It's a brave new Web world for Salem tourism: From Facebook to online ferry tickets, tourists turn to the Internet

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April 21, 2008

By Chris Cassidy The Salem News Mon Apr 21, 2008, 09:07 PM EDT

SALEM — Kate Fox has noticed something about the way potential tourists request information about the Witch City.

"Very few people are using the toll-free number anymore," said Fox, the executive director of Destination Salem, the city's tourism department.

Instead, they're e-mailing her with questions or filling out a form on Destination Salem's Web site asking for a travel guide.

They may be coming from New York or New Jersey and as far away as Canada or Europe, but for the vast majority of tourists, their journeys to Salem all start at one place: the Internet.

So tourism marketing agencies, like Destination Salem, are turning to creative — and low-cost — ways to promote the city online, from blogs to social networking sites to podcasts.

Suddenly, simply having a Web site doesn't seem to be enough.

A few months ago, Fox created a Destination Salem group on Facebook, the social-networking Web site with nearly 70 million users. Visitors can post their Salem photos or vacation videos on the Facebook page, post comments or become members of the group. So far, the group has just 21 members, but if it grows, Fox could have a sizable database of contacts for publicizing upcoming events.

"It's where a large number of people in a pretty broad demographic are spending time," Fox said. "Consumers are very savvy these days. They don't always trust advertising, so using social networking gives it a little more trustworthiness."

Destination Salem also launched its own blog in February, which Fox updates about five times a week with photos and videos highlighting new businesses and different tourist attractions. A blog entry in March, for example, notes that trolleys have started picking up tourists — a sure sign of spring.

Last week, Fox posted a FAQ (frequently asked questions) about Salem, covering topics from where to park to how much a cab from Logan Airport to Salem costs.

For Destination Salem, the marketing tools are also cheap. Fox uses Blogger, owned by Google, which allows users to publish and maintain their blogs for free. Registering for Facebook, too, is costless.

Podcasts and ferry tickets

Destination Salem isn't the only tourist-oriented agency that's using new Internet tools.

Earlier this month, the Salem Maritime National Historic Site rolled out a series of online audio tours on its Web site. The online audio files, available in mp3 format, can be downloaded onto a user's iPod and played as the user tours the 9-acre waterfront site. Each podcast covers a different stop on the tour, from the Friendship to the 246-year-old Derby House.

"This is another way for people to experience the park," said Emily Murphy, the Webmaster at the National Park Service facility. "Since it's something you can download off the Web site, you can really do it anytime day or night."

The city itself has also begun marketing online.

About 10 "community videos" with music, graphics and shots of Salem's hot spots and tourist attractions were posted on the city's Web site, Salem.com.

Visitors can download and watch a variety of videos, each with a different focus, from health care and dining to parks and industry. The videos were funded by business sponsorships and didn't cost the city anything.

When the city promoted its new Haunted Passport program, it partnered with Salem marketing company King Fish Media, which produced a five-minute video with actors and actresses and posted it on YouTube. To date, it's been viewed about 700 times.

Beginning this spring, Salem ferry passengers can even buy their tickets online with a credit card.

Salem Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rinus Oosthoek said the chamber expects to add its own blog to its Web site soon.

"It's astonishing how much we do online," Oosthoek said.

Since Destination Salem retooled its Web site for the first time in seven years, the site has been generating steady traffic, Fox said. Some 14,119 unique visitors have logged onto the site in the last 30 days, and 44,012 have accessed it since Jan. 1.

Fox's blog has racked up 810 hits since it launched in February. More encouraging, however, is the amount of time the average visitor spends reading her blog: three minutes, 16 seconds.

"It all fits into the ongoing strategy of marketing Salem as a destination," Fox said.

Staff writer Tom Dalton contributed to this story.