Take your embarrassing dad to dance rehab in Jamaica!

If your dad insists on showing his bad moves at every opportunity, it’s time to consider rehab. But as we say in Jamaica, ‘chillax’ and enter to win a family trip to Jamaica that includes a remedy for badly dancing dads – lessons that will transform his moves, from creepy to Gully Creepa!

Jamaica is the home of reggae, dancehall and the latest bangin’ beats, so there’s no better place to get his groove back (if he had one in the first place).

Just upload a video of your dad’s worst dance moves and you’re in with a chance to have fun at Beaches Negril, care of Virgin Holidays and Jamaica Tourist Board.  While you’re zip-lining through the rainforest, bobsledding ‘Cool Runnings’ style and swimming with dolphins, dad will be hard at work trying to get his ‘mojo’ rolling. So suck up the shame and get filming now; show your old man’s moves ‘To Di World’ and ‘Tek Weh Yuhself’ to Jamaica!

To enter the competition, upload evidence of your badly dancing dad to www.totallydaddancing.com. The top ten most viewed videos will be shortlisted and Kiss 100 Breakfast Show host Rickie Haywood-Williams will choose the final winner based on the funniest video and dad most in need of dance rehab.

Videos of the offending dance moves will also appear on YouTube, and the campaign can be followed on Twitter.com/DadDancing, on Facebook.com/DadDancing and on Bebo.com/DadDancing.

As well as being the ideal place for dad to finally find his rhythm, Beaches Resort and Spa in Negril, Jamaica offers an array of activities for the rest of the family too. For teens, there’s an XBOX 360 Game Garage, brand new Scratch DJ Academy, Club Liquid nightclub (under 21s) and the new Trench Town lounge. There’s also a huge water park with three pools and a Red Lane Spa – all set on the stunning Seven Mile Beach.  For the younger ones, there’s the cool Kids Camp where they can dance with the gang from Sesame Street®.

Prizes for the runners-up include iPod nanos in the Jamaican colours of red, gold and green and a box set of Jamaican sounds.

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Editor’s notes:

OMG! = Oh My God!

Chillax = Chill/relax

Gully Creepa = dance made famous by Usain Bolt upon winning gold at the Olympics

To Di World = its Bolt’s signature ‘archer’ pose

Tek Weh Yuhself = yet another Jamaican dance step meaning ‘Take Yourself Away’

For more information or photos please contact:

McCluskey International
Kristen Lazur
T: 020 8237 7979
E: jamaica@mccluskey.co.uk

About Jamaica Tourist Board

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), founded in 1955, is Jamaica’s national tourism agency based in the capital city of Kingston. The Jamaica Tourist Board was declared the Caribbean’s Leading Tourist and Convention Bureau by the World Travel Awards (WTA) for 2006, while Jamaica earned the WTA’s vote as the World’s Leading Cruise Destination, the Caribbean’s Leading Destination and the Caribbean’s Leading Cruise Destination.

JTB offices are located in Kingston, Montego Bay, Miami, Toronto and London.  Representative offices are located in Düsseldorf, Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam and Tokyo.

Details of upcoming special events, attractions and accommodations in Jamaica are posted on the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Web site at www.visitjamaica.com

About Draftfcb

Draftfcb is the first global, behaviour-based, holistic marketing communications organisation to operate against a single P&L. It is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies with a network spanning 97 countries.

In delivering its clients a high return on IdeasSM, the agency is driven by The 6.5 Seconds That MatterSM, a creative expression recognising the brief period of time marketers have to capture consumers’ attention and motivate them to act.

Draftfcb employs 120+ multi-disciplined professionals in London with established clients including GM, Jamaica Tourist Board, SC Johnson, Nivea Beiersdorf, Kraft, Post Office, and The Dorchester Collection, as well as newer clients Boeing, COI-CWDC and TD Waterhouse.

For more information, visit www.draftfcb.co.uk

Four night stay from £285 per person, including flights & hotel

BUDAPEST’S premier cultural event – the Budapest Spring Festival (www.btf.hu) – takes place this year from 19 March until 5 April, which still gives visitors chance to take advantage of the special hotel and flights deals through the Budapest Winter Invitation (www.budapestwinter.com).

There are 50 city centre hotels that are offering free nights up until 31 March, ranging from 3* to 5* making Budapest a great choice for an early spring break. The festival is one of the top cultural festivals in Europe with programmes ranging from exhibitions and classical concerts to opera, ballet and contemporary dance performed at amazing venues throughout the city.

