bgb News and Events

Join our team

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:30:00 +0000

We're looking for a manager to join our lovely team in Leicester Square. Do get in touch with me if you're interested in hearing more. Warm wishes Debbie Hindle

Meet with PhoCusWright Founder Philip Wolf and Leading Travel Analysts at ITB Berlin

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:26:00 +0000

The seventh annual PhoCusWright@ITB takes place Wednesday 7 March 2012 in conjunction with ITB Berlin. Media and bloggers are invited to attend all or part of the conference, including a post-conference reception. Attendees will gain important insights on emerging travel trends that will include data from newly released reports on mobile and the European vacation rental market, and hear from industry innovators who are redefining travel as we know it.

Location and times: Sessions take place at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds in Hall 7.3, Auditorium Europa. The conference starts at 1030 pm and the post conference cocktail reception starts at 5.25 pm on Wednesday 7 March. PhoCusWright@ITB is conducted in English.

The complete programme is now available. Highlights include executive participation from:
• Philip Wolf, founder, PhoCusWright
• Darren Huston, CEO of Booking.com
• Javier Perez-Tenessa, co-founder and CEO, ODIGEO
• Petra Friedmann, president, Europe, HomeAway Inc.

PhoCusWright's team of analysts to discuss current and future trends, including:
• The implications of rising smartphone penetration and how the rise of low-cost tablets (e.g., Kindle, Nook, India-produced tablets) will spark the next wave of change, providing travel companies unprecedented marketing and merchandising opportunities.
• The rising incidence of leisure travel across key European markets in 2011 and how 2012 travel plans vary by market. For example, Germans are most likely to indulge more on holidays in the next year whereas U.K. travelers appear tempered by pessimism and uncertainty.
• Online travel agencies are the fastest-growing distribution channel in Europe, expected to exceed €41 billion in gross booking by 2013.
• Online and mobile travel trends in Russia, one of the fastest-growing markets.
• Trends in the European vacation rental market that is expected to approach €22 billion by 2013 and served one in four European travelers in the past year.

Interested in data and trends for your market? Contact PhoCusWright for current information and/or to schedule time with a PhoCusWright analyst during the conference email ITBmedia@phocuswright.com.

Four bgb ‘Ski Afternoon Tea’

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:16:00 +0000

On Tuesday 29 November, Four bgb hosted an informal ‘Ski Afternoon Tea' evening to celebrate the start of the ski season.

The Ski Afternoon Tea, now in its second year, was created to give our clients, media and partners an interest in ski and winter sports the opportunity to get together, mingle, share their latest news and discuss plans for the forthcoming season.

Eight of Four bgb's clients who operate in the ski sector were present at the event: Camp Beaumont, Club Med, Exodus, South Tyrol, Visit Sweden, CK Verbier, Sovereign Ski, and Scandinavian Airlines - there were some exciting news to be shared!

Fuelled with Champagne, pop cakes (cakes on a stick), and cup cakes, ‘the evening was great fun' said one delighted journalist.

Special thanks for a great team effort to Carolyn VanVliet, Sara Norman, Lois Kettlewell, Julie Giraud and Jo Johnson.

Winners revealed last night at the British Travel Press Awards

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:55:00 +0000

It was hugely rewarding to see such a great turn out to the third British Travel Press Awards on Monday night. I'm an advisor to the awards because I think it's an excellent idea to have a neutral awards scheme which recognises excellent travel writing, broadcasting, blogging and photography. Well done to all the winners who included;

The Award for Outstanding Contribution: This award recognises two individuals who have achieved the utmost excellence in their contributions as travel writers, photographers or broadcasters judged by the leading figures in the world of PR and travel.

Judith Chalmers OBE
Graham Boynton

Travel Trade Publication: Travel Weekly

Consumer Travel Publication: Lonely Planet Magazine

National Newspaper Travel Section of the Year: Mail on Sunday

Consumer Magazine Travel Section of the Year: Time Out

Online Travel Trade Publication of the Year: Tnooz.com

Online Consumer Travel Publication: Guardian.co.uk/travel

Broadcast Travel Writer of the Year: Julian Hanton, Media Ark for his programme

Travel Trade Writer of the Year: Ian Taylor, TWgroup

Consumer Travel Writer of the Year: Ian Belcher, freelance travel writer

Travel Blogger of the Year: Jayne Gorman, www.40before30.com

Young Travel Writer of the Year: Nick Boulos, Freelance travel writer

Guide Book of the Year: Istanbul Select published by Insight Guides

Narrative Travel Book of the Year: Cream Teas, Traffic Jams & Sunburn by Brian Viner and published by Simon & Schuster

Travel Photographer of the Year: Pete Seaward, freelance travel photographer

Broadcast Travel Programme of the Year: 48hrs The LBC Travel Show with Simon Calder on Radio LBC 97.3 FM

Travel Trade Feature of the Year: Katherine Lawrey, TTG Media

Consumer Travel Feature: William Gray, freelance travel writer & Marcel Theroux, freelance travel writer & novelist

Travel Editors Green Award of the Year: The Savoy

Travel Journalists' Award for the UK Travel Website of the Year: Pitchup.com

Blogger or Writer - WTM2011

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:00:00 +0000

World Travel Market this year had a fantastic focus on social media. Social Travel Market (@socialtrav) sessions were set up alongside the main event by The Sunday Times online travel editor Steve Keenan (@stevekeenan) and Mark Frary (@markfrary)

I sat on one of the panels to discuss the difference between bloggers and writers and my fellow panelists included Independent On Sunday Travel Editor and entrepreneur Kate Simon (@traveltapper), Guardian columnist and blogger Sally Shalam (@sallyshalam) and Inside The Travel Lab blogger Abigail King.

While the other panelists discussed writing, I decided to talk from a reader's perspective and to call for an appreciation of great writing in both print, online and blogs. This is a rough summary of what I said

I'd like to talk from a reader's perspective

I love beautiful writing.

I'm the literature graduate who got a job in a independent bookshop while I was studying and was like a child in a sweet shop, curling up in the corner to read when I should have been serving customers.

I love beautiful travel writing. When a writer puts words together that transport me somewhere else and makes me see the world in a different way. Rattling round in my head there's still an article that Peter Hughes wrote several years ago about the decline of tigers in India. Jostling against that there's a Telegraph Magazine article about the red rose dawn over Petra which made me drag my family around Jordan in a rickety minibus when my children were tiny.

Clipped to the board over my desk at home I've got a Guardian article about family camping in New Forest; the thought of 'soft light filtering through canvas and the sound of woodpeckers at work' means I will be going to the New Forest one day on the strength of that one article.

Great travel writing is an art. It's memorable.

Its beauty, the juxtaposition of words stays with me as much as an image of a great work of painting or sculpture.

Fifteen years ago a great piece of writing would make people pick up the telephone call the travel company quoted for more information.

We could all see the impact of great writing.

The same beautifully written article today may have the same impact but it's not so visible. I'm inspired. I keep the article. Later I go onto the company's website. That company has no idea why I went directly to their site.

That lack of obvious connection means budgets are shifting online. National newspapers travel editors are cutting freelance budgets. Some great writers I know are doing other things- training to be a Blue Badge Guide, a teacher, a nurse.

Great travel writing is still popular. Just go to any bookshop and you'll find reams of books, but I worry that great writers aren't finding the commissions in national newspapers and that great words are being lost.

Into this world comes the blogger. There's a liberating creative explosion of ideas, enthusiasm, exuberance and passion. Travel bloggers, foodie bloggers, mum bloggers -all bloggers, sharing ideas, views, images and words.

Steve Keenan, Sunday Times online travel editor and, indeed the UK's first national online travel editor, asked me if bloggers are filling the gaps left by the lack of space in national newspapers, are they replacing or complementing travel writers?

