Joe Buhler › Comments

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

"And Merry Everything to you too, Tim! I sure look forward to reading your thoughts again in 2010. Will be off the grid as well for most of the remaining days of this decade…." - Joe Buhler

"And I'm sure all these highly professional design firms were well compensated for their brilliance by the DMOs!" - Joe Buhler

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

"Of course there is value in an alternative to UGC and personal reviews. To be the online equivalent of the Michelin Guide for hotels, however, you most likely need a very deep pocketed sponsor or owner - like the Michelin tire group for the namesake guide - to be successful. For a BtoC site it probably takes too much time and money to get an audience that would sustain an ad revenue model. A BtoB syndication or licensing alternative is more likely to be successful. Maybe the solution will be an acquisition by an established professional guide company like Frommer's, Fodors or who knows, maybe even Zagat who could add hotels to their offerings." - Joe Buhler

"Destination Management Companies (DMC) already exist but their work is very different from that of a DMO although that distinction is most likely not understood outside the industry. Changing that M as you suggest could lead to some confusion even within travel and tourism. Personally, I take a very wide view of what marketing is about and it certainly includes all the items you outlined. Would having the term management in the name raise the awareness and effectiveness of the organization with the stakeholders that matter? I have my doubts. Providing leadership, innovation and solid strategy are the most important criteria to get recognition and support." - Joe Buhler

"You must have paid attention to the proceedings with a very keen eye. Hard to do without a caffeine boost, especially after a long night with Oban. Too bad Pat made you take out that post on the worst team would love to know!" - Joe Buhler

"Excellent points, Yen. The battlefield keeps shifting and fast reaction time is necessary for players to stay in the fight for both market share and revenue growth. Personally, I’m glad to see the focus on the trip planning phase happening nearly ten years after I thought it would based on my background in that part of the industry. Transactions ultimately have to happen and a sale made but how to get to that point is a whole area in need of improvement and it finally seems to start happening. Exciting times to follow the developments from the bleachers!" - Joe Buhler

"Just noticed this post after finishing reading an article about an ASTA study examining trends in the travel agency business which included the following statistics: • When comparing the first half of 2009 to the same time period in 2008, 78.2 percent of agencies saw a decrease in revenue, while 75.2 percent saw a decrease in transactions. • 63.6 percent of agencies saw a decrease in the number of clients when comparing the first half of 2009 to the first half of 2008. Not surprisingly, corporate agency respondents have seen greater decreases in revenue. In light of such pretty dismal results, one would think the traditional travel trade media pundits would outline to their constituency of readers the challenge new innovators such as the ones who presented their services at the recent Travel Innovation Summit, pose to their very existence rather than continuing to defend a status quo that is more threatened than ever. The move to more and smarter web based trip planning has started..." - Joe Buhler

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

"Excellent case study on the potential pitfalls of social media. Lessons worth learning." - Joe Buhler

"One source of that kind of initial content for a travel start-up are DMOs. These are organizations that have a huge amount of exactly that and while some still might hesitate to make it accessible to third party sites, many have come to realize that their data wants to be free and the more sites have it the better. It creates attention for their destination across an ever growing network of sites. Strangely enough it seems that many of these start-ups have never heard of these entities." - Joe Buhler

"Anna's comments focus in on the core issue - culture. With 20+ years experience working in a DMO, I can attest to that, especially being the first ever hired at an executive level not having risen through the ranks. The personal challenge to keep the commercial mindset I brought with me from prior work experience was at times considerable. What is at risk of being lost in that culture of having to seemingly first of all please a complex set of stakeholders are focus on real innovation, and most of all the customer or visitor. At many of these organizations the onset of the web has just compounded the issues and made it even more difficult to stay ahead of the parade and organize their individual stakeholder interests towards a common objective in an ever faster moving marketplace. With the latest phase in the evolution of online travel with it's attention towards enabling integrated, smart trip planning the days of being less affected by what is happening in online travel technology..." - Joe Buhler

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Four point strategy for local businesses to benefit from mobile social networks - nudgeme

Glad you found that screenshot shortcut, Jeremiah! It's very useful - Joe Buhler

"Good comments. The process has always been along the lines of Dream - Learn - Plan - Go - Share. In the first phase of web 1.0 the entire focus by OTAs has been almost exclusively on the Go part with the rest being left to other players like DMOs who have traditionally been engaged in the first three since before the web. The Share was largely handled offline by travelers themselves. As the web evolves this entire process chain has now moved to the web and new players have entered the market to offer solutions that don't focus primarily on the Go part but the rest. This should ultimately improve the customer experience as online travelers expect and demand a seamless experience across all steps as opposed to the time wasting click-o-rama of today. Some player might well appear and offer an “Apple like” improvement along the lines you suggest in your last paragraph." - Joe Buhler

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

Posted via web from JEBstream - Joe Buhler from Posterous

"Here are some examples: Vegas.com, hoteldiscount.com, statravel.com" - Joe Buhler

Seems very smiler to setting up Google Multiple Inboxes + Custom Filters.. - Sherif Mansour

Can't wait for something - anything - that goes in this direction. The stream has turned into a flood and smart filters are needed. There's too much manual user intervention required today. - Joe Buhler