Comments on: Are blogger fam trips a good idea or are they Jurassic PR?

By: Sheila

Sheila — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:00:37 +0000

Hi Chris,

Thanks for getting in touch. No plans to head out to Hawaii anytime soon, but I’ve been in touch with Nathan Kam out there several times recently, so something may come up. The islands are beautiful, for sure!

By: Chris Gamby

Chris Gamby — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:03:41 +0000

Aloha Sheila,
I was sent your way by Tim Leffel. I was going to pitch you on the whole “come to Hawaii and try all of our services” deal. I do marketing for a bunch of Hawaii tourism websites and we are always looking for qualified exposure. I understand your ethics about doing so and we are not just looking for mouthpieces to spew our “good word”. Some of our clients do offer some interesting stories and angles on their specific offerings.
If you are coming back to Hawaii any time soon, please let me know. We would love to have you check out some of our services, or places to stay, and offer up your true candid experiences. If you have issues with what they offer, we want to hear it.
Hope this finds you well. Congrats on the SXSWi award last year.

Cheers,
Chris Gamby
Wasabi Marketing Elements

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Wed, 11 May 2011 01:54:59 +0000

[...] to best incorporate bloggers and online publishers into standard press trips/fam tours is an ongoing item of discussion in many tourism [...]

By: Scheduling tip for blogger fam tours | Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

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[...] who host blogger fam (familiarization) tours of their destination need to remember that bloggers operate somewhat differently from print [...]

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Marhaba, Jordan: pleased to meet you | Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:23:06 +0000

[...] of you know that I’m not a huge fan of press trips and fam tours for my own travel, because I do have angst-y issues with whether one can maintain objectivity when [...]

By: Two Mai Tais, 25 Years Apart – Holoholo Wale

Two Mai Tais, 25 Years Apart – Holoholo Wale — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:33:56 +0000

[...] years later, I’d just finished a jam-packed blogger press trip across the Hawaiian Islands; a group of us were invited by the Hawaii Tourism Authority in an [...]

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Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:15:42 +0000

[...] the question – while I certainly have my reservations about press trips and fam tours – the fact is that while they ARE work, they are also pretty darned cool when they’re [...]

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Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:19:18 +0000

[...] My Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray posted a Flickr pump jack photo of her own onto Twitter, and Hutchinson business guy Cody Heitschmidt saw it and commented on it. Becky and Cody kept up a friendly chatter on Twitter for months. When Cody said that he’d like to work with his local CVB and the Cosmosphere space museum to bring some bloggers to see his hometown, Becky agreed to be one of them….and convinced me to go, too, despite my general skepticism about blogger fam tours. [...]

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Psyched to visit Lubbock, Texas. Really. | Family Travel Guide — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:24:40 +0000

[...] topic is blogger fam (familiarization) tours and press trips with today’s wired writers and content [...]

By: British Airways targeting social media with first trip for bloggers | Tnooz

British Airways targeting social media with first trip for bloggers | Tnooz — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:12:45 +0000

[...] has been the ire on some blogs when the subject has come up that it has polarised not only the blogging community but also mainstream journalists, [...]