‘T’ for Technology, Tourism and TBEX as World’s Top 600 Travel Bloggers Arrive Next Week for Global Social Media Conference
Fáilte Ireland today anticipated a major boost to Ireland’s profile as a tourism destination when one of the world’s largest gatherings of travel and tourism bloggers, TBEX Europe 2013, takes place next week in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, next week on 3-4th October 2013.
TBEX, the Travel Bloggers Exchange, is the world’s largest conference and networking event for online travel journalists and travel industry companies and its previous conferences have generated some 16.2 million monitored blogs and tweets. This year’s conference will bring over 600 delegates from across the globe to Dublin and is an excellent opportunity for the Irish tourism industry, trade and travel brands to promote Ireland and engage with the world’s most influential travel bloggers and leading digital content creators.
To learn more about TBEX and this year’s conference, you can
click here .
Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar said next week’s event represents a unique opportunity:
“This is a fantastic opportunity for tourism and Dublin has the perfect profile to host TBEX. As the European headquarters of companies like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga and Twitter, it’s a thriving social media hub.
“By hosting this year’s global gathering, we have an opportunity to present a fresh perspective on Dublin and brand it as an edgy, innovative, contemporary European city and ensure that this impression is shared with millions online.”
Approximately 40% of Travellers said social networks influenced their travel planning, while 50% actually based their travel plans on other people’s reviews and experiences, according to a recent Google survey. Fáilte Ireland’s own research shows that close to 55% of tourists who own smartphones or other related mobile devices use their device while travelling in Ireland and 31% booked an element of their trip using their mobile devices.
The hosting of TBEX offers Ireland a great opportunity to engage with this trend and create a major impression to tens of millions of online followers as the TBEX delegates explore Ireland while they are here and share their experiences with the world. The 600 travel bloggers arriving for TBEX Dublin will generate tens of millions of impressions online via blogs, podcasts, YouTube, and social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, Google as well as traditional media.
Previous events in Girona, Keystone, Vancouver, New York, and Chicago all saw their exposure in the blogosphere rise significantly as some of the world’s best-known travel bloggers profiled the host city and country before, during, and after the conference.
(For some statistics, trends and facts on the growing importance of technology in tourism, please see Editor’s note below).
Fáilte Ireland Director of Marketing, John Concannon today emphasised:
“TBEX is the kind of conference every destination wants to host; we will have a captive audience of hundreds of the world’s top tourism bloggers giving us the potential to make a massive digital footprint across social media channels.
“Coming, as it does, against the background of The Gathering, we will be conducting our largest social media marketing campaign and press trip imaginable – to ensure that, as hundreds of travel writers are generating tens of millions of impressions online, the best possible sounds, sights and sensations of Ireland are transmitted.”
Mr Concannon pointed out that TBEX 2013 arrives in Ireland following a tough competitive process which saw Fáilte Ireland’s bid ultimately win out to bring the event here. While the delegates are here, they will be facilitated in fully experiencing all Ireland can offer by having the opportunity to go on a number of exciting press tours developed by the Fáilte Ireland with lots of photo opportunities and great story ideas. A number of tourism industry stakeholders have come on board to support Fáilte Ireland in hosting the event, including Dublin City Council, Kildare Village, the Irish Hotels Federation and Limerick City of Culture 2014 as well as numerous day tour operators, attractions, entertainment venues and restaurants who have assisted with the press trips all around the cities and country.
You can follow some of their progress and gauge their impressions by following #TBEX from this Saturday when delegates begin to arrive.
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Alex Connolly – Head of Communications
086 7966320/01 8847884
Louise Tolerton - Press Officer
086 6086578/01 8847135
Note for Editor
What is TBEX?
TBEX Europe 2013 is the global gathering of Travel Bloggers and is coming to Dublin on 3-4 October 2013. TBEX, the Travel Bloggers Exchange is the world’s largest conference and networking event for online travel journalists and travel industry companies and its previous conferences have generated fantastic coverage for host countries.
Why is hosting TBEX such an advantage?
