98 101 Ways To Promote Your Tourism Web Site (tourism.maxpress.com) relationship. Many destination marketing organization Web sites are now offering their visitors the option of planning their own trip online. They are providing visitors a comprehensive list of all of the attractions available in their area, including hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers. This allows users to see at a glance what is available and book their trip accordingly. More and more we are seeing these trip planners with interactive content including virtual tours, interactive maps (see Chapter 26), videos and podcasts (see Chapter 24), to provide visitors with all of the options available so that they can decide where and what they want to do on their vacation. We are even seeing sites like Yahoo! Travel offering trip planners, as shown in Figure 6.2. These types of sites integrate consumer generated media including personal photos, videos, reviews and opinions (consumer generated media is discussed more in depth in Chapter 13). With these trip planners, users may be able to get tailored rates and packages for nearby golf courses, hotels, or events and put together their very own “dream vacation.� With so much interactivity, trip planners are a great way to meet and exceed your Web site visitors’ expectations and at the same time deliver great content on your travel and tourism site.
Figure 6.2. Trip planners, such as the one Yahoo! Travel uses, are great content for many travel and tourism sites.