Highlights this year include Nigel Kennedy and the Danubia Orchestra Obuda presenting a unique evening of Bach and Ellington on 26 March at the Palace of Arts; the magical Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía at the Thalia Theatre on various dates; Wagner’s Parsifal at the State Opera House on 2 April and the Royal Danish Ballet at the State Opera House on 19 March and Palace of Arts on 20 March.

There is also the chance to see Danish ‘nomadic theatre group’, Hotel Pro Forma on 22 March whose productions move across the genres of theatre, opera, visual arts and concert and are offer audiences a unique and exciting experience. They will be performing Operation: Ofero – a visual opera in three movements drawing upon the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Stay at the newly renovated 3* King’s Hotel (www.kingshotel.hu) housed in a 19^th century building located in the heart of Budapest on the Pest side and close to all the main tourist attractions. Stay ‘four nights for the price of three’ and pay just €180 for the whole stay for two people based on sharing a twin/double room and if travelling before the end of March. Price also includes buffet breakfast.

Return flights with Malev (www.malev.com) are from £204 per person in March. This makes a four night break from just £285 per person, including flights and hotel.

For more information and to book visit www.budapestwinter.com

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Press Enquiries:

Vanessa Ip
McCluskey International
Tel: 020 8237 7979 Fax: 020 8237 7999

Email: hungary@mccluskey.co.uk

Karin Jones, PR consultant for Hungarian National Tourist Office (Tues & Weds)
Tel: 07908 488 492 Email: media@gotohungary.co.uk or karinjonespr@hotmail.co.uk

McCluskey International has renewed the trade marketing, PR and MICE accounts for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. The account will be directed by Tim White, with Casey Hurford serving as Account Manager. Agency Principal Judy McCluskey will also continue to bring her extensive experience to the account.

McCluskey International has handled the UK Trade Marketing and Public Relations Account for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants since February 2003. With a collection of 47 boutique hotels (including the brands of Hotel Palomar and Hotel Monaco) across North America, each with their own distinctive style/story and each with their own chef-driven restaurant or bar, McCluskey International recognises Kimpton as a leading force within the hospitality sector.

Judy McCluskey, agency principal, said: “Kimpton is an acknowledged industry pioneer and was the first to bring the boutique hotel concept to America. Our objective has always been to ensure that we add value to the brand and develop sales with a keen eye on strong returns on investment. Our trade, MICE and PR teams work in tandem to maximize and synergize opportunities in this increasingly competitive marketplace.”

ABOUT KIMPTON

San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, is a collection of boutique hotels and chef-driven restaurants in the US. Founded in 1981 by Bill Kimpton, the company is well-known for making travelers feel welcomed and comfortable while away from home through intuitive and unscripted customer care, stylish ambience and having a certain playfulness in its approach to programs and amenities. Each hotel provides a range of exciting culinary experiences through locally-loved, top-rated, destination, chef-driven restaurants. Kimpton leads the hospitality industry in ecological practices through its innovative EarthCare program that spans all hotels and restaurants. Privately held Kimpton has consistently earned high customer satisfaction scores by the Market Metrix Hospitality Index, exceeding other hotel companies including those in luxury and upscale segments. Among the company’s newest properties are the EPIC Hotel Miami which opened in June 2009 and the Hotel Palomar in Philadelphia, PA, which opened in September 2009. Currently, projects are underway in New York City and Chicago. For more information, please visit www.KimptonHotels.com

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For further information please contact:

Casey Hurford (Trade & PR)
Email: Casey.Hurford@kimptonhotels.com
Tel: 0208 237 7979
Or
Kai Schomann (MICE)
Tel: 0207 690 0609

Seven nights with Virgin Holidays from £562 per person

If you’re looking for somewhere different to celebrate St Patrick’s Day this year then New England is the perfect destination for an unforgettable Spring break. Just a short hop across the Atlantic (six hours flying time), New England is ideal for both short breaks and longer trips, and with its rich Irish heritage, the region plays host to some of the largest St Patrick’s Day celebrations outside Dublin.

Throughout the 19^th and 20^th Centuries Irish men and women sailed across the Atlantic to pursue their dreams of economic prosperity and religious freedom in the great ‘New World. ‘Today, more than 11% of America’s population is believed to have Irish ancestry and the Irish culture and heritage in the region remains the strongest in America An incredible 29 out of the 44 US Presidents are believed to have Irish heritage of varying degrees — dating all the way from George Washington to current President Barack Obama, whose Kansas-born mother is of Irish and English descent.

