As discussed in my previous email, please detail below, your Top 3 Travel/ Tourism related websites and why.

Please note:

• Web Address
  
  
• What the website offers
  
  
• Screenshots where applicable
  
  
• Why it made the Top 3 list
  

And any additional comments you feel are necessary.

To start off with, I quite like the concepts behind the following sites:

http://www.gogobot.com - Essentially the Facebook for travel, whereby users can post images, ask questions etc. about a destination and/or product(s) within.

Highly social, quite engaging and highly influential during the decision making process.

i.e - what I'd take from this would be that the new CGBR site incorporate social recommendations/ Q & A for destinations and products.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com - I like the way a destination page is displayed and how the site is easy to navigate around.

Destinations summarize very effectively, what the place is all about along with a quick snapshot of all Things To Do, Top Picks, Image Galleries, Video Galleries etc.

i.e - what I'd take from this would be to offer similar rich snapshots of destinations for each of the regions within TNQ.

http://www.newzealand.com - This site is aesthetically pleasing and instantly suggests authority on the destination. The capabilities within the site are highly valuable and easy to navigate around also. The site allows a user to experience the destination through these capabilities in a highly visual manner.

i.e - what I'd take from this would be to allow a user to experience TNQ through visual representation and unique, expert and in-depth content ultimately leading to a direct inquiry/ conversion.

http://www.newzealand.com/au/
You stole my idea Rush haha - I too like this site. The visual elements capture me - being able to see something that is appealing to me, with a Google map reference that I can click on and investigate further is a big contributor as why this site works for me. I like being able to establish geographical locations when planning a holiday (wotif is great for this when booking accommodation and you can see where it is on the map). The home page offers a variety of images/activities with maps and more info in a creative way, however was a little confusing at first, this is appealing to the tech savvy frequent net user and may not work with some audiences.

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/
I find this site very easy to navigate and not overbearing with text or images, there is a good balance of 'white space' ensuring the audience doesn't get lost on the pages. The Interactive Itinerary Planner is my favourite aspect of this tourism website as it offers a variety of options and is simple to use, providing simple solutions to "must do", "activity focused" etc travellers.


http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/
The 'Travellers photos from around the world' section is what makes this site work for me. There is no commercial element, it is the pure experience (bad and good). Once again, I am a visual planner, I see something and think "I want to see/do that!" Then I like to click on a map that shows me where/how/when etc. Also, I like rating systems and use this to plan my holidays - not so much the reviews but the overall ratings.

Hope this helps!

nr wrote:
http://www.newzealand.com/au/
...The home page offers a variety of images/activities with maps and more info in a creative way, however was a little confusing at first, this is appealing to the tech savvy frequent net user and may not work with some audiences.

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/
...The Interactive Itinerary Planner is my favourite aspect of this tourism website as it offers a variety of options and is simple to use, providing simple solutions to "must do", "activity focused" etc travellers.


http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/
...I am a visual planner, I see something and think "I want to see/do that!" Then I like to click on a map that shows me where/how/when etc. Also, I like rating systems and use this to plan my holidays - not so much the reviews but the overall ratings.

Hope this helps!

Thanks NR - I had the same concerns for NZ.com also. Whilst still a good site and visually pleasing, it seems heavy and sometimes a little 'too busy' for the everyday user. Something to take into consideration no doubt.

Good get on the HK site too. Like how all elements pertinent to the destination are on the homepage. e.g: Events, culture etc. Something worth looking into if we're to offer 'experiences'.

Ratings and Reviews are a must I reckon. You're right in saying that it helps with the decision making process. Adding a map seems to help with this also.

Thanks for your feedback.

Hi,

Check out www.jetsetter.com.

Almost feels like your working on an iPad application. Highly visual, very intuitive, clean space and comfortable to search. Detail is offered more at levels 2 and 3 with personal languages such as What we like, What we know.

Given holidays are so emotive and our region is so diverse and beautiful a strong image based site is key.

Agree and are very excited by the prospect of using interactive and integrated maps as a custom holiday planning and sharing tool.

The map could sit over the site, drawing favorites from your research and placing them on the map.

On entering the map you could organize your days, read reviews and comments, view images galleries and videos and customize each day of your TNQ adventure.

This could then be packaged into a digital holiday plan designed for bragging / sharing.

Take a close look at www.barossa.com

They have just launched a SP app and are promoting in shamelessly on the HP. QR code is used.
I like their idea of a HQ Forum for wine tasting. A time is set, and people log on to follow an expert through the various varieties and details. Could be interesting with Reef expert talking about flora/fauna on the reef. Especially during times of hightened awareness as with BBC GBR doco. Could get Richard Fitzpatrick to host the forum - trial at first and see what happens.

Jetsetter.com certainly appears to be IPAD friendly as you say, and that is so important but IPhone also and becoming more important as take up increases - this will be the main way the site is views I guess if the figures are to be believed.

I'll send other coupld of sites through for review tommorrow.
MB

I also like www.newzealand.com and discoverhongkong.com for they are clear, easy to follow, imagery is fantastic without overcrowding and confusing the audience - simple, capitivating images that tell the message.

