Tourism Goes Broadband
The same Internet that is making so much of the world just a virtual click away is revolutionizing the way the US tourism industry entices people to come visit in person. Marketers who not long ago waited for prospective tourists to send in postcards to get a glossy brochure have pushed into dramatically more timely promotional tactics, like video clips, live webcam feeds, and downloadable video tours. From Philadelphia to Oregon, US destinations are offering advanced tools for planning and generating a detailed itinerary that can be downloaded to a hand held computer.
This summer, Tourism Massachusetts, a nonprofit group that markets to international visitors, began rolling out the first 15 of a planned 50 two minute videos promoting venues like Cape Cod and the Berkshires. The technology, at website USAMass.tv, lets officials put television-quality video in front of millions of potential tourists at one tenth the cost of European television infomercials. A bubbly British host adds an international feel.
It is a very different and compelling new form of communication to get our story in front of potential international visitors, and as a high tech state, we should be marketing ourselves in a high-tech fashion, said Bill MacDougall, president of Tourism Massachusetts.
With only light promotion of the site in a handful of countries like Italy and Argentina, more than 75,000 visitors have tuned in so far. To sponsors' surprise, the top source of hits is China. Each 2 1/2 to 3-minute segment costs about $10,000 to produce and host online, and officials have found that they can afford to produce many of the next 35 segments in high definition. Coming soon, MacDougall hopes, are ways to make the clips available for download to video-capable portable entertainment devices like the iPod and the seatback televisions of airlines like JetBlue that fly to Logan International Airport.
It is not just for fun. In Massachusetts and dozens of other states, tourism has become a crucial business. Bay State tourism officials estimate that as many as 125,300 jobs across the state depend on tourism. In 2004, the last year with full records, more than 31 million visitors spent $12.5 billion and paid $808 million in state and local taxes, according to the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.
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