2009 Indiana Tourism Summit Wrapup – Smaller Indiana – Pat Coyle

Pat Coyle presented at the 2009 Indiana Tourism Summit about social media web trends and, specifically, Smaller Indiana. Pat created Smaller Indiana in January, 2008 and it has become a hub for Hoosiers who want to connect with one another in an effort to strengthen community, commerce and culture. Pat talked about some of the keys to Smaller Indiana’s success:

• Plausible Promise – Make People Findable
  • Smaller Indiana makes people findable through the platform they have created.
• Rules/Governance
  • Members must use their real names. This fosters community because you’re interacting with a real person, not just an internet screen name (think of the difference between Facebook and MySpace).
• Hyper-local
  • Smaller Indiana focuses on Indiana, so there’s already a built-in demographic. Nearly half of the visits to the site come from outside of Indiana, but everything on the site is related to the Hoosier State.
• Offline Activities
  • Smaller Indiana Bigger Ideas conference
  • Indy Fringe Festival
  • Live/Streamed Healthcare Debate

Smaller Indiana has great potential to help Hoosier tourism entities and they should absolutely become involved in the site. Check out Pat’s entire presentation below.

Pat Coyle is among a new breed of digital pioneers who are inventing business strategies inspired by emerging technologies. Pat is also the founder of Smaller Indiana (SmallerIndiana.com), and online platform which strengthens community, commerce and culture in Indiana. Before opening his own firm, Pat was the executive director of digital business at the Indianapolis Colts, where he lead an interactive staff responsible for the Colts’ digital businesses. Coyle remains involved with the Colts as general manager of MyColts.net, a sociable network for Colts fans. Based on his Colts experiences, Coyle also leads an online community for digital sports marketers at SportsMarketing20.com. He facilitates Sports Marketing 2.0 conferences throughout the U.S., and maintains a popular sports marketing blog at PatCoyle.net. Coyle earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Hamilton College in 1988. Pat, his wife Amy and their five children reside in Indianapolis.

The Tourism Tech Corner has a new home!

The Tourism Tech Corner Blog has now moved. Don’t worry, we’re still going to bring you great tips about Social Media, Web Marketing and Technology in the Tourism Industry, we’ll just be doing it at a new location (http://www.in.gov/visitindiana/techcorner/).

Be sure to Bookmark the new Visit Indiana Blog. If you’ve already subscribed to the blog through our RSS feed or via Email, you don’t need to worry, you’ll keep receiving updates like you always have. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can get updates sent to you via RSS or Email.

2009 Indiana Tourism Summit Wrapup – TNS Research: Webtrends – John Packer

John Packer, from TNS Research, was the first presenter at the 2009 Indiana Tourism Summit. John brought his expertise in both web marketing and the tourism industry for his presentation and there are some absolutely fascinating statistics included. Here are some of the highlights of his presentation, followed by the PowerPoint itself.

Five Emerging Travel Marketing Trends:

1. Travelers are still traveling and can be influenced
   • 31% of visitors to VisitIndiana.com are extremely more likely to visit Indiana after seeing the site
   • 54% of visitors are very likely to visit Indiana after seeing the site (score of 7-10 out of 10)
2. Affordability is the watchword
   • 79% of respondents said that Affordability was very or extremely important when planning a trip
3. Search is still King
   • Many more people find out about VisitIndiana.com via search than any other medium
4. Travelers are shopaholics
   • 63% of visitors to VisitIndiana.com are shopping around for their vacation destination – many people are looking at several states within driving distance
5. Websites are money well spent
   • 48% of all visitors to VisitIndiana.com are potential travelers to Indiana 50% actually end up traveling to Indiana after visiting VisitIndiana.com
   • For every $1 spent on VisitIndiana.com and web advertising, the state of Indiana experiences $1,071 in visitor spending

Here is John Packer’s presentation:

John Packer is a vice president in the Travel & Leisure segment for TNS Research. He is a marketing research professional with over 15 years of client and supplier experience. His primary responsibilities at TNS are working with travel and tourism clients to fully understand their business issues an then working with team members to design and execute research programs that will help travel and tourism clients succeed. Previous marketing research postions with increasing responsibilities were MarketVision Research, D.K. Shifflet & Associates an SnowSports Industries America. he is the pas president of Travel and Tourism Research Association International, and he is affiliated with numerous professional societies. Educationally, he holds a BA (Physics) from the University of Connecticut and an MA (Tourism Administration) from George Washington University.

The Tourism Tech Corner has a new home!

The Tourism Tech Corner Blog has now moved. Don’t worry, we’re still going to bring you great tips about Social Media, Web Marketing and Technology in the Tourism Industry, we’ll just be doing it at a new location (http://www.in.gov/visitindiana/techcorner/).

Be sure to Bookmark the new Visit Indiana Blog. If you’ve already subscribed to the blog through our RSS feed or via Email, you don’t need to worry, you’ll keep receiving updates like you always have. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can get updates sent to you via RSS or Email.