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Travel Industry Forums And Networking
Posted By: romcc* on 3/1/2005 4:56 PM (CST) 500 Points
Hello All,

I am a professional travel guide from Romania. I recently started an information site on Romania, www.romaniatravelguide.info

I would need your advice regarding the following matter: what would be the forums where I could post info about my country and get jobs in this field. I am looking for the place that the industry really turns too, and for that I need your opinion.

Thanks a lot.

Radu

Posted by: Dare4More * Accepted Answer
3/1/2005 8:43 PM (CST)
Salut Radu,

And congratulations for your efforts! Promoting Romania overseas seems to be a tough job and I hope that you get some answers here.

I’ve just had a look at your site and the first question that came up was “Where are the pictures?” As I understand, you use this site to promote your business and to attract visitors to Romania. Maybe you should consider posting some beautiful pictures of each attraction – Castle and Fortresses (just put a pic of the Dracula’s Castle in Bran), Danube Delta, Carpathians etc. Include also a map of Romania and even one of Eastern Europe (the Ice Block) – people might consider Romania (in particular, Transylvania) as a mystique destination along with Hungary, Czech Republic or even Bulgaria.

In terms of ‘Forums and Networking’ what I suggest at this point is to contact the Romanian Embassies overseas and to send them information about your services. Ask them about opportunities to promote your business in their respective countries. Or even just to put you in contact with travel agencies that are interested in promoting Romania to their customers. An interesting article in “Sydney Morning Herald’ mentions the fact that people got tired of ‘the prices of Western Europe’ and consider ‘to leave the traditional resorts behind and defect to Eastern Europe’. Great potential, right?

Well, hope this information will help you. Good luck!!

Best regards,
Flori
 
Posted by: cblase Accepted Answer
3/1/2005 8:56 PM (CST)
I surf the web constantly looking for the best ideas and resources for travel. My favorite (favorite!) place to go is the message board at www.frommers.com. You can drill down there to find discussions on Romania and probably even find some immediate prospects for your services by offering advice and answers to some of the questions you see posted there.

Posting messages on travel bulletin boards dedicated to travel in Romania is a great way to pull in the very prospects you are looking for. You might try doing a Google to find other travel related discussion groups.

Good luck!

Cece
 
Posted by: d_crawford* Accepted Answer
3/1/2005 10:58 PM (CST)
Search the web for "travel + add URL", for directories where you can list your website. Most of these will be free listings, some will want reciprocal links to your site.

As to getting jobs in the field--what exactly are you looking for? If you want to offer "destination management services" then do some research on other companies like that to see what they do. You can target tour groups by searching for "international tours", then contact those companies to see if the have Romania on their itinerary or would like to add it. Search "travel + Romania" and "tour + Romania".

Your local travel offices--visitor's or tourist bureaus, travel agencies and such will also be able to provide you with information. They would probably also be interested in advertising on your site.

Good Luck!
Hope this helps,
Deborah

P.S., I agree with Dare4More--Pictures would be great.

 
Posted by: Papadoc (Steve)* Accepted Answer
3/2/2005 12:24 PM (CST)
LOTS of pictures... Romania is a beautiful country so show it off. Take pictures of rural areas, historical things, and some of your great architecture.

I would also suggest submitting to www.dmoz.org but be sure that you submit to the right category. Nobody knows DMOZ all that well, but it is the largest free directory service that there is, and they supply results to Google and about 400 lesser directories.
 
Posted by: Sanjeev Kumar Vyas Accepted Answer
3/23/2005 3:24 AM (CST)
I think you should have pictures right from the home page of your site and on every page.
Many people may not be very sure as to where geographically Romania is so it would help if you have a small globe or mao showing its location.
People would also like to know about what to be careful of when in Romania.
Just a few suggestions.
Sanjeev Kumar Vyas
 
Posted by: whitefeud Accepted Answer
3/23/2005 10:33 AM (CST)
First, make your home page more travel look. You do not have a second chance to make your first impression. Then visit the world travel exhibitions. There is one soon in Dubai. See other travel agents and get connected.
 
Posted by: billc24 Accepted Answer
4/6/2005 10:54 AM (CST)
Radu,
I agree with most of the others about putting pictures on the home page and elsewhere. On the home page you could have a running slide show of a dozen or so pics that show the range of sites in Romania. When a visitor sees something that interests them, they can click on the picture to find out more about the particular item pictured. Also, don't forget to include people in the picture. Lots of pictures of native Romanians smiling and looking welcoming. It seems to me that you have some work to do on your website before you should be promoting it. Once you are ready to promote it, Google Romania Travel and phrases like that. The websites that come to the top are the ones you want to be connected with in some way.

I hope this helps!

Bill
 
Posted by: ASVP/ChrisB Accepted Answer
5/2/2005 12:31 AM (CST)
Holey Moley, I don't believe it! A travel site promoting a beautiful country without one single picture? What were you thinking?

A picture is worth a thousand w0rds. Or, in your case, every picture is probably worth a thousand dollars. I know I'm not the first to tell you this, but if you're not halfway to the shops to buy a digital camera, or a scanner to scan in all the pictures you must have, then why not?

Once you have dozens of pictures uploaded, use them to tell a story about each tour. Don't tell in words what I'm likely to see, help me put myself in the picture!

Third, create a "send a post card" feature so someone can look through a range of pictures and choose one to e-mail to a friends with a message. That way, you get two e-mail addresses and you can send them newsletter updates (Warn them upfront, though, and make sure you have an unsubscribe feature though so they don't think you are spamming them).

If you're unsure what I mean, then check out www.melbourne.grand.hyatt.com/melbo/photo_01.html where there is a link below the picture, just click it to send a postcard.

Hope this helps.

ChrisB
 
Posted by: thinkmor Accepted Answer
5/3/2005 11:42 AM (CST)
Hi Romcc

Definitely agree with colleagues, you've just got to have pictures. If I was you I'd fire my web people who did your site!

What is the objective of your site? sell tours? get enquiries?

Who is your target audience?

Link up with all the different segments of your target audience. E.g So if you do travel tours for students, make links with university groups and bodies from the countries you know visit Romania.

I'd suggest you compare competitor sites to yours first and see where the large gaps are if you seriously want to compete online. Just looking on the official Romanian Tourist site will give you pointers.

Anyway, here are some links you can investigate to offer to exchange links with:

http://www.bigtravelforum.com

http://forums.craigslist.org/?forumID=42

http://www.travelnotes.org/Europe/romania.htm

http://www.spirit.ro

http://www.brasovtravelguide.ro/bv-en/index.php

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/letters/eur/rom_pc.htm

http://www.RomaniaTourism.com

http://www.rotravel.com

Are you registered with any Yahoo directories? Google adwords?

I would also suggest you put some PR together to publish online to PR portals like http://www.prnewswire.com or http://www.prweb.com.

Write some PR for your local market and offer your services (include a referral incentive?) to organizations (travel agents, tourist sites, hotels etc) that service the same target audience as you want to target.

Good luck and hope this helps.

Zahid Adil
 
Posted by: Shelley, MProfs Moderator Response
5/7/2005 8:03 AM (CST)
Everyone, thanks for participating. I am closing this question since it's gathered a considerable amount of dust.

Radu, please do NOT post questions here in the future unless you are willing to participate in the conversation AND close the question on a timely basis.
 


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