The city of Boston, in Massachusetts, is the birth place of the US St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, hosting the first ever event in 1737, and today is home to one of the largest parades in the country, which attracts over half a million visitors to the city. The parade, which takes place on March 14^th 2010, begins in the traditionally Irish neighbourhood of South Boston and continues through the heart of the city, entertaining spectators on the way with an array of traditional Irish dancers, marching bands and pipe musicians. Elsewhere in the city, visitors can engage in more Irish history and heritage at the Irish Film Festival, take a trip to the Irish Cultural Centre Open House, or visit the JFK Presidential Library and Museum and celebrate the most famous Irish-American of all, the 35^th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy.

No St Patrick’s Day celebration would be complete without a pint of Guinness or two in a traditional Irish Pub. New England boasts its fair share of lively Irish bars in great holiday destinations, including: The Kinsdale and Black Rose in Boston; The Shannon Door in Jackson, New Hampshire;  Patrick’s Pub in Providence, Rhode Island; McGrath’s Irish Pub in Killington, Vermont; and Ri Ra Irish Pub in the coastal city of Portland, Maine.

As well as providing an evocative backdrop for the St Patrick’s Day Celebrations, New England’s vibrant towns and cities offer great shopping opportunities for those hoping to take advantage of the favorable exchange rates on designer clothing, cosmetics and electrical goods.

Holidaymakers wishing to explore the region a little further will benefit from the bright skies and crisp cool March air, which provides ideal conditions for winter pursuits such as skiing, snowboarding, zip-lining and snowmobiling.  Hit the slopes at Mad River Glen, Vermont, on St Patrick’s Day, dressed from head to toe in green, to ski all day for just $17 (approximately £11). And don’t forget – St Patrick’s Day coincides perfectly with the New England Maple Syrup season, allowing visitors to indulge their taste buds with the sweet taste of New England.

For further information about St Patrick’s Day celebrations throughout the six states or for help with planning your New England holiday, please visit www.discovernewengland.co.uk or call 020 8237 7977 to request a free brochure and map pack.

Virgin Holidays is offering seven nights in New England over the St Patrick’s Day period from just £562 per person (representing a saving up to £112). The price includes scheduled flights with Virgin Atlantic from London Heathrow to Boston, seven nights accommodation at the 3v Merrill Farm Resort Hotel in North Conway, New Hampshire and car hire.  Price based on two adults travelling together and sharing a suite.  Price includes all applicable taxes and fuel surcharge which are subject to change.  Price based on departures 10-24 March 2010. Virgin Holidays is a member of ABTA and is ATOL protected.  To book: www.virginholidays.co.uk, 0844 557 3859 or visit one of our 40 stores located in Debenhams and House of Fraser stores nationwide. For a free New England brochure and map pack visit www.discovernewengland.co.uk or call 020 8237 7977.

Bon Voyage is offering a three night city break in New England over St Patrick’s Day from just £559 per person. The price includes return British Airways flights and three nights accommodation at the five-star Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston.  The price is based on two adults travelling together and includes taxes.  For further information and bookings visit www.bon-yoyage.co.uk, email sales@bon-voyage.co.uk or call 0800 316 0191. For a free New England brochure and map pack visit www.discovernewengland.co.uk or call 020 8237 7977.

America As You Like It is offering seven nights in New England over St Patrick’s Day from £810 per person.  The price includes return British Airways flights from London to Boston, seven days economy car hire including all insurance and taxes for one driver, two nights accommodation at the Park Plaza Boston, two nights at the Golden Riverside Inn (near Mad River Glen) Vermont, two nights at the Eagle Mountain House in Jackson, New Hampshire and one night at the Admiral Farragut Inn in Newport, Rhode Island.  For reservations please call 020 8742 8299 or visit www.americaasyoulikeit.com sales@americaasyoulikeit.com. For a free New England brochure and map pack visit www.discovernewengland.co.uk or call 020 8237 7977.

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Media enquiries:

Jardine Chalkly
McCluskey International
0208 237 7979
NewEngland@mccluskey.co.uk

Travel trade and other consumer enquiries:

Jardine Chalkly
McCluskey International
0208 237 7977
NewEngland@mccluskey.co.uk

Notes to editors:

Discover New England is the marketing body responsible for promoting the six eastern most US states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, known collectively as New England, to the travel trade and consumer in the UK, Ireland and Germany.

Following on from my post last week about how tourist boards should approach Facebook, it seems only right to move onto that other staple of social media, Twitter.