Social Media and mobile devices has ensured that there has been a fundamental shift in the way travellers and destinations interact. Travellers have more choices and more detailed information, while destinations have more ways to connect and stay connected potential visitors them than ever before. The most successful destination marketers understand this new reality and have adjusted their communication strategies over the last few years to make social media more central to their work.
What are the trends regarding travel and Social Media?
40% of Travellers said social networks influenced their travel planning, while 50% actually based their travel plans on other people’s reviews and experiences, according to a recent Google survey.
Rich digital content is of significant importance. For example, YouTube has become the second largest search engine globally.
The number of channels to consumers has increased significantly with proliferation of digital and mobile channels.
Social networking is forcing a new way to connect with consumers using social and word of mouth marketing.
Mobile phone social media usage is rising significantly.
Personalisation (where technology is used to allow the delivery of information, products or experiences that are customised to individual preferences and needs) is now expected and assumed.
A Fáilte Ireland study (2012) into the use of new technology by tourists in Ireland has found that the use of mobile devices is expected to surpass traditional computer internet use by 2014. In this digital age of the internet, iPads, Xboxes and smartphones; the modern traveller is hands-on and wants to actively engage with their environment. They want to learn more and do more in the places they visit and will use their smartphone to do this.
According to this study the use of smartphone technology, social media and downloadable applications for mobile devices is growing rapidly. The study identified the percentage of visitors to Ireland that own smartphones as:
United States 64%
Canada 50%
Italy 50%
United Kingdom 44%
Ireland 41%
France 32%
Germany 29%
The research then goes on to illustrate that close to 55% of tourists who own smartphones or other related mobile devices use their device while travelling in Ireland and 31% booked an element of their trip using their mobile devices.
According to Travel Daily News (2012), Tripadvisor has become so intrinsic in travellers’ planning processes that 53% of people surveyed claimed that they would not book a hotel if it had no reviews on a site. The vast majority agreed that TripAdvisor reviews helped them feel more confident in their booking decisions (87%), and that they considered reviews on the site to be accurate (98%).
Consumers trust opinions from other users far more than they trust any other form of marketing message.
An enormous 96% of businesses in the travel industry reported that online reviews are fundamental for generating bookings, and 84% are concerned that negative reviews may affect their reputation and impact their business. There is an on-going trend for users to actively produce and engage with travel-related feedback.
According to the TripAdvisor Global Report, 2013, nearly 37% of users surveyed had added comments about their trips to their social media feeds, and 34% had written an online review of a travel product, service, or destination. Online travel reviews are an influential part of many people’s decision-making process, especially Europeans, 51% of whom say reading online reviews has the biggest impact on their planning decisions, a factor of greater importance even than price and location (TripAdvisor Global Report, 2013).
What does the typical TBEX delegate look like?
Bloggers are different to regular media - they focus on capturing the Now and sharing news, tips, photos, anecdotes, video and commentary and bringing content and stories alive. They are looking for out of the ordinary experiences, a new and different angle. Bloggers are very ‘visual’ in their approach due to the proliferation of digital cameras and camera-phones increasing photography and video content on weblogs. They are also very reader-orientated as they are getting instant feedback from their audience on what they write.
Bloggers come from a variety of PR, marketing, design, corporate, photography, IT and communications backgrounds – they like to discover new trends and the quirky angles. So in tourism, that would be bringing their audience a fresh dimension on places in Ireland they already know and helping them discover high quality tourism experiences, whether its festivals, food , adventure or attractions and in particular off the beaten track experiences they cannot find in existing travel guides.
The audience of this year’s TBEX delegates are spread worldwide - breaking 61% in North America and 36% in Europe.
How will Fáilte Ireland cater for the particular needs of these bloggers?
Working with tourism providers, Fáilte Ireland is designing a selection of tailor-made experiences and trips for delegates to enhance their experience of this country. There will be the Pre- and Post-event trips for the attendees can pre-register and over 100 bloggers/journalists will then be invited on tours, based on their own priorities, covering the North-west, west, south and east coast. In addition, there are over 100 day tours and experiences available for delegates in and around Dublin. Along with the most popular visitor attractions, Fáilte Ireland has included a wide variety of options, everything from kite-surfing in Dollymount to a visit to Newgrange, from music venues in the city to walking in Wicklow.
