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Tourism industry usesWeb to attract visitors

Taking cues from tourism industry experts, San Antonio is expanding its arsenal of Web-based marketing tools to better lure visitors to the Alamo City.

City officials and businesses are using services such as quick-response codes (funky, futuristic squares better known as QR codes), social media sites and mobile phone-based apps to draw traffic, build customer loyalty for repeat visitors, and help track tourism activity. And compared with other popular destinations, San Antonio is using those tools effectively to develop the city's online presence, experts said.

Sandy Smith, director of marketing for San Antonio's Convention & Visitors Bureau , said the city hopes to reach increasingly Web-savvy consumers who are using the Web to plan and share their vacation experiences.

“It takes many different messages and points of contact to really get people to take an action,” Smith said. “We want to make sure San Antonio is top of everyone's mind and create a lot of buzz and engagement.”

The Alamo City is heavily dependent on its tourism industry, and Web-based marketing helps emphasize the city's presence as it competes with other travel hotspots.

According to a study prepared by professors at Trinity University , San Antonio's hospitality industry had an economic impact of $11 billion in 2008. The industry employed 106,000 people — or one out of every eight workers in the San Antonio metro area.

The CVB last week launched a feature on its Facebook page where executive director Casandra Matej will chronicle her exploration of the city. Matej moved to San Antonio from Dallas earlier this year. The CVB also will have a contest called “Becoming a Local” in which users can win prizes if they guess where Matej is located, based on her clues.

Troy Thompson, senior consultant at the Denver-based Travel 2.0 Consulting Group , said the Facebook tactic will help San Antonio engage users by allowing them to help plan Matej's itinerary spontaneously.

“I think that becomes much more powerful and much more impactful for the Facebook fan,” Thompson said. “They'll get to express the experience of their home region to someone who's from Dallas.”

San Antonio's tourism Facebook page had been “liked” by about 15,500 people as of 5 p.m. Monday. The page is more popular than Houston's, which only had been liked by 9,500 people, but less popular than Austin's, which had been liked by 18,500.

Alabama-A Great Location For This Years Meeting | NWA 2011

As chairman of the Broadcast Committee of the National Weather Association I am particularly pleased that the NWA annual meeting will be in Birmingham October 15-20. As hundreds of meteorologists come together in an area hard-hit by tornadoes this year, it is fitting that we’ll be devoting a large portion of our time together not only discussing the science behind the storms that impacted the state, but taking a look at how Alabamans and the nation as a whole have come together to support those hit hard by the deadly storms. Sunday October 16 is devoted entirely to presentations by and for meteorology broadcasters. I love hearing from others in my field and how they cover weather events in their various cities and I always feel enlightened and encouraged by their presentations. Any meteorologist or meteorology student is welcome to attend the NWA conference. Go here for more details: http://www.nwas.org/

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