Elliott Ng will represent UpTake during the PhocusWright 2009 Conference, Blogger Summit Town Hall on Wednesday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Ten topics were suggested by the panelists for discussion during a planning meeting a few weeks ago. We decided to collect the best posts and  examples about each subject and showcase them. We hope this series lends itself to more insightful discussion during the Town Hall presentation.–Patricia Jenkins, Editor

It’s hard to overstate the importance of being able to game the media and keep your company in the news. But at the end of the day, this is a losing proposition - there’s a limit to the number of press releases, interviews and travel columns you can  squeeze out of the media before they get tired of your PR pitches.

To get past the traditional media barriers, some travel companies are straddling the divide between making the news and breaking it – by becoming a part of the media. The travel companies listed below are the ones who are stealing the media’s mojo and beating them at their own game.

Cheapflights

CheapFlights (www.cheapflights.com/) – CheapFlights has a news section where you’ll find plenty of breaking news. It’s not just about air travel - they write about all things travel – hotels, vacations, legislation, destinations, etc. Even more important – the news really is breaking news, and they consistently publish it before everyone starts weighing in.

Bing

Bing (www.bing.com/) – Microsoft’s Bing Travel hosts a community travel blog with some big-name contributors, including Pauline Frommer, Peter Greenberg, Joel Grus and Rick Steves.

  Entries from this blog are getting a lot of exposure in discussions of hot topics in the news, and it’s quite safe to say that this is one of the things that Bing is doing right. 

Uptake

UpTake (www.uptake.com/) – The sum of it is that the traditional media approach was found lacking, so UpTake took a large part of its PR budget, and launched a blog network with 7 blogs and 50 bloggers, as part of a plan to inflict lethal generosity on the travel industry.

UpTake co-founder Elliott Ng explains it in this Businessweek piece – “Now we’re breaking industry stories… covering other companies’ launches… getting invited to cover conferences as bloggers. We’ve built real relationships with people in the media rather than just pitching stories.”

CarRentals, UK

CarRentals, UK (www.carrentals.co.uk/) – Has a news section, entries from which have started turning up in breaking news alerts of late. The news section features stories from a wide range of subjects, most of which have something to do with either travel or the UK or both.

Rogersmith

Roger Smith Hotel (rogersmith.com/) – Take a look at Roger Smith Life and Roger Smith News and you’ll find that everything – the news, the art and all the people – leads you right back to the hotel in New York. And the connections are a lot deeper than just plain talk.

Earlier this year, they ran an ‘experiment’ where a couple from the UK was put up in a storefront recreation of one of the hotel’s suites. Basically, the couple was living in a see-through glass room on the street in New York City, and it was an art experiment by Roger Smith Life covered by Roger Smith News which brought in huge publicity for the Roger Smith hotel. 

Hilton

Hilton (www1.hilton.com/) - Hilton’s Homewood Suites recently launched a family travel blog and community site named SuiteTrip.com. In their own words, “SuiteTrip.com is your go-to guide for everything family travel-inspired.” 

Another Hilton outreach is into Travelskoot’s Videos (www.travelskoot.com/hilton) - Hilton provides destination videos featuring concierges working at Hilton hotels in these destinations.

Starwood

Starwood (www.starwoodhotels.com/) - Starwood runs a blog for its SPG members, called The Lobby, which is more of a traditional travel blog talking about destinations and attractions from all over the world, rather than just a Starwood blog talking about Starwood hotels and resorts.

Related Posts:- Some Travel Companies Just Get It

2009 storm prediction

Gazing into their crystal ball, weather researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict we’ll see between 9 and 14 named storms in 2009: 4 to  7 of them will become hurricanes and 1 to 3 of those will be considered major with winds to 111 miles per hour. South Florida chances of being that host stand at  32 percent, compared to the 54 percent the entire U.S. coastline bears. NOAA researchers are saying the Caribbean has an “average” probability of a major hurricane strike.

In other words, it’s pretty much par for course this hurricane season. In fact, we’re into week six of the official calendar boundaries (June 1 to November 30) with nary a bad breeze, unless you count the unnamed fish storm that brewed up at the end of May out in the Atlantic Ocean — where cruise ships don’t sail and hotels can’t exist anyhow.

And that’s where the lasting damage takes place, anyhow. As of today, the list of resorts still trying to reopen after last year’s hurricane parade include Courtyard by Marriott and Brac Reef Beach Resort in the  Caymans, along with Four Seasons in Nevis. At least these properties intend to reopen; the jury is still out on whether the Hyatt Regency in Grand Cayman will ever greet tourists again after its encounter with Ivan in 2004. Ditto Derelict Mullet Bay Beach Resort in St. Maartin, beat up way back in 1995.

Face it, storms are rough on the Caribbean.

Travel can weather the storm

But it would be a mistake to confuse destruction odds with lost tourism. Survey after survey reveals that travelers are more than willing to take those chances, provided the price is right and they buy trip insurance. A healthy 65 percent of participants told TripAdvisor they would pack their bags for regions in the hurricane target zone this fall. Cruising fares even better, as CruiseCritic‘s call for answers revealed that not only had 70 percent of participants toasted their bon voyage during hurricane season, but that less than 7 percent regretted it. A sampling of the attitudes:

•“I am more worried about a hurricane at my departure port since if I can’t get to the port I can’t cruise. Once I am onboard I don’t care where I go!”

