Social Media, Marketing Expertise Available at Convention ’10 Education Workshops; Help the Gulf
August 3, 2010
Interested in advertising in Tuesday? E-mail Kelley Burchell at kelley.burchell@NTAstaff.com.
TODAY’S ARTICLES
Bring Your Laptop and Marketing Materials to These Convention Workshops
Help the Gulf, Expand Your Business
NTA Applauds U.S. State Department Bill Including Video Visa Interviews
Reach the Chinese Leisure Travel Market through NTA at CITM
Are You Getting Your NTA E-mails?
Bank of America Corporate Partner Program Terminated
U.S. National Park Service to Waive Fees August 14–15
Two Weeks Left to Save Our Sites
How to Use a Twitter Hash Tag
Suppliers Can Track Too, Thanks for Tracking
NTA Trip Planner for Group Leaders Now Available
Two Weeks Left to Participate in NTA’s Profile Form Notebook
Bring Your Laptop and Marketing Materials to These Convention Workshops 
Ready for a marketing makeover? Want an expert to give you a tour of the biggest social media Web sites (and point out the little-known points of interest along the way)? Then bring samples of your company’s marketing materials and your laptop to the seminars at Convention ’10.
Whether you are just navigating your way through Facebook or Tweeting on an hourly basis, Catherine Heeg’s social media seminars will help you move your social media practices forward. Be sure to bring your laptop–two of her workshops have hands-on time to get you started in your social media foray. For a taste of Catherine’s workshops, listen to her social media podcasts made available for NTA here. Want more from Catherine? Her past sessions from MONTAGE are available for purchase here.
Taking marketing samples from the audience, Larry Mersereau will demonstrate ways to punch up the impact of real-world materials in his Marketing Makeover session. Bring your marketing brochures and learn graphic design techniques that will help you grab your prospects’ attention, keep it and demand response.
Convention ’10 is jam packed with educational sessions covering a variety of topics-and the confirmed speakers and topics are now online! Check the Convention Web site and watch for more Tuesday articles for additional sessions.
You now have the opportunity to sponsor a day of the Convention Daily Newsletter and receive a bonus seminar sponsorship which includes speaking time at that session and great sponsor promotions. Seminar sponsors pick their sessions on a first-come, first-served basis so contact Karla DiNardo today at 800.682.8886, ext 4232 (U.S. and Canada) or +1.859.226.4232. Interested in a different sponsorship? Click here to see all that are available.
Help the Gulf, Expand Your Business
NTA member Anne Davis of Cruises and Tours Worldwide is taking NTA Chairman and CEO Cathy Greteman’s challenge to commit to bring travelers to the Gulf Coast one step further. Cruises and Tours Worldwide is encouraging travel clubs and group leaders to bring travelers to the Gulf and has created its own itinerary for a tour through the Gulf, starting in New Orleans and traveling to Mobile, Alabama; Pensacola, Florida; Gulf Shores, Alabama; and Biloxi, Mississippi. Support your colleagues by committing to bring a tour to the Gulf Coast. Sign this pledge saying that you’ll create and send a tour or let us know what tour you already have to the Gulf Coast.
Even though recent reports say the oil has stopped flowing, it’s still critical to focus on changing the perception of the traveler to bring tourism back to the Gulf Coast. Next week, NTA and Edelman will wrap up their free Media and Crisis Relations Seminars in Gulf Shores, Alabama on August 10 and in Pensacola, Florida on August 11. Click here to see feedback from the seminars, materials from the seminars and information on how you can attend.
NTA Applauds U.S. State Department Bill Including Video Visa Interviews
NTA applauds the inclusion of a provision permitting the testing of secure visa videoconferencing for international visitors to the U.S. in the state and foreign operations appropriations bill last week. This is the first step toward alleviating the struggle to travel to the U.S. that residents of countries like China, India and Brazil must go through. China has only five consular offices to service their over 1.3 billion citizens. Current legislation dictates that citizens of non-visa waiver countries must have in-person interviews at a consular office to be granted a visa for U.S. travel.
