Dave Serino Blogs

"How Social is Your State DMO?" - January 2010 Rankings

 The January 2010 rankings of “How Social is Your State DMO?” have been completed and they are published here. 

A few notes on the rankings:

-For the third consecutive time, Michigan is number one followed by Tennessee, who moved up four spots. Oregon dropped one spot to number three, Virginia moved up from six to secure fourth place and Pennsylvania rounds out the top five.

- Movers of note include:  Tennessee, who is at number two from 6th place; Virginia, who moved from 7th place to 4th; and Colorado which is now ranked 6th, moving up from 13th place; New York has vaulted from 32nd  to 16th place; Oklahoma has gone from 37th to 24th place and Massachusetts from 46th to 33rd.

- Colorado gets acknowledged for being the most improved. The state has made the biggest moves since the rankings started in July of 2009.  They opened in the 29th spot, moved up to 17, then 13 and, in January they hit the 6 spot. Congrats!

To view the full rankings for January 2010 with a sharing friendly link, visit: http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO4

Please keep the comments and feedback coming, as we will continue to consider them in future measurements.

The next state DMO study will be done in April.  We haven’t seen drastic changes in the monthly evaluations, so we have decided to conduct the state tourism office evaluations quarterly. For more info be sure to follow Dave Serino on Twitter: @GammetGuy and fan Gammet Interactive on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Gammet

How Social is Your Michigan DMO?

Based on our “How Social is Your State DMO?” platform, we have compiled the first rankings for the state of Michigan.  

All 48 Convention and Visitors Bureaus in the state were evaluated and ranked.  One key item to conducting an accurate measurement is the window of time window which the evaluation takes place. We are working hard to improve efficiencies and have ranked this group in a 10-day period, compared to the 21-day period of the first state DMO study.  The future goal will be to complete the measurement in 3-days or less to be sure it is as accurate as possible.

As far as the Michigan rankings go, here are a few highlights:

- Grand Rapids – www.visitgrandrapids.org – has secured the number one spot, edging Detroit – www.visitdetroit.com - by 9 points.

- The Upper Pennisula – www.uptravel.com – has significant traction in terms of Facebook presence, soaring above all other state destinations.

- Grand Rapids - www.visitgrandrapids.org – and Lansing – www.lansing.org – lead the way on Twitter.

- Grand Rapids – www.vsitgrandrapids.org – and the Upper Pennisula – www.uptravel.com - both scored well on Flickr.

- Detroit – www.visitdetroit.com – has a commanding lead in YouTube videos.

- Sault Ste. Marie – www.saultstemarie.com – and Grand Rapids – www.visitgrandrapids.org - scored the highest in terms of blog presence.

To view the entire “How Social is Your Michigan DMO?” study and rankings, visit this link - http://budurl.com/HowSocialMIDMO .

UPDATE-8/19: The rankings for the Ann Arbor CVB were modified to recognize their blog presence through their news feed and updates section. We have acknowledged this information as adequate content with other organizations and want to remain consistent in this set of rankings.

Don't Let The Economy Crunch Air Travel

There was an excellent segment on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today regarding  the economy and its effects on travel.   It featured Rick Steves – who spoke mostly about European travel – and Rick Seany, co-founder and CEO of FareCompare.com.

A few trends that Seany confirmed were that the average air traveler researches a fare four to six times before purchasing and many consumers are using meta search engines like Kayak.com and FareCompare.com to find the best rate.

One interesting feature with FareCompare.com is the site will e-mail you updates regarding price changes on a specific itinerary immediately after the airline takes action.  Some of these e-mails will be generated within 15-minutes after the price change and they can be sent several times in a 24-hour period.  A great benefit when compared to the airline web sites which usually only send out one update a day and it is traditionally done around 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m.

Visit this link to see the comments shared by Seany on the NPR blog and be sure to listen to the audio podcast.

If your hotel or resort is located in a fly-in destination or you promote a destination that is primarily dependent on fly-in traffic, it may be worthwhile posting Seany’s tips on your web site, blog or in your consumer e-newsletter.   

"That Happens All the Time"

I just returned to the cold and snowy Midwest from beautiful Orange County, California. I had a brief, but excellent stay. My accommodations were at a full service, upscale hotel property. (Thank you M, A and T for the hook up!)

The hotel had a friendly staff;  clean, spacious rooms; convenient location and a cool running trail about a quarter mile away from the entrance. The hotel also offered a courtesy shuttle  to the airport. When I inquired about the return trip to John Wayne International, the front desk clerk informed me that the hotel shuttles run every hour-on-the-hour, starting at 6:00 a.m, each day. He then kindly offered to schedule me on a return trip. Prior to my response, I paused briefly, to mentally calculate the commute time with my departure time.  Then I realized it probably wasn’t going to get me there early enough to pass through security and reach my gate.  Before I could say a word, he responded with, “Let me guess, your flight leaves at 6:45?”. I nodded in agreement . And his reply, “You know, that happens all the time.”

Sounds like an operational opportunity to me.