Comments on: Why tourist board websites alienate travellers

By: lara dunston

lara dunston — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:41:10 +0000

Great post, David!

Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority’s Visit Abu Dhabi site http://www.visitabudhabi.ae/ is another bad one – heavy on text and short on practicals. Loads of info on traditional poetry for example but no info on where to hear it recited. Having written guidebooks to the place, I’ve got the info, so if I can find this info, I can’t see why they can’t.

I think the Australian sites are pretty bad, as you point out. They all look great, but most are like corporate sites written for their stakeholders, rather than customer-focused sites written for tourists.

By: San DiegoTim

San DiegoTim — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:15:53 +0000

Nice to see I’m not the only one who thinks many tourism boards miss a great opportunity to market their communities. That’s why I created my own version of how I think one should look for my hometown of San Diego, California. I’ve focused just on the attractions for now, organizing them into ‘themes’ and ‘locations’ to help people find attractions that most suit their interests. I’d be grateful to get any suggestions on improving it. Here’s a recent post: http://thebestplacesinsandiego.....san-diego/

By: Nick Booker

Nick Booker — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:21:36 +0000

A map would help Yorkshire South! Likewise in my own area http://www.shakespeare-country.co.uk/ – it seems to be assumed that we all sort of know it’s the Cotswolds but overseas…?

Perhaps someone should pickup one of those Ward Lock Red Guides from a time past – they always had a map to orientate you

They were/are little mines of info on an area

By: Jenny Woolf

Jenny Woolf — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:38:54 +0000

Agree about Spain – except that there was a fantastically efficient lady in Tenerife last year, although she wasn’t anything to do with the website.

One of the biggest problems in trying to find out things from tourism websites is the lack of coordination between neighbouring regions. So if you’re looking out attractions near Wincanton, Somerset (as I was yesterday) you can either try Somerset, or Dorset, or Wiltshire.

The most sensible thing to do is to find a site for a local accommodation business and click “What to do nearby.” The owners, i.e. proper people with some common sense, will usually have listed what you can see and do in the area. (Thank you Empire Farm, near Wincanton. I shall definitely come and buy some of your organic food as recompense for your excellent “What to do near WIncanton” section.)

By: Mary Jo

Mary Jo — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:17:55 +0000

I think some tourist boards, like some bloggers, make the mistake of getting caught up in flash and cool bells and features at the expensive of information and ease of navigation.

I need to find what I’m looking for in 2-3 clicks or I’m going elsewhere.

By: Christine B.Osborne

Christine B.Osborne — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:01:53 +0000

Oh dear, did I ever say the Indonesian Tourist Board once invited me all the way to Bali for a WTO conference. There was no one to greet me at the airport, I had no idea where I was to stay and I had to tramp around hotels at night – after a London flight! – to find my booking. The final straw on the day of the conference, security men on the door, told me I could not come in as I was wearing trousers.Despite the ordeal, I remain very keen on Indonesia but as with other countries, I go in hope, but expect not a lot. (I`ve been waiting for a reply from the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation for three years.)

By: Carl Parkes

Carl Parkes — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:26:06 +0000

I only write about SE Asia, where all the tourist websites are a complete mess, except for Singapore and Hong Kong. You’d think Thailand and Malaysia would get their act together, but their websites are disorganized and use shocking English in many cases. Both the Philippines and Indonesia are basket cases. And aside from Singapore and Hong Kong, the printed tourist information is very, very bad, despite the enormous amounts of money fed to the tourism organizations in both of these countries. It’s a pig’s delight, full of graft and corruption, which has absolutely no interest in helping out tourists.

By: Twitted by friskodude

Twitted by friskodude — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:23:36 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by friskodude [...]

By: Annie Bennett

Annie Bennett — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:24:34 +0000

Was too busy grappling with maddening Castilla y Leon website this morning to reply earlier, trying to quickly (hah!) check a basic, bit of info on Valladolid, the capital of the region. Had to click about 5000 times and do ever more esoteric searches to get anywhere near, as the site is organised by theme, not place, and even a precise search threw up every bloody thing in every village in the province. Even resorted to the dire spain.info, which I hardly ever look at. Agree with Jill that is worse than useless and looks really boring too. And when I finally tracked down what I was looking for, neither had updated their entries with the new info I wanted anyway.

By: David

David — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:03:42 +0000

Thanks for comments, all.

@alex – I’m off to Germany today, but will take a look at your site when I get back.

@matthew – I always wondered about why Zurich went for such a bizarre URL. And you’re spot on with your last sentence – UGC and impartial tourist board waffle are not enough.

@jill – Agree on Spain and Italy. The regionality thing doesn’t help there. Some regions are excellent, others woeful. But the central tourist boards seem to leave things to the regions with minimal co-ordinating effort. Some of the Australian states have good sites, but I usually skip them and just ask for the information I want direct from the media contact – I can’t be arsed to search through the guff most of the time.

@james – That Greece story is superb. As for Swinton, I believe it’s listed under zoos.