Tourism 2.0 is the evolution of Internet travel sites that have emerged with Web 2.0, the second generation of web services and communities that encourage participation and collaboration among users.

With 2.0 Tourism travel Web sites, portals, online destination guides, service providers and managers of reserves, which now has direct user interaction, which generates a unique value, through criticism, comment, suggestions to tourism products and services (airlines, hotels, tours, destinations, restaurants, etc..), sharing experiences through blogs, videos and photos, directly influencing the perception and decision of other users and «potential travelers.

What are the current pillars of tourism 2.0 for tourism businesses?

He then addressed the same, virtually the same as Web 2.0, but with a twist «tourism» that gives them special meaning.

Blogs: Who has a blog now? All we now want to share our experiences and to inform other users of the web our views. Tour companies are not far behind, blogs are an ideal platform to publicize the new services, offers, do surveys, receiving «feedback», to increase the identification of visitors to the site, positioning in search engines with fresh content original and is updated frequently, … a professional blog with quality content and enabling open interaction with users, is an excellent means of promotion!

RSS: The channel through which information is distributed beyond the browser. Users do not need to be frequently visiting the blog to read new posts or comments from others … now only enough to subscribe to the RSS feeds from blogs, news sites or communities with which the reader will receive our preference automatically all new content is published… The sending of news, updates or special offers are particularly effective channel with the RSS.

Mashups: mashups, which combine information from various sources to generate a new tool that provides special functionality. And how do I merge data from several applications from other owners? With the new trend of Web 2.0, now from tools like Google Maps to platforms like Flickr and Facebook allow you to generate these «mashups» through totally free APIs that enable advanced features, customized offering to our users. How about a mashup of Google Maps and Flickr which allows not only indicate the paths of cities we visited, but also let us post pictures we’ve taken in each of those sites? Or a Mashup for online travel planning that we can share between our friends and in which everyone can vote for more or less popular destinations to choose from? … So what we get? a large base of returning visitors to our sites not only visit the site and the tools used repeatedly, it is also a potential customer that we can give direct options for «Book a flight to this destination is just a click» … a powerful marketing tool.

Widgets: What happens when we go beyond the online world and to be in the user’s desktop? We generate an application, for different operating systems that already have such tools so that our potential customers always have the option to interact with us even when not connected. And what could develop widgets? From a travel guide of the most popular destinations, through which we can calculate prices or availability of certain packages, to calculators hour trip depending on the destination…. The result? The ubiquity, are always available to the client, you have an additional avenue of marketing, greater presence and branding.

Online Communities: Allow users to interact with them directly share information, experiences, create groups, make friends, plan trips together, advise the «potential travelers» on the destination, we make an ecosystem for travelers to refer directly our services, and repeat, providing capabilities for planning new experiences through the community. A platform for interaction and promotion based on many forms in the web 2.0.

Good Travel