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Intro to Travel and Tourism PR: Part One by Diane Centeno, APR

Heather Sliwinski 1 Comment

The U.S. Travel Association states that travel and tourism is a $759 billion industry responsible for one out of every nine jobs in the country.  PRSA offers a Travel and Tourism Section completely dedicated to PR professionals working in travel and hospitality organizations.  The industry offers an array of opportunities, from tourism offices to restaurants, cruise lines to airlines and PR agencies specializing in tourism communications.  With a projected decrease in the unemployment rate in the tourism industry in 2011, why not consider a PR career in travel and tourism?  This week, the PR New Pros blog is excited to look further into the world of travel and tourism through the eyes of two seasoned PR professionals—first a general portrayal of PR in travel and tourism with Diane Centeno, APR, the director of marketing for SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, and then a deeper look into the role of the Convention and Visitor Bureau with Kelly Ryan, communications & tourism coordinator at the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau.  Start your summer off right with the first part of our “Intro to Travel and Tourism PR” series with Diane Centeno, APR!

Taking a line from Kenny Chesney’s song “Summertime” couldn’t be more appropriate this time of year.  “Summertime is finally here, that old ballpark, man, is back in gear.”   However, ballparks are not the only thing back in gear.  Summertime signals the peak of vacation travel for millions of individuals and families in the United States.  From transportation industries like airlines and rail travel, to hotels and resorts, amusement parks and beaches, the travel and tourism industry is back in gear, rebounding as the economic downturn finally starts to show signs of waning and consumer confidence returns.

In addition to rebounding growth, the U.S. Travel Association recently unveiled a plan to create 1.3 million jobs in the industry and add $859 billion to the U.S. economy by 2020 in an effort to solidify the appeal of the United States as a tourist destination for world travelers.  The time has never been better to explore a public relations career working in the travel and tourism industry.  It is an excellent professional path that offers opportunity, challenges and the excitement of working for and with world-class destinations and brands.

I have been employed in the travel and tourism industry for the past 11 years working for SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.  While I started my career in healthcare marketing and public relations, which was an incredibly satisfying experience, when a job opportunity for SeaWorld opened, I could not resist the idea of working for a top-notch theme park that had an amazing brand to proactively promote and communicate to moms and families.  I have been able to build relationships with key broadcast, newsprint and magazine outlets across the United States, dive into social media strategies, work with global communication agencies to promote our brands in key markets like the United Kingdom, Brazil and South America, formed partnerships with area Convention & Visitors Bureaus in Virginia and Florida, traveled for competitive research (always fun to visit another tourist attraction in the name of work) and hosted thousands of media personnel at our parks.  While I have ridden roller coasters with reporters to show them our new attractions first hand, toured celebrities and publicized their visits to our parks and traveled with animals for in-studio TV appearances, I have also been able to develop expertise in the areas of public affairs and employee communications in my ever-expanding roles.

As a new public relations practitioner, you may be interested in what types of PR activities you would participate in while working for the travel and tourism industry.  You can expect to cover a range of marketing communications, crisis/public affairs communications and employee communications to provide you with a broad range of skills and scope of practice.  Promotion of your industry, destination and new products allows a practitioner to develop and diversify skills for integrated marketing communications through traditional media channels as well as consumer-centric social platforms.  Industry regulation, safety and legislative initiatives regarding travel allow the new public relations practitioner to become adept at proactive, and sometimes reactive, public affairs communications.  And with more than 7.3 million employed in the tourism sector in the United States, depending upon your role in the organization, you may also have employee communication opportunities that will help further diversify your capabilities as a strong, well-rounded practitioner.

 The travel and tourism industry has allowed me to expand my professional experiences, and I continue to be passionate about my career.  Maintaining membership in PRSA and becoming accredited have also allowed me to build networks that have helped me professionally, as well as create friendships personally.  PRSA membership allows new practitioners to network with seasoned professionals and uncover opportunities in all industries, including travel and tourism.  There are usually a number of internships, as well as entry-level positions available, especially at this time of year, to explore job opportunities and determine whether your career path will be one following the road of travel.

Diane CentenoDiane Centeno, APR, is the director of marketing overseeing advertising, brand development and media strategies for SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment working closely with the Busch Gardens and Sesame Place brands.  She began her career at SeaWorld a decade ago as the communications manager for Busch Gardens and Water Country USA in Williamsburg, Va., and was promoted to senior communications manager for SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica in Orlando, Fla.

Summer Book Club–June: UnMarketing

Heather Sliwinski 1 Comment

Returning this year to the PRSA New Pros Blog is the Summer Book Club.  Thanks to all who tweeted and voted, the Summer Book Club has its first PR read for June—UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. by Scott Stratten!  So visit your local bookstore, download it onto your Kindle or borrow it from a friend, but get your copy today and start reading.