I wholeheartedly say blogs complement travel writing.

I now don't have to wait until the weekend for a dose of travel writing indulgence. A twitter link can take me to a series of beautiful images, or thoughts, at any time of day or night.

Blogs can fill the moments of travel writing that a print article doesn't - the anticipation, the visceral nature of travel - the exact moment you walk out of a plane into the heat of a tropical evening. The joy as you enounter something new. I've read travel blogs which have made me laugh, made me think and made me wonder. The nature and style of blogging means it's faster, shorter and more concise that print features. It's great for travel organisations which are launching new things, or festivals or events where live reporting can capture the excitement of the moment. It's image-heavy and often quirky and entertaining. You get to know the voice and style of the individual author rather than the publication its printed in.

There's a huge world of opportunity out there for both travel writers and bloggers, I do think they complement each other. Let's celebrate great writing in both.

I'm still the girl in the book shop curled up in the corner reading it all voraciously. Please give me more.

For a concise summary of other comments at Social Travel Market have a look at these snappy takeouts on the website Travellllll

Social Media Talk At WTM

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:48:00 +0000

Four bgb sponsored the social media session at World Travel Market this year. It was so packed that, while I was at an event later that day someone said to me: "I recognise your voice, did you just give that presentation on social media? I was at the back of the room and could hear but couldn't see you."

That illustrates quite how busy and popular the social media sessions were during WTM 2011. I was delighted and hope it will be equally busy next year.

For anyone who couldn't get into the room to hear the session please accept my apologies and I hope you find the following summary of what I said useful. Please let me or my colleages at Four Digital know if you've got any questions

Welcome to the social media session at World Travel Market.

Over the past few years I've been at many conferences when speakers have said - "now is the time of social media - every travel organisation is no longer asking why should I get involved but how can I get better?"

But - back in the real world I don't think it's that clear.

So - before I start to talk about social media - could I just do a reality check.

First - please put your hand up if you're heavily involved in social media? (About a quarter of the room actually put up their hands)

OK group 2- now put up your hand if you feel you're just starting to get stuck into social media and are learning the ropes? (Again about a quarter of the room put their hands up

Great now finally - group 3 - you're the really sceptical ones and haven't started to invest in social media yet. Please put up your hands (Just a small handful of brave souls put up their hands)

Great. Thank you - I think that shows there isn't universal consensus about social media. But in my short presentation today I hope I can give some information and ideas to each of the three groups who've just put up their hands and to the fourth group who didn't put up their hand - you know who you are - but you're not sure where you stand.

I think social media is important to you for four reasons

- Firstly it's the best customer research tool you've ever had

- Secondly its the best customer retention and advocacy tool to stimulate word-of-mouth endorsements you've ever had. Research has shown that two thirds of US consumers say they are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after becoming a fan on Facebook.

- Third it's hugely valuable for natural search and generating website traffic. Half of US consumers also say they've clicked through to a company's website as a result of a social media post.

- Finally it's the best customer reward and potential new sales channel you should be considering. WTM's own research of industry leaders published this week said that 22% were using social media as a revenue stream

So that's all very well I hear you say - particularly to my favourites in group three who put their hands up earlier - but how do we do this?

I'm a practical girl and I think the best way to demonstrate social media is with examples of what other people are doing in this space. So I'm going to talk about what three organisations are doing in social media

So - my first case study is Visit Britain.

At a recent Travolution Summit, Visit Britain was held up as the best example of social emdia in the UK with more than 1000 responses from fans to every Facebook post- that level of interaction shows a very high level of engagement from their fans. A Facebook page with millions of fans where nobody ever bothers to respond is a bit like an empty room.

Visit Britan's Facebook page is a party by comparison.

So how have they done it?

LoveUK is a really well managed community which listens, engages and rewards fans in the social space. I particularly like this 3D canvas idea. VisitBritain engaged artists to create three dimensional images of Britain in cities all over the world. You could stand on a piece of street art in Paris and take a picture of yourself looking as if you were walking along Abbey Road like the Beatles. Then you uploaded that picture to the page and share the fun..

That's the sort of activity that has helped Visit Britain to get more than half a million Facebook fans.

You can see on the day I grabbed an image there had been more than 500 likes and more than 100 comments within a few hours of posting this picture.

But social media is not just about Facebook. Visit Britain is also integrating its social media with other platforms.

This is the VisitBritain Superblog - a great slice of regular fresh independent comment from influential opinion formers giving great content and equally great search engine optimisation benefits to Visit Britain

And there may be 30 million British users on Facebook but there's also 20 million British users on YouTube, nearly 5 million on Twitter and 3.2 million in Flickr and 2.6 million on LinkedIn.

For example have a look at VisitBritain TV - the VisitBritain video channel. So wherever anyone is searching in the social space they will find sociable, engaging and inspirational content to encourage them to visit Britain.

SO that's my first example

And I can already hear the sceptics in the room thinking so what? It's just chatter. When one person says they like my country or brand in social media what does it possibly matter?

So let me give you some more examples that drill down a little further

My next example is my client Viator - the world's largest retailer of tours and attractions around the world from helicopter flights over New York to segway tours of Paris. It features 800 destinations, 9000 products and is the b-to-b distributor for 3000 brands.

Up until this year Viator was focused on SEO and PPC but took a decision to focus on social media and PR

In July this year Viator began developing destination-specific social media platforms. So if you've booked your flight and hotel to Rome and google 'things to do in Rome' you're likely to find a Viator blog, Facebook page and Twitter account.

That's an interesting approach - but what I find really impressive is that since Viator is creating 83 destination-specific platforms a set of blogs twitter and facebook pages for 83 key destinations they sell. So you can follow Viator things to do Rome, Viator things to do Paris, Viator things to do Caribbean..

They are also developing these in English, French German, Spanish and Japanese.

They started this process in July and 60 destination platforms are now live. They've generated 20,000 visits and 345,000 page views already

I can still hear my sceptics saying that's a lot of effort but I still don't understand why they are bothering?.

Viator knows this helps it's natural search performance but its also making sure that its social activity has a commercial return. There's been a lot of scepticism about social commerce. People don't want to buy in the social media environment.

I think that's the wrong argument.

Yes people don't want an ecommerce experience in a social environment. They don't want a formal website or to be heavily sold to.

Just as companies struggled to replace brochures with websites ten years ago, companies now need to think differently about social commerce. A Facebook fan is interested in having a relationship with your brand - ask that person what they think about new products and services, reward them for their interest in your company and that extra value will help conversion.

Viator puts this more succinctly- 'content drives engagement and value drives conversion'

So how do you know this works? Simple tracking tools can tell an organisation if someone coming from social media makes a purchase.

Viator tracks and monitors this and has identified that so far- each Facebook fan is worth more than three dollars to it - a Twitter follower is worth 38cents.

So - that's an exceptional level of commitment to the social media space. What about businesses that have just one platform?

My company Four Communications works for the adventure travel specialist Exodus Travels.

When our digital team started working with them they had fewer than 700 fans on Facebook.

Exodus has passionate customers who find the adventure trips can be lifechanging experiences. So we asked them to share those experiences.

We encouraged fans to post images of their experiences. We posted to Flikr and integrated that with a PR campaign creating online gallery guides with media such as aol.com.

Once we reached 1600 fans we launched a major campaign called Seven Continents which ran over 7 months. This wasn't a promotion to drive up fan volumes. We wanted to encourage even more engagement.

And it worked.

We also put tracking links on our Facebook posts. Exodus confirmed that more than 300 people who entered the 7 Continents competition went onto to book a trip and 71% of these were first time customers.

So I hope that's given you some useful food for thought

For the experienced social media practitioners amongst you some useful ideas about things other organisations are doing

For the new entrants some useful ideas you can adopt yourselves

For the sceptics- enough to convince you to put some time and effort into it and see what it delivers for you.

