Dear readers and dear friends,

It's now my last post in Les Explorers.

3 years

hundred professionnal interviews

Some great meeting

Some etourism & Travel 2.0 analyses

Some betatesting course

Some amazing discoveries

Some fun and some headeck

Some good networking

Some and some and some........

You can follow me now on HoteliTour

On Twitter : claudebenard

Contact me with Skype : claudebenard

That's all folks for Les Explorers

Here we are. Good friends (Martine & Serge, the Neomarco co-fonders) and all the Neomarco team in Marseille are on live with their strong game.

héhé ;-)

Who are this women and guys?

Some simple explanations:

Neomarco : concept neomarco.com, a community-based website to buy « local » and travel differently The most authentic, ethical or unusual « Cool Finds » discovered by our community members. All the information necessary to find them, buy them and bring them home.

« Cool Finds from around » the world Internet game What is it about?
An internet game which enables users to share their « Cool Finds » in terms of unusual, authentic or ethical objects which they have discovered while traveling or close to home... as well as artisans and crafters who can promote their work and their products.
Several ways to win : submit a « Cool Find » or vote for someone else's, when the players vote for your find, when the Jury selects your find.

Strong game, isn't maybe the good name, I will say the biggest travel game in France who take place during 6 weeks.

They negociate the following projection for their great game:

Orange.fr Travel, the main internet portal in France >> + 15 millions VU per months for the Home page and 600 000 VU per month for travel category

Cityvox, the main city guide portal on tourism and restaurants, and leasures in France >> some millions VU per months

Sprice, a leading travel meta-serach engine >> some others big VU per months

TourMagaZine, a leading portal about travel in France >> others VU per months

and of course in Neomarco community portal and viral dissemination

Great Game, Great sponsors, Great Partners, Great portals, etc

It's a strong launch for Neomarco.

Martine, Serge, and all the Neomarco team, I wish you all the best.

You have a great Project.

More informations about Neomarco and this game will be finded in my blog HoteliTour.com

Disclaimer : was consulting advisor for the sponsors, maybe a bad idea, because I can't play the game ;-)

Interesting piece of work with this survey "Survey - Web 2.0 Usage by Hotels " made by Tim Fenenko.

According to Tim on the RSHOTELS blog:

The survey had 119 responses and contained conditional paths. The first questions of the survey were designed to determine if the respondent was aware of why Web 2.0 is different from Web 1.0, and that some new web developments, like blogs, are freely available and easy to use. It turned out that 74% of hoteliers knew how Web 2.0 was different from Web 1.0, which was characterized as a "collection of online brochures", and 83% were aware that it was possible to build a web site or a blog without spending any money and that it was as easy as using Microsoft Word.

More to the rshotels blog

Tim, thanks to be a great evangelist, our Hoteliers friend need it !

And you, what do you think about this survey and the results, do you agree? Any new thoughts?

Use the comment space.

Bonjour All,

Thanks Pascal Rossini blog (ADS-Click CEO), I start my early day with a fun but also very informative & direct to the point BD.

It's Jim's Great Media Adventure with the following heroes : Jim, Captain Web and Internet

Tast it with your cafe and have a good day!

And thank you mister "Captain Web" ;-)

PS: take the RSS from Pascal blog

Info:

Jim's Great Media Adventure créée avec le concours de Bob Emslie, Kai Brunner et Kimberley J. Healey

1997© Idée et concept : Pascal Rossini

Bonjour,

Well it's Blog Day today, normaly 31 august, but you know with the GMT process !

I have many blogs in my reader, but today for the Blog Day I would like to tell you about 5 travel blogs and bloggers who are very interesting to read.

Here my dedicated selection:

Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Thevenot
Guillaume start blogging around 3 years ago (like me) and his blog is dedicated to the hotel industry, etourism and some hotel reviews video.
Believe me, one of the best blog about hotel and tourism industry. Get his RSS asap !

Megustaelturismo by Nando llorella
One of the best spanish blog about etourism, Travel 2.0, tourism news. Some great analyses about the market.
Very impressed by the content and by Nando who post like crazy. Hey Nando how you find time to do this great blog ;-)

Tourism Tide by Philip Caines
Phil give us some very interesting analyses about etourism industry and trends.
He make a mix between marketing and travel technology.
Phil is from Vancouver and a very active blogger. He is also very involve in the T-List

Tracking Tourism: The Tourism Research Blog by Vicky and Stephen
What can I say, it's simply the best blog focusing analysis and explanations about how to handle statistic in the tourism industry.
Vicky and Stephen have a global view about the tourism and etourism industry and make great post each time. Their perspectives are very interesting.

Travolution Blog by Kevin May and the Travolution team
The best if you want to follow all actuality about tourism and etourism. Kevin post every day, some time 2 or 3 or 4 times a day. Fasten your seat belt if you want to follow this guy ;-)
BTW, hey Kevin, when you will switch from blogger tool to Wordpress !

All this worthy bloggers are on Twitter as well.

Enjoy this selection.

Suzanne Aaronson is one of my best travel woman interview. Remember when she was managing Suzanne's Files web site, interview here.

Well, now she manage the Spire editorial team and countless unpaid international contributors in skimming the world for quality lifestyle finds.

Spire is a great leading social resource for affluent people. Spire blends vetted lifestyle content with members' perspectives to provide in-the-know insight™ that is impossible to source elsewhere.

