Las Vegas launches new “Know the Code” marketing campaign with social integration

by McLean Robbins on



Taking a trip to Sin City? Las Vegas is stepping up their marketing efforts with a full-blown social and digital media campaign that we’re actually finding quite clever.

Playing off the slogan “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” idea, they’ve launched an online pledge entitled “Know the Code” encouraging Vegas visitors to log in and sign an online pledge promising that they won’t reveal details of their trip via social media.

Of course, these #knowthecode tweets are actually driving more publicity to the scandalous city – ingenious.Visitors can log in to VisitLasVegas.com and sign an oath stating: “I promise to follow the code of Las Vegas by not tweeting, tagging, posting, telling, whispering, emoting, defining, drawing up, writing about or in any way revealing the all powerful What Happens Here, Stays Here moment of me or any one else in my party to others not on said trip during or at any time after said trip’s duration – i.e. the moment being the part or parts of the trip that should stay in las vegas. The other parts are fine … so sayeth this person.”

According to the website, the “movement” is nearly 10,000 strong. Of course, the site also features a number of “share-worthy” venues and experiences in Las Vegas, helping drive potential future tourist revenue.

Given our own personal love of social media (and our amusement at those who love to over share), we think this campaign is hilarious.


New York on a budget: Your free day in New York

by Jessica Festa on

Visitors to New York often think that to experience the culture of the city they will have to pay a fortune. To disprove that theory, here is an itinerary that will allow you to enjoy a free afternoon (well, you might have to pay $2.25 for the subway).

The walk begins in Rockefeller Center. Take the F, D, M, or B to to the 47th-50th St. Rockefeller Center stop, the N or the R to 49th St., the 1 to 50th St., or the 6 to 51st St. Begin your day by exploring the many shops, cafes, and studios in Rockefeller Center (tip: visit Rain to sample South African bath and body items and get free advice on how customize your perfect scrubs). Stroll through the Channel Gardens and Promenade and admire nature and art. There are also traces of art and history located around the entire Rockefeller Center, including oil paintings, stone statues, bronze sculptures, and more. Another fun free thing to do is to sit in on a live taping of the show. If you haven’t made arrangements in advance, you can try to get standby tickets when you are there. If it is winter, enjoy the feeling of Christmas in the air by watching ice skaters and characters in costume move around the giant lit-up Christmas tree that New York is so famous for.When you leave Rockefeller Center, begin walking down 5th towards 50th. Here, you will see the famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Explore the many sections of the church, including the crypt, chapel, sanctuary, baptistery, and more with a free guided tour.

After St. Patrick’s, continue walking up 5th towards 52nd street and make a right. Walk for less than a minute and you will come to the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Located at 11 East 52nd St., this free museum hosts art and exhibits of all different forms, including oil paintings, photography, video, multimedia, sculptures, and more. Most of the artists have some kind of connection to Austria, whether they live, work, or grew up there. From now until January 3, 2012, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York is hosting their Beauty Contest exhibit, which uses different perspectives to convey and breakdown different concepts of beauty.

Get back on to 5th and continue walking uptown. Fifth Ave. is famous for its shopping, and while buying merchandise isn’t free, window shopping certainly is. The walk will allow you to peruse an array of shops, from the reasonably priced Forever 21, Hollister, and Abercrombie and Fitch, to upscale designer stores like Gucci, Fendi, and Prada. You will also pass the well-known Trump Tower.

If you would like to see some more of the religious structures in New York, you will pass both St. Thomas Episcopal Church and the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church on your left.

Once you hit 59th you will be able to enter Central Park, which is basically a day trip of its own. If you would like to keep your day free of charge, you can walk the park either by yourself or with one of the free walking tours offered by the Central Park Conservancy. There are many different tour focuses, such as art, the castle, a memorial walk, and many more. If you are going to explore on your own, you can either purchase a map (remember, the park covers more than 800 acres) or just have a spontaneous adventure by choosing your route at random (you will come to many different forks in the road as you explore). Visit the many memorial statues erected around the park, take photographs of the various ponds, fountains, bridges, and plants, play Frisbee in Sheep Meadow or chess at the Chess & Checkers House, be entertained by live performers, visit Belvedere castle and much, much, more.