For World Travel Market my company has produced a trends report including some top trends to watch out for in 2012.

So please let me know if you'd like a copy or request it through our website at Four Communications

Virgin Holidays @RTAwards Winners 2011

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:24:00 +0000

I love the Wednesday of World Travel Market. It's a day focused on sustainable travel, but it's also the moment when the winners of the Virgin Holidays' Responsible Tourism Awards run by responsibletravel.com are announced. I'm one of several judges who agonise over the shortlisted finalists every year. Then, each year at the award ceremony, we're moved by meeting the people who have worked so tirelessly for change.

This year was no exception. These are the 2011 winners:

Best tour operator for local experiences, Winner: Sockmob Events/Unseen Tours, London, UK About the winners: "The Judges were excited by the promise of this relatively young tour operator to provide a model for responsible tourism in cities. Organised by the Sock Mob volunteer network, 'Unseen Tours' take a unique view of London by organising tours run by trained homeless guides, offering an unexplored view of the big city. Incorporating history with personal perspective, the tours give voice to those usually silent in tourism; create job opportunities, and an unforgettable experience." Contact details: www.sockmobevents.org.uk , Dr Lidija Mavra, Director, lidija@sockmobevents.org.uk

Best accommodation for the environment, Winner: Battlesteads Hotel & Restaurant, UK About the winners: "Originally an 18th century farmhouse, this net zero carbon neutral, three-star hotel impressed the judges with its range of initiatives and achievements in the last six years. To name just a few: a biomass boiler supplied by a sustainable forestry, and solar thermal panels providing all heating and hot water, charging points for electrical vehicles, and enough rainwater collection to supply water for 2 acres of land, including the two polytunnels used to grow their own food!" Highly commended: Campi Ya Kanzi, Kenya, www.maasai.com; Kasbah du Toubkal, Morocco, www.kasbahdutoubkal.com Contact details: Battlesteads Hotel & Restaurant, www.battlesteads.com, Richard Slade, Director, info@battlesteads.com

Best accommodation for local communities, Winner: Fauzi Azar Inn, Israel About the winners: "This 200 year old Arab mansion-turned guest house is the vision of Maoz Inon. Set in the old town of Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel, the opening of the Inn has helped to facilitate interaction between tourists and locals - part of Maoz' goal to transform a neglected area through tourism and promote communication across boundaries of race and religion in the Middle East. The Inn has designed, produced and distributed 50,000 maps of Nazareth to enable exploration of the old town, and organises a free tour experienced by 2,500 people per year." Highly commended: Semadep Safari Camp, Kenya, www.semadepcamp.com Contact details: Fauzi Azar Inn, www.fauziazarinn.com , Maoz Inon, Founder and Owner, info@fauziazarinn.com

Best low carbon initiative Winner: Eurostar International Limited, UK About the winners: "No stranger to the Awards, Eurostar impressed the judges this year by refusing to sit on their laurels, instead finding new ways to save energy and encourage their passengers to do the same. Since 2007 they have reduced their waste to landfill by 40%, and in 2009 started working with 'Worn Again' to upcycle old uniforms into new saleable products. 15% of each supplier tender is scored towards the company's environmental behavior, and the new phase of their 'Tread Lightly' campaign aims to reduce supporting business CO2 emissions by 25% by 2015. They have even launched the "Eurostar Ashden Award for Sustainable Travel" to encourage further innovation in sustainability." Highly commended: Intrepid Travel, UK, www.intrepidtravel.com Contact details: Eurostar International Limited, www.eurostar.com , Luke Ervine, Environment Manager luke.ervine@eurostar.com

Best in a mountain environment Winner: Himalayan Holidays (Pvt), Pakistan About the winners: "The Judges were full of praise for this responsible tour operator committed to providing low volume, low impact trekking holidays in what is a highly controversial tourism destination. In the face of incredible odds Himalayan Holidays' 'Vacations for All' programme in the Kaghan and Astore Valleys provides tented accommodation that secures employment for local people, and the Khanpur water-based sports programme benefitting over 80 families with income." Highly commended: Mountain Lodges of Peru, Peru, www.mountainlodgesofperu.com ; Whistler Blackcomb, Canada, www.whistlerblackcomb.com Contact details: Himalayan Holidays (Pvt), www.himalayanholidays.pk, Najeeb Ahmed Khan, Owner CEO, najeeb@himalayanholidays.pk

Best in a marine environment Winner: Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development, Belize About the winners: "The Judges were impressed by this organisation's campaign for locally owned tourism development in the face of planned cruise tourism in the Placencia Peninsula of Belize. After uniting the community to preserve the authenticity of the Peninsula, they have continued to promote collaboration between local tourism organisations and the village council to proactively develop sustainable tourism. " Highly commended: Coral Cay Conservation, Cambodia, www.coralcay.org ; Maple Leaf Adventures, Canada, www.mapleleafadventures.com Contact details: Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development, www.pcsdbelize.org, Mary Toy, co-chair, info@pcsdbelize.org

Best responsible cruise or ferry operator Winner: DFDS Seaways, UK About the winners: "DFDS Seaways is one of Europe's largest ferry companies, and has gone a long way towards marine conservation. Teaming up with ORCA to discover a wealth of whales, dolphins and wildlife on their routes, they now host an onboard 'wildlife centre' offering fun activities for passengers, employ onboard wildlife officers, and work with the School of Whales on a range of mini wildlife-watching cruises." Highly commended: Ullswater Steamers, UK, www.ullswater-steamers.co.uk Contact details: DFDS Seaways, www.dfdsseaways.co.uk , Stephen House, Head of Product, stephen.house@dfds.co.uk

Best for poverty reduction, Winner: Robin Pope Safaris, Malawi and Zambia About the winners: "This year the Judges wanted to Award two joint overall winners to recognise both long term excellence, and bold innovative new ideas. Robin Pope Safaris' 20 year record of remarkable work with local communities in Zambia is a standard for tourism organisations to aspire to. At the same time, Sock Mob Events/Unseen Tours offers a glimpse of new perspectives for the future. The Judges feel the combination of proven and new, Africa and London; demonstrate the breadth of achievement in responsible tourism." Highly commended: Feynan Ecolodge, Jordan, www.feynan.com Contact details: Robin Pope Safaris, www.robinpopesafaris.net , Ton de Roy, Managing Director, ton@robinpopesafaris.net

Best for conservation of wildlife & habitats, Winner: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, Malawi About the winners: "Lilongwe Wildlife Centre is a wildlife rescue, conservation and education centre in the heart of Malawi's capital city. Fending off developers, the centre has reclaimed and revived 90 hectares of urban wilderness to provide sanctuary for rescued, orphaned and injured wild animals, and promotes conservation to locals and tourists alike. It now takes over 20,000 visitors per year, showing its value as a centre for both the people and wildlife of Malawi." Highly commended: Great Ocean Ecolodge, Australia, www.greatoceanecolodge.com ; Africat Okonjima, Namibia, www.okonjima.com Contact details: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, www.lilongwewildlife.org , Kate Moore, Marketing Manager, marketing@llwc.org

Best contribution to conserving cultural heritage, sponsored by Oman Ministry of Tourism Winner: Agri Tourism Development Corporation, India About the winners: The Agri Tourism Development Corporation organise tourism experiences on working farms in India. By providing holiday experiences based on local agricultural traditions, this initiative is creating job opportunities for local farmers, allowing them to diversify their livelihoods whilst preserving their way of life. The judges were impressed by the replicability of the idea, and how this primarily domestic tourism experience was helping to bring Indian tourists back into rural communities." Highly commended: Nutti Sami Siida, Sweden, www.nutti.se Contact details: Agri Tourism Development Corporation, www.agritourism.in, Pandurang Taware, President & Managing Director, pandurang@agritourism.in