Can TBEX be a promotional opportunity for the tourism Industry?
Fáilte Ireland has capitalised on its hosting of this event to create opportunities for Irish tourism business to engage, play their part and reap benefits through the associated social media exposure.
The tourism authority has offered businesses the opportunity to meet and engage with the travel bloggers so that they can experience their tourism product on pre and post event press visits around the country and in Dublin.
Approximately 250 tourism businesses have taken part in a webinar with key TBEX speakers on ‘Building relationships with Travel Bloggers’ and Fáilte Ireland has secured discounted places for tourism businesses to attend the event to engage with bloggers and learn from Conference speakers who are world leaders in their field.
Who is speaking at the TBEX Conference?
Chip Conley
Chip Conley will be the opening keynote speaker at TBEX Dublin. Chip is the founder of boutique hotel chain Joie de Vivre, and has just been named as Head of Global Hospitality for Airbnb. A leader in the boutique hotel revolution, no one has created more unique properties than Chip Conley. With a simple yet profound mission to “create joy,” he turned a seedy inner city motel into the Joie de Vivre brand, the second largest boutique hotel brand in the world. Chip is a New York Times best-selling author and a passionate and seasoned world traveler. He’s a blogger too, launching Fest300 after his experiences at some of the world’s most transformational festivals led him to the belief that, “The more virtual we get, the more ritual we need.”
Carol Cain
Carol Cain is a former PR Pro turned award-winning travel and food blogger. At Girl Gone Travel, she enjoys sharing her adventures, with or without her beautiful family in tow, in the hopes of inspiring and motivating others to travel. Originally from Brooklyn, Carol has studied and lived abroad, experiences that have nourished her wanderlust. Her travel stories have appeared in publications for Forbes Travel Guide, American Airlines, G Adventures, and Lifetime Digital Media, as well as New York Family and Better Homes and Gardens magazines. She has appeared on broadcast outlets for both Spanish and English media, including Telemundo, CBS, NBC, and ABC.
Ryan Levitt
Ryan Levitt is PR Director of HouseTrip.com, one of the world’s largest holiday rental websites offering over 230,000 rentals in more than 19,000 destinations worldwide. Prior to this time, he spent almost a decade in travel PR representing NYC, Bermuda, Mauritius, Queensland, Malaysia and many other destinations, hotels and cruise lines in Europe. Also a former travel journalist, he has written over 20 travel guides and contributed to The Independent on Sunday (UK), Arena Magazine, Wallpaper, South China Morning Post, Toronto Star – and was a guide writer for VisitBritain and the German National Tourist Office.
Susan Fitzgerald
Susan FitzGerald visited Ireland 18 years ago and fell in love. Not with a person, but with the country! She returned to the States, sold her things & moved to Ireland. She started writing Vibrant Ireland in November 2010, when there seemed to be only bad news in and about Ireland. She gives travellers practical information as well as visit inspiration. Susan has recently begun adding other destinations to her blog, but aims to evolve a deep relationship with a special few rather than a surface experience of many.
Corey Taratuta
Corey Taratuta is best known as the host of the Irish Fireside Podcast Corey’s “previous life” included days (and nights) as the senior member of a museum creative team, a newspaper features editor, and an unenthusiastic cowhand on his family’s dairy farm. After launching the podcast in 2006, he set out on a 40-day, cross-country trek meeting fans and telling the story through video and words. He now works as a freelance writer and designer specializing in e-mail marketing and online content. He unveiled the Ireland Travel Kit app in 2013, and his first book on Irish travel goes to press next year.
Kerwin McKenzie
TBEX Dublin speaker Kerwin McKenzie is an ex-airline employee turned Travel Blogger. At TBEX Dublin, he’s teaming up with Corey Taratuta from Irish Fireside for a session covering the ins and outs of email marketing.
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