Suzanne is amazing to finding the best and leaving the rest and convince me that entrepreneur women spirit it's simply incredible. You can find some more travel entrepreneur women interviews if you search here !
You will agree with me.

So now, let's talk with Suzanne.

Suzanne, what's the story from Suzanne's Files to Spire exclusive online community?

OVER THE YEARS, MANY OF MY SUBSCRIBERS OF SF.COM MENTIONED THAT THEY WOULD LOVE TO 'TAP' THE OTHER READERS TO HEAR THEIR 'TAKE' OR OPINIONS ON MY FILES AS ADDITIONAL INPUT PER A PARTICULAR SITUATION (TRAVELING WITH KIDS, A CERTAIN ACCUPUNCTURIST OR THEIR BACK ETC). THEY ALSO FELT THEY COULD QUICKLY ACCESS QUALITY RECOMMENDATIONS AND REFERALS OF TOPICS OR GEOS I'D NOT YET COVERED IN THE FILES VIA THEIR INTERNATIONAL CO-READERS OF SF.COM. SO... SPIRE.COM IS THE MERGING OF THE SF CURATED AND VERY PERSONAL, OPINIONATED FILES WITH THE PLATFORM FOR THIS HIGHLY AFFLUENT AUDIENCE TO CONNECT WITH ONE ANOTHER TO GET QUICK ANSWERS AND INSIGHT TO THEIR LIFESTYLE QUERIES (REFERENCE THE 7 CATEGORIES WE COVER DOWN THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE SITE)

Can you explain more the goals and services about Spire?

SPIRE.COM IS A SOCIAL RESOURCE FOR THE AFFLUENT- WE ARE NOT A SOCIAL NETWORK, WHERE PEOPLE COME TO MEET AND FIND OLD FRIENDS, STAY IN TOUCH. SPIRE.COM IS THE ONLY PLACE ONE CAN GET IN-THE-KNOW INSIGHT - ONE CLICK AWAY!
SPIRE.COM IS A SHORTCUT TO SAVVY, SMART ADVICE. SUZANNE'SFILES ON SPIRE.COM EDITS THE NOISE. BUSY PEOPLE WANT TO MAKE SMART CHOICES AND NEED VETTED INFORMATION AT THEIR FINGERTIPS

Sorry, I am a newbie french, what's a "curator" ? >> in french this word have a other meaning.

FUNNY:)) THINK ABOUT HOW A CURATOR OF MUSEUM IS VERY CAREFULLY, SKILLFULLY SELECTING AND POSITIONING WHICH WORKS OF ART ARE IN -HOUSE AND WORKS WITH THE DISPLAY TEAM ON HOW TO SHOWCASE THE WORKS TO THE MUSUEM VISITORS FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT AND APPEAL. THAT'S WHAT I DO WITH THE FILES!

How tourism professionals like hotels, resorts, tourism attraction can work with you to promote their business?

IF A BUSINESS IS 'FILE WORTHY' (MEANING VERY HIGH QUALITY AND WE HAVE PERSONAL FEEDBACK FROM SOMEONE WE TRUST AS TO WHY IT SHOULD BE INCLUDED) WE INCLUDE IT !

Spire business model?

INTERNATIONAL BRAND MARKETERS ARE PARTNERING WITH US TO HAVE A DIRECT AND CONTEXTUAL VOICE TO THIS HARD TO REACH AUDIENCE - ESP VIA WEB WHERE THEY'VE NOT YET CONGREGATED (UNTIL SPIRE.COM ...) SUZANNE'SFILES ARE NO PAY FOR PLAY - STRICLY EDITORIAL. WE ARE INTRODUCING TWO SERVICES NEXT YEAR TO MEMBERS WHICH WILL BE TWO NEW RVENUE STREAMS IN OUR BUSINESS MODEL.

Please, give us your 5 best Suzanne's Files or Spire in the know insight (with one in France)

HERE I'VE PASTED SEVERAL PER CATEGORY FOR YOU TO BROWSE AND CHOOSE PER YOUR LINKING AND TO REALLY HAVE A SENSE OF THE BREADTH, DEPTHY AND THAT WE FOCUS THE FILES ON QUALITY NOT QUANTITY OF INFORMATION. THERE IS SO MUCH!!!! INFORMATION OUT THERE, I LOVE GIVING PEOPLE THE SHORT-CUT TO ONLY TOP QUALITY PICKS.

Travel:
Eight Great Hotels for Kids

Mezzatorre Resort & Spa

To Pack Really Light, Send Your Luggage Beforehand

Perfect Days in ... Mallorca

La Bandita

Perfect Days in ... Cornwall

Birkenhead House

Four Seasons Hong Kong

Epicurean:
Specialty Food Shops in Manhattan

Restaurant File: The Hamptons

Eight Great Outdoor Dining Spots for Summer

Organic Farm Produce Shops in England

Private Chefs to Go

Restaurant File: London's Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea

Guaranteed to Put You in Fine Spirits

Arts & Culture:
Eight Great Children's Museums

Art Smart Adventures

Flamenco in Andalusia

European Music Festivals

Family & Occassions:
Kaboost

Organic Food for Babies and Children

Baby's First Website

Reliable Resources for Babysitters and Childcare

Eight Great Stationers

Florist File: New York

Wellness & Beauty:
Beauty File: Los Angeles

Pins and Needles: Leading New York Acupuncturists