Best volunteering organisation, Winner: Global Vision International, UK About the winners: "Global Vision International impressed the judges with the scale of their impacts on the ground. Placing 3,500 volunteers each year in 60 countries, GVI teaches over 10,000 people each year in six continents. And for GVI the proof of their work is in the performance of their students - in Guatamala their students were in the top 5% nationally examined in 2011 - proving that well-placed skilled volunteers can have genuine impacts. Their charitable trust already estimates £400,000 will be raised for their partners this year alone." Highly commended: Tiny Island Volunteers, Maldives, www.tinyislandvolunteers.com Contact details: Global Vision International, www.gvi.co.uk, Andy Woods-Ballard, Director of Business Development, andy@gviworld.com

Best destination Winner: Destination Røros, Norway About the winners: "This former mining-town in Norway may have been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, but it's been preserving traditions as a tourist destination for over 85 years. Attracting over one million visitors each year, the town of just 3700 inhabitants maintains its sense of place through a 'local knowledge' programme run for over 90 businesses, local food safaris and much more." Highly commended: Forest of Bowland, UK, www.forestofbowland.com Contact details: Destination Røros, www.roros.no, Hilde Bergebakken, General Manager & Project leader Sustainable Tourism, Hilde.bergebakken@rorosinfo.com

Best in responsible tourism writing, sponsored by Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board Winner: Tourism must tap into the water issue, by Catherine Mack About the winners: "Originally appearing as part of her 'Ethical traveller' column in the Irish Times, Catherine Mack's thought-provoking piece impressed the judges for bringing attention to the issue of water consumption for travellers. Something of a rarity in travel journalism, the piece is praised for offering an honest view of an overlooked and yet considerable tourism issue, highlighting it clearly to the travelling mainstream." Highly commended: Sicily's First Eco Village Blooms, by Gail Virginia Simmons, www.travelscribe.co.uk ; Telling the stories of their land/World's Oldest Tour Guides, by Nick Haslam, www.nickhaslam.co.uk/ Contact details: Catherine Mack, www.ethicaltraveller.co.uk, Catherine@ethicaltraveller.co.uk

For more on all the Winners and Highly Commended organisations, visit: www.responsibletourismawards.com

The best of the best - joint overall winner was awarded to Robin Pope Safaris and Sockmob Tours

Responsible Tourism Awards winners announced soon

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:01:00 +0000

The Wednesday of World Travel Market is one of the best days of the whole week for me, because it's the day the winners of the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards are announced.

I've been involved in judging these awards for several years and each time I'm amazed by the innovation, ingenunity and passion that people show around the world to develop new ways of mitigating damaging affects of tourism, but, crucially supporting the beneficial effects that tourism can bring.

Past winners have included individual pioneers and communities who are working hard to ensure tourism benefits local people, national parks using tourism to protect and preserve critical endangered species and cities which are embedding sustainability into their entire DNA.

Every year the bar gets raised an inch higher and we learn new ideas that can be put into practice in other parts of the world and other industries. Last year's awards announcement in one of WTM's main conference rooms was so popular it was standing room only. So WTM has doubled the space for the awards this year so come along, get a seat and be inspired by the work of others.

The awards were launched by ResponsibleTravel.com and news of the winners will also appear in partners The Metro and Geographical Magazines. Follow the news on Twitter @RTAwards

The winners will be announced on Wednesday 9^th November between 11am-12pm. Huge best wishes to all the 2011 finalists.

Have you planned for WTM?

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:22:00 +0000

Have you planned your trade and media strategy for WTM?

Four bgb is offering a selection of integrated and customised packages designed to remove the stress from WTM. Our team is at WTM for the whole week and available to ensure you secure quality meetings, high profile and exceptional return on investment during your visit. We can custom make a WTM programme for you depending on your needs and whether you have a large stand or are an individual delegate.

Our standard package includes the following:

Copy of a UK market insight report
Organisation of key trade appointments
Creation of a press pack
Media relations and introductions
Photography for distribution in the UK and local media

For more information, please contact Adam Hanmer at Four bgb on adam.hanmer@fourbgb.com or +44 (0) 870 626 9000

For more details on WTM 2011, please visit www.wtmlondon.com

Top tips from Travelbloggers Unite

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:52:00 +0000

Last week, the Travel Bloggers Unite conference landed in Innsbruck, Austria and Four bgb was the event's official PR partner. Following an exceptionally successful debut conference in Manchester in March 2011, the event has been gathering speed and reputation with incredible pace. With a schedule of travel blogging-centric debates, workshops and raucous networking sessions, the debate has firmly grasped the attention of some of the world's leading travel bloggers and journalists as well tourist boards, travel companies, SEO, digital and PR agencies alike.

We spent last week in the Austrian city of Innsbruck where the hectic schedule of events was eclipsed only by the jaw-droppingly beautiful Alpine scenery ...The conference hashtag #TBUIBK achieved a staggering 14 million twitter impressions, but for those who missed it, here's our roundup of the key issues, outcomes and ideas for the future.

We joined the debate panel on day one alongside Innsbruck Tourist Board, The Austrian Tourist Board, Melvin Boecher of Travel Dudes and Isabelle of Isabelle's Travel Guide, to thrash out just how bloggers should be viewed in the eyes of the travel industry and what we can both do to capitalise on this relationship. It got pretty heated, but here's how we see it:

Bloggers and journalists are different, not better, not worse, but different. We need to start considering talented and passionate writers and not becoming overly concerned with labels.
The question of whether bloggers should receive payment remains a contentious issue, but what is clear is that bloggers are more than just writers, they are marketers, community managers, advertisers, SEO strategists, brand ambassadors and content planners and should be valued as such.
Bloggers hold a huge amount of power in having reams of statistics at their fingertips to prove their ROI - an advantage not as available to traditional media outlets; however bloggers do not always know how to demonstrate their value.
The media pack is, and will increasingly be, one of the most powerful tools for bloggers to negotiate relationships with commercial partners. The power to educate travel organisations is in the hands of the blogging community.
Transparency is key when entering into plans for blog trips, from both the travel organisation and the blogger. Objectives of both parties need to be clear ahead of any agreements being made - discussing desired outcomes before agreeing a trip is far more likely to result in a positive ongoing relationship.
The main thrust of coverage and buzz from a blog trip is generated during the trip, meaning it is essential that itineraries are flexible and include enough 'downtime' to allow this to happen - as well as consistent wi-fi!
Return on investment is one of the leading priorities for travel organisations when considering a relationship with bloggers, especially those with public accountability. This requirement for quantifiable outcomes puts the onus on the blogging community to provide statistics to support their publication.
Although unique site visitor figures are a key indicator for travel organisations in evaluating opportunities with bloggers there is no 'magic number' to be considered 'successful'. Other factors to consider include audience demographic, online influence, reader engagement and the more qualitative attributes of branding. It also become clear that successful bloggers are willing to host guest posts from smaller bloggers, to support blogger trips, adding to and increasing the reach of editorial.
The travel industry remains anxious about the impact of a bad online review, causing reluctance to engage. Although the question of how to deal with bad experiences on a press trip remains hotly debated within the mainstream media, the key message for bloggers was one of professionalism. It is possible to deal with a complaint in a professional manner with the organisation/ PR involved without sacrificing editorial integrity.
The blogging community is vast and includes a huge disparity in terms of quality and influence, travel organisations need to ensure they are well researched when approaching bloggers to work with, even the blogging community admits that quantity (of followers) does not always mean quality.
Engaging with bloggers is all about real life connections. The industry may be moving online but bloggers are people not avatars - picking up the phone and attending networking events like TBU are deemed key to forging long term meaningful partnerships between bloggers and travel organisations. Follow @tbloggersunite for details of the next TBU conference and @bgb_news for the latest London meet ups and tweet ups.

