The tourism industry is a market place acutely influenced by business trends and a host of other events and circumstances, many of which are outwith its control.
When an industry is such a barometer of the economic climate, it’s crucial to be flexible and responsive to altering circumstances; to be pro-active and innovative, to adopt whatever new technology may give us a competitive edge in a competitive global market. One such technology that is eminently suited to the tourism industry, yet relatively under-exploited, is online video.
Hardly a day goes by now without us hearing on the news a story about YouTube or some other video sharing site. Millions of these short video clips are viewed each by people from all over the world. It’s time tourism operators grabbed a piece of the action now that web sites can be content-rich due to the expansion of fast broadband connections throughout the UK and abroad.
Fortunately, you need neither be a budding Spielberg or Tarantino, nor spend a packet on expensive hardware or software to make an impact on the monitor screen. A steady hand and home digicam, or digital camera with video, will suffice. And with most new-ish computers having video software pre-installed, editing your footage into a polished movie is straight-forward too.
The greatest challenge may be what to shoot. A tour round your hotel or B&B? A walk through of a typical guest room? Or a more general look at your location and some of the attractions and things to do and see? The world is your oyster creatively. Whatever you decide, though, try to plan your movie beforehand shot by shot like the professionals to save time and ensure that nothing crucial to the plot is forgotten. Also invest in a tripod to eliminate camera shake.
After shooting your movie and editing it, the next job is to decide whether the production needs additional sound track audio, a commentary, sub titles or music. If you do choose to add music, always seek permission first or commission your own recording.
Finally, when you are happy with your movie, decide where you are going to air your masterpiece. Video sharing sites are just one option, another venue is your own web site. The following piece of code is an excellent way to embed video into a web page and have it play within the browser.
<center><center><OBJECT id='mediaPlayer' width="320" height="240"
classid='CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95'
codebase='http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701'
standby='Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components...' type='application/x-oleobject'>
<param name='fileName' value="URL of your Windows Media Video file goes here">
<param name='animationatStart' value='true'>
<param name='transparentatStart' value='true'>
<param name='autoStart' value="true">
<param name='showControls' value="true">
<param name='loop' value="false">
<EMBED type='application/x-mplayer2'
pluginspage='http://microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/en/download/'
id='mediaPlayer' name='mediaPlayer' displaysize='4' autosize='-1'
bgcolor='darkblue' showcontrols="true" showtracker='-1'
showdisplay='0' showstatusbar='-1' videoborder3d='-1' width="320" height="240"
src="URL of your Windows Media Video goes here" autostart="true" designtimesp='5311' loop="false">
</EMBED></OBJECT></center>
Replace URL of your Windows Media Video goes here with that of your WMV file and insert the height and width values for your file.
Not rocket science, and the results will be worth the effort. For giving potential customers that extra bit of information to fill in the gaps is often the catalyst to make them book there and then.