Will Augmented Reality fuel a new demand for print in tourism?

Ok, so what have I learned from the world of tourism this week? Very little actually. Well, very little with specific regard to tourism, but it has been a week of Augmented Reality.

Hopefully AR will inevitably become more widespread in tourism as it lends itself perfectly to our industry. Entry level costs may be a major barrier though for the majority of applications in tourism at the moment, but there are certainly a lot more examples emerging.

There was an excellent AR seminar laid on by Software Alliance Wales on Thursday and that followed a great catch up with Jon in Visit Wales who has to be one of the most inspiring digital strategists (and practitioners) that I’ve met. Always a pleasure and always useful.

The event that followed was equally as good where we were shown some great examples of AR on retail labels using the Blippar app, AR glasses that are gathering pace and even the remote possibility of AR contact lenses. Pie in the sky? Who knows?
(Given the pace of change, you can’t rule anything out these days which makes horizon scanning particularly challenging!).

One of the most exciting AR releases this week was the Black Eyed Peas app for 69p on iTunes (search for BEP 360). This is ground breaking and no doubt the start of a new wave of music media but what interests me is how AR could potentially inject new life and dynamism into printed media.

As more and more ads, billboards, lifestyle magazines are increasingly starting to apply AR, will the market start craving more print media that offers opportunities to experience AR? Will be soon see AR jumping out of holiday brochures and print runs and distribution climbing again? It certainly throws an interesting twist into the ‘need for print’ debate that’s for sure!

A week of change in tourism in Wales

Been a week of change.  Towards the end of one tourism contract, starting another and smack bang in the middle of a few more. It’s been a week of presenting  too. One to the Mid Wales Tourism Partnership updating them on our progress with the Digital Tourism Marketing Framework and one yesterday in Bridgend chairing a panel discussion on the future of heritage interpretation in Wales. Both great.  It’s nice to be involved in a tourism contract in Mid Wales, after all, it’s where I’m from, based, where I play and now work.

I suppose a key learning has been how difficult it is for everyone to try to keep up with the curve in digital marketing and why we should accept this, but destinations should possibly provide a resource or a hub for project concepting, brief designing and idea generation.    In other words, there are people out there who are ahead of the curve, who live and breathe digital applications 24/7 and are at the cutting edge.  A kind of a sounding board or surgery, but could this be provided by philanthropists wishing to give something back to a place they love?

This model seems to work well at national level with the Wales Digital Tourism Steering Group so maybe this is worth looking at in other destinations too. If not, it costs, but in Wales at least, the recent tender put out by Visit Wales should be applauded as they are seeking to contract a company to undertake horizon scanning in digital tourism and for this to be shared with everyone involved. Great.

There’s been a bit of a buzz for me around Google + this week and how businesses should explore this and as ever Augmented Reality in tourism continues to jump all over me everyday. Starting to form a project in Bridgend based on Augmented Reality, and its amazing how the acceptance of new technology amongst traditional heritage groups has gathered pace and energy in the area.  This could be good, and one to keep an eye on for sure.

Finally, started a new contract working with the Valleys Regional Park in South Wales and this is an exciting one, really looking forward to it. Again, it’s where I’m from as Ystradgynlais though just in Mid Wales is of course, smack bang in Swansea Valley too.  The emergence of the Valleys as a destination has progressed massively over the last couple of years with a campaign aimed at community ownership and pride first, but phase 2 is now about visitors, tourism development and perception changing.  Challenging, interesting and for me, self motivating.    http://www.thevalleys.co.uk

I am, we all are, we have to.

Decided its time to blog again. After all, I spend half my life telling everyone else to do it in tourism. I think I’m going to start creating a weekly summary of anything I’ve learned throughout the week. I’m still learning, of course. I am, we all are, we have to.

The world of digital tourism is moving at such a pace it’s hard not to pick up on something new everyday. I use twitter for that, I use twitter as a search engine for knowledge and ideas. Some people look at me a bit strange when I say that it but for me, its essential.  OK, I do use it to push interesting info out too but I’m less of an ‘engager’ on it. I honestly think I’ve learned more from twitter in the last three years than I did from my entire higher education, and it’s that thought, that has given me an idea to blog again.  I think I want to start a weekly summary of what I’ve learned the week before in digital tourism and blast it out on twitter.  It may actually reveal to a lot of people how little I know, but so what, nothing to hide in this corner. At least its honest, a from of  TruTourism even (!), open and a form of Collaborative consumption I guess – the one big lesson I’ve learned from TED this week.