To watch a full video of the panel debate check out Alistair McKenzie's You Tube channel Propodservices

As the TBU Innsbruck PR partner, Four bgb hosted a number of workshops at the conference, working with bloggers at various stages of their blogging career to discuss some of the best strategies to build relationships with travel organisations, a full overview of which can be read on the Four bgb website.

We met a huge range of top notch bloggers this week, writing on topics from solo travel to budget travel, ex pat life to hitchhiking, adventure to luxury... big blogs, small blogs, girls only blogs, corporate blogs, syndicated blogs, photo-led blogs, video led blogs, apps and aggregators, podcasts and vodcasts... We are exhausted but ever-enlightened. Now we'd never pick favourites but here's our list of ones to watch...

The Travelling Editor

Europe Budget Guide

48 Hour Adventure

Ken Kaminensky

The host destination for the third Travel Bloggers Unite has just been announced as Umbria, Italy for 2012... All we can say is; we are practicing our Italian already.

How bloggers can pitch to PRs

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 09:49:00 +0000

Travelbloggers Unite Conference Session Innsbruck

Welcome - the heading of this session is how to pitch to PRs. We're taking this a little more broadly - how to pitch to marketers and PRs which we hope will prove useful.

I'm joined by my colleagues Maitha Ahmed and Sarah Andrews in the room today.

And my MD Debbie Hindle is taking part 'virtually' on Twitter from @bgbcomms after a summer accident iceskating. Seems like quite an extreme way of getting out of a presentation but it takes all sorts

For those of you that don't know us Four Communications is an independent, international communications agency We have expert teams in public relations, public affairs, community consultation, design, branding, advertising, media planning and buying, marketing, sponsorship, representation and digital and Four bgb is the team that specialises in Travel PR and representation. There's about 30 of us at Four bgb and we're based in the lovely Leicester Square

So if you're in town, we make good tea and there's usually a serious amount of cake around so do pop in and see us...

1. Who is making the decisions?

Before we start thinking about how to pitch I just want to touch on how complicated this has become from a client's side so you can get an idea of how things work our end which should hopefully give you more insight and prepare you better for when it comes to pitching.

Just 15 years ago - most marketing departments would have had a sales and marketing team on one hand involved in any marketing spend on print, TV and radio... And any other medium you can stamp your logo on.

A PR department would have handled relations with that organisation's 'publics" - anyone who had an influence on them from a local neighbourhood group that might be concerned about airport noise, to a local MP or a travel journalist

A 40 year old marketing manager then could be today's 55 year old marketing director, tourist board director and decision-maker.

In just 15 years there has been a sea-change as we all know.

Online activity now underpins everything many organisations do - a new raft of agencies have sprung up to offer digital services to travel organisations. Companies now need to consider a whole other communication stream.

But what's happened to the in-house decision maker? 15 years ago if one of their agencies approached our mythical marketing manager with an opportunity in the Telegraph or the Times that manager knew what each brand stood for, they were presented with reams of statistics showing that publication's value and personal reach to their customers

Now our mythical marketing manager has is likely to be a marketing director with an advertising agency, media buying agency a digital/SEO agency and a PR agency and be faced with a raft of evolving online opportunities as well as traditional media

The marketing director will have internal teams managing those agencies and reporting back separately to him. Companies are slowly adapting to this new model, but blogging has added a whole other entity.

You've all read the debates about which part of a company should 'own' social media. In the early days it was often the IT department rather than the sales and marketing/PR department. Increasingly in-house PR departments are being asked to look after online communications with no extra resources. This is all so new and overlaps so much that companies have struggled to restructure to organise themselves to cope with the new flows of information

Consequently a recommendation could come in to support a particular blog or blogger from a variety of sources, be it PR or marketing or SEO.

Regardless of the request our decision maker is far from his or her trusty Daily Telegraph and is likely to be in the dark.

2. Why do bloggers need a media pack?

The marketing director of today is unlikely to have an understanding of your brand, your audience, your engagement like he or she does with familiar traditional media. The marketing director doesn't know what you stand for and therefore will ask. That's not questioning the worth of blogs (though occasionally they do) they simply don't yet know you and what you can offer and so like any director worth their salt, they want to know more...

So be very clear about what your blog is, what it stands for and what it can offer them. The best way to do this is with a media pack that lays out all the data a decision maker may need

3. What should you put into this media pack?

I've seen some blogs which split this information by PR or advertiser. Frankly the world is so blurred now I'd put it all in one document so anyone can get a full picture of how to work with you and your key statistics at any time

So what do you need to put into this wonderful media pack?

Any statistics you have will be helpful but the more you have the better, remember the person you are pitching to will have to justify return on investment to shareholders or even the public and so anything you can arm them with will make it more likely they are able to invest in you. You can link to some example media packs from this articleTop tips

Demographics are key, decision makers want to know who your readers are. You may have reams of followers but the company you're talking to will ask "are they my customers? Could they be my customers?" If not the likelihood is the relationship won't be beneficial for either party. So include in a media pack

1. Your brand - what you stand for, what you write about and how. Your personal experience and any awards (bloggys!) or recognition

2. Your key statistics - unique visitors, page views, feed subscribers, Facebook and Twitter followers, Flikr, YouTube or Linkedin

3. Demographics: In addition to the volume facts do please add demographic data - where is your readership. What age, social profile?

4. Independent verification of your status - eg Klout score, Alexa, Google Page Rank, Technorati rank and Technorati authority. Be prepared to add a few lines explaining each of these to an inexperienced decision-maker

4. How to pitch to travel organisations

At a recent event we held before TBU we asked a room of bloggers who had approached PRs directly for support before. No one put up their hand

So having your media pack set up and ready to go is a key priority, but it's not enough by itself to secure the attention and investment of a travel company. We've put together a few top tips for ensuring the pitching process goes smoothly and successfully.

4.1 Do your research about the organisation - there is nothing wrong with having a variety of media packs tailored to different business types. Knowing the customers and objectives of a business means your pitch is much more likely to meet their needs and encourage investment. For example

SeaFrance would need to know how many of your readers live within the South East of England and so are potential cross channel ferry travellers
Many airlines will only support 'priority routes' rather than every route on their networks - so knowing their priority routes will put you at an advantage.
Do they have a twitter feed? A blog? Facebook? Could you suggest writing a post for their blog? Many companies account for media travel at standard internal rates, so trips can take chunks from a set travel budget,or they have strict limits on how many media/blogger places can be allocated. You may also not have the time to go away, so thinking of other ways to work together will appear knowledgeable and certainly a better ROI

4.2 Be transparent and clear what you can offer and when and what you'd like from them - they will appreciate your honesty!

A lot of this is quite straight-forward and self-evident, but because of the inevitably individual nature of the blogging community it's sometimes hard for travel companies to understand the wave of change and understand what you want. Is your twitter following astronomical? Tell them you'll tweet about it. Is your YouTube channel attracting an avid following, ask them about making a video...
I remember a client forwarding on an email she had received from a blogger that was pages long, all very friendly and well written talking about the places she'd like to travel to and why and using words like support and assist and working together to mutual benefit.... And the simple fwd email that landed on my desk "Sounds good - but what does she want?" Ultimately companies are keen to know what you'd like to do and what you can do in return. If you're well researched and well prepared being transparent with what you're proposing could be the key to starting a successful relationship.

And of course the media pack. This as I say this often is the real selling point for our decision maker and can make all the difference in companies deciding to invest or not.

4.3 Do your research about who is responsible for what In the main if you have a PR contact they are likely to be able to put you in touch with their client's SEO/ marketing team directly however if you are pitching 'cold' then there are a few extra things to consider.