There are innumerable guides to Twitter etiquette out there, and before you read this, if you’re entirely new to Twitter you’d do well to read one or two. This is not meant as a generic guide to Twitter, but some rules on how to approach it as a tourist board. We’ve worked with a number of tourist board clients developing and implementing strategies for Twitter, including Hungary, New Mexico and Ireland.

First, decide on your strategy

Before you even consider posting your first Tweet, it’s important that you work out why you are Tweeting. So many organisations take the decision to ‘do’ Twitter without any idea why, and it’s always apparent. There are many different kinds of Tweeters out there, people use the site it for many different reasons, and there’s no set function for tourist boards. However these are some of the ways a tourist board can use Twitter:

• Answering queries: a lot of companies use Twitter specifically for customer service. This function isn’t as straight forward for a tourist board, unlike an airline such as easyJet, they don’t have hundreds of people asking them where their luggage is or why they didn’t get an email confirmation for a booking, but people do ask questions. With clever use of Twitter search (if you’re using a Twitter client like Seesmic, Tweetdeck or CoTweet you can save searches) you can spot when people are asking questions about your destination (e.g ‘can anyone recommend a good hotel in xxxx?’), and interject appropriately.
• News: keep all of your followers up to date on the latest news from your destination (like with Facebook, remember not to localise – make it of interest to potential visitors, not the locals).
• Offers: a lot of people follow Twitter accounts in the hope of getting some kind of exclusive deal. If you’re able to send out offers that are exclusive to Twitter, fantastic, but just Tweeting any really good deals works too and might even convert into that social media holy grail – actual bookings, meaning ROI. Be careful not to spam these though, definitely no more than one a day.
• PR: there are loads of journalists on Twitter, and of course the bloggers are on there too. It can be a great way to communicate with them, make sure your destination is top of their mind, plus they’ll often Tweet looking for ideas, a great source for PR opportunities.

You don’t have to decide on one of these, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to do all, as some are mutually exclusive. For instance, most journalists are not on Twitter to provide you with another avenue of sending them your news and offers, so if you’re doing that (or doing it too much) you’ll turn them off and it will be harder to use for PR.

Or, if you’re just answering query after query, you’re providing a helpful service but you’re unlikely to gain that many followers as people don’t want to watch you answering other people’s questions – so a customer service based Twitter is not going to be a great way to distribute your news.

Your geographical market is likely to be important too, particularly if you’re Tweeting offers.

Work out a balanced way of achieving what you want from Twitter. It may be that you end up setting up multiple accounts.

Naming your account

I explained in my Facebook post that you shouldn’t name your page after the name of your official organisation, as people are becoming fans of the destination, not the tourist board employed to promote the destination. Twitter is a bit different here – people should be following you for information, not to show their friends what they are a ‘fan’ of, so they do want to know that this information is from the official tourist board. So making your account name official, like @VermontTourism or @VisitEngland, is a good idea.

However, as it’s ordinarily the PR and/or marketing department operating Twitter, you often see tourist board/DMO/CVB accounts with ‘PR’ or ‘marketing’ in their username. Unless the only purpose of your Twitter account is PR, or discussing your marketing strategy with stakeholders, avoid this as it will turn people off.

Identify some hashtags

First, if you don’t know what a hashtag is, read this guide. Next, identify what’s relevant to you. It may well just be #yourdestination, you may wish to use some popular tags like #tourism or #traveltuesday (a tag a lot of people use to discuss travel, on Tuesdays).

Use Twitter’s information on what’s trending, or whatthetrend.com to see if there’s any trends you can jump on. Try to stay relevant if doing this though, crowbarring in a hashtag for popularity’s sake looks a bit desperate.

You can also look at starting your own hashtags, but I wouldn’t recommend this until you’ve got a decent following. Canadian airline @WestJet have a great example of doing this in #WingletWednesday, but they started the promotion after having a good base of followers. Inventing your own hashtag only for no one else to use it can be a bit embarrassing, like telling a joke to a room full of people without anybody laughing.

It’s not all about numbers

Anyone can find themselves thousands of followers. Just find a list of people who follow back, and follow away. You’ll quickly find yourself drowning in a world of Twitter spam. You can have followers in the thousands, but have a click through rate for links you post of 0.0001%, and find no one is retweeting you.

By all means look for people to follow, but try to keep them relevant. Follow people who Tweet about your destination, or travel in general. There are some great lists of travel Tweeters out there, such as @Matt_Parson’s Travel Industry on Twitter list which you can add yourself to, and all the user generated lists within Twitter itself (see ‘lists’ on the right under a relevant Tweeter’s bio and stats).

