Techy Travel - The Introduction

An interesting topic because until recently I was not a technology infatuated kind of person. When I was growing up, somehow I was led to believe that or rather I made myself believe that technology was only for those intellectual in that kind of area. I always shied away from any "technological'' stuff for my liking and up until three years ago when I was introduced to Facebook! I thought Facebook was cool, then at one point I lost interest then gained it back and over the period I went from just having mixed emotions about Facebook but at the same time, joining more social sites such as twitter, linked in and I even got to fall i love with blogger!

Ipad 2..on my Christmas wish list! :)

At the time, most people viewed social networks as a negative influence in the world by saying things such as - if you are an employee, you will spend more time on these sites thus affecting your work productivity in a negative way etc. Be honest, did you not hear of companies that actually blocked sites such as Facebook and twitter? However, this did not stop people because mobile internet became more popular! Basically the more people run away from social media the more it gained popularity, reaching heights that were unimaginable and creating waves that I never saw coming! This year we saw political revolutions arising and changing governments, Egypt and Libya being great examples and it is this same year that saw my job in the tourism industry take a turn with I being put in charge of our companies social media and ecommerce. A field that if three years ago you would have told me I would be working in, I would probably have laughed hysterically at your thoughts!

We (tourism company) felt that whether we wanted it or not, we had to keep up or keep out of business. In the recently concluded World Travel Market in London, it came out quite clearly that social media was and is a determining factor to travel trends all over the world, with at least 40% of the people booking holidays across the globe having referred to social sites before taking up the trip. The truth is, like it or not, to stay in business means doing the necessary! As the old saying goes, if you can't beat them, then join them.

In Kenya, we have seen our tourism board put fourth their thoughts about our tourism through social media amongst others, especially with all the negative media reports that were/are being portrayed due to the War on Terror in Somalia. I believe it has so far worked well, with the buzz around the networks reassuring people and tourists that Kenya is a lovely destination and proving all the "negative research “that had prophesised doom on the Kenyan tourism sector as a result of the government political decision to go on war with Somalia.

In conclusion, what I am trying to say is let us embrace technology in the tourism sector and in all life aspects because in the first place I would not even be writing this article if blogger did not exist.

Note to self: Maybe I should have a page about the techy travel, writing about travel and technology?...what do you think fellow blogger or reader?