Tourism Business Plan
I know, I know. I keep talking about online local review sites, but here’s why.
- They’re free advertising for you.
- They are what people are using to help make travel decisions these days.
- They give you an opportunity to turn satisfied customers into loyal returning customers.
- They give you an opportunity to address dissatisfied customers’ problems before they tell a zillion people about what they hated. And by doing that in public, you show readers how focused you are on customer satisfaction.
- The constant reminder that your customers are watching how you do business will make you a better business person.
- It takes about 10 to 15 minutes per site to set up, and then your customers will be helping you do your marketing.
- Listings will enhance your search ranking on Yahoo, Google and Bing.
- Links on your listings will direct traffic to your website.
- It’s easy to do.
- It’s satisfying. You know that you’re doing something that will have direct benefit for your business.
Here are some places your customers might be using.
Check, update or claim your listings. Keep a record of where you’re listed and check back to sites that don’t alert you when a review is posted. Most of the free listings don’t.
Ask your satisfied customers to put in a good word for you at one of the sites where you’re listed.
When you start seeing those positive reviews, quote them on your homepage and provide a link to the full review.
Insider Pages
City Search You’ll need to search for your business here, and if you don’t find it, there will be a link for setting it up, or a link for you to “claim” it as the business owner.
Yellowbot Again, search for your business and either create or claim.
Yelp
Openlist
Kudzu
CityVoter
Judysbook
SuperPages
YellowBook
YellowPages
Do you know of any other valuable review sites?
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Since 1993 I have been in Mexico about 15 times. I have toured around some of its poorest southern states; I have stayed in some fishing villages time has seemingly forgot; I have studied Spanish in Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Guanajuato and Colima; and I have done some teaching here, including bringing groups of students from Canada. I even stayed once in an all-inclusive resort.
I have witnessed many interesting events in that time. I was in Chiapas New Year’s day 1994 when the Zapatista’s declared war on the government and attacked a nearby town. I have been in Mexico City and watched supplicants walk for many metres on their knees over a cement lot praying to La Virgen de Guadaloupe as they approach a magnificent modern church in her name. Guadaloupe is revered in Mexico: a dark skinned Virgin Mary, she connects the country’s indigenous roots and religions to the Catholicism imported by the Spanish conquistadors.
I have sat in Oxaxca’s zocalo, or central plaza, as protestors marched for land rights, and improved services. I have watched the sunset over ornate Mayan temples in the Yucatan, and the more austere Monte Alban of the Zapotecs. I have watched the lava boil over the lip of Colima’s volcano, and experienced life following a serious earthquake. I have spent many Saturday afternoons in Los Portales (arched walls that face the central garden or plaza of most every town) con botanas y cerveza (with snacks and beer) and watched families celebrate special occasions with colourful good cheer. I was here as well when the country’s 80-year-old de facto dictatorship ended with the presidential election in 2000.
So, for me, the answer to the question of what it is like to travel in Mexico is that it has been a challenge, an education, and a revelation. Culturally rich and diverse, the country is populated by mestizos or people with mixed blood. Its indigenous roots still define its attitudes toward life, religion and authority. Parts of the country remain veiled in superstition, and it is still common to have public exorcisms in some local churches.
It is also a country of revolutionary heroes whose names adorn most street signs, and whose statues stand in mute testimony to struggle and death. The Mexican expatriate writer Carlos Fuentes in a recent visit recent to a university here suggested to students that it is time for Mexico to create new heroes of ordinary people who represent what Mexico is today, and what it will become, a mostly modern country with a substantial economy and resources.
Right now though, ordinary Mexicans are worried about the country’s economy and security, and they abhor how politics is practiced here. Politicians in all countries face the charge of cronyism from time-to-time, while in Mexico cronyism is assumed and people are delighted when, on rare occasions, a politician does not disappoint them.
For most visitors, the country’s politics is unimportant but their safety is a concern. I can honestly say I have never been threatened, let alone robbed or attacked, though I have read numerous stories about tourists being robbed, assaulted and occasionally killed. The likelihood of a tourist being involved in drug violence is highly remote unless they get involved in the trade in some way. Still, it would be a mistake to assume one’s safety and I would be exceedingly careful in border towns, in parts of Mexico City and Guadalajara, on the beaches at night and in resort towns after midnight.
Mexican resort towns are home to many good people, and most tourists are respectful. But it is equally true that resort towns attract Mexicans interested in taking advantage of visitors, while also attracting the worst type of tourist – young people mostly, who come here to spend a week being as drunk and disorderly as possible.
“Borrachos,” (drunks) said the manager
On this trip we chose to be right on the beach for an extended stay in Manzanillo, Mexico’s quietest resort community. Manzanillo is a busy port and naval base and a working–class town of just over 100,000 that has a number of large hotels and related services. By day the public beach is a place for families, fishers and visitors staying in nearby condos, many of them have been coming here for years. Just after sunset the beach becomes a place where young couples come and disappear into the darkness for a while. Sometimes, after midnight, partiers come down to listen to ear-splitting music and drink a few beers on the lighted patio beside the house, on the edge of the sand.
We call the local police and the quiet is soon restored, except for the thunderous sound of the waves at night. The most menacing moment so far was the theft of the hammock from the house’s patio, which required that the thieves come over the three metre high seawall. “Borrachos” – drunks – the manager of la casita said when informed. Padlocks instead of S hooks secure the new hammock, but we don’t make the same assumption about our own security. We take basic sensible precautions such as leaving some outside lights on at night and ensuring doors are locked.
A positive experience
Overall our experience here has been overwhelmingly positive. We have met some new people and have hosted some old friends, and as it turns out, and by accident, the rental house is itself connected to the history and wonders of Mexico. Just under 500 years ago Spanish ships steered into what is now la Bahia Santiago for the first time, having come around the southern tip of the continent. On coming ashore, presumably for fresh water and food, they placed a cross on the beach at or near this spot defining the land as newfound Spanish territory. At the time, the people who lived in the hills and along the shore lived in what would clearly have passed as the Garden of Eden with its lush vegetation and marine life.
A cross still marks the spot today and it in fact stands over the party patio outside our wall, and la calle (the street) we are on is called de la Cruz (of the cross). It is not the original cross mind-you, which is reputedly in the possession of a politician. Replica or not, many locals acknowledge it when passing by with their own sign of the cross, and a bow of the head and, I imagine, a short prayer for their livelihood, their families and their country.
Terry Field has reported previously on Mexican politics and is the chair of the journalism degree program at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada.
For a comprehensive examination of Mexico’s drug gang problem start with: http://projects.latimes.com/siege/#/its-a-war
