Even though 85% of travelers use their smartphones while on holiday and many sites are seeing upwards of 50% of their web traffic originating on mobile devices, only 40% of operators who have websites have optimized them for mobile. It is this gap and the slow uptake of technology that a new online community called Tourism Tribe is hoping to address.
Tourism Tribe is the brainchild of Fabienne Wintle and Liz Ward, who together helped to develop the highly successful Tourism E-Kit for the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW). In recent months, the ATDW has shifted its focus to its core database products and services and away from other projects like the E-Kit.
Fabienne and Liz decided to take up E-Kit and make it available globally.
Tourism Tribe combines 65 tutorials on aspects of marketing and distribution with peer education. There's an active forum of tour, activity, and accommodation providers, plus one-on-one coaching provided by a growing team of experts.
In the three months since its launch, Tourism Tribe has drawn more than 240 businesses and regional tourism staff worldwide. When I chatted with Tourism Tribe co-founder by email, Liz Ward, she said:
“Operators are missing out on business opportunities and growth simply because they have not kept up with IT advancements. The research is quite alarming, and we wanted to create a different type of learning environment to help close the gap."
Tourism Tribe joins the ranks of other popular operator communities, such as the TourCMS Small Fish Big Ocean and the Adventure Travel Trade Association HUB.
Educational services and forums like these can only serve to increase the sophistication and viability of small tourism operators in the global marketplace. Readers are encouraged to share other similar resources in the comments.