Hungry? Head over to Tavern on the Green to check out some of the local food trucks. Enjoy a delicious, filling meal for under $10. You can also check out Ball Field Cafe & Beer Garden to sample sangria, discounted buckets of beer on ice, and meals such as burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and salads for a reasonable price. Sheep Meadow Cafe will also allow you to full up for free, with meals for under $10.

Rama: a smartphone app for history lovers

by Jessica Festa on

Rama is a smartphone app that not only guides you through your favorite cities while giving you historical details, it also makes the past come alive through archival photographs that show users exactly what a particular destination or site once looked like. See the rocky swamp that is now Central Park, walk through Chicago right after the Great Fire, experience the wild atmosphere of Mardi Gras during the Depression, or visit the few lonely buildings in San Francisco after the Earth quake hit in 1906.

Some of the available tours include:

And, many more. Click here to view a complete list of guided tours. Tours cover Africa, South America, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and North America.

Available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Price ranges from free-$2.99 depending which tour you choose. To download the app from iTunes store, click here.

A roundup of travel chats hosted on Twitter

by Melanie Renzulli on

Hashtags. If you are on Twitter, then you have seen plenty of tweets accompanied by hashtags. A hashtag provides context to a tweet, enables tweeters to rally around a cause, as well as allows others to find tweets more easily in a search.

As Twitter has evolved, hashtags have become integral to following events and conversations. The utility of hashtags has also made it possible for groups of people with common interests to come together for daily, weekly, or monthly discussions. This has certainly been the case for travel enthusiasts, many of whom have created several hashtag talks on Twitter. If you’d like to get in on the many travel conversations on Twitter, read on as we break down the best ways to get talking about travel 140 characters at a time.#TNI
The pioneer of travel talks on Twitter, #TNI, which stands for Travelers’ Night In, was created by the ladies of ZipSetGo.com (@zipsetgo). Each Thursday at 3:30 EST, #TNI begins with a question centered around the week’s theme and continues with 10 questions tweeted out from the #TNI hosts approximately every 10 minutes. Topics have ranged from geographical subjects, such as California, to travel genres, such as adventure travel. #TNI discussions are quick, usually funny, and often enlightening for the travel information that they impart. When it’s all over, one of the members of ZipSetGo writes up a summary of that week’s discussion for the website, highlighting the best and/or wittiest answers.

Because #TNI has become such a phenomenon among travel folks on Twitter, tourism boards and PR firms often work with ZipSetGo to set a theme and provide prizes. #TNI has also become a hashtag that travel tweeters use to share their content or ask a question.

#TTOT
“Travel Talk on Twitter” or #TTOT was started by Melvin Boecher of Traveldudes.org as a way to “have a travel event on Twitter…that [doesn’t] get dominated by sponsors who pay for it.” #TTOT works similarly to #TNI, however. The talk takes place on Tuesdays at both 9:30am and 9:30pm GMT and is based around a theme chosen from questions posted on the TTOT Facebook page. Also like #TNI, #TTOT has become a catchall hashtag for travel-related tweets and questions.

#MexMonday
I’ve been following travel topics on Twitter since I joined in March 2009 and #MexMonday is the only country-specific hashtag with its own day that has any sort of staying power. Twitter user @traveldesigned began #MexMonday in September 2009 in order to promote tourism to Mexico in light of the bad press stemming from drug crime and the H1N1 virus in that country. Each Monday, Mexico aficionados tweet out content, photos, and questions using the #MexMonday hashtag.

