developing lasting relationships with local tourism boards

Developing lasting relationships with your local tourism

boardLola (Akinmade) Åkerström

Writer, photographer, blogger – www.akinmade.com

Blog at Geotraveler’s Niche – www.lolaakinmade.com

Blogger for Sweden.se

Write and photograph for many publications

Quick Background

Quick show of hands

How many of you are travel bloggers?

Quick show of hands

How many of you have a home base?

…Yes, many bloggers have a place they go back to re-energize before the next trip…

Quick show of hands

How many of you have met with the tourism board*

of your home base?

* - if your base actually has a tourism board

Quick show of hands

Do they know who YOU are?

Are they aware you exist as a blogger in

their backyard?

Goal of workshop

Highlight the benefits of working locally

Explore some case studies

Give you five tips for approaching your local tourism board

Safe to say…

We’re all passionate about travel

Many bloggers always on the lookout for the next big trip; the next blog/media trip

Travel blogging

The travel grass seems to always be greener on

the other side

Travel blogging

Ironically, your local tourism board keeps flying in bloggers and journalists

who think the grass is greener on YOUR side.

Travel blogging

What if your personal situation changes that affects the frequency of your travels?

Temporarily or permanently?

Travel blogging

Here’s why you need to start working with

your local tourism board

Working locally

Reason #1

Opportunity to build expertise

Working locally

The problem with most forms of media trips is that they’re

platonic.

Working locally

Meaning –> It’s challenging to gather

unique content from the same trip 6-10 other

travel bloggers

Working locally

Other bloggers can’t go on every media trip your tourism board

organizes, but YOU can

Working locally

Unique advantage and opportunity to build and be

recognized for regional

expertise 

Working locally

The reason you also want to build expertise in a

region is because generic travel blogging

is overcrowded.

Here’s the problem

YOU

+

Thousands ofOther blogs

Travel blogging reality curve

Working locally

Reason #2

Gain deeper access to local resources

Working locally

You can acquire more in-depth content for your own

travel blog than surface material generated from

media trips

Working locally

Battle the plague of “generic” travel

content

Working locally

This will, in turn, help you solidify your personal brand with fresh, in-

depth and frankly, cool regional content.

Working locally

Reason #3

Additional source of income

Working locally

Let’s be real

We would love to be paid to do what we love =

Blogging + Travel

Working locally

Every tourism board has an

annual or at least semi-annual

budget

Working locally

If you have a rough idea of what they’re trying to accomplish, you can get yourself a nice chunk of

that pie

Working locally

How?

Blogging Photography Writing Social Media

Working locally

Reason #4

Less expense for your tourism board

Working locally

They don’t have to fly you in or put you up for 3 nights at a 5-

star hotel – plain and

simple

Working locally

Reason #5

Leads to other work

Working locally

Your local tourism boards has tons of contacts in the travel industry -> airlines, lodging, other destination marketing

organizations (DMOs)

Quick recap of benefits

Opportunity to build expertise

Gain deeper access to local resources

Additional source of income

Less expense for your tourism board

Leads to other work

Working locally

Case Studie

s

Working locally

Case Studies

Candice Walsh Jennifer Miner Micke Kosman Lola Akinmade (ME!) Andreas Susana

Case Study 1

Blogger - Candice Walsh @candicewalsh

Board – Newfoundland Tourism

How long – Since 2011

Case Study 1 – Candice

How they met –> Twitter

“I did a trip around Central Newfoundland with Adventure Central last year. Only travel writer in the Travel Media Association of Canada based out of Newfoundland.”…Candice Walsh

Case Study 1 – Candice

Benefits –> Led to other work

“…Explore Canada Like a Local series on Matador Network. Heavy emphasis on "Newfoundland travel" on my personal blog, and they've helped me build contacts. So I get maybe 3-5 emails a week from people travelling to this province, asking for advice, etc.”

