Travel companies need to think more local
By Darren Cronian on Sunday, August 15th, 2010

Many of you will know that my main project these days is a local guide called My Life in Leeds, and tonight I thought I would do some research and check out a few travel websites to see what content they have for my home city, and I am not impressed.

Travel companies need to think more local

Forget for a few minutes that I am the owner of the guide – that aside I am extremely passionate about my home city. Would I have written this rant if I wasn’t working on my own Leeds guide? Hell yes. Click on the links below to view the examples.

Photos

What happens is that a lot of travel guides use Flickr and Wikipedia photos tagged to keywords. So, places like Leeds Castle which is 247 miles away in Kent, appears on a Leeds city guide. There’s also a Leeds in Alabama, USA, which appears on some UK guides.

Tripwolf has a great photo of Leeds, of what looks like a rubbish dump. No comments please! I am sure any travellers thinking of visiting the city are going to rush to book a weekend break here now, and it makes me wonder why these types of sites use Flickr tags.

Lack of quality information

One hotel listing I found on Lastminute.com highlighted local attractions as the city of York, 24 miles away. Don’t get me wrong York is a fantastic city, but no mention of the attractions that are on the doorstep of the hotel?

The Frommer’s Leeds online guide has three restaurants listed, believe me, we have more than three restaurants here. Then there’s Trip Advisor who have as an attraction, Leeds General Infirmary which is the city’s hospital! Not somewhere I would want to visit.

Google maps

Finally, I thought I would share this with you. Even Google is having problems putting accurate information on to their maps. According to Google street view this is Leeds Town Hall, how can they get it so wrong? This is the actual location – it doesn’t look much different, huh?

Travel companies need to go local

Okay, so I am bias, when I say that travel companies need to look local – Ahem – to improve their content, it is true. When you are providing information for travellers it needs to be as accurate. No matter how much someone is an ‘expert’ if they do not live local, it is difficult to keep up with changes.

Have you seen examples of this type of issue on other destinations? Surely, these are quick fixes, so, I’d be interested to hear back from the companies that I have mentioned in this post. As usual let me know what you think in the comments.


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10 responses to “Travel companies need to think more local”

Sebastian | 15 August, 2010 at 1:08 pm

I agree that travel companies need to think local – but it easier said than done: At tripwolf we have to cover the whole world (which turns out to be pretty big) with just 3 editors. So we rely on users with local knowledge to improve tripwolf. For example, we allow EVERY user, logged in or not, to change the cover pictures associated with destinations: You can pick from existing pics or upload new ones. (Simply click that little “i” button in the lower right corner of the photo.) I just went ahead and exchanged the rubbish dump pic for a nice photo of the Ribblehead Viaduct – which is quite some distance from Leeds, unfortunately. You can pick another one, or, if you have good pictures from Leeds itself, upload those. We would also be happy about any other input about Leeds – be our “tripguru”!

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Darren Cronian | 15 August, 2010 at 3:28 pm

@ Sebastian

Thanks for the comment. I think this is the problem where a lot of guides go wrong – the need to be global and have small amounts of information on every destination in the world, rather than concentrating on a group of places and making sure that the content is quality before moving on to more destinations.

Thanks for the offer of being a ‘tripguru’ but time is money nowadays.

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Jack Montgomery | 16 August, 2010 at 12:04 pm

Amen…I’m a believer. Every day I read absolute nonsense about Tenerife. Misleading descriptions at best, complete utter rubbish at worst.
Funnily I was thinking of doing similar and compiling a name and shame.
Travel companies that don’t invest in some accurate copy are surely going to end up eventually shooting themselves in the foot.
That description of a ‘quaint fishing village’ that is really a concrete, purpose-built eyesore might sell a holiday, but will it result in a satisfied customer who books with the same company next time out?

Good rant.

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Karen Bryan | 25 August, 2010 at 10:45 pm

I can’t believe that Tripwolf photo, was it actually taken in Leeds. I can testify to the fact that there are lot of interesting places to visit in Leeds eg the Waterfront, Royal Armouries and Corn Exchange and you certainly don’t need to go all they way to York, as there’s plenty to do in Leeds for a few days.

It’s crazy that sites such as tripwof are relying on free user generated content to provide accurate up-to-date information for destinations and then plan to make money off the back off that free (often inaccurate) content. I’m sure they’d love to have you as their Leeds guru but as you say time is money, so you’re much better spending that time producing content for your own Leeds site.

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Darren Cronian | 25 August, 2010 at 11:10 pm

@ Karen

To be fair to Tripwolf, they aren’t the only online guide using UGC, and photos tagged by people on Flickr. That aside, if your not moderating the content, you could end up with some rather dodgy photographs on your family friendly guide.

Your right though – like you, I can’t be doing things for free anymore. :)

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Guillaume | 25 August, 2010 at 11:21 pm

Is there any DMO (destination management organization) that takes care of Leeds for tourists?

I think it is sometimes better to think small and find your niche especially f you want to be the best among others and stand out from the crowd (with Google SEO of course).

What about that site http://www.visitleeds.co.uk/

My favorite inaccuracy is people thinking Leeds Castle being in Leeds and post pictures of it in Leeds.

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Darren Cronian | 25 August, 2010 at 11:27 pm

@ Guillaume

Yep, there’s a DMO, tourist board, and that’s their site. I have an half written rant about tourist boards, which I will leave for now. I agree 100% is small niche is the best way to go, rather than thinking global, which is what a lot of guides feel they need to do.

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Kristal Ireland | 26 August, 2010 at 11:19 am

Hiya – erm…. I’d actually really like to pick your brain on this if you fancy a coffee/cup of Yorkshire Tea? I’m really passionate about making the user experience as good as possible and anything constructive you have to say would be appreciated :)

I’m coming to the Tales of our Cities Event at the Foundry next week – are you?

Cheers

Kristal
@kristalsmile

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Simon | 26 August, 2010 at 12:18 pm

Re Google Maps and Leeds Town Hall, I noticed that as I’m developing a Layar project for the city centre. That apparently isn’t Google’s fault, but that of the location entry for the town hall, although most of the area seems to be off by about fifty metres or so.

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Darren Cronian | 28 August, 2010 at 1:30 am

@ Kristal

I am not off to the Foundry event, but will drop you an email about meeting up for a coffee sometime.

@ Simon

Yes, I noticed a few things were off, i.e. the recruitment agency etc. Wonder if Google will get this sorted out. I have contacted them to tell them of the problem. Not helpful for those using Google maps to get themselves around the city.

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