Tourism Montreal
Jean-Nicholas Lacoste got in touch about two websites Tourism Montreal have launched. www.play-montreal.com broadcasts a weekly podcast and www.ifoundmymontreal.com gives visitors the opportunity to share their experiences of the city and read/comment on what other visitors have said.

Lessno.com
Scott Ziber contacted me about the launch of Lessno.com, specialising in discount air fares for international travellers.

A quick surf around their site and blog this morning voice these brand values. The bright bold blog concentrates on personal and shared insights on the places to be, and a link on their home page profiling the world’s ugliest planes.

The home page is simple, concentrating on a large and clear fare search - the two other main links are to a blog post and survey on whether travel prices are fair. They are using a ‘Live chat’ feature, another excellent way to communicate with site visitors. I’d like to see a FAQs section and a predictive airport feature on the form.

Tourism 2007 Conference
Couple of things on this fast approaching conference that I mentioned in July. An email update on the conference shows a strong emphasis on using online marketing to drive sales. Of note they’ll be looking at integrating traditional and Web 2.0 campaigns, building brands with social media tools and making the most of new trends in search engine optimisation.

They also plan to keep the conference site updated with podcasts - hear a summary from Oliver,the conference organiser.

E-Consultancy interview with Warner Breaks’ Mat Finch on silver surfers.

‘Marketing Travel Online is discussed on TalkShoe.com – some Highlights‘ - Alicia Whalen’s podcast summary on brand building with social media.

Yahoo! launches Trip Planner in the UK

Two reviews of the recently launched widgets from STA Travel, Alex Bainbridge and Futurelab

I recently came across this June editorial from HOTELS magazine (Thanks to Jens).

“Travel 2.0 - As the Internet evolves, latest tactics and new rules change the way hotel marketers reach customers.”

It looks at a number of examples that demonstrate the importance of online experiences that add value to hotel web sites and build communities.

In this post I’ve pulled together some of these examples and a few others. Unfortunately the article does not link to the external sites mentioned.

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