Interactive maps and itinerary also very important

The other website I like is www.visitbritain.com - clean, crisp. It does have too many images though (to my liking). Clear headings and easy to follow.

Biggest thing is the MAP; we need a map on our website - not just of our region but all of Australia showing where we are and how easy it is to experience the region.

Another website you may like to look at is www.bootsnall.com; very clean, easy to follow. simple and minimal copy.

Has a great link to Australia, then a blog site as well.

Hi all - my general thoughts and some website examples - bit late sorry

WHO
Presume this project is still aimed at domestic primarily? Not japanese and Chinese certainly, but functional for UK, USA and other English speaking. Just to re clarify who we are talking to with this site - germans ?
HISTORY
Will it be possible to get some overview of the Analytics of the current site - who has been using it, what have they been looking at and how did they arrive, I think thats pretty relevant to working out where we go with it in future.
SEO
As Rush and David have already eluded to, I too think SEO should remain the #1 in all of this. We can have a pretty pretty site but if people cant find it we are wasting our time and money as we have with the current site it seems. The map content will be useful for customers but could be useless for SEO. This SEO aim should extend to ranking well for particular sub topics and sub regions like GBR , Diving, Green Island, Palm Cove, Port Douglas, Cairns Restaurants, Hot Air Ballooning  even for brand names like Great Adventures etc within the main site.
An aim should be for the regional site to be in the top 10 results for a members search term to assist members in keeping their own SERP space and not getting pushed out be resellers, it then provides independent research options for future customers and a substantial benefit for members. Therefore the site architecture as regards folder and URK architecture, URLs, H1s, breadcrumbs, content, should be paramount in the design brief.
This commercial outcome would lead to greater buy in from members and make the site relevant to members online efforts, the current site struggles with SEO placement and hence is pretty irrelevant (sorry but that's the go
Sites
Id love to see it with a commercial outcome, I think thats what members want to see too

So maybe
www.godo.com.au Easy simple navigation for a lot of content, Search is foremost with Smart Type ahead search as well as drop downs by region – very intuitive . Love the full screen width that shrinks nicely for ipad
www.redballoon.com.au detailed drop down menus for navigation make it quick to see what’s available without waiting for pages to load – good commercial principlas for a lot of content but old styling
New Zealands site - I love the commerciality of it – how come TA and TQ cant give us a result like this instead of politically correct generic nothingness which doenst do anything for the industry or the consumer.
Jetsetter – I think its pretty but wonder if it is commercial enough in its navigation or outcomes for what we need

For some map based sites
www.Fossik.com map based searching etc – very graphics heavy and not sure about on an ipad or mobile but interesting idea
A great example of map based planning at http://www.nzcycletrail.com

Interesting Planning widget http://www.discoverireland.com/au/

See you this afternoon

http://www.newzealand.com is a brilliantly rich experience site, but the home page is a bit of an interesting one to navigate.

After the home page it is quite content rich but the site becomes a bit jumpy when you start scrolling, would start to do your head in if you spent too much time on the site.

http://www.gohawii.com has a great user appeal and texture. It provides quite topical features of each of the islands, and gives them their own 'subsite' identity while maintaining the overall theme of the site. The search provides meaningful results, resulting in information pages linking off to partners. They also have a concept of "My Hawii" where you can build up a "basket" of experiences that you want to review later.

I am with Stainless on the SEO side. It needs to be meaningful and sit up there with the operators, ultimately driving people to the operators. It would also then help with the lifting and ranking of operator sites in relation to the topic areas.

Thanks for the feedback stainless and casfnq. Some really valid insights and great to hear a mixed-bag of feedback from both user experience and commercial purposes.

FYI - contributors, the URL stainless refers too is www.redballoon.com.

It's very hard to determine search value for international sites due to the way Google shows SERPs based of IP addresses.

i.e - if you have any domestic sites worth mentioning, please do so, for us to review their uptake of SEO into their online offering(s).

Cheers,
RP.

Thx for today.

Just for a lighthearted angle – here's what 18 million dollars looks like
Jan 12th 2012
Four Seasons unveils $18 million website as luxury travel grows
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/01/12/news/four-seasons-unveils-18-million-dollar-website-as-luxury-travel-grows/



Also Steves suggestion was to look at www.perthairport.com.au for its functional home page
Stainless

Thanks again David & Rush for yesterday's session.

Looks like we are getting on the right track

Just for a lighthearted angle – here's what 18 million dollars looks like
Jan 12th 2012

$18m and it takes 21seconds for the first part of the site to finish loading (and that is after visiting it twice) on an ADSL 2 connection!!

Sorry I couldn't make meeting yesterday but for what it's worth I cheated and hit Google for suggestions, this is from 2010 but there’s some interesting sites on this link.

http://designtutorials4u.com/20-plus-of-the-best-designed-tourism-sites-for-your-inspiration/

Common themes –

Highly visual – strong images
Navigation – in every sense of the word with good use of maps
Useful content – no fluff

With increasing use of Smartphones need to have browser friendly version too