Have you heard about the "Long Tail" of tourism

January 31, 2008
	The term "long tail" was coined (or first used) by Chris Anderson of Wired magazine in 2004 in his essay by the same title. It tries to describe a new business phenomenon/model in the age of the Web 2.0 (new search engine algorithms, user reviews, recommendations, etc.) Anderson focused on entertainment products like books, films and cd's to illustrate the dramatic change that the Web has brought to the economics of selling audiovisual products and books. The model suggests that while there is a market dominated by "hits" the Web is creating large markets from the "misses"? This refers to out-of-print or obscure books that can be reprinted in limited runs based on online demand (Amazon) or eclectic music that bands can sell online, but cannot distribute through brick and mortar channels. When it comes to tourism, analysts and eTourism practitioners are using the term to describe how the overal tourism market can grow (the long tail) through Web 2.0 phenomena like user generated content, hotel reviews, recommendations, inexpensive online booking engines, etc. But what does this mean to small tourism businesses and destinations? If Niagara, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are our "hits", what about places like Whitehorse or Sacacomie or Pictou? The model suggests that the Web 2.0 (social media, social networks, video and podcast websites, etc.) provide small businesses the opportunity to compete as the "misses" of the market. They can do this by not only SEO and SEM (search engine optimization and marketing), but also by participating in the Web 2.0 environment through social media and particularly the growing number of niche social networks. Small businesses (or destinations) that succeed in this will grow the market for the big players as well since travelers will still need to travel through the main gateway destinations to get to the small ones. For example, the Polar Bear Habitat and Village in Cochrane Ontario could work on a campaign to participate in relevant niche social networks keeping members informed about their bears with news and stories. This would attract some people to travel to Cochrane to see the polar bears there (but they would also need to visit other destinations in order to get there). While this may attract small numbers of visitors, the idea of the "long tail" is that if the numbers of niche small businesses and destinations doing this grows sufficiently then the total numbers can be significant and benefit the entire market. Another area that can add to the growth of the long tail of tourism is the use of technology like online reservation systems that more and more are becoming cost effective for small businesses allowing them to offer online bookings when they don't have the critical mass to partner with large online distributors. www.canadiantourismblog.ca