Right, off to coach rugby (my other passion in life).

Why twitter works for tourism, a quick example.

During my #idiotathome social media experiment whilst on holiday at our own self catering place last week (yep, staycation to the ‘nth’ degree!), I was asking the twitter community each morning where I should go that day depending on the weather etc. If ever there was a good authentic example of using twitter in tourism, this is it…..

Last Monday I tweeted a request where I should go that day.  A surf company in Gower got back to me saying that the surf was great, ‘why not bring your boys down to us for a lesson’.’ I did. And what’s more it was fantastic.  So good in fact that I posted a review on Tripadvisor, tweeted how good it was and also casually mentioned that my boys were hooked and now wanted to buy wetsuits.  The owner of the company once more via twitter got back to me having picked up on this, and tweeted me a special offer code to allow us on buy wetsuits at a discounted rate from his online shop. Great communication and relationship building.

As it happens, we didn’t buy the wetsuits (yet anyway!) but it clearly illustrates how twitter alone converted a sale and also may have resulted in some cross-selling.

The company is called SurfGSD by the way in case you’re wondering.  Highly recommended.

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During our social media ‘whilst on holiday’ experiment, we were staying at Milkwood House a five star luxury apartment overlooking Swansea Bay in Wales.

Our activity was posted on twitter @trutourism under #idiotathome

Our daily blogs posts from the week can be viewed by clicking the category ‘idiot at home’.

Our pics from the experiment can be viewed on the #idiotathome set on Flickr

Social media whilst on holiday, what do you use? Interesting survey results.

Following my#idiotathome exploits during my buss-man’s holiday at Milkwood House in Swansea recently (where I seemed to be tweeting, blogging and flicking every hour under the sun!), it was interesting to come across this survey earlier this week.

A recent Trip Advisor survey which questioned 1000 people who use social media, about their social media exploits whilst on holiday and found that:

96% of respondents  say they use Facebook, while 48% use LinkedIn and 38% use Twitter.

71% of respondents say they check their Facebook account at least once per day.

62% of people say they post updates to social media sites while traveling. Of that segment:

- 89% share status updates on what they’re doing and seeing.

- 86% share photos.

- 46% share TripAdvisor reviews.

About half of travelers (48%) say they will begin to use social media more in the coming years.

Some interesting stuff there.  I found the first insight above relating to Facebook, Linked in and Twitter quite staggering. I’m surprised that Facebook was almost used twice as much as twitter, and linked-in was used more than twitter too. It was the other way round for me last week.  Interesting piece of work though.  Would be valuable to conduct a UK based survey on this as I gather this was a global sample so I’m assuming it carries a US bias?

Further survey details here: http://bit.ly/o7t203

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During our own social media ‘whilst on holiday’ experiment, we were staying at Milkwood House a five star luxury apartment overlooking Swansea Bay in Wales.

Our activity was posted on twitter @trutourism under #idiotathome

Our daily blogs posts from the week can be viewed by clicking the category ‘idiot at home’.

Our pics from the experiment can be viewed on the #idiotathome set on Flickr

An Idiot at Home, the finale!

The final day of my #idiotathome experiment came and went.  9 days spent in our own apartment in Swansea and this was the last shot which fittingly concluded our holiday and also summed it up to.  There’s enough activity within the confines of the sweep of Swansea Bay in the pic above to keep even the most demanding of kids occupied (not that I’m saying my two are demanding of course! Well, I’m only implying it).  Apols for the attempt at photography, it was taken at 10pm from Verdis in Mumbles with an iphone.  Clever little app through called photosynch if anyone’s interested.

Yep, as irresponsible parents, we were indeed out at 10pm in Mumbles on a school night (but they have broken up!) eating ice cream.  Verdis is usually very busy but the service is always excellent but at night, there’s a great atmosphere there.  Quite subdued but when the bay lights up and the skies are clear, there’s nowhere better really.  Truth is we were celebrating my mother in laws birthday, and we didn’t fancy the desert menu at the Grape and Olive at the top of the Meridian Tower in Swansea, the tallest building in Wales, so we left in between courses (but what an incredible view from up there, that has to be one of the most spectacular views you can experience from a restaurant anywhere!).  I’m surprised we haven’t been there more often to be honest, as Milkwood House is in spitting distance.  Please don’t spit though. It’s not nice kids.

