Tourism authority websites

[David Whitley]

Earlier today, I wrote a blog post on how tourist board websites often don't serve the potential visitor properly - http://bit.ly/ipVHX.

It's attracted a few really interesting comments, plus some thumbs up and thumbs down for various tourist board sites. I'd be interested to hear from other writers about their experiences too - do you feel that the websites are up to the task?

[Durant Imboden]

I think you made some valid points. Unfortunately for them (but perhaps fortunately for us), tourist-office or CVB sites face one major challenge that journalists or independent travel-planning sites don't: They need to please their "stakeholders" (which may be member businesses, taxpayers, government overseers,or all three). And sometimes, pleasing those stakeholders or constituents is at the expense of end users.

A couple of my own criticisms of tourist-office or CVB sites (as a user) are:

1) They tend to focus on events at the expense of practical information. Nearly everyone who visits Widgetville needs to know things like how to get into the city from the airport, what the local tipping customs are, and how to ride the transit system, so why bury that information (if it's provided at all) while promoting every special event from the Widgetville Hockey Puck Suck to the South Widgetville Vintage Car Waxing Festival on the home page?

2) They tend not only to be organized like databases, but also to read like databases.

Mind you, I'm really not complaining. If I can write a logically-organized 10-, 12-, or 16-page illustrated Web guide to Widgetville that covers the essentials, supplies practical information, has links to third-party resources, and is in a readable (and conversational) format that doesn't require drilling down through scores of submenus to find basic information, that's good for me and my readers. It's even good for the Widgetville tourist office, my readers can use when they're ready to spend time drilling down for the names of nightclubs, shops, etc. or to see what's happening during their stay.

[Ryan James]

I write the Frommer's travel guide Budapest and the Best of Hungary and I have lived in Budapest for 9 years now. I have seen the TourInform as they call themselves here open and close offices continually. Each train station used to have an office, then they closed them, then they opened them again, but now they are closed. The same thing has happened with the offices around the city. They open and close or change hours without notice or consistency.

After some prompting from this group, I used their program for journalists when I was researching my 2010 edition of the book this last summer. They were quick to respond that they accepted my application, but then never followed up like they said they would. I had to e-mail them three times, with each response coming from a new person who was assigned to me. In the end, they said they did not have the budget to offer me much at all.

I have found that their web site is never up-to-date. Opening and closing times of museums and other attractions are always outdated. Even the websites they provide for follow-up are outdated. Very disappointing.