Real-Time marketing for Tourism Industry stakeholders

The Belize Tourism Industry Association’s (B.T.I.A.) Real-time Marketing Master Class Marketing & P.R. Summit was launched to a crowded Queen’s Room at the Princess Hotel on Thursday. David Meerman Scott, the renowned speaker, has presented in over thirty four countries and he was today’s featured guest at the event which was co-sponsored by the Belize Tourism Board. Stakeholders in the tourism industry as well as non industry businesses attended the event which focused on content marketing, real-time marketing and social media. News Five spoke to Meerman Scott about how the internet can sell Belize’s tourism product.

Jose Sanchez

“Have you been able to examine some of what our local tourism associations or B.T.B. people have been doing while you are here?”

David Meerman Scott, Marketing Strategist 

David Meerman Scott

“Well I spent time at Chaa Creek and I talked with some of the marketers there—people who are working on their content. And before I came down, I went to Google and typed in Belize and Belize Adventure Travel and things like that. And I noticed that there is some really excellent content that some places have made and some things that were really valuable for me to learn about Belize. But I’m only seeing the tip; I’m only seeing a few places that are doing a good job with online marketing. So from the ones I see, [they] are doing a great job, but there is probably thousands of organizations and certainly hundreds that aren’t doing enough. And that is what I hope to change today; to have people who aren’t yet doing much online marketing to do it.”

Jose Sanchez

“And how has the response been from the people who are at today’s seminar?”

David Meerman Scott

“Well they laugh at my jokes. I think their response has been good. I see people’s eyes open, I literally do, people’s eyes open to the possibilities. When I say something new that they hadn’t heard about before, they are writing it down on their IPADs or a piece of paper. I briefly had lunch with a couple of folks and they told me that they come away with ideas that they want to implement. So that’s all I can ask for. I can’t make people change, but I can give them an idea that maybe will allow them to want to change.”

Jose Sanchez

“You spoke of real time marketing strategies—something that I don’t believe most places have been doing. How important is that?”

David Meerman Scott

“Well it is a great strategy to be able to create content on the web and base it on what’s happening on the news right now.  And to be able to communicate with people say on Facebook or Twitter when they are ready. You see the big different between real time and regular forms of marketing is that regular forms of marketing is when the company is ready to communicate. With real time marketing, it is when the customer is ready to be communicated to. And so changing your mentality to being able to communicate when people are ready and  they are open to a new idea; that’s the best.”

Jose Sanchez

“And of course it also means an investment when it comes to those online tools.”

David Meerman Scott

“Yeah it means mainly that you have to invest in time because most of the ideas I talk about are free. It’s free to make a YouTube video, it is free to get on to Twitter and Facebook, it is free to create a new page on your website. So most of it doesn’t require money, but what it does require is time because you have to create the content, you have to be engaged. Not a lot of us have a lot of time, but you need to figure out how to make time. I think that based on what my research is, is that people are going to the search engines to learn about where to go on holiday, where to go on a company retreat and therefore yes, you do have to be engaged.  They are not necessarily looking at the magazines—maybe a few are—but most are going to the search engines and that’s how they are finding out where to go.”

Other sponsors of the Real-time Marketing Master Class Summit include: Atlantic Bank, B.T.L., Chukka, and the Radisson Fort George.