I was heartened to hear during my keynote (goto Login Tourism Speakers) and after at the T20 Meeting in Buyeo, Korea, that nations are taking technology adoption to a new level and will continue to drive it from within their national and local tourism bodies.
The Korean organization was particularly aggressive in pursuing new technology adoption to accomplish a number of tasks:
1) They have decided specifically to drive Government as a Platform and understand that without it the level of investment will be insufficient to support the tourism industry. They leverage public-private partnerships in ways I have only dreamed of. Charm Lee, in leading the tourism organizations for the nation is doing an amazing job.
2) The applications are forward thinking and full of rich media interactions. In this app, Korea is far ahead of the rest of the world in brand exploitation, sticky web app penetration and thought leadership. Create your own personalize itinerary based upon your feedback during an interactive movie? Brilliant.
And the audience attracted by this event was impressive. from members of the European Commission, to tourism leaders from nearly every major country on the planet, to the UN, the T20 meeting was an incredible success.