Tourism Review Online Magazine 3 / 2007

Museums of transport, as well as the collections they exhibit, represent a special part of cultural heritage. They contribute to our understanding of the history of travel and mobility. Transport development is very important and it can be seen as a part of national identity, as our interview from Switzerland suggests. Also in this section, Professor Makoto Arisawa talks about his special interest in transport museums. T-R invites you to visit transport museums in London and Tokyo, view their exhibits and choose souvenirs in the museum shop.

Virgil was Dante's guide around Hell. T-R today is posing the question - what directs travellers these days in their search for a holiday heaven? The Divine Comedy is a work of genius and in way an immortal guidebook, but for our earthly trips we are looking for different qualities. T-R Review looks at the world of contemporary guides; what is the spectrum of their publications, who writes them, how and when they are updated. An omnipresent Internet challenges the “good old books” market and we focus our attention on the question of how on-line publications coexist, complement, or compete with traditional guides and booklets.

A coach or a train? That is the question. Eastern Europe is becoming fashionable as a tourist destination. It combines the benefits of relatively inexpensive facilities with possibilities of exploring the unknown. This “terra incognita” promises the wonders of high culture and the pleasures of the great outdoors. But when we are there, how should we travel from one country, or city, to another? We discuss today whether rail travel is still the most popular and reliable transportation in the area and list rail passes that make such travel even more attractive. An interview with the Student Agency director proves that their coaches are not only for students. The other long distance coach companies in Eastern Europe are also growing, and we introduce major players in this business.

Spas, as retreats of tranquility, are especially appreciated in our dynamic world. It is not surprising that this business is booming. We have decided this time to investigate the industry from an unusual (for the T-R) angle, and to observe the spa from three separate points of view; that of an owner, a manager and an employee. How does a potential owner minimize risk before opening a spa? How do you manage revenue and arrange working schedules? What are the skills and qualities that a spa therapist needs to cultivate in order to consistently offer high-quality customer service?

In this section, we observe new tendencies in destination-marketing. There is an opinion that the way destinations market themselves could become irrelevant, particularly in the face of new websites such as the social networking portals where consumers “tell the truth” about places and experiences. How can tourist boards adapt to the changing landscape? We analyze a case study of a convention bureau, which managed to successfully promote the destination via their web-site. Practical decisions on what to translate, how to refresh the content, how many clicks away from a surfer the information shall be placed – are disclosed. As we all know, hotel and vacation destination-marketers compete not only with each other, but also with online-booking giants. We show here how the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino's Internet Marketing created a sophisticated and successful policy designed to keep customers within their own booking “reach”. As destinations become more sophisticated in their marketing practices, existing theories of marketing strategy can become very useful. How the sports portfolio can contribute to destination marketing is also discussed in this section.