Discussion surrounding UnMarketing starts the first week of July.  Check back with the PRSA New Pros blog, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to join in the conversation.

Here’s what amazon.com has to say about UnMarketing:

From one of the leading experts in viral and social marketing-market your business effectively to today’s customers

For generations, marketing has been hypocritical. We’ve been taught to market to others in ways we hate being marketed to (cold-calling, flyers, ads, etc.). So why do we still keep trying the same stale marketing moves?

UnMarketing shows you how to unlearn the old ways and consistently attract and engage the right customers. You’ll stop just pushing out your message and praying that it sticks somewhere. Potential and current customers want to be listened to, validated, and have a platform to be heard-especially online. With UnMarketing, you’ll create such a relationship with your customers, and make yourself the logical choice for their needs.

  • Shows how to create a mindset and systems to roll out a new, 21st century marketing approach
  • Marketing expert Scott Stratten focuses on a Pull & Stay method (pulling your market towards you and staying/engaging with them, leading them to naturally choose you for their needs) rather than Push & Pray
  • Redefines marketing as all points of engagement between a company and its customers, not just a single boxed-in activity

Traditional marketing methods are leading to diminishing returns and disaffected customers. The answer? Stop marketing, start UnMarketing!

New Pros: What are you hoping to learn from this book?  What specific topics would you like to see in our discussion?

Whether you are spending your summer laying on the beach or traveling for business, make sure you bring along your copy of UnMarketing!

Event PR: the Original Mobile Marketing by Andrea Nourse

Heather Sliwinski 2 Comments

Mobile marketing can mean one of two things. The most recognized meaning today involves smart phones and mobile Internet. The other, more traditional, kind involves hitting the road and bringing a brand or product to the masses. Although the two can, and often do, go hand-in-hand, mobile event marketing presents its own challenges and advantages.

MMA Creative, the agency I work for, represents one of the largest food organizations in the world, and this weekend we kick off two separate tours to promote the nonprofit society. Aside from the hours of logistics that go into these tours, there is also time spent on pre-event PR and marketing through social media that lead up to each of the 20 to 25 stops each tour makes. That adds up to many Tweets.

Being a smaller business, our agency creates everything internally, from press releases and social media to logos, collateral and even truck wraps. Planning for 2011 started long before our 2010 tours ended. As the sole PR practitioner in the agency, I help create and execute this plan.

The PR Plan

For each tour, we create a national press release to announce the tour along with local releases and media advisories for each stop. For our primary tour, we have seven primary sponsors and two secondary sponsors. Two of our primary sponsors also have their own special programming, which includes additional stops and contests. Additionally, a separate partner has its own mobile marketing program. This program creates another layer in the plan, as we target the additional local markets and create a national release to announce the new programs. So on any given week, there are between one and five events going on (two tours and three partner programs), and I am responsible for making sure the local media are out in full effect.

Social Media

The part of mobile marketing that I enjoy the most is using social media—reaching out to and engaging the enthusiasts that make the societies we represent so huge. Even when we are not hosting an event or on the road promoting the client, I am always working hard to ensure that the conversation around our clients and partners continues. Social media is a crucial tool in the success of this effort. Where else can you directly and personally reach out to such a large and diverse audience?

This plan is only a small piece of what goes into producing and managing a mobile marketing tour, but it is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. Our clients and partners invest significant amounts of money into these programs, and our agency must deliver the results they expect. One thing I love about mobile marketing tours is the quick results. Whether it is from handing out samples to event attendees, engaging them in social media conversations or having our tour team interviewed by the local network affiliate, we get real, tangible results that increase awareness for our clients.

Andrea NourseOriginally from Kansas City, Mo., Andrea Nourse moved to Nashville, Tenn., in 2005 to pursue a career in songwriting. Then, in 2006, she enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University, where she studied public relations, marketing and political science. While in college, Nourse worked full-time as the assistant manager for Jos. A. Bank, interned with U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon and, after graduating in May 2010, joined his staff as a field representative and communications assistant. Nourse currently works as a content specialist for MMA Creative, a full-service marketing and advertising agency with offices in Cookeville and Nashville, Tenn., and serves as an At-Large Member of the PRSA New Professionals Section Executive Committee.

Higher education PR: who controls the college website? by Elizabeth Rhoads

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High school students begin their college search online. They explore Princeton Review, US News & World Report and search for some of the colleges they’re familiar with on Google. College students are directed to their college’s website to get more detailed information on a few assignments for the semester. Professors who have completed research in their field want to make sure that their information is on the website for everyone to see.

One of the most crucial parts of public relations in higher education is a website. Considering that the majority of high school students spend quite a bit of time online, a college’s website often serves as the first impression for prospective students. While it’s used as the primary recruiting tool, it also has to serve a couple of other audiences – current students and faculty members. So, websites in higher education are more complicated than they may appear.