Who is responsible for the website? - find out the right person to contact
Who is responsible for social media platforms? - do they have a separate agency to look after their social media?
Who is responsible for advertising? Again this could well be a different agency and so by knowing who does what you can ensure you're pitching to the decision maker and not getting lost under a pile of emails that are irrelevant to the recipient.
But don't be afraid to ask - ask the PR who does the SEO/ Ask the marketer who does the advertising... Ultimately it's to our benefit for each division to be on board, if we set up a press trip with you, then advertising with you or working on sponsored posts could then be mutually beneficial to boost your income and draw more attention to the blog posts about our trip.

We don't bite and are usually keen to help in any way we can.

So to sum up... Pitching to businesses really does come down to three things.

Research, research, research,
Be transparent with what you can offer
And provide a clear, concise media pack tailored to the company you are pitching to. - Statistics to highlight ROI are key.

Travel orgs and bloggers get talking

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 11:16:00 +0000

Greater understanding and clarity between travel organisations and bloggers is the key to both groups working better together.

That was the overwhelming conclusion of the Big Bloggers Brainstorm hosted by Travelbloggers Unite (TBU) at Four bgb, in advance of the next TBU conference which runs this week in Austria. To find out more, book a ticket and head off to TTBU11 to meet bloggers and industry together this weekend.

The idea for the event in London fell out of the first TBU conference which was held in Manchester this year when bloggers discussed the idea of having more opportunities to sit with travel companies and to discuss opportunities and problems.

Our panellists included Oliver Gradwell of Travelbloggers Unite, Andy Jarosz of 501 Places, Janet Saville of Seafrance and the audience.

Everyone at our event recognised the power and influence of an independent voice online, but there was concern from clients about the risks and rewards of working with bloggers, while bloggers were frustrated about the lack of understanding of their needs.

The sense from the evening was that bloggers are already being approached by digital agencies to buy links, but PR has been slower to connect. Travel organisations talked about not being clear where responsibility for engaging with social media and bloggers lay in their own organisations.

Faced with adding blogger outreach to a PR function can be overwhelming for some organisations. Each blogger is unique and, in traditional media terms, effectively his or her own publishing company. That, of course, therefore requires time and consideration to understand and work with each blogger effectively.

The new world has caused confusion. We've had discussions with one blogger on behalf of a client who was separately being sent similar but less tailored materials by the client's SEO agency.

So the travel blogger is typically being approached by digital agencies, but has had some travel PRs approaching them as they would traditional journalists - providing press releases and broad press trip invites. Bloggers talked about being confused by such approaches, and badly targeted ideas - one luxury blogger gave the example of being invited on a budget trip.

The answer quickly boiled down to the need for better research and communication on both sides. Bloggers to create clear media packs to demonstrate not only the volume of reach, but the relevance of their community. As Janet of Seafrance said - you may have 100,000 followers, but are they likely to be my customers?

Heatheronhertravels.com explained she has published several sections on her site to explain how she works - check out Heatheronhertravels

Heather's great summary of the evening debate can be read here Heatheronhertravels mybloggingjourney

We also had a lively debate with Planetd's Deb and Dave, Canada's travelling couple who happened to be in London before heading off on the Mongol Rally.

Deb made a rallying call for companies and bloggers to work effectively together. When Alastair McKenzie of Travel Lists suggested that travel bloggers don't want to work with tour operators she strongly disagreed - as adventure travellers, small tour operator groups of like minded people are exactly who she and Dave want to travel with. You can read Alastair's response here Travel-Lists

Three top tips for travel companies

1. Not all bloggers are the same. Many aren't journalists, but publishers. So consider each one individually. Some will accept hosted trips, others will look for commercial support.

- There are Professional Bloggers for whom blogging is their career choice - they monetise their site and sell adverts and sponsored blogs. (Update 24 August - Andy Jarosz has just published a post suggesting we need a definition of travel blogger and has recommended: 'a travel blogger is a person whose main income-generating activity is derived from site, or sites, that they own or manage')

- However there are also what I call Life Bloggers- people who started blogging for the love of it and the commercial side has come, or is building up, after the creative side. .

- Confusingly for some PRs there are journalists who are bloggers- but often are often freelance using blogs as a self-promotion tool to promote other services. Or bloggers, like our panellist Andy Jarosz of 501 places (http://www.501places.com/about-me/) who uses his site to promote his service writing professional blogs to be posted on other companies' sites such as Sunvil. Andy's own site says: 'I've deliberately made this a non-commercial site. That means as a reader you won't be faced with links to cheap car parking, bargain hotels or fish spas. Similarly if you want me to advertise any of the above or link to your site then you will be wasting your time in writing to me. I don't reply to unsolicited enquiries (except maybe if you have a fish spa).'

- And, in the world where you can broadcast yourself, an increasing number of travel organisations also have their own blog which are also important platforms for PRs with relevant and complementary news

2. Be transparent about what you are asking or offering the blogger. Some bloggers reported being confused by PRs who call to ask if they would be interested in attending a bloggers trip, but the trip then doesn't materialise. Be clear what you expect in return for any support.

3. Make sure trips are set up to suit bloggers - feed them information and ideas in advance to help them anticipate and discuss the forthcoming trip. Always allow time for the blogger to write on the trip itself. Don't pack the itinerary too tightly. Always, always, always provide free Wifi if you can.

Top three tips for travel bloggers

1. Promote your own publishing platform. Have sections on your blog with clear explanations of your volume and reach. Create a media pack which can be tailored to suit different companies eg SeaFrance would need to know how many of your readers live within the South East of England (and so are potential cross channel ferry travellers)

Deb and Daves' Planetd blog is a very good example of how to summarise the information that potential partners and advertisers may need The Planetd

2. Do your research on companies you're interested in partnering with. Find out about their marketing objectives and priorities to establish if there is synergy between you. Many airlines will only support 'priority routes' rather than every route on their networks. Does the company have a blog or could you suggest writing one for it? Many companies account for media travel at standard internal rates, so trips can take chunks from a set travel budget, or they have strict limits on how many media/blogger places can be allocated.

3. Be transparent about what you are offering in return for any partnership arrangement Be clear how the arrangement will work for you. Andy Jarosz summarised his view of the debate from a bloggers perspective here - The blogger's dilemma

A lot of this is quite straight-forward and self-evident, but because of the inevitably individual nature of the blogging community it's sometimes hard for travel companies to understand the wave of change.

One guest at our event told a blogger; 'I've never actually met a real travel blogger before'. It's time to change that.

The second Travelbloggers Unite conference is at the of this week in Innsbruck.

It's only a hop away by plane and for a 199 GBP registration fee to find out more, to meet bloggers and to understand their changing needs and issues it's worth every penny. If you can't make this weekend, then do get on board for the next conference.

And join in the debate #TBUIBK @tbloggersunite

Clients shine at Chelsea Flower Show

Tue, 31 May 2011 09:59:00 +0000

What a difference a day makes - 24 little hours - or so Dinah Washington sang but in the case of Chelsea Flower Show it lasts a whole six days and this year was one of the very best for Four bgb with a whole host of stars buzzing round our clients gardens like bumblebees to honey.

Barbados

On the Barbados Tourism Authority stand, we were proud to present ‘Into the Light' a beautiful interpretation of life - where bright shades were balanced perfectly with the shadier varieties that brought true movement and beauty to the garden and also communicated the sense of the highs and lows of a threescore and ten existence. Emmerson Boyce, Wigan defender and Barbados player behaved like a true gentleman - making visitors look at footballers in a total different way. We even had a flower bomb football for the photocall and Emmerson was joined by Petra Roach, Vice President of the Barbados Tourism Authority and Angie Greaves from Magic FM who snared Ringo Starr and Raymond Blanc into the bargain! We tried to get news veteran Peter Sissons, a regular visitor to Barbados to do the news from the garden but he just wanted to enjoy the garden!

