Inspired in the article of Mark Seall published on the Travolution blog I made a small study of how the Travel Sector of Cyprus is cooping with the evolution the internet took after 2006.
Web 2.0 is a term that whoever works with the net knows that basically means online human relationships. In other words the internet is not a source of information but a place to share experiences, opinions and influence decisions.
In Cyprus the LEADRS of the tourism industry are still thinking tour operator will influence tourists and bring them to Cyprus. They still think that their restaurant in a five star hotel is a facility that has to be discovered once the customer has checked in, they still think that incoming agents do not even need a web site, they call Facebook a place to play and not to relate, they believe that Google is cheating and wants their money to bring them traffic.
After www.emergence2009.com in February 2009 I have had many, many , many conversations with tourist actors in Cyprus. Hoteliers, incoming agents, regional boards, tour guides and others have the opinion that the net is not real. What ever happens online is virtual, and has no influence whatsoever in their job, bank account or customer relations.
I will not mention names of companies that lead this country's tourism but we all know who they are. Well check for them on facebook, twitter or even google and you will realise that I am not making stories up.
I will only give one detail. Every 1000 tourist service related searches on the global Web sphere 800 results are coming from the other Cyprus, the one we all remember but we all deleted.
Post originally posted on emergence 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for you comments, they are very valuable to us.