Earlier that day, it was Caswell Bay again with the Kayak this time, and the kids did some boarding.  The wetsuits we bought earlier in the week were a massive hit, they stayed in the water for about 2 hours, Michelle supervised whilst I had the better deal.  I sneaked off in the Kayak along the cliffs to the secluded Brandy Cove (once a smugglers hideaway, hence the name), where there was no talk of Swansea winning promotion to the Premiership, as I had left the Jack Army behind firmly on the beach.  This is often one of the criticisms of Caswell, its a beautiful setting, but often a bit of a local hotspot.  You spend the afternoon avoiding people you saw earlier that day putting their rubbish out.  Great if you’re a tourist though, and of course, I was a tourist this week!

So, that’s it.  Thanks for listening. May do more #idiotathome posts throughout the Summer I’m sorry to say, but bye for now.

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We’re staying at Milkwood House a five star luxury apartment overlooking Swansea Bay in Wales.

Follow us this week in real time on twitter @trutourism or #idiotathome

View our pics from this week on our #idiotathome set on Flickr

An Idiot at Home Day 8: Kayaks and Dinosaurs

Swansea Bay Panorama, a photo by TruPlaces on Flickr.

First things first. We need to get the kayak down here and guess who had to fetch it and endeavour the 17 minute journey north into the depths of the Swansea Valley. Me. Quite a depressing 17 minutes, felt like I was going home, well I was, but not home ‘home’, more like home for ‘a bit’. The bit lasted a lot longer than I thought though, trying to get the kayak on the inflatable roof rack was a challenge.

Upon arrival back at Milkwood, there were two boys, wetsuited-up, waiting patiently by the entrance to the undergrou car park, which incidentally was where we were going to store the thing too!

10 minutes later, we were on Swansea beach and in the water. At last, the Eagle had landed. The first time since the kayak miraculously managed to get itself down the chimney for Christmas (that’s another blog post in its own right believe me!), the ship had touched water. The kids (and Dad) loved it, Mam looked like she was enjoying her book too, this was the first hot and sunny day of the week, but it hadn’t made the slightest bit of difference, we still did everything that we wanted.

After 4 hours of kayaking, sand sculpturing again (I use the term ‘sculpture’ in the loosest sense possible), sandy sandwiches and we were done. On the way back, Owain found what he thought was a dinosaur, it turned out to be the dried skeleton of a chameleon, (thanks to my twitter followers for confirming that), but what on earth it was doing near the beach, we have no idea. Anyway, another great afternoon. Wetsuit management is proving to be a bit of a challenge though!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop was Swansea City Centre. Kids fancied a pizza, so we popped over to Pizza Express next to Swansea Castle. Despite this being a fast food chain, I think its a notch above the others in the fast food league. Lovely surroundings, impressed me that they had reflected local sense of place with a great portrait of Dylan Thomas and Russel T Davies (of Dr Who fame) quotes on the walls. Great to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice atmosphere in this place too, we enjoyed ourselves and not ashamed to admit it. The mushroom starter was amongst the best I’ve had anywhere. In fact, if I had received that in an independent restaurant somewhere, I would have been raving about it. A nice evening which ended with an Indian celebration taking place on the beach outside Milkwood. There was fire, song and what appeared to be Kabadi (I think that’s how you spell it!), the traditional and often quite violent game they play in a circle. So nice to see in the dark. Another memorable day over.

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We’re staying at Milkwood House a five star luxury apartment overlooking Swansea Bay in Wales.

Follow us this week in real time on twitter @trutourism or #idiotathome

View our pics from this week on our #idiotathome set on Flickr

An Idiot at Home Day 7: Hot Dog, Dick Barton & Julia

Surf-paddling, a photo by TruPlaces on Flickr.

We’d been threatening all week to get the boys new wetsuits and buoyancy aids, and today was the day. Decided to buy these from the greatly named Hot Dog Surf Shop in Kittle because the owner, used to live in the village I grew up in. Some people in Wales call it ‘village-ism’, we’re a loyal old bunch.

First stop en route was lunch – unhealthy lunch yet again but a must at lest once when you’re on holiday in this area – fish and chips at Dick Bartons Fish and Chip shop in West Cross, that’s along the sweep of Swansea Bay on your way to Mumbles. You wont miss it. Dick Barton was a radio show I think based on a private investigator? Not sure why there’s a chip shop named after him in Mumbles but it’s clever marketing, and has been around for about 70 years apparently. Actually, I think I took Michelle there on one of our first dates before we got married (I knew how to treat a woman right in those days!). Anyway, great fish and chips, now its off to the Hot Dog.