Then just keep Tweeting interesting, relevant content, according to the strategy you’ve settled on. Much better to have 500 followers who are all interested in what you’re Tweeting than 5,000 who only want you for your follow back.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Some of the rules I mentioned in the Facebook post also apply to Twitter – link from your home page, don’t let your PR or marketing agency do it all, update regularly and as I’ve mentioned, don’t localise.

Are there any other rules for tourist boards on Twitter?

Follow me on Twitter @imckee

Follow McCluskey International on Twitter @McCluskeyTwit

We recently worked with Tourism Ireland’s business tourism division to promote the meetings, incentives, conferences and events market in Ireland.

Tourism Ireland had set up an offers site, irelandmeansbusiness.com as part of it’s business tourism website irelandinspires.co.uk, which provides deals for corporate events buyers and meeting planners looking to visit Ireland. They had yet to find an effective way to market the website.

We worked with Tourism Ireland to develop an Ireland Means Business blog at blog.irelandmeansbusiness.com to provide quality content that would encourage people to visit the site and engage in conversation about Ireland’s business tourism product.

In order to do this we created a branded Ireland Means Business Twitter (@Ireland_MICE), Facebook Page, LinkedIn group and YouTube channel.

We started blogging straight away, covering topics as diverse as Guinness’ 250th Anniversary to sustainability in corporate events in Ireland. We also went to Dublin to interview some of the most influential individuals in the industry in order to create a series of six videos, which were subsequently uploaded to youtube.com/IrelandMeansBusiness. We released these videos on a weekly basis via the blog, linking from all the other social media outlets.

We also built our Twitter follower base to over 565 by engaging with other Twitter users interested in the subjects of events and business travel, often using the hashtag #eventprofs.

The traffic to the blog increased by 262% in our first month of work, and a further 404% in the subsequent month. The videos have currently accrued a total of 691 views.

Ireland Means Business, part one:

Ireland Means Business, part two:

Dermod Dwyer, Chairman, Convention Centre Dublin:

Cailin Keaney, Sales and Marketing Manager, Aviva Stadium:

Hungary already has an impressive reputation for hosting an array of cultural festivals, but with 2010 being officially declared ‘The Year of the Festival’ by the Hungarian National Tourist Office, this year promises to be something special. Along with the more well known festivals in Budapest, there will be special attention this year on the exciting variety of celebrations on offer in and around the city of Pécs, 2010’s European Capital of Culture.

There really is something for everyone this year in Hungary, with visitors being invited to join in an eclectic range of celebrations from classical music and contemporary art to spectacular battle re-enactments and Harley Davidson parades.

The town of Mohács, just a few miles outside Pécs, hosts a traditional Hungarian celebration from 18^th – 23^rd February 2010. The Busó Carnival gives visitors the opportunity to witness local folk arts and music, and celebrate a great historical event.  According to legend, the 17^th Century residents of Mohács, known as ‘búsos’, dressed in hideous masks and animal pelts to scare away occupying Turkish forces, and now every year the locals dress like the ‘búsos’ to commemorate this day.  To find out more, visit www.hungarybudapestguide.com.

For visitors looking for a cultural celebration, the Budapest Spring Festival is a spectacle not to be missed.  Held from March 19^th – April 5^th 2010, the Spring Festival has grown into one of the major events on the European cultural calendar in the 30 years it has been running. Visitors can enjoy a spectacular array of entertainment including superb orchestral and jazz music, opera and dance performances, and contemporary art exhibitions.    Find out more about this fantastic event at www.festivalcity.hu.

Perhaps the most spectacular of Hungary’s festivals is the National Gallop, which celebrates the legendary Hussars, and takes place in the historic Heroes Square, in Budapest, from 2^nd – 6^th June 2010.  Over 100 horses and riders take part in races and impressive battle re-enactments, whilst visitors can watch and enjoy Hungarian music, dance performances and cuisine. Find out more at www.vagta.hu.

Proving that there really is something for everyone in Hungary in 2010, motorbike enthusiasts can head to the annual Harley Davidson Festival in Alsóörs, near Lake Balaton, from June 13^th to 20^th. Motorcycle fans go all out with an incredible procession of all kinds of Harley Davidson bikes, followed by stunt shows and arm wrestling. If you’re feeling competitive then there are contests in beer drinking, drumming and tug of war. Tribute bands appear on the stages and other highlights include goulash parties, fireworks and Harley Davidson fashion shows. To find out more visit www.hog.hu.