Jennifer Weetch one of the creators of the Barbados garden (which won Gold!) was whisked away by Robert Elms to be interviewed for his BBC London show and to find out how her garden grows in Barbados. All in all, a fabulous day - and a real welcome to Paradise.

Raymond Blanc

Meanwhile over in the Sunlander area, Raymond Blanc OBE was busy launching the Raymond Blanc series of Garden Furniture - so comfortable that ‘ You can sink into true Heaven' and remember what enjoying nature was all about. Raymond was very keen to ensure that Piers Morgan (a visitor to the garden) got a quick shoulder massage - alas those pictures aren't available - and also had a quick chat with Alan Titchmarsh before also being whisked away to Robert Elms' studio so he could learn more about why on earth the 2 Michelin starred Chef Patron of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons would start to dabble in Garden Furniture. ‘This is not just garden furniture, Raymond Blanc commented - ‘it's the start of a whole new way of thinking when it comes to al fresco." Good luck from all of us Raymond, it's bound to be a fabulous success!

Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Another Gold winner - Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne brought a show garden to Chelsea for the first time ever. The garden drew on the fabulous skills of landscape designer Jim Fogarty and depicted the journey of water through Australia, from the dry arid outback to the cool urbanised coast.

What more can one say? - it was an amazing success - topped off by a statuesque model who, along with the garden as a truly dramatic backdrop attracted media including BBC and National Geographic by typifying the dramatic nature of Australia as a destination.

Our own Samantha Hooper was also snapped by Vogue online - one of the many beautiful blooms at Four bgb.

Five take-outs from Eye for Travel

Wed, 11 May 2011 08:34:00 +0000

The Eye For Travel European Distribution conference was packed and buzzing yesterday. Five take-outs and a summary of my speech is below

Groupon scepticism Accor reported that it won't let any of its hotels use Groupon. Susan Black (@susantravels), executive vice president of American Express Vacations and ebulliant moderator of my panel said she'd she'd been told by a senior person at Forrester Research that he'd not met a single company that had made a dollar out of Groupon. It works for very small local businesses, but not on scale for lager organisations.

It's worth noting that @simplifying is promising a session this afternoon for "groupon sceptics" to demonstrate how airlines can make dollars from Groupon. You can follow the debate live, or see what was said during the day by searching #tds2011 on Twitter.

The personalisation of search - Susan Black asked delegates whether they valued Twitter as a business driver? There was a very small show of hands. She then proceeded to show us how, in the States, her Google search returns are already becoming more personalised and influenced by whom she follows socially. Because she follows a particular family travel agency in Florida on Twitter - now, when she types a broad search term into Google like "family travel" that travel agency appears in the top five search ressults. So in future the results shown to different people for the same search term will be vastly different. The impact of social media connections on natural search will become increasingly important.

The biggest mistake made in social media and ecommerce according to a senior panel of delegates was not spending sufficient time and resource. Social media needs time. It's not about push, but about hearing and joining conversations slowly. Don't just tip social media someone's job description as an add-on. Make sure they have sufficient time and skills to handle the role.

Social commerce is just beginning Very few people in the sessions I attended appear to have started offering booking reservation capabaility via Facebook (or "Fcommerce" as the Facebook presenter on Day Two of EyeforTravel would like us to call it). One small hotelier said he'd included the new Facebook "share" button at the point of booking confirmation and he'd found that was incredibly powerful in driving engagement and new traffic. Delegates also said they were finding the "send" option in Facebook helpful when users can send information about a particular holiday or property to just a small group of their own social network. The reports in the room about actual bookings on Facebook were very low. I wonder what we'll all be saying in the same conference room this time next year?

How can ecommerce managers get PR departments to engage with SEO? I joined a panel at Eye for Travel to discuss whether to outsource PR and social media. The full summary of my speech is below, but what was particularly interesting was the questions I was asked once the session had closed. A tourist board and the ecommerce manager for a large hotel group both came up to ask how they could bring PR teams and PR agencies into ecommerce activity. The problem of putting certain roles and budgets into silos means that some ecommerce managers don't have responsibility or control over PR activity. I'm always champing at the bit to ensure my clients integrate all ecommerce and PR teams and agencies. So it was really interesting to hear from businesses about their own internal struggles to get internal PR departments, or their PR agencies to understand the opportunity to work together. My answer? If you're an ecommerce manager then give your PR department or PR agency some SEO project budgets or resources. Give them different search terms to your SEO agency. Train them, or mentor them if they dont have the skill set and see what they can do.

The presentation which sparked this final debate and conversations is below

Good afternoon. I'm Debbie Hindle (@bgbcomms) the managing director of Four bgb representing the view from agencies today. With delicious irony, the other panelists and I have decided that I should be the person to talk about how, and when, not to outsource social media and PR.

At an industry event I once attended I was having a discussion with a group of people about the worst mistake they'd ever made in travel. One chap I'd never met before and didn't know who I was turned to me and said -quite angrily - that the biggest mistake he'd ever made was appointing a PR company. Outsourcing PR and social media gives your voice, your hard-earned brand to someone else to articulate. If that voice lets you down it can be bitterly frustrating. So my ten minutes today is to look at problems of outsourcing and some tips for avoiding problems.

First let me suggest reasons why or when you shouldn't you outsource

1. When you have the skillset time and ability and want to own your own voice

First - about personality - If you want to have a personal relationship with your customers and industry contacts. @Happy Hotelier is famed in travel. Hotel in Brussels 1,700 followers on Twitter. Only 6 rooms. But his voice is heard far and wide. When I'm next in Brussells I'll stay in his hotel.

Second reason owning your own voice is context - Also heard a Caribbean hotelier talk about power of his social media relationships with guests. He woke up and posted something on his Facebook page about the beautiful weather that morning and three guests around the pool at the time agreed with him. That personal relationship can be articulated (and observed by others) in social media. If that hotelier had outsourced his social media to an agency in another part of the country they simply couldn't speak from the heart like that.

Always exceptions to these rules of course - Im finding a lot of organizations running their own Facebook and Twitter feeds - so they own their own voice and can speak from the heart about what's happening in their country, just as they would their own web site - but wanting agencies to then reach out on their behalf to drive traffic or responses back to their platforms. Just as a PR reaches out via etc

I'm also seeing organizations that run their own central social media platforms needing support on an international basis. For example these Facebook stats are from a Social Media Travel Insights report that we've just published which shows the growth of Facebook in some international key source outbound travel markets. (email us at info@fourbgb .com if you'd like a copy of our report) I can't think of any of my clients who has the in-house resources to currently tackle the opportunity that this growth represents

Facebook users in outbound travel source markets

Ranking Facebook Users April 1 2011 12 month growth

1 USA 154.2 million 35%

3. UK 29.6 million 22%

8. France 21.7 million 26%

9. Italy 19.1 million 24%

11 Germany 17.5 million 107%

12. Spain 13.5 million 46%

25. Russia 4.3 million 382%

27. Sweden 4.2 million 23%

28 Netherlands 4.1 million 79%

29 Belgium 4.0 million 26%

2 Second reason you shouldn't outsource is when you haven't got a clear social media policy or objectives If you don't know what you want your voice to do or say - then an agency can't deliver that. Common phrase don't give social media to an intern - make sure your agency is similarly clear on your objectives and brand values before giving them your voice. I've seen companies say "we need social media" but not integrating it into marketing. Always start with business objectives, marketing objectives, social media objectives Let me give you an example - Example of bar in UAE during a period of national mourning. Social media was run by an expat wasn't aware of cultural sensitivity and tweeted "don't worry we're still open come and party" which caused great offense

Now let me run through some common outsourcing problems.

