Recently, I read on my CTC Daily Tourism News, an article  - “Online Spending Outpaces Traditional Avenues on June 4th. I started smiling looking at the title and keep on smiling when reading it.  This is not a big surprise to me at all and have been investing less in print media for the last two -three years  Why ??? .. same reason the article states - the inability of radio, TV, newspapers and magazines to prove return on investment.   Dave Wilkening, Travel Mole, reports that the Borrell Associates study “The Big Shift” indicates online promotions will triple to $22 Billion in 2012 from $8 Billion in 2007.

My friends at A Couple of Chicks E-Marketing, Patricia Brusha and Alicia Whalen, taught me sometime ago that the web is most measureable medium out there today.  With tools such as e-marketing newsletters, web analytics, SEO, keywords, adwords and pay-per-click, the results of online marketing campaigns are very measurable. My experience to-date show this with on-line campaigns not so with newspaper &  magazine ads, and brochures .

Most marketers will state there is definitely a need for integrating traditional marketing with online marketing. Many marketing campaigns have different goals and markets to reach and require tactics of both. Rarely do they like to talk about percentages of each in a campaign.  Social media has made an impact and also added another dimension to marketing.   

Dr. Patrick Dixon video - ”Online Communities Change the World – marketing and consumer”,  briefly talks about online communities and tripadvisor. His website  and videos is a wealth of information on the future.