Hey Travel Agents: get a wiki!

If there's one piece of advice I could give the loval Tourism bureaus, it'd be to get on the web, and to start a travel and tourism wiki.

I'm serious about this. It seems like Houston and San Antonio really want to promote themselves to each other. When I turn on the TV here, I see an ad cavorting me to visit San Antonio. When I visit my family in San Antonio, I see ads for the mall an exit on I-10 away from my home. Gosh, they're thinking of me!

If you don't know what a wiki is or how it can benefit you, here is atravel and tourism wiki newsletter that has a wealth of great information on how a wiki can beneifit the CVB as well as any bunsiesses and tourists.

A Wiki is a collectively-edited website. Here are few ways a wiki can help you:

• Create an internal, encrypted wiki for use by employees. The content can be easily updated and modified, and control could be placed over who could edit the wiki.


• Add your business or geographic area to relevant public wikis. It's a great way to promote your business, and to have individuals other than you point out their favorite things and events in one centrral place!


• Observe proper behavior on a wiki if you're a professional involved in a promoted business or industry. Don't be anonymous - promote your business when you contribute! Also don't remove competitiors, but do correct factual mistakes (observe the golden rule).


• For a good example of a geographic wiki, check out RoaringForkWiki for ideas about how to structure your wiki. That newsletter above also has other resources for creating your own personal wiki easily and painlessly.

Alright, CVBs out there: got a wiki? Post it in the comments below. show me what you got, why I should leave my house for you.