Back in July, I mentioned Pennsylvania’s blogging experiment when the tourist authorities let half a dozen tourists/couples/families roam the state, writing about their experiences along the way.
It’s something I have discussed with a couple of other tourist organisations so I was glad to catch up with Richard Bonds this week at World Travel Market.
Bonds is executive director of tourism marketing in Pennsylvania and would have carried the can if any of his bloggers had turned nasty and showed a lack of respect to his state or its cultural icons, such as, I dunno, a cheese steak.
In fact there was little likelihood of that happening. I mentioned at the time it seemed a little too slick and when you delve into the details, it seems the bloggers’ trips were paid – it was one big freebie – and editors were ready to go at their posts with blue pencils if they had showed a particular lack of gratitude. In the end, they only needed grammar cops and spelling sergeants.
The experiment was deemed a success and whipped up plenty of mainstream media coverage for the authority but I would like to see them go one better and give regular paying customers a proper open blogging platform, and not one which disappears just because the season changes and it’s time for a new marketing angle on the website.
Still, if you fancy becoming one of Pennsylvania’s road tripping bloggers next Spring, they are repeating their experiment and you can sign up on the website now.
They ask for brave bloggers.
I think they mean well-behaved.
Comments on this entry are closed.