From world-class Content to Conversion: How to think like a Travel Writer & Blogger to attract more hits and travellers | Christine Retschlag | #SoMeT15AU Sunshine Coast, Australia

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SoMeT: A New Model for Destination Marketing

We all know that content is king but what, exactly, constitutes great content? This interactive and thought-provoking session will take you on a journey into the mind of a travel writer and blogger. Learn how they view the world, and the destinations in which they find themselves, through a different lens to the average person. It’s through this lens that the compelling stories can be unraveled and the colourful characters discovered. Witness examples of how destinations with great challenges and little marketing budget have sold their stories to the world, and also what it takes to wow a travel blogger. Christine Retschlag is an award-winning Australian journalist, travel writer and blogger with 25 years’ experience around the globe at the Courier-Mail; Gold Coast Bulletin; Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post; the London Newspaper Group and Ink, Singapore. She also spent three years working in Tourism Queensland’s Destination Marketing Department. These days, she’s a freelance travel writer for online and print media around the world. In 2012 she established the successful blog – The Global Goddess – www.theglobalgoddess.com – which focuses on travel, sex and dating and is aimed at strong, smart, sexy and spiritual women (and the great men who love us!)

Education

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How to think like a
travel writer
& blogger…

To be market leaders, operators need to move towards selling the
experience (eg: marine life encounter), not the product (eg: reef tour), and
this can only be achieved through having a great commodity (eg: The
Great Barrier Reef) combined with exceptional product and service.
TEQ Big Marketing Guide

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