"We are so pleased to see that the Senate Appropriations Committee has included a pilot project for secure video teleconference visa interviews in the new State Department reauthorization bill," said NTA Chairman and CEO Cathy Greteman. "NTA has been a major player on this issue during the past year. A successful demonstration project will help alleviate the struggle to get a U. S. visa in countries where the few consulates doing interviews are inaccessible to huge numbers of potential visitors."
NTA was one of the signees of a travel industry letter to Congress in December 2008. This topic was featured at the annual Grassroots Symposium in February 2009 in Washington, D.C. where members brought up this topic with key legislative staff of Senate Foreign Policy Chairman John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Relations, and Related Programs Ranking Member Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire. Click here to read more about this pilot project.
Reach the Chinese Leisure Travel Market through NTA at CITM
NTA will attend the China International Travel Mart in Shanghai Nov.18–21. NTA members may have a catalogue display at NTA’s booth at CITM for US$400 per company for 250 copies (ship directly to the NTA Visit USA Center in Shanghai by Oct. 25). NTA will provide printing services to companies that send NTA proof-ready copies (quoted individually) and distribute the brochures at CITM. NTA members may also get company brochures translated through NTA (each brochure quoted based on number of words). Companies who use NTA’s services at CITM will receive a discount at the China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market in Beijing, April 2011. For more information or to take advantage of these opportunities, please contact NTA Director of International Development Haybina Hao.
NTA’s China Group Leisure Directory will also be distributed at CITM. To advertise in this one-of-a-kind directory, email advertising@ntastaff.com.
Are You Getting Your NTA E-mails?
Last Wednesday, NTA President Lisa Simon notified members of a recent issue with our e-mail delivery service. NTA Headquarters has been working with our e-mail distribution vendor to correct the issues. We want you to get more from your NTA membership, so please whitelist @ntastaff.com, @mmsend57.com and @mmsend61.com to ensure deliverability to your inbox of the Tuesday newsletters and any NTA e-mail updates. Click here for instructions on how to whitelist NTA.
Don’t miss a beat! See below for archives of Tuesday, NTA e-mails and Convention e-mails.
- Click here to access the Tuesday newsletter archive.
- Click here to access the general NTA e-mail archive.
- Click here to access the Convention e-mail archive.
Bank of America Corporate Partner Program Terminated
Recently, NTA tour operator members experienced challenges while applying for credit card processing services with Bank of America, an official NTA corporate partner. After exploring this with Bank of America to no resolution, we have terminated the Bank of America corporate partnership. We believe this is in the best interest of our members—specifically tour operators.
NTA is fortunate to have another corporate partner to turn to for credit card processing—Capital One. Capital One has indicated they appreciate the tour operator business and look forward to continued success with current and future Capital One users. Visit the Capital One NTA corporate partner page today or contact NTA Capital One representative, Kimberly Bonzelaar, at 936.524.7485 and be sure to mention you are an NTA member.
NTA’s Corporate Partners offer programs and discounts that can save your company money. Click here to learn more about the specific programs available and start saving.
U.S. National Park Service to Waive Fees August 14–15 
The National Park Service will waive entrance fees on August 14–15 at national parks. There are 391 national parks located across the country in 49 states, many of which will hold free events on August 14 and 15. A complete list by park or state is available at http://www.nps.gov/. The entrance fees being waived at the 146 sites usually charge for admission range from $3 to $25. There are 246 other parks that do not have entrance fees so you can plan a free visit year-round. The fee-free waiver does not include other fees collected in advance or by contractors—such as fees charged for camping, reservations, tours and use of concessions.
Two Weeks Left to Save Our Sites 
Only two weeks remain for the summer 2010 Save Our Sites voting. The travel industry and the traveling public are invited to vote for natural, historic or cultural sites around the world that are important to save for future generations. The SOS summer voting round focuses on cultural sites that showcase music in America. The following four organizations eligible for Save Our Sites voting are:
Delta Blues Museum and Delta Blues Foundation
Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail: The Crooked Road
For more information on the Save Our Sites program, please click here.
