This post is a follow up to my previous post on It's Not Social Media, It's Social Business - Do you Care? and the thoughts expressed by Troy Thompson in his post titled DMO Strategy: Technology or Inspiration? in which he muses: …in our subconscious quest to grab at anything and everything possibly related to destination visitation, have we gone too far? Have we stretched beyond our goals and mission to become more technology company than inspiration company. Eventually, those in the destination vertical will have to make a choice due to the simple pressures of time, budget, staff and... Continue reading

During my 40 year career in travel and tourism, the number of people crossing international borders has grown from 100 million a year to just under a billion. At the same time, I have watched distinctly different, magical and remote communities with cultures whose unique worldview had so much to teach us, be engulfed, usurped, diluted, and become endangered. As lamented in a previous post called On Homecoming and Wayfinding - Re-thinking Sustainable Tourism, present generations simply don’t know what they have been deprived of experiencing. According to the UNWTO, the current volume of international trips is confidentially forecast to... Continue reading

The five biggest drivers of business change right now can be summarised thus: 1. Customers now have the power to talk back, to talk with each other; and to attract enormous attention simply through the power of their own creativity. The value of a company is now directly related to the subject and quality of the conversations that take take place about it and determine a reputation. Between 60-80% of all market capitalisation of companies is tied up in intangibles such as brand equity, reputation, human capital,and intellectual property. Never has it been so important, or, for that matter, so... Continue reading

This post was written in February of 2011 but for some reason stayed "under a bushel" - not published due to an oversight so I am making amends and publishing it now: Two synchronous events occurred yesterday - a long-time business colleague and now dear friend, Lynne Gray, blogger of ThatsPR was recognised as the 4th most influential tweeter in the online travel and PR domain(@lynnerosie), and I came across this article in The Washington Post. Lynne does not have the benefit of a large organization behind her and is completly self taught in social media but she is making... Continue reading

Thanks to a tropical bug unknown to my system, I am confined to my hotel room in Fiji en route to Samoa – a small tropical island in the middle of a vast ocean that still has the potential to satisfy every traveller’s Treasure Island or Robinson Crusoe-style fantasy. The decision-makers of this tiny country (215,000 residents supported in part by a diaspora of another 180,000 Samoans living & generating cash outside their island economy) face a terrible dilemma. How to do they benefit from such a rich cultural and physical “resource” without succumbing to the forces of an impersonal,... Continue reading

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I've not been blogging recently due to the fact that I am moving house - renting out my lovely cottage at the end of the lane in England to a family whom I know will take care of it for a year. Once I have sold my now restored condominium in Vancouver that suffered from poor construction (thank you City of Vancouver); and deferred maintenance (thank you past owners), I'll be able to focus on creating a life and making a living. Any help, referrals you can give me would be much appreciated.www.681moberly.wordpress.com! She's all spruced up, a real bargain... Continue reading

Dear Friends I didn't manage to write a Christmas letter each year but didn't want to let 2010 pass though without saying “hello” and wishing you health and happiness in 2011. In 2010, Facebook emerged as the platform of choice for business and individuals. For professionals like me, the ability to separate personal and professional material is a boon and in 2011, I'll stop boring family with my observations on social media and having to share personal experiences with relative strangers! The inspiring aspect of Facebook is its complete disregard for borders - a whole new geography is emerging with... Continue reading

I've noticed three consistent trends/themes over my time working in tourism: 1. the successful start-ups take the pain out of what is often a frustrating experience (in this case making a quick decison about where to go and what to do when you finally feel you either need and or can take a vacation); 2. the innovators of those start-ups nearly always come from outside the industry. Thanks to their suffering, we all benefit; and 3. Simple is better than complicated and good design essential. The founders of Wanderfly fall into that category. They are young, still in Beta and... Continue reading

Thanks to the Mashable Infographic post on cell phone use, there can be no doubt just how addicted the human population is becoming to its cell phone. As Dan Hollings has pointed out in his really insightful videos (see his YouTube channel), the cell phone is way more than a communications device and virtually every physical item has the potential to receive wifi signals and, thereby, become another communications device. I say potential because many travellers still waste time getting access to the cloud - see earlier post expressing rants by me and other colleagues in the travel industry It's... Continue reading

A small Ethiopian restaurant in New Jersey, called Mesob, has much to teach the travel industry about using technology effectively. Diners with smartphones who have downloaded a QR Reader, can scan a QR code off the menu to access videos showing how the meal is prepared in Ethiopia. While waiting for their meal to arrive, diners can get a real feel for this unfamiliar cuisine and it provides all kinds of reasons for conversation and engagement - between waiter/waitress and diner; between diners and each other; and then between diners and non-diners. Congratulations Mesob Restaurant - great use of technology... Continue reading

Consumers in a recent study said they plan to spend more on gadgets and electronics during the 2010 holiday season than they did last year. On the flip side, a large percentage of the same consumers also said they’d be spending less than they did in 2009 on travel. Source: Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/11/26/2010-spending-gadgets/# and what's the gadget of choice - the iPad of course! If you haven't got a mobile strategy, you may already be falling behind. And if you need to do something really exciting - like develop an app, please contact my good friend, Darren Lynch at Gourmet Pixel,... Continue reading

Enjoy this brilliant video rant aimed at destinations and their businesses in an attempt to persuade them to get more business. It shoudn't be that hard but it is. Even though wifi has been around for over half a decade, picking up a signal and then having to whip out credit cards etc to pay for what should be free is still a nightmare when travelling. By 2010 over 50% of travellers are going to be using smart phones connected to the internet. They want to share their adventures in virtually real time, so "luddite" tourism suppliers who do not... Continue reading

I'm in the midst of a pile of research for a new body of work on the post-recessionary consumer. In this process, I simply cannot believe the amount of re-cycling of old ideas is going on - the same concepts are being repeated in Web 2.0 format with ever more fancy new names; book designs that are ever more beautiful (thank you Creative Economy); and accompanied by slick videos that are easy to embed and syndicate. One term that is rising to the fore in 2010 of all years is "Customer Centricity" as if the customer had just been discovered!!... Continue reading

The trigger for this post came from another that I came across today by The IdeaHive and a conversation held late last night with a friend who asked: “Why do we call tourism an industry? It makes it sound so mechanical and sterile.” I sighed internally at my friend’s question – not because it isn’t a very good question – but simply because I have spent the past 20 years arguing that tourism should not be viewed as an industry. The question rem inded me that I seem to have failed miserably in convincing others of that view. My sadness... Continue reading