What a shop. Small on the outside, but like a tardis on the inside. ‘There’s not much he don’t sell’ we were told, and it felt like we bought half the shop, and immediately bounced down to Caswell for the boys to try everything out, including their new body boards. Incredibly, you don’t need surf for the boys to surf, they kind of find it. The wetsuits meant that we couldn’t get them out of the water even after two hours but they had a whale (sorry!) of a time. Caswell was great and the waves started to roll in, well enough for them to surf a bit anyway. They loved it once again, their new addiction fueled. Next challenge was wetsuit management, definitely need some tips on this!

So, back to Milkwood House, and out on the bikes along the prom again. Still no seal in Swansea Marina’s lock, only once we have ever seen him there but told he does pop his head up now and again. Onwards. Up to Swansea Pier and this time we caught Julia sailing off into the sunset. ‘Julia’ is the Swansea – Cork Ferry which rattled like mad when it finally got moving. “I hope those aren’t the cars Dad” said Cynan. “Me too”. Glad we weren’t on it, we’re having a ball in Swansea thank you very much!

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We’re staying at Milkwood House a five star luxury apartment overlooking Swansea Bay in Wales.

Follow us this week in real time on twitter @trutourism or #idiotathome

View our pics from this week on our #idiotathome set on Flickr

Milkwood House self catering now available this Summer!

Owing to a sudden last minute cancellation of an extended booking throughout the Summer, Milkwood House has just become available for the rest of July and August 2011. So if you’re looking for a last minute self catering holiday in Wales, there’s now a rare chance to stay in one of the top self catering properties in Wales, overlooking the beach in Swansea. Ideal for families to play on the beach, even better for early morning and evening strolls. A very quiet and exclsuive part of Swansea Bay.

Close to Mumbles and Gower beaches, Milkwood House, which sleeps between 4-6, even provides you with free adult bikes to explore the area – the Celtic Trail cycle path and Swansea to Mumbles coastal footpath runs right passed us.  Week long lets at our last minute deal rates from £650, or 3 night short breaks from £350 are aboth vailable. Call or txt us on 07747866052.  See www.milkwoodhouse.com for additional information.

You can also follow us on twitter @trutourism, see our pics on flickr or join the Milkwood House Facebook page

An Idiot at Home Day 6: Wheels, Feet and Huts

Beach-Huts, a photo by TruPlaces on Flickr.

Yep, this was certainly a day for wheels, feet and beach huts. Wheels first, and the cycle ride from Milkwood House along the coast to Mumbles, those of you who know it, will know how pleasant this is. Sun shining, hungry bellies, my eyes were firmly fixed on our destination in the distance, ‘Verdi’s for lunch’ (a very frequent phrase used in these parts).

Verdi’s is probably one of the most popular stops along the West Wales coast, great coffee, Italian food and commanding views over Swansea Bay. Before getting there though, we had to stop at every piece of outdoor gym kit that’s dotted along the route, and of course, at the outdoor Lido at Blackpill. Took us 2 hours to finally arrive at Mumbles, park our bikes up and attack Verdis.

Great lunch, and decided to do another section of the Gower Coastal path, this time from Mumbles Pier to Langland Bay, so off we set. Boys not that happy until they spotted the seals on the rocks just off Mumbles Head. The walk was a little more challenging that the day before but still very easy with once again spectacular views. Arrived at a great cafe in Rotherslade overlooking the beach (that’s right next door to Langland) and stayed there for ages – it started hammering down, but there were far worse places to be. Kids had time to fuel up and half a chocolate muffin each later, they were mental, and gave us a break because they practically ran the whole way back to Mumbles. Picked up our bikes that were waiting for us (thankfully) outside Verdis, and after a 4 mile round walk, the thought of another 3 miles on a bike didn’t excite me too much I must admit.

Kids were shattered, Michelle was shattered, and I was….. dead. Could barely pop over the shop across the road from Milkwood to hire a film, which I fell asleep watching and way before the end. This was another great day on holiday in the Bay, and one without the car too!

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We’re staying at Milkwood House a five star luxury apartment overlooking Swansea Bay in Wales.

Follow us this week in real time on twitter @trutourism or #idiotathome

View our pics from this week on our #idiotathome set @ Flickr