If you are on Twitter, it probably didn’t take long for you to notice the hash symbol (#) in people’s tweets. This symbol in Twitter-land is known as a hash tag, which is simply a way to search for tweets that have a common topic. And where do these hash tags come from? Any user can create or follow a trending topic simply by adding a hash tag to their tweet. For example, if NTA’s Convention Twitter began a discussion, it could start with a tweet like this: "Have any questions about the 2010 Convention in Montreal? Add this to your question. #NTAConvention" Then, anyone with a question could tweet their question and include the #NTAConvention hash tag. NTA staff managing the Twitter account could search Twitter for #NTAConvention and find all the questions that were asked and respond to them. Also, anyone with questions about Convention who wanted to see the discussion could search #NTAConvention.
Often, hash tags are created on popular topics like a TV show or a current event so that the Twitter community can discuss. Just search the topic you are interested in and see what hash tags are being used. Hash tags are also a great way to get your own Twitter followers involved in your company. Let them know that they can tweet questions or experiences with your company using a hash tag that you create. Click here to read more about hash tags from social media, blog and tech expert Elizabeth Kricfalusi.
Suppliers Can Track Too, Thanks for Tracking
You don’t have to be a tour operator to track! NTA is asking its tour operator and supplier members to use this quick and easy system to share important tracking information with their DMO partners.
In July, tour operators sent 60 e-mails to DMOs with tracking information. We want to thank the following operators for taking the time to share valuable tracking information with their DMO colleagues through NTA’s online Tracking System:
Destinations Unlimited Inc., Southington, Connecticut
Setness Tours, Stockton, California
Sports Leisure Vacations, Sacramento, California
Sun Fun Tours Ltd.,Kamloops, British Columbia
Wells Gray Tours Ltd., Kamloops, British Columbia
Witte Travel & Tours, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Would you like to see your name on this special list? Be a hero to your DMO colleagues. Go to NTA online, use the Tracking System and help ensure that your DMO partners continue to offer their invaluable services to your company today and tomorrow!
NTA Trip Planner for Group Leaders Now Available 
The latest issue of the NTA Trip Planner for Group Leaders is now available in printed and digital form. This fourth edition NTA specialty publication highlights the top 20 cities around the world for group travel and seven destinations with a claim to fame. Tourism product related to the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War sesquicentennial is profiled and other feature stories cover theaters, museums, shopping and casinos. A Q&A with NTA-member tour operators specializing in the student and faith-based markets also is included.
The purpose of NTA’s two Trip Planner publications is to introduce specific travel buyers—group leaders and student travel planners—to NTA members and help educate them about the diverse products offered by the association’s tour operator, tour supplier and DMO members. Both magazines are distributed to more than 20,000 buyers. The next issue of the student Trip Planner will come out February 2011. Last year’s edition of the Trip Planner for Student Travel Planners can be viewed by clicking here.
For more information on the Trip Planner series, including advertising opportunities, contact your NTA account executive at 800.682.8886, ext. 3533 (U.S. and Canada) or +1.859.219.3533.
Two Weeks Left to Participate in NTA’s Profile Form Notebook
Don’t miss your chance to expand your reach to tour operators beyond your Convention appointments. The 2010 profile form notebook are on every tour operator’s table at Convention, placing your company’s information directly in front of NTA’s seasoned tour operator buyers during a key buying time of the year.
Choose to purchase a full-page tab advertisement for only US $1,500 net or let us insert your company’s customized 8-1/2 in. x 11 in., double-sided profile sheet into a state/provincial/international section in every binder for only US$1,250 net. Or, do both for only US$2500.
Don’t miss your chance to be included in the tour operator ultimate resource used all year long for itinerary development, planning and contact information. Even if you are unable to attend Convention this year, your message can still be there.
Space Deadline is Aug. 16, 2010. Reserve your space today through your advertising executive at 800.682.8886, ext. 4241 (U.S. and Canada) or +1.859.226.4241.
Click here for the Tuesday archive.