Tourism Industry Seeks Digital Marketing Expertise

Ye Olde England Inne in Stowe, VT

Burlington Free Press: If you are looking for work in Vermont’s travel and tourism industry, you might want to learn a lot about social media. That increasingly is the case as websites such as Facebook have transformed not only how travelers choose destinations but how those destinations connect with travelers.

Take Ye Olde England Inne in Stowe, where owner Chris Francis has found himself hiring people with digital marketing expertise, "which I’ve never done before." Otherwise, "I’d blunder my way through this," said Francis, named the 2010 Travel Person of the Year at last year’s Vermont Travel Industry Conference. "It definitely requires an expertise."

Because of successes in attracting visitors to his place of lodging and restaurant, Francis has concluded that traditional tourism marketing methods have gone by the wayside. "You’ve got to find new ways to get people in through the door," Francis said.

Well over 30,000 people are employed in the travel and tourism industry in Vermont directly or indirectly, according to the state Department of Labor’s website, and figures are growing as the recession recedes into the past.

Connecticut travel writer Kim Knox Beckius said at last week’s Vermont Travel Industry Conference in Burlington that social media has become a central part of tourism marketing. She noted that a recent About.com survey showed that 70 percent of people will take a vacation no matter what the economy is doing. She also stressed the necessity for every travel and tourism business to have a presence on Facebook.

"If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world," Beckius said at the conference. "The eyeballs are there." And at places such as Francis’ Ye Olde England Inne in Stowe, it is new hires with social media and marketing expertise that are helping lure those eyeballs to Vermont for a stay.

Read Entrire Article