… Candice Walsh

Case Study 1 – Candice

Unexpected rewards –> Incredible contacts

“Since St. John's (and Newfoundland, really) is such a small community, I've made incredible contacts and have landed other work with various media folks (i.e. web copy)..”… Candice Walsh

Case Study 2

Blogger – Jennifer Miner @thevacationgals | @LA_COT

Board – Los Angeles' CVB Discover LA

How long – Since 2010

Case Study 2 - Jennifer

How they met –> In person

“ Two years ago, I founded the Los Angeles Consortium of Online Travel (LACOT), an open, lose group of LA-area travel bloggers, writers, and tourism professionals. Carol Martinez, VP of Discover LA came to our first meet up and has a been one of LACOT's strongest supporters ever since.”…Jennifer Miner

Case Study 2 – Jennifer

Benefits –> Led to other work

“Having Discover LA be such a strong advocate of the group led to LACOT being a partner with the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show and helping host the International Pow Wow when it was in Los

Angeles last year..”…Jennifer Miner

Case Study 2 – Jennifer

Unexpected rewards –> Filled a gap

“This has been a wonderfully mutually beneficial relationship. LACOT filled a hole that Discover LA had in terms of finding and working with local travel bloggers and attraction publicists, and having representatives of Discover LA be active members of LACOT adds an instant legitimacy to the group.”……Jennifer Miner

Case Study 3

Blogger – Micki Kosman @barefootnomads

Board – Kamloops, British Columbia

How long – Four months and counting

Case Study 3 – Micki

How they met –> Email

“We approached the tourism board, via email, with a proposal to work with them. We didn't ask for any sponsored activities or accommodation in our pitch. Instead, we focused on building a relationship with them.”…Micki Kosman

Case Study 3 – Micki

Benefits –> Unique story ideas for blog

“Kamloops Tourism has helped steer us towards some interesting topics and story ideas we may have missed on our own. It's also been illuminating to get a good feel for what their goals are. Often, bloggers are so focused on their trip and their stories that we don't consider what the tourism boards are trying to focus on. In our case, our tourism board did a great job of getting us to think about the needs and perspectives of different visitors.”…Micki Kosman

Case Study 3 – Micki

Unexpected rewards –> In-depth knowledge

“Working locally has given us a much deeper appreciation of what our local area has to offer. It's made us see our small city through several different sets of eyes: our tourism board, international visitors, and even visitors from another province .”…Micki Kosman

Case Study 4

Blogger – Lola Akinmade Akerstrom @LolaAkinmade

Board – Sweden.se

How long – Since 2010

Case Study 4 – Lola

How we met –> Twitter and Email

Twitter – I tagged them on blog posts about Sweden

Email – I sent an introductory email to an editor about writing articles for them

Case Study 4 – Lola

Benefits –> Led to other work

- Image Bank- Visit Sweden- Visit Stockholm- Recommendations to other publications,- Etc

Case Study 4 – Lola

Unexpected rewards –> Access to resources, contacts, building expertise

Access to a lot of places and people Editors and publications reaching out

for work from Sweden

New relationship

Blogger – Andreas Susana @Travelwriticus

Board – City of Graz, Austria

How long – A few days old

New study – Andreas

How they met –> Blog trip

“I was invited to do a blog trip in Graz which is actually my native city. I was approached by the organizer of the blog trip: Creative

Tourism Austria”…Andreas Susana

New – Andreas

How they will work together

Andreas will feature Graz tours and restaurants on his blog

Andreas hopes to gain in-depth knowledge of his city Graz and the traditional dishes of Styria

Working locally

Five tips for approaching your

local tourism board

Working locally

Tip #1Send a letter of

introduction

Working locally

Tip #2Send any and all links to blog

posts about the location to their press contact.

Working locally

Tip #3Start engaging with

them via social media.

Working locally

Tip #4Attend local press

events and subscribe to newsletters.

Working locally

Tip #5Propose a cool partnership idea

Working locally

Yes, I know and I get it

Always hopping on the next trip is loads of

fun!

Another advantage

Bloggers can work transparently without compromising their own

personal brands.

You live there. You know the realities on the ground.

Working locally

Remember -> You’ve got to know what

you’ve got at home as well.

Contact Information

Twitter - @LolaAkinmade

Portfolio – www.akinmade.com

Blog – www.lolaakinmade.com

Facebook - www.facebook.com/GeotravelersNiche