Every year hundreds of thousands of fans and visitors flock to Hungary to enjoy one of the several internationally renowned contemporary music festivals. The Volt Festival is held annually in the town of Sopron, and is regarded as one of the most exciting multi-cultural festivals in Europe. Taking place from June 30^th – July 3^rd 2010, the festival welcomes thousands of visitors from across the world, who come to enjoy nearly 200 top Hungarian and international acts performing across 15 stages. Global icons performing here in 2009 include Franz Ferdinand, Limp Bizkit and Marilyn Manson. Find out more at www.sziget.hu/volt.

The Sziget Festival takes place from the August 9^th – 15^th 2010 and is one of Europe’s largest and most popular music festivals, welcoming over 400,000 people to Obudai Island, in the middle of the Danube River. The festival features some of the most popular artists in contemporary music across all genres, with 2009’s star studded line-up including Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Bloc Party, The Ting Tings and Snow Patrol. Find out more at www.sziget.hu.

For those who enjoy treating their taste buds the annual Etyek Culinary Festival, held just outside Budapest in September, offers visitors a chance to discover the best local cuisine, whilst sampling a selection of wines from Hungary’s finest vineyards. The village of Etyek also hosts an annual festival dedicated solely to wine, in May. To find out more, visit www.pincefesztival.hu / www.kezes-labos.hu.

The Budapest International Wine and Champagne Festival, from September 8^th – 12^th 2010, is a fantastic opportunity for visitors the opportunity to learn about the history of Hungarian wine making and meet renowned wine makers, whilst enjoying traditional Hungarian music and gastronomic delights.  Find out more at www.budapestinfo.hu.

Round off the year in the style with a trip to the Budapest Christmas Festival, which runs from 20^th November – 29^th December 2010. Budapest is scattered with attractive Christmas fairs throughout the festive period, with the main one in Vorosmarty Square, where visitors can enjoy delicious hot wine, Hungarian pastries, traditional arts and crafts as well as music. The famous Gerbeaud building overlooks the square, and during this time its many windows turn into a giant advent calendar, one opening through each day of advent to reveal a Christmas image. To find out more visit www.budapestinfo.hu.

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Press Enquiries:

Vanessa Ip
McCluskey International
Tel: 020 8237 7979     Fax: 020 8237 7999

Email: hungary@mccluskey.co.uk

Karin Jones, PR consultant for Hungarian National Tourist Office (Tues & Weds)
Tel: 07908 488 492 Email: media@gotohungary.co.uk or karinjonespr@hotmail.co.uk

Book a qualifying 2010 package and receive a free hotel night in Vancouver and complimentary excursion

Rocky Mountaineer starts off its 20^th anniversary celebrations with the fantastic Stay and Play offer that allows visitors to spend a little more time in the cosmopolitan, coastal city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Guests who book a Rocky Mountaineer rail vacation of seven nights or more from now until March 12, 2010 can extend their stay in Vancouver with a free additional hotel night and explore BC’s sites with a complimentary excursion. Choose from a return journey on Rocky Mountaineer’s Whistler Sea to Sky Climb, a whale watching trip in Victoria, BC with round-trip floatplane flight, a tour of Victoria and the Butchart Gardens and much more.

“We are thrilled to be able to give our guests the exclusive opportunity to extend their stay in Vancouver and enjoy an excursion of the surrounding areas on us, prior to their fantastic rail journey through the Canadian Rockies,” says Philip Ordever, Director, Sales – Europe of Rocky Mountaineer. “Aside from the exceptional experience that travellers have onboard the Rocky Mountaineer, we also highlight the best of Western Canada in the many holiday packages that we offer.”

A great package option, and new for 2010, is the Canadian Rockies Adventure. This seven night/eight day trip includes a two-day, all daylight rail journey aboard the world-renowned Rocky Mountaineer. Guests will enjoy delicious gourmet cuisine as they travel in comfort and style through the stunning scenery of British Columbia and into the beautiful Canadian Rocky Mountains between Vancouver, BC and Banff, Alberta. The package also includes several sightseeing tours in Banff National Park such as a Glacier Helicopter tour, Summit Helicopter Flightseeing as well as a Columbia Icefield Excursion.

The Stay and Play Free offer is only valid on new 2010 bookings for trips of seven nights or more, made between now and March 12, 2010 and must be requested at the time of booking. Offers are based on availability and may be modified, withdrawn or travel dates may be substituted without prior notice. Further restrictions may apply.