• “The outer bands of Rita hit Miami and delayed our departure by about four hours. Almost immediately the captain announced that we would not be able to dock in Nassau because of the storm, which was obviously disappointing. He stated we were going to out-run the bad weather by heading to the Northern Bahamas area, near Grand Bahama. After quite a rough night at sea, we woke to a beautiful, sunny morning. Everyone awaited the morning announcement by the captain and it was worth the wait! He announced that the port in Nassau had reopened, there was no damage, and best of all, we were 15 miles out and on our way to port! It was quite an emotional change from the night before.”

•“We were on Norwegian Sun while Wilma was out there. Our course and ports kept changing so much we dubbed it ‘The Mystery Cruise.’ It was still a great cruise and we even got to port in a city where few ships visit. It was great.”

• “We live in South Florida and felt the full force of Wilma — believe me, I’d rather be safely and comfortably away on a cruise ship than sitting in the dark for a week!”

Photography: Fevi in Cayman, Salvatore Freni

Video created by Elliott Ng.
During the next few months, UpTake will be presenting short takes with travel industry leaders, influencers and innovators. Our first video interview is with Kevin Fliess, CEO of TravelMuse. Kevin’s background is well suited to launching an online travel sites:

“His work and family life have taken him all over the world: from Tahiti to India and Canada to Mexico; Amsterdam to Turkey and the northern California coast to South Carolina islands. Prior to starting TravelMuse, Kevin spent 15 years as a leader in various high tech companies, most recently as VP of product marketing and product management for emerging solutions at SAP. He’s also held strategic positions at Synopsys, Icarian and Siemens. A serial innovator, Kevin co-invented the first composite application at SAP and has one patent granted with seven applications on file.”

We hope you enjoy his positive take on where the opportunities exist for online travel in this turbulent economy:

Travelcom Related Posts:

• Gregg Brockway, TripIt, Video Interview
  
• Sam Shank, Dealbase, Video Interview
• Travelcom 2009: TripAdvisor, “Going Here, There & Everywhere“
• Travelcom Keynote-There’s No Room for Maybe

TravelCom ’09, the US Travel Association’s annual travel industry conference, will be held March 31-April 2 in Atlanta, GA. This year’s theme is Transform Your Business: How to Adapt and Prosper in the Travel Ecosystem.

Travelcom Atlanta 2009

The list of speakers is a star-studded who’s who list of CEOs and senior executives of the biggest brand names in the travel industry. Senior Executives speaking at Travelcom’09 include:

• Steve Hafner, CEO and Co-Founder, Kayak.com
• Christine Petersen, Chief Marketing Officer, TripAdvisor
• Hugh Crean, General Manager, Live Search Farecast, A Microsoft Company
• Rob Torres, Managing Director, Travel, Google, Inc
• Gregg Brockway, Chief Executive Officer, TripIt
• Kevin Krone, VP, Marketing, Sales and Distribution, Southwest Airlines
• Krista Pappas, Head of Business Development, Live Search Farecast, A Microsoft Company, and TravelCom’09 Co-Chair
• Angela Brav, Senior VP, Franchise Services and Operations Support, InterContinental Hotels Group
• Henry Harteveldt, Vice President and Principal Analyst-Airline/Travel Industry Research, Forrester Research, and TravelCom’09 Co-Chair
• Patrick Lafferty, Chief Marketing Officer, Travel Channel Media
• Michael Thomas, Chairman, Travel Ad Network, BookingWiz.com and Sprice
• Robert Sahadevan, Vice President–Mileage Plus, United Airlines

You can see the full list of speakers, panels and scheduled events at Travelcom’09 here.

Travelcom takes on an added significance this year, in view of the economic meltdown. Companies are heading down to Atlanta not just for the linkups, but also because expert speakers at Travelcom ’09 are actually expected to outline realistic solutions to the problems and pressures faced by almost every travel company.

It’s a tall order, but that’s why they have people like Google’s Rob Torres explaining how to keep the ball rolling short-term, while not losing sight of the big picture. Freeborders Inc. will share its expertise and experience on how to move beyond cost control and create business value with the use of IT outsourcing.

Other speakers like TripAdvisor’s Christine Peterson and TripIt’s Gregg Brockway will explain how to make best use of the enormous potential of new media and the latest innovations in online travel.

Other topics covered include the latest practices of loyalty programs, metasearch, ancillary revenue opportunities, mobile marketing and reaching travelers through new technologies.

The US Travel Association is probably one of the few organizations who can actually pull off such an all-encompassing travel industry conference. You won’t likely be seeing all these topics being discussed concurrently in the same place at the same again in 2009.

Not to mention the fact that it’ll be virtually impossible to corral all these industry heavyweights again for another conference. The fact that they’re all coming underlines the critical importance of Travelcom’09. So I think it’s safe to say that if you’re a part of the travel industry, then you want to be at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, GA on March 31 2009.

Travelcom’09 – Atlanta, GA (March 31 to April 2, 2009)