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A practitioner's report on blogs as a potential source of destination marketing intelligence

Kitzbühel Tourist Board, Kitzbühel, Austria, s.puehringer@kitzbühel.com

Andrew Taylor

School for Social & Policy Research at Charles Darwin University

A primary role of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) is to facilitate industry access to market intelligence and to ensure that operators understand their markets (both existing and emerging). Web logs, or blogs, are a relatively new form of market intelligence arising from peer to peer communication over the internet. The extent to which the content of blogs may augment DMO activities is unknown but is likely to depend on operator predisposition to e-strategies in general. This study reports on a survey of Kitzbühel Tourism operator's current online strategies andtheir level of awareness about blogs. The results show, while a core of businesses already monitor blogs in a strategic way, they may be struggling to meaningfully apply the fruits of these activities. A role for DMOs like Kitzbühel Tourism in moving operators forward in this area is identified. It is hoped that the practitioner's articulation of this role will provide other DMOs with ideas for the strategic use of what is currently a relatively untapped source of market information.

Key Words: blogs • market analysis • tourism information • web logs

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