For more information on the Stay and Play Free offer or to receive a copy of the new 2010 Rocky Mountaineer brochure, please contact your local travel agent or Rocky Mountaineer directly on 01622 832244; www.rockymountaineer.com.

Rocky Mountaineer offers unique Canadian holiday packages and four spectacular rail routes through British Columbia and Alberta. Best known for the internationally-acclaimed Rocky Mountaineer train, a two-day, all daylight rail journey through Canada’s West and the Canadian Rockies, the company also offers a three-hour experience between North Vancouver and Whistler, BC. Since its inception in 1990, the company has grown to become the largest privately owned passenger rail service in North America and welcomed its one millionth guest in 2008. Rocky Mountaineer has been honoured with four World Travel Awards as “World’s Leading Travel Experience by Train” and was recently named by National Geographic as one of the “World’s Greatest Trips.”

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For further press information and images please contact:

Jardine Chalkly
McCluskey International
Tel: 020 8237 7979
Email: rmv@mccluskey.co.uk

To download digital photos please go to:  www.rockymountaineer.com/download

Renowned for its quality local produce and award-winning restaurants and gastropubs, South West England has launched the ultimate tool for foodies – a Google-based Food Map that links regional food producers with the restaurants they supply to, and plots farmers markets and food festivals. Users of the Food Map (www.visitsouthwest.co.uk/taste) will be able to create their own culinary journey of the South West, complete with web links, addresses, driving directions, and the distance of travel between food destinations.

A tool of this kind is ideal for a gastronomic hub such as the South West; the region attracts people from all over the world eager to taste a Cornish pasty, Double Gloucester cheese, a Cream Tea, Somerset cider, Red Ruby Devon beef, and Bath’s Sally Lun Bun, to name a few.  Its popularity as a top British food destination has also grown in recent years from endorsements by celebrities such as real food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Rick Stein and Michael Caines.

Kirsty Cumming, Director at South West Tourism, said: “Eating food that is grown locally is an important part of a visitors holiday in the South West and now visitors will be able to trace their appetizing meal right back to the source.”

“The Food Map is particularly useful for holidaymakers so they can plan their foodie trail around the region, by plotting their home, hotel or visitor attraction to and from the food outlets, just as they would a Google Map.”

The Food Map covers a range of food destinations across the South West, from the Michelin-starred and AA rosette holders to world-renowned brands and independent restaurants and suppliers.

At the time of launch, the Food Map includes a total of 113 sites including restaurants, gastropubs, farmer’s markets, food festivals, suppliers and producers in the South West. More outlets will be added throughout 2010 by South West Tourism and consumers may make their suggestions by contacting the tourist board through the website www.visitsouthwest.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

Media contact:

Megan Whiteside
McCluskey International
Phone: 0208 237 7979
Email: megan@mccluskey.co.uk

About South West England:

South West England is the largest of England’s nine official regions and covers Gloucestershire (marketed as Cotswolds and Forest of Dean), Bath, Bristol, Dorset, Bournemouth & Poole, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.  The South West is the UK’s leading holiday destination hosting approximately 19 million domestic overnight trips annually and an associated visitor spend of more than £3.6 billion. The region accounts for 20% of England’s domestic trips, 24% of nights and 22% of spend.

*where available

Go direct to the Food Map: www.visitsouthwest.co.uk/taste

It’s a standard requirement now, as a marketing organisation, any tourist board, DMO or CVB should have a Facebook page. We’ve created quite a few for clients now, to varying degrees of success (probably the most successful being New Mexico’s) and so I’ve had a look at the differentiators affecting this.

I’ve come up with a few rules, they’re not hard and fast guarantees for millions of fans, but they are a good start.

Page, not profile or group

Profiles are for individuals, groups are for causes or personal interaction (like the alumni of a University wanting to stay in touch with each other) and pages are for brands or organisations. As a tourist board is an organisation promoting a destination’s brand, you want a page.

When pages were first introduced to Facebook there was an argument for sticking with a group or a profile page, as they leant themselves more to interaction, and people’s activities as profiles or in groups appeared in their friend’s news feeds – increasing visibility and creating an avenue for viral growth. I’ll talk a bit more about this later, but rest assured it is not the case anymore. Thanks to the changes Facebook has made for it’s many big money advertisers who have pages, they are now by far the best way to promote a brand.

To anyone who thought this point was a given, well there are still several tourist boards who really get this wrong.