Not only does a college website have to serve a few different audiences, but everyone wants to have control over their part of it. I recently read an article that questioned why college websites are so awful, given that faculty and staff in higher education are often perceived as being a very intelligent crowd. Part of the answer is that while there is a common theme and template, every department has their own information that they feel is absolutely essential to display on the website. It’s often impossible for one or two web designers to be able to keep up with all the constant updates and posting, in addition to somewhat serving as a filter to what gets put up online. As a result, many departments are given the ability to update the site, and therefore, the website is actually written by several different people, in several different tones.

The question becomes, who’s the most important audience to serve? The answer depends on the college.

Personally, I believe the most important thing is to have a consistent tone throughout the entire website that is appealing to prospective students. Although a second person, conversational style was rare years ago, it has become more common. Rather than trying to formally convey the college, or departments’, mission and vision, I believe simply stating the benefits of the college (or department) in a conversational style is the best way to communicate with prospective students through a website. As for the faculty – often times they don’t have much time to dedicate to posting content on the website, which gives someone else an opportunity to write for them. That’s where we come in – who could be better for the job than a PR professional?

Elizabeth RhoadsElizabeth Rhoads currently serves as the Web Content Coordinator for a small liberal arts college in Central Pennsylvania. She graduated from Susquehanna University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Communications. She is an alumna of the White House Internship Program.  Rhoads serves the PRSA New Professionals Section Executive Committee as Programming Chair.

pr strategy… The Dangers of Social Media Marketing by Travis K. Kircher

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I spent four years working as an assignment editor for a local TV station. We covered a host of fatal accidents, homicides, house fires, etc. One of the first things we did when we got word of a fatality, whether the death was a tragic accident or the result of foul play, was hit Facebook and MySpace up to see if they had an account. If they were young, chances were they did. And chances were, it was an open account. That is, any member of the public could access it.

I can remember one instance in particular when we were covering a fatal accident involving a young person. As soon as we got the identification from the coroner I ran his name, and, sure enough, there was his profile page, his smiling face beaming eerily from the computer screen. Already his friends had gotten word of the tragedy and were posting memorial messages on his wall. It became standard practice for the media to show those photos and read these messages on the air.

When people stop to think that they might wake up one day to see the contents of their MySpace or Facebook pages as a topic for discussion on the morning news, many of them bristle. Isn’t that a little below the belt? After all, what business does the media have delving into people’s private lives?

This is the lesson all of us must learn: As long as your profile page is open to the public, IT IS NOT YOUR PRIVATE LIFE. When an agitated husband writes, “I hate my wife!” on his evening status update, it’s no different than purchasing ad space on a 250’ x 500’ digital sign in Times Square and announcing it to the world.

The media will investigate anything in the public record, and an open Facebook account IS public record. And it may not just be the media thumbing through your MySpace photos. Prospective employers, loan officers, ex-girlfriends, sexual predators, your boss, and Osama bin Laden could all be checking you out.

Like individuals, businesses can often be careless about their social media accounts. When setting up a MySpace or Facebook page, it is critical for marketers and public relations professionals to keep the following tips in mind:

  • Keep business and pleasure separate on social media. A business owner who already has a personal account under his name should not use that same account for business purposes. Clients don’t want to hear you “shoot the breeze.” They want to see professionalism and expertise. Keep one account for fun, and the other for business.
  • Double-check the privacy settings on your social media accounts. Facebook and MySpace give you the option of making your accounts public or private. It’s a no brainer that any high level executives with personal accounts should have them set to “private.” Business pages will likely be public.
  • Be aware of potential exposure to litigation. Don’t post any content to your Facebook page without first determining whether you have the legal right to do so. Posting images of minors may pose a problem if you don’t have parent’s permission.
  • Monitor your social media networks. One of the most dangerous things a business can do is open a social media account and then forget it is there. Entire conversations may have taken place and accusations may have been leveled against your company without your knowledge. Take an active, aggressive, and vigilant approach to the way you handle your account, and be quick to nip any problems in the bud before they explode into a PR nightmare.
  • Don’t post anything to social media you wouldn’t say to Larry King. You have no idea who is accessing your account. Even if it’s closed to the public, one of your friends could save images from your page and e-mail them to others. Anything posted on a social media account should be run through the PR office first. You should also be aware that once it’s up, it’s permanent. You may take it down, but that doesn’t mean someone hasn’t already seen it, saved it,and distributed it to others.

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TRAVIS K. KIRCHER is an independent copywriter and founder of WriteNow Creative Services, which does indeed have a Facebook account (feel free to join.) He can be reached at tkircher@writenowcs.com.