Each theme page is going to become quite long as more experiences are added. As these grow, perhaps the site could integrate a tag cloud (see below for a wiki definition or view Flickr’s popular photos tag cloud) onto each page to highlight the diversity of experiences along with their popularity.

For example, I’m a keen cricket fan and have read two related comments. I think it would be useful if i could click a ‘cricket’ link that would filter the relevant comments.

*A tag cloud is a visual depiction of user-generated tags used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and are typically listed alphabetically, and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color. Thus both finding a tag by alphabet and by popularity is possible. The tags are usually hyperlinks that lead to a collection of items that are associated with a tag.

I’m not sure why the US hasn’t marketed itself before as a destination as opposed to just individual states or other entities. The tourism push will no doubt aim to improve the country’s image overseas and help stimulate the economy.

The site is little more than a holding page at the moment but I’m sure one that gains plenty of traffic. One of the key aims should be to collect emails, not necessarily for special offers as indicated in the sign up form, more for visitors to be notified of the launch. I think this should have been placed much higher up the page.

Here is a link to the TV ad by M&C Saatchi.

I met up for a coffee with Richard Miller and Don Montague during the World Travel Market to find out more about the site.

Richard worked at the World Travel & Tourism Council for over 16 years culminating in a role as the Executive Vice President. In 2007 he joined MMG Worldwide, a NYC based firm specialising in marketing for the travel and hospitality sector and where Don is Chairman and CEO.

There is a holding page at www.TourismROI.com and downloadable brochure. They are beta testing the site at the moment with a number of destinations and plan to soft launch early this year. TourismROI has ambitious plans to be the world’s largest collection of tourism information and research for more than 6,200 destinations whilst providing a b2b networking platform that offers real value to destinations. The idea for the project was conceived early last year and was met with plenty of interest from investors and destinations. I’ve listed below a few of the problems that the site aims to solve and how they plan to do it.

Why TourismROI?

TourismROI aims to solve two main problems:

a) Network – Expensive and exhausting processes for destinations to find the right partners for investment and development and vice versa.

b) Information – Diverse and hard-to-find research sources covering latest trends, policies, statistics, incentives and forecasts.

TourismROI aims to provide this information and platform to connect suitable parties to speed up the business decision making process.

TourismROI features

1. Investment opportunities – worldwide visibility in a comprehensive and standardised framework. These range from opportunities from destinations, local and multinational corporations, business/hotel brokers.

2. Destination-specific tourism information – including strategy and master plans, research, facts and figures, reports and analysis.

3. Publications and research to buy or in the public domain – focusing on marketing/promotion, policy, economics, development and investment trends.

4. Visibility and access to investors – along with funding sources, buyers, partners and professional service providers.

5. Visibility for Travel & Tourism professional services, research and consulting firms.

6. A up-to-date network for events, investment conferences, requests for proposals and Travel & Tourism trade associations.

Site screenshots

1. Home

2. Destinations

3. Investment opportunities

4. Business opportunities

5. MyTourismROI

Site visitors are encouraged to upload videos of themselves in their favourite places at Visit My Baltimore.

My own perception, rightly or wrongly, is a large city in Maryland with high crime levels and an odd sounding baseball team. (A few years living in Chicago gave me an early love for the game) So quite a limited and imbalanced view then!

Personal experiences like this can help alter perceptions and the amateur video production adds to the authenticity. I think it’s a great idea. Stories create emotion and are easy to remember. People buy on emotion and stories are easier to relate to than copy on a DMO or related site.
For anyone who has used video sharing sites like YouTube the layout and functionality should be familiar.

Users create an account, upload a video and give it a description, category and assign it any number of tags. Below each video are links to some of the places mentioned for further reading.

Below that are thumbs of related videos. Site users can sort the 70 or so videos by rating or category. The one above from Steve is his own irreverent tour of the city with an emphasis on food spots. He also shows us where to park for over an hour for a quarter (or 15p!).

Online book and event brochure over at http://emmm.co.uk/tmi/.

There are plenty of views expressed on designer’s sites and on the whole they are negative. The attention is hardly surprising given the wide ranging views people will have surrounding how a country is represented by a symbol.

