Let’s go, Take the World’s Biggest Selfies in Australia

Recent year, increasing people like to post their selfie on the social media ,especially during the travel period . However, there are much troubles when taking the selfies. one of the troubles is it's too hard to see anything past that grimacing face bang, slap in the center, selfie sticks are easily involved. Even，sometimes，it will cause the security issue.

Now, In order to promote Australia and attract more consumer, the Australian government decide to help tourists take bigger and better selfies that include the environments around them. They has come up with a new service for taking selfies in which the self is just one part of an epic widescreen landscape. The service are being dubbed ‘GIGA Selfies’, which billed as the world's biggest selfie service. Travelers can get the service at Australia's Gold Coast which is one of the most popular and visited Australian destinations.  Tourism Australia Managing Director John O’Sullivan says that the “‘GIGA Selfies campaign will help to raise the level of conversation about Australia as people share their experiences of holidaying here with their friends and family back home.”

This project is a part of a bigger campaign aimed to attract younger, more media-savvy travelers to the beautiful shores of Australia’s Gold Coast.  Specifically, they hope to lure a more Japanese tourists to the continent, as Japan is also a key market for Tourism Australia ,in the past year alone more than 320,000 Japanese visitors travelling here, contributing more than $1.4 billion in visitor spend, and many of whom are known for their love of social media  and their very active digital presence.

                  Source:YouTube https://youtu.be/LQNexfnYg8E

It is easy to use the “GIGA Selfies” service. Which you need is not a a super-sized selfie stick or folks but to download the “GIGA Selfies” app , then the only things you need to do is to stand on a designated spot and use the app to trigger the camera in the distance, which will captures you and the surrounding landscape. After that , both the photograph and accompanying video will be emailed to you, and then you can share with friends and family. You can see a closeup photograph of yourself and download a short video clip which starts as a close up selfie and pulls back to the real location to show your surrounding and how far you are from the camera).

                  Source:YouTube https://youtu.be/LQNexfnYg8E

“GIGA Selfies” uses a high definition camera and cell phone technology to take photos big enough. The high powerful camera located around 364 feet away. The camera and lens are special, 100 times more powerful than typical photo gear, so it could screen you and everyone in your vicinity.

However, because of the costs and logistics, the service is only scheduled for deployment in the Gold Coast, although the promotional video includes multiple spots around Australia. About the future, the project will be determined after its debut.

Reference: 

http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/worlds-largest-selfie-australia-labor-day/

http://petapixel.com/2015/09/01/australia-wants-to-help-you-take-the-worlds-biggest-selfies/

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/02/travel/australia-giga-selfie/

http://www.news.com.au/travel/tourism-australia-launches-giga-selfie-the-worlds-biggest-selfie-for-japanese-tourists/news-story/88043b298d4a1cf673b3a422777b016f

https://youtu.be/LQNexfnYg8E

Sha Hu & YiMin Jiang

Mobile Application: mTrip Business

Mobile Application: mTrip Business

mTrip app is a company selling some applications for DMO’s, tourism boards, travel agencies and tour operators, in order to develop tourism industry (business and leisure) and promote a destination. It could be done for a country, a city or even small places such as bays, any places who want to surf on the increasing numbers of new technology users.  Recently created, mTrip has been downloaded already 2.5 million times since its creation. This mobile app can be used by all smart phones customer. Even this company sells its product to professional; the main users of the app will be the tourists. It will be very interesting and essential for anyone who wants to enjoy and create their travel experiences.

Benefits for DMOs:

• Offer to visitors a personal guide (no need connection to check information, 9 languages available, travelers review available, …)

• Promotion the destination with high level of visibility (could be share on Facebook, to build stronger relationship with the customer, custom branding, …)

• Generate revenue (by advertisements, coupons and vouchers, …)

• Feedback (visitors’ recommendations and statistics due to numbers of clicks)

Benefits for tourists:

•         100% offline connection

•          Easy access

•          Goods information

•          Vouchers are provided

This society proposes customized apps for any destinations. However, as it has just been created, there are not many destinations provided but some famous destinations such as Tahiti, Phangan, Dominican Republic or Mygaytrip (gay organism). 

At the same time, others companies provide the same service as we can see for the app launched by Australia (http://www.tourism.wa.gov.au/marketing/Marketing_activities/Pages/The_Experience_WA_Smartphone_App.aspx). 

Obviously, this kind of travel applications is increasing due to the rise of smart phones users. All destinations or cities should offer their own travel apps and most importantly make potential customers aware of it. There exist different communications channels like internet, social medias or also in tourism agency or tourism office. This is a real opportunity for destinations to be known and to create a real relationship with their customers and increase their loyalties. Speaking as one of the generation Y folks, IT in general fully answers to our life styles of convenience and fast. That’s why we really think that anyone who travels must download this application. However, communication face to face with local people would probably the best way to enjoy 100% your trip.

Marion & Rosie

Web Source: http://business.mtrip.com/white-label-apps-travel/tourism-boards-dmo/?gclid=CO_7sc7BobwCFSTMtAodMWIA-w

http://www.tourism.wa.gov.au/marketing/Marketing_activities/Pages/The_Experience_WA_Smartphone_App.aspx).

Picture Source : www.freedigitalphotos.net

Tourism Australia collaborates with YouTube for new marketing campaign

By Caroline Oudin and Loumpheany Preap

This article entitled “Tourism Australia collaborates with YouTube for new marketing campaign” was written by Mary Jones and it was published on October 15^th 2010 on canadaupdates.com, which is a website that initially informs people about the immigration process in the country. The article deals with a new digital tourism marketing campaign between Tourism Australia and Youtube.

In this article, IT contributes to tourism because it enables the promotion of Australia. Indeed, according to Andrew McEvoy, managing director of Tourism Australia, Youtube is a marketing tool to broadcast a new vision of Australia. Thanks to the video, the sound and creativity, the marketing campaign is more efficient and will have more impact on the web users. Tourism Australia decided to create a new tourism marketing campaign, focused on digital support. This initiative led the DMO to a partnership with Youtube, offering the opportunity to develop social media marketing via videos.

The initial aim of such collaboration is to show Australia as the top exciting destination to visit in the world, focusing on one of the most symbolic structure of the country (Sydney Opera House) as a key point for activities. Also, the DMO is able to show potential consumers the attracting experiences available on site (music, culture, etc.). More significantly, this collaboration with Youtube was useful in order to bring the Youtube Symphony Orchestra 2011 to Australia. Indeed, it not only enabled musicians to audition but it also implied million of views through the social media. This partnership is a clear opportunity for Tourism Australia to expand its online presence, even if a study conducted by travel social network WAYNE revealed that in 2010 Tourism Australia is the most popular national DMO in social media (http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/news/647-tourism-australia-is-the-most-popular-national-dmo-in-social-media).

The relevancy of this article clearly lays in the fact that it proves, once more, the usefulness of the social media. Youtube, in particular, is one of the top social media innovations, being strategically used by tourism industries such as hotel chains or DMOs. Wondering why companies opt for such a tool, it is to understand this choice. Indeed, broadcasting on Youtube is easy and quicker than other technological devices. A video catches more attention than a simple marketing campaign on the TV. On Youtube, the online user will look for the video by typing on the search bar tool whereas on TV, the marketing campaign won’t have the same effect because other advertisement will be diffused at the same time. Moreover we can guess that the cost of broadcasting on Youtube is cheaper than advertising on TV channels and it reaches more target audiences.

As far as we are concerned, we believe that this is an interesting topic, as the use of social media as a marketing tool is a growing phenomenon.

Source: picture from our personal files