travel, tourism and social media, so we’re sticking our flag in the ground at the intersection of all that and launching a paid membership site called Tourism Currents.

We’re really excited about bringing useful, practical information to a wide variety of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs,) Chambers of Commerce, PR professionals who work in tourism, heritage/preservation organizations, agritourism, festival planners – really anyone involved in destination marketing.

Continue reading “Sleep? What sleep? My new business launches in about a week”
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Blog Book Reviews Philosophy Product Reviews Site reviews Tips

What you see here is what you get: new FTC rules and this blog

Many of you may have seen news items and/or blog posts about the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules pertaining to blogger disclosures and celebrity endorsements.   They take effect on 1 December 2009 and violations will incur fines of up to US$11,000.

I have rather strong opinions about bloggers who get freebies, including free travel, and then don’t disclose to their readers when content is based on those nice opportunities.

For myself, I think there are rules about that sort of thing, so I’ve posted my thoughts in a new permanent Page: the Blog Disclosure Policy for the Family Travel Guide.

You can see the link in the upper right corner of the blog Home page, under Family & Travel Resources.

In sum, I say that if I get free stuff to write about, you’ll know it because I’ll disclose it.

I prefer to pay for my own stuff, though, so I can be truly mouthy about it.  But you kind of expected that from me, right?

For more detailed thoughts on the new FTC rules, you may wish to bounce over to one of my other blogs and read: What do new FTC blogging rules mean for press trips and fam tours?

Keeping it real, so you know what you’re getting….