Crowdsourcing in favor of Tourism campaigns
“When thousand heads
are better than one”
Who
better to promote a destination than people living there during all year? Who
better to give some touristic “tips” to travelers than people who have already
visited the destination? That is what Crowdsourcing is all about.
What is
crowdsourcing?
Jeff
Howe and Mark Robinson from Wired Magazine have first developed Crowdsourcing
in 2006. It consists in using, in a
collaborative mode, users’ creativity, knowledge, know-how and experiences.
This emergent trend is used by several markets and more and more by the tourism
industry. Indeed, millions of surfers are willing to give their opinion online
and consequently, to share personal experiences. By seeing the wealth of content
and exchanges generated on the Internet by customers, in some country, tourism
authorities and DMOs jumped at the chance to solicit web users. Consumer has
now become to the service of the business.
Significant
campaign examples:
- Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) launches a
campaign called “The Most Amazing Show on Earth”. Past travelers are invited to
upload some pictures, videos, stories on a dedicated website. Thanks to these
real experiences, TAT will develop a movie in order to promote Thailand in a
more realistic way.
- Washington tourism officials have created an online
marketing campaign called “Share your Washington”. This campaign mainly focuses
on Washington residents who will have to invite relatives and send them some
online postcards. This method will help residents participating in the economic
development of their city.
- “Talk for Ireland” is focused on social media
participation with a competition and weekly prize to win. This dedicated
Facebook page encourages people to post and share videos of attractive
activities and areas in Ireland. This campaign motivates travelers thanks to a
prize depending on how passionate was the description of Ireland.
Crowdsourcing are being crucial for tourism campaigns.
Indeed, companies can take advantage of this trend by increasing their
destination visibility, by accessing to a market more quickly (thanks to
residents’ relatives for instance), or even reducing marketing costs. However,
companies shouldn’t use this trend for every campaign theme, as they have no
control on the content of information uploaded by online users.
In other
words, even if crowdsourcing has become an unavoidable way of promoting better
a destination by using the “power of the crowd”, tourism professionals should
be aware that “bad buzz” can happen on the dedicated website create for
advertising.
Sevan Karaoghlanian
Patrick Rakotondrajao
Patrick Rakotondrajao
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