Make it official, but not too official

You’re a fan (in real life) of Chelsea Football Club*. So you search Facebook for ‘Chelsea’ and get two pages in the results – ‘Chelsea FC ‘and ‘The Chelsea FC Marketing Department’. Which one are you going to pledge allegiance too?

The same applies to a destination. People don’t love the organisation employed to promote (for example) Barcelona, they love Barcelona – the place. So don’t name your page ‘Barcelona Tourism’, either just name it ‘Barcelona’ (this is going to be better for appearing in searches) or give it a personal touch – like ‘I Love Barcelona’ or ‘The Barcelona Fan Page’.

People like to know a page is official, but there’s a difference between a page run by the tourist board and a page for the tourist board.

New York’s ‘I Love New York’ branding automatically lends itself to this – I wouldn’t be surprised if the tagline’s applicability to social media was considered when it was initially conceived.

Provide some helpful information and unique content

You’re not likely to gain fans without giving them a reason to come to your page, and even if you do manage thousands of fans without it, what would be the point? It would be like sending an email with no content out to a database of thousands.

Visit Germany do this well, they’ve got a flashy landing page with info, links to market specific pages, a brochure, contact info, an online game, video content (in the form of a YouTube tab), a map, events and links out to every other kind of information a traveller might want.

(Incidentally, Visit Germany’s page only has 1,250 fans at time of writing – compare that to this unofficial page – I suspect this is due to them not adhering to rule one.)

Engage, engage, engage

It’s that old adage of social media – engaging. The benefit of having a fan base on Facebook over an email database, is that it’s a two way form of communication.

Encourage your fans to communicate with you – start conversations in the discussions tab, ask them to upload photos and videos and ask questions in your status updates rather than just broadcasting news. You’ll find out what people really like about your destination, what they don’t, and you’ll get some great (and some maybe not so great) multimedia content. You’ll also probably learn a lot of things about your destination that you didn’t already know.

Facebook insights provides you not just with numbers and demographics for your fans, but levels of interaction – there’s a reason for that!

Update regularly

Make sure you engage and update regularly. Not too regularly, you don’t want to spam your fans as they’ll just unsubscribe, but the more chances you give them to interact the more likely your page is to grow, as their friends will see the activity in their news feeds and opt to become fans too.

Link to your page from your website’s home page

This might sound obvious if you’re not a web marketer (and may do even if you are), but many website owners are reluctant to actively direct their precious traffic to an outside site like Facebook, particularly traffic from the home page.

This is the wrong way of thinking about it. Don’t think of your Facebook page as separate to your website, it’s just an extension of your online presence. If anything your Facebook page is a preferable place for your audience to be – can you communicate with the visitors of your website? No. Well, not unless they email or call you, or you’ve got a forum section on your site.

Besides, what goes around comes around. If someone lands on your home page, instantly clicks out to your Facebook page and becomes a fan, they’re more likely to come back to your website another time when they see you post something interesting. I’ve seen several clients’ Google Analytics show Facebook among their top referrals.

Don’t let your PR/marketing agency do it all

This might sound like we want to shirk out of doing all the work, but that’s not the intention (honest!). Your agency might set you up a beautiful page, monitor everything said on it, advise what kind of content should go up and promote it like nobody’s business, but ideally the content should come from the horse’s mouth. Particularly if you’re in the destination you’re promoting and your agency are elsewhere.

People get put off if they think they’re not getting the genuine inside track, and you’ll probably get some very knowledgeable fans who’ll pick up on any information which isn’t 100% correct. So even if it is your agency is doing the updates, and they have great product knowledge, it’s preferable for the content to come from you.

Don’t localise

Again this sounds obvious, but some of the basic edicts of tourism marketing get forgotten when it comes to social media. As a tourism organisation, your first job is to convince people to come to your destination. Not to provide an information service to residents. So don’t update your page with information that is only going to be of interest to locals.

I’ve seen tourist board Facebook page status updates informing their fans which buses are in operation in the destination. Is this going to entice anyone to visit? No.

It’s inevitable that you’ll get fans who are residents of your destination – they can be really helpful, often answering queries from potential visitors and doing your job for you – but always remember they are not your intended audience. Before you post anything, first think ‘is this going to be of interest to a potential visitor?’ If the answer is no, then don’t post.

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Anyone got any more guidelines for tourist boards on Facebook?

What’s your favourite tourist board Facebook page? Who gets all (or most) of this right? Who gets it wrong, and why?

*Disclosure: I am.