Prodi comments that Italy should have “a graphic symbol which delivers a message”. What message does the symbol portray to you? How important is a logo in determining the success of a country’s brand? Does the green shape remind you of mini golf, the shape of Italy or something else?

I came across the new logo yesterday afternoon and after a second look today I’m perched on the uninspired side of the fence. One of my main criticisms is the use of four fonts, differing weights and mixed cases. It emotes a tired, complicated and inconsistent feel.

For a short while, I wondered if the green shape symbolised the Italian land mass, however, the intended meaning of the soft lettering is to represent “movement, flexibility and imagination”. This may be the case nonetheless it instilled a degree of confusion.

The long and the short
The logo above is the full version and the abbreviated two letter configuration to the right will be the primary identity, a practical approach bearing in mind the country’s top level domain is .it.

How does the logo reflect my view of Italy as a potential visitor?
I’ve been to Italy on only one occasion, a week backpacking through cities and tourist attractions on a much forgotten but fondly remembered train trip. The hustle and bustle of Rome certainly ties in with the manic like feelings stirred up by this logo. Art and design, culture, history and fashion are areas that come to mind as Italy’s key strengths. These elements evoke sophistication and craft not apparent in this logo.

Italy is already one of the world’s most desirable tourist destinations, coming third in the second global Country Brand Index of 2006, therefore does it matter that much if the rest of the new Italy brand is strong? Not really.

However, I don’t think that’s the point – I believe an opportunity has been missed to create a more unified statement.

A poster comments that the ‘it’ mark as a standalone works well with the three elements and certainly the shortened version is not as convoluted. He makes a point that the green shape may intentionally be shoeless, to go in the face of the boot cliche and that it emphasises the more accessible north, where more major tourism destinations are located. Not sure of Italy’s tourism statistics but I would think areas such as Tuscany and Sicily, amongst others, make up a high percentage.

Leaving aside the inevitable, insatiable demands of designers, creating a logo for a country must be an incredibly difficult and challenging exercise and time will tell how the logo supplements the international and wide ranging branding efforts that will follow.

Links

• Italia: Like you’ve Never Seen it Before – Opinions on corporate and brand identity work.
• designerblog and SocialDesignZine – Italian design blogs discussing logo, recommend Babelfish for translation.
• Ansa.it article covering the launch of the new logo and slogan.

The campaign rides on the back of this spurt of interest and ties in with Britain’s rich musical past and the Cavern club’s forthcoming 50th anniversary and encourages site visitors to visit the locations and destinations linked to icons past and present.

Visitors browse a database organised into four categories (Beatlemania, Festivals, Places of Interest and Venues) and ten English regions. Results are displayed in a Flash driven jukebox and alongside a Google powered map pinpoints each place of interest, with up to 200 at present.

I like the campaign. Let’s take a closer look at the site and how it operates.

The image above is a screenshot of the underlay graphic that the jukebox and map sits on.

The screenshot to the right shows the flash Jukebox in mid motion displaying places of interest in the South East and you can cycle through listings depending on the number. The text size could be a little bigger and clearer, particularly the description of each event.

Selecting a place of interest kicks the map into action, honing into that location and further details are found on a pop up including external links, an image and an audio snippet (see below for more screenshots).

I like the way the site operates off the one page – one thought to avoid the pop ups would be to relocate the instructions element. Perhaps more use could be made of the mapping feature, when a region is selected, the map could display that specific area so that the visitor can see what is closer to their own location.

This festive season has again seen big increases in the number of people purchasing online. Whether it is down to improved content, increased trust in the medium or other factors such as convenience or bulk buying, the uptake in users booking their holidays online looks set to continue to rise. One example is Cumbria Tourism who have recently conducted a visitor survey and have found that internet bookings has tripled in four years, representing almost a third of all bookings. No doubt this is helped with a terrific site. The site scores highly from an accessibility perspective and is very easy to use. Coupled with great content that is presented in the various themes playing to the area’s strengths (such as lakes/outdoors and more topically Beatrix Potter) and a good balance between information and images the site provides an excellent browsing experience.

[Source: TravelMole]