First - Putting social media into a departmental or agency silo

I'm sure every organization in the room has had the debate about who owns social media - is it marketing, finance HR or PR? Whomever owns it - my plea is don't be protectionist about it. Lead it but let it develop naturally in other departments. Curate ideas rather than dictate. Set a company-wide social media policy and let other departments or agencies suggest ways they can get involved as well. There are too many in-house PR teams I speak to who say they can't do social media because it's "owned" by marketing, or the IT team. Or there are clients who tell us we can't do social media because its done by another agency in their roster. We have clients who assume we can't do SEO despite the fact that PR generates highly valuable links. So set your agencies together understand who can do what best, let them discuss their roles and let them free.

Second - overlap

If you don't get your agencies together there's a danger of overlap and duplication. There aren't clear walls in social media activity. As PRs we are used to having individual conversations with bloggers and journalists. A couple of years ago we discovered that the SEO agency of one of our clients' was spamming bloggers with press material in a way we knew the content wouldn't be used. It was a complete waste of time. If the client had got us together sooner we'd have split out who spoke to whom so they weren't wasting their time. Similarly the world of blogging has very few walls. I was looking at a multiple agency proposal for social media in Europe last week and discovered the German agency was planning to talk to some of the same bloggers and upload materials to the same video sharing websites as us.

Third - missing opportunities

If you're not clear on what what outsourced activity you want done by whom you may find something may be being missed. If you've got a European campaign be clear which office is responsible for looking for pan-European opportunities like CNN international and Sky News? If you're running a global campaign which office is responsible for keeping in touch with a blogger like Gadling?

Fourth - not being clear about what success will look like so you can honestly say "my agency delivered" "my agency is proactive"

The joy of having an external resource means some clients think the agency can do everything. You've had a pitch process, you've chosen the agency you like. Some of their ideas are workable and others aren't. But as a client you throw everything at them, wanting to see what they can do. The eager agency will try to handle them, but can quickly drown and lose sight of the actual results you wanted in the first place. So as soon as the campaigns starts, agree with your agency exactly what success looks like. Is it a certain number of features in a key title, an interview with the CEO, three broadcast features, winning an award, link building or an increase in positive sentiment. Review that target regularly, and focus on results not processes. If you're outsourcing an agency then you're buying ideas, creative thinking, new ways of working. You should expect a proactive service. If your agency isn't on the phone with new ideas you need to find out why. Tell them what you expect and ask them why they aren't delivering to that. Are they spending too much time on other things you've asked them to do instead?

Fifth - don't abdicate when you outsource

Taking on an agency takes time. Allow time to mentor rather than abdicate activity to the agency so you can honestly say "my agency understands my brand" A good agency will also demand your time, so be prepared to invest time in briefing and training them. Clients and agencies always say they want to work together as a team - it takes time to build that team. Once you've built that team your agency should be able to charge off and deliver to your brief just as you would expect a team member to take on responsibility as they develop.

At the beginning of my session I mentioned that a marketer had turned to me at an event and said the worst mistake was appointing a PR agency. It turned out he'd encountered some of the problems I've just run through. I felt obliged to argue that he couldn't condem all agencies on that basis. In romantic novels I think the expression when problems have been overcome is "reader I married him". In this instance - "audience he is now my client"

So -these are my top tips

o Don't outsource if you should own your own voice

o Don't outsource without clear policy and objectives

o Don't keep social media in departmental or agency silos- let your internal teams and agencies free. Curate rather than dictate

o Avoid duplication and overlap

o Don't miss an opportunity - European or global basis

o Be clear about what success looks like - focus on that not processes

o Mentor rather than abdicate

Four bgb Social Media Travel Insights Report

Tue, 10 May 2011 21:46:00 +0000

Social media is moving at such an amazing pace we've produced a new Four bgb insights reports on travel trends in social media.

Please email info@fourbgb.com for a copy of the report

Top tips for 2011 are

1. From push to engagement: the year when, to quote Dennis Schall of Tnooz "social media presence needs to have a voice and a value not just a volume"

2. Socially-informed innovation: brands using social media to develop better business such as Virgin's recent "social marathon", or Polyvore's "customer curation"

3. Social commerce revolution - social is moving beyond sharing connections. Friends' recommendations will drive purchases. Brands will add booking capability within their social media platforms like Facebook.

4. The year of social mobile After years of speculation has the tipping point been reached for mobile consumption of social media? Almost four out of ten travellers are using mobile social media during their trips abroad to keep family and friends updated. This increase in mobile usage also extends to online travel bookings, with 30% of travellers using their phones to alter existing bookings during their trip and 25% using mobiles for electronic check-ins, whilst 30% use their smart-phones for social networking during their trip.

5. Blogging takes a higher profile: different styles and types of bloggers become more prominent and recognised

6. Facebook marches over the world We have worked with our interational agency partners via The Pangaea Network to produce a country-by-country breakdown of social media trends in main outbound source markets of Europe, the GCC and USA. It also reveals the massive continued growth of Facebook globally- even in markets that traditionally had strong local social media platforms like Russia and the Netherlands.

Some of the latest Facebook user volumes by country as at 1 April are

USA 154 million

UK 26 million

France 21 million

Italy 19 million

Germany 17 million

Spain 13 million

Russia 4 million

Sweden 4 million

Netherlands 4 million

Belgium 4 million

Livestreaming sustainable masterclass

Mon, 09 May 2011 21:22:00 +0000

On Tuesday 10 May we'll be hosting and livestreaming a Travelmole sustainable tourism masterclass. The subject is sustainability and all-inclusives.

To watch you can use any of the following web addresses, or use twitter #stallincs

http://bit.ly/kJuAOH (this is case sensitive)

http://tinyurl.com/fourcommsustream

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/8209385

Arabian Travel Market

Fri, 06 May 2011 21:09:00 +0000

Arabian Travel Market was full of quality leads doing real business according to several standholders I spoke to this year. There was a purposeful hum in the halls and a slightly more relaxed atmosphere at Zuma later in the evening on Tuesday when we gathered a few friends and colleagues together as Four bgb.

A petite but strong set of seminar sessions included a very useful euromonitor presentation on data in the region and a strong debate about social media with Timothy O Neil Dunne of T2 Impact, Karen Plumb of TripAdvisor, Jason Hancock of Travelport.

Frommer's Unlimited also presented on Open Source software

For background on any of the presentations at ATM, please just let me know

Eye for Travel Conference

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:22:00 +0000

It's the Eye For Travel Conference next month. I'll be speaking on a panel on 10th May about the pros and cons of outsourcing PR and social media. I'm representing the agency side and with delicious irony the other speakers on the panel have asked me to talk about the cons of outsourcing. Watch this space and I'll tell you how I get on.

http://events.eyefortravel.com/travel-distribution-summit-europe/speakers.asp

New clients at Four bgb

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:57:00 +0000

We're happily settled in our new Leicester Square offices with our colleagues from Four and clients within the combined Four bgb team now include Etihad, Exodus, Club Med, SAS, Wyndham and Handpicked Hotels

Travel brand of the decade

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:14:00 +0000

To celebrate our own 20 year birthday this year we sponsored a one-off "Travel brand of the decade" Chartered Institute of Travel Marketing (CIMTIG) award which was presented on Thursday 24 March.

The winner was Virgin Atlantis Airways

Congratulations to the other finalists Royal Caribbean International, easyJet, TripAdvisor and Eurostar

CIMITG announced the finalists and said the award was hotly contested, with a large number of wide ranging brands from the travel and hospitality sector submitting themselves to a rigorous set of branding tests.

Chair of the judging panel Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of The Centre for Brand Analysis said he was personally surprised at the quality of the entrants: "The submissions from across the travel sector were extremely strong, resulting in a lively judging process that truly scrutinised every brand in detail to ensure that the correct decision was made," he said." The leading brand changed a number of times throughout the process but in the end we know we have selected the worthy winner. I now look forward to our announcement being publicly revealed at the awards"