Technology

Tim's research in 2006 studied how users interacted with travel destination website, newzealand.com and evaluated their impressions of New Zealand after visiting this site. His findings were that people identified NZ through the marketing of New Zealand on this site as being a very "hands on" destination as opposed to destinations like Europe where people went for cultural experiences. Tim's findings on backpackers found that backpackers identified strongly as 'backpackers' and not 'tourists' but that much marketing was aimed at 'tourists' who had money for tourist packages and products.

Luiz Mendez-Filho spoke today about User Generated Content (UGC) and the rise of travel reviews. Luiz has discovered that 90% of backpackers use UGC reviews when choosing accomodation to book. His research suggests that backpackers don't look at anything that has below a %60 rating. Backpackers are high consumers of travel reviews and this requires backpacker websites to consider carefully the components of their design.

More on Luiz' PhD here: http://www.nztri.org/node/30

Manukau City Council’s Community and Economic Development Unit is looking for a tool to enable Marae, complementary small businesses and community members in Manukau to create and strengthen Marae community networks and act as a support system for Marae-based initiatives.

The current site - http://www.westernsouthland.co.nz was developed as a prototype to gain community interest in promoting their region, which is often overlooked by travellers. It currently links in some of the towns, businesses and attractions in the area. All of the current content was contributed by individuals within the community.