Predominant way to lure tourists is with photos
By Kathryn Reed
Eye candy – it’s what people are looking for first when they start thinking about a vacation.
That is in large part why websites like Instagram and Pinterest are so popular. And those are the social media venues millennials are using in greater numbers than Twitter and Facebook.
People want to see pictures of pretty places and people doing the things they want to be doing while on vacation. And photos – even videos – of hotels (inside and out) are ways to get people to book a room.

Carol Chaplin with the LTVA and B Gorman of the chamber talk tourism on April 15. Photo/Lesia Witkowsky
All of this information was dispensed at the annual tourism conference April 15 that was put on by Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce. More than 70 people attended the event at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel in South Lake Tahoe.
Michael Thomas with Nobel Studios talked about five technology trends that will impact travel. His company created LTVA’s website nearly three years ago so it would be photo-centric, include blogs from people playing on the South Shore, events and more. It has content from the visitors authority and from users.
The trends are:
• People are starting their travel itinerary with visuals. “We as a destination need to make sure we have photos on the web,” Thomas said.
• People are going to travel to eat. Thomas said there are people who deliberately travel for food, some who are opportunistic by finding good places to eat when they get there, and others who are accidental. “If you can talk farm to fork, and about wine and beer your area produces, you will get the deliberate traveler,” Thomas said. No one in the audience is a member of the World Food Travel Association, which he said offers certification for restaurants.
• People will stay in homes more than hotels. Airbnb usage is skyrocketing. Thomas said the valuation of the home rental site is at $10 billion. This compares to Hyatt at $8.43 billion and Wyndham at $9.39 billion.
• Hotels will be more photogenic. Thomas said it is imperative hotels create a visual experience.
• Hotels will be renting workspace. “It is really, really not a good strategy” to charge for Wi-Fi, Thomas said. In today’s world people expect to work on vacation. Even leisure hotels are starting to provide people space to work outside their hotel room.
Other speakers included Eric Dunn with Duncan-Channon. That firm does the ad campaign for LTVA. Water sports will be a big part of the summer promotion.
Carol Chaplin, who heads the LTVA, and B Gorman, the chamber’s leader, spoke of a recent excursion to Park City to learn about how that mountain town is able to attract visitors.
Reliable transportation with drivers who are more like tour guides, culinary options that range from one to five stars, public art and responsive government are the four main things they and others who traveled to Utah took away from the experience.
Responsive Government Oh the town needs to work on that one.
a marginal, and frankly sloppy, use of the verb ‘predominate’…this word is not correctly interchangeable with ‘predominant’…
Who knew people would want photos and videos of a potential vacation destination. Hope they didn’t spend too much money researching that!
I work at a 5-star hotel, and the term I usually hear is “Farm to Table” – not Farm to Fork. I agree that good food is very important, but it does not have to be “certified”. But I think SLT could do better with food offerings – the folks that visit us most come from places that have excellent restaurants (like the Bay Area, Southern California, and Europe). It is disappointing to have such a limited offering… there are a few very good places to eat…. not a lot. The good ones, are fortunately busy! We could use a good Ramen house, Pasta house, Fish house… Maybe during the slow shoulder seasons, our restaurants could have a Passport event for a weekend or weekends.