We’ve made Tour Host Reviews easier to read

Starting with the last issue of our online newsletter, The Cultured Traveler, we’ve revamped the format of our Tour Host Reviews to make them easier to read. From now on you’ll see each review divided into sections designed to help you to quickly find and follow the relevant information you’re seeking. Each review lists the tour host’s name, the company’s specialty, why we like this particular host and any articles by the company that we’ve published. We hope you’ll find the new format more reader-friendly and easier to scan. You’ll find the current Tour Host Review. 

Our new rate sheet cuts slack for operators to less-visited areas

Our rate sheet used to be this monolithic thing that called for ads to cost the same no matter where they were on our web site. Well, experience has taught us that Europe is far more popular than the Poles, and that culinary trips have more enthusiasts among our visitors than rafting trips in the Yukon. So, we’ve decided to set up a hierarchy of prices for Web Page Ads on the Cultural Travels site. For instance, if you’re an operator who offers art or culinary tours to Europe, you can expect to pay $175 per month for your ad. At the lower end, reflecting demand, if your European tours involve science or sports, the cost is $125. Asia is second highest destination in cost, ranging from $100 to $150. The lowest-costing Web Page Ads are the Poles and the Pacific, ranging from a low of $50 to a high of $100. For a look at the rates, go here: Media Kit Rates and Samples

Now that we’re past the terrible twos. . .

We first went online in September 1999, then moved over to under the Enterprise Webs aegis in March 2000. So, however you look at it, we’re either three years old or close enough, which means we’re past the Terrible Twos. It turns out they weren’t so terrible for us after all (or for our visitors and advertisers). While we were two, we increased traffic to our site by 300%, and published our 27^th online newsletter. More important, in the aftermath of the dot-com debacle, we’re now among the six Internet web sites left standing that offer content similar to ours (the other five are iExplore, InfoHub, Luxury Link, Shaw Guides, and Specialty Travel Index). What’s for 2003? We plan to increase traffic by another 300%, expand the number of writers and departments in our online newsletter and begin making more noise about our ability to provide smaller tour operators with soup-to-nuts Internet solutions (see “CT offers web site expertise” below). Oh, and we intend to remain an independent advocate for tour operators, travel agents and travelers, in no particular order.

We’re proud of Dea, Shirley, Stephanie and Ron

The Cultured Traveler newsletter has been slowly adding to its “stable” of writers by soliciting contributions from experienced freelancers. Four writers whom we’ve featured lately have added considerably to the content and flair of newsletter: Ron Bernthal, Stephanie Fletcher, Dea Adria Mallin and Shirley Moskow. Ron’s article on Quebec’s Iles-de-la-Madeleine in our December 2002 newsletter was a superbly written introduction to these little-known islands. Stephanie’s “True Story of the Maltese Falcon” in November 2002 was the kind of backgrounder any history teacher would be eager to pass out to his students. Dea’s charming “Kroller-Muller Museum and Sculpture Gardens” in August 2002 was one of the most heavily read articles we’ve ever published. Shirley’s “Datong: A Mountain Full of Buddhas” revealed an amazing Chinese cultural site that few Westerners know about. You can read their articles (and all the others we’ve published) here: Story Search

“Hicks Nix Sticks Pix. . .”

. . . is our all-time favorite headline. The entertainment industry newspaper Variety ran it in the 1930s after Hollywood studios determined that people living in farming areas weren’t interested in seeing films that have rural themes. Our second all-time favorite was written in the early 1980s by an unsung San Francisco Examiner editor. It seems that a small temblor had just shaken the Greek island of Rhodes. The resulting doo-wop headline read: “Quake Rattles in Rhodes.”  Why are we even discussing this? Because we can’t say it enough: Good headlines grab readers’ attention. Attentive readers read your ads. After reading your ads, they may buy something. And so on.

Survey says Web users expect your company to be online

A recent survey sponsored by the Pew Internet and American Life Project says that 63% of all Americans expect businesses to have web sites where they can find detailed information on products they’re considering buying. When the survey queried regular Internet users, that percentage jumped to 79. With nearly 120 million Americans identifying themselves as regular Internet users, this means that 94+ million consumers expect businesses to have web sites. Not hope or wish for, or think it would be nice: expect. Part of that expectation is interactivity – does your web site offer relational databasing (can people drill down to get specific information?), dynamic content (you constantly update your material) and a way for people to reach you right way? As Frank Zappa once said in a Mothers of Invention song, “Brown shoes don’t make it, quit school, why fake it?” If your web site is a brown shoe, instead of quitting school, read the item below.

CT offers web site and e-marketing expertise

The other day, while discussing our Web Page Ad concept, which has evolved from a simple banner-type ad to an informative, interactive, “branch web site,” we realized that many smaller tour operators are looking for affordable ways to compete on the Internet with far larger rivals. This means to ability to create and project a professional image without spending the great sums available to large companies. It can be done, because on the Internet even small companies can harness technologies that can make them look every bit as good as their much bigger competitors.

So, what could a 100 bucks buy online? A professionally designed, database interactive web site that you can update just as easily as you now update your current listing or add trips. To see an example of what we can do for you -- review our sample site. If you’d like to know more, contact Sheri Leigh at 1-888-443-8687 or e-mail her at sheri@culturaltravels.com

Impatient with Looky Lous? Then remember the snooty maitre d’

Massachusetts-based TripAdvisor says that the more complex something is that you can buy online – such as a travel package  – the more time Internet users need to make a final decision to buy it. Using a one-month “look back” period as its benchmark for an air and hotel booking, the marketing company says that people are 5x more likely to purchase a web site’s products after 30 days of thinking it over than they are to buy on their initial visit. This means that tour operators should remember there’s often an “incubation period” among travelers when they first begin planning a trip. It also means responding to queries from “Looky Lous” with courtesy and promptness. Think of the last time you entered a nice restaurant to look at the menu. Maybe you weren’t in the mood to eat just then but were curious. If the maitre d’ that day was snooty because you weren’t buying, how likely would you have been to go back when you were finally in the mood for what you saw on the menu?

Finally, our monthly Internet factoids:

• eMarketer says that 13% of U.S. Internet users will purchase some form of online content this year (excluding gambling and porn). Worldwide, individuals will spend $3.8 billion to purchase content. People are willing to pay for information they can’t otherwise get online, and as time goes on companies are less and less likely to provide information for free.
   
• Travelocity reports that winter travel by U.S. citizens to North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, grew while trips to Asia and Europe declined despite lower air fares. Specific destinations enjoying increased popularity include Lima, El Salvador, Buenos Aires, Aruba and the British Virgin Islands. Losers include Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
   
• More than 33% of U.S. Internet users say that they trust their online transactions to be secure, up from 27.5% who believed so a year ago, according to Consumer Internet Barometer.
   
• Consumer Internet Barometer also reports that 17.3% of all Internet users go online primarily to conduct research. This means that more than 1 out of 6 people online are looking for help in making a buying decision.
   
• The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that from 2000 to 2002, the number of Americans using the Internet to purchase travel services increased 90%.