#TravelTuesday
Tuesdays became all about travel the day that tweeter @whereivebeen began using the #TravelTuesday hashtag. Rather than being a travel discussion, #TravelTuesday, often shortened to #TT, has become a way for persons on Twitter to give a shout-out to those who provide useful travel tweets. In other words, #TravelTuesday is very much like Twitter’s most famous hashtag #FollowFriday.

#BeachThursday
If beaches are your thing, then Thursday is the time to drop in on Twitter to follow the #BeachThursday hashtag. Twitterer @isabellestravel, the blogger behind Isabelles Travel Guide, started #BeachThursday while daydreaming about the beach on a dreary Thursday afternoon. Now anyone who wants to learn more about beaches or share seaside photos can find like-minded travelers every Thursday on Twitter.

#FriFotos
It’s Friday. You’re ready for the weekend and you need something to distract you as you count down the hours. Enter #FriFotos. Organized by Jonathan Epstein of @epsteintravels, #FriFotos is the chance for travelers to show off their best travel photos based on themes, which have ranged from animals to world capitals to stone. #FriFotos is open to everyone from amateur photogs sharing blog posts or Flickr photos to professional photographers tweeting out links to portfolio shots. Always fans of big, bold photos, our friends at the Huffington Post provide information on each week’s #FriFotos theme and you can also follow @epsteintravels, @kirstenalana, or @hotelprguy on Twitter for the #FriFotos scoop.

In addition to these well-known Twitter talks, you may also be interested in following #WineWednesday which often pairs travel with terroir, and #NUTS (“Not-so Usual Therapy Session”), in which, according to host @midliferoadtrip, the “primary focus is food, travel and adventure.”

Of course, new travel talks are popping up all the time on Twitter, so stay tuned to @gadling for the latest. Better yet, follow all of Gadling’s bloggers by subscribing to the Gadling Bloggers list. Happy tweeting!

Photo / Flickr user danmoyle

The ever-evolving language of travel

by Jessica Festa on

While it is clear that travel itself has evolved in many ways in the past decade or so, it appears that travel language has, too. It is something that seems to happen overnight, without anyone really noticing that new vocabulary words are being invented but using them anyway. Check out this list of some relatively new lingo that has stuck in the language of travel.

Couch Surfing

While at one time we would have just said that we were “staying with friends”, there is now a global resource for travelers that has really made an impact on the niche. Couch Surfing allows backpackers and budget travelers to stay with local people in the regions they are visiting, as well as host travelers who come to visit their native land, for free.

Voluntourism

This is a specific type of trip that allows travelers to not only visit another region, but also help out a cause or organization while they are there. Some of my favorite resources for voluntourism include International Volunteer Headquarters and SE7EN.Agritourism

This type of travel involves staying with locals in a rural area. Basically, it is a farm stay or rural retreat.

WWOOFING

Related to agritourism is World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOFING). It is a global network that connects travelers with organic farms. The gist of the program is that in exchange for room, board, and the chance to learn about organic farming and local lifestyle, travelers help out with the daily work.

Digital Nomad

This term is used to refer to someone who is location independent and can work from anywhere in the world using technology such as smartphones, laptops, iPads, WiFi and other gadgets. Actually, an entire separate article could be written on the new technological terms for travelers that have come about in the past decade or so (hmmmm…).

Flashpacker

Staying on the topic of technology and travel, this term refers to the more affluent type of backpacker. While most backpackers are thought to be on a tight-budget, flashpackers tend to have a large disposable income and also carry lots of tech gadgets with them, such as laptops and smartphones.

Staycation

This type of travel became popular during the financial crisis of 2007-2010 and refers to relaxing at home or taking trips to nearby attractions.

Glamping

This is a type of trip for those who want to experience the great outdoors while not roughing it too much. For example, instead of staying in a basic tent, someone who is glamping will use more high-end camping gear, such as a tent with electricity and an air mattress.

Slow Travel

Slow travel is the idea of traveling more slowly to enjoy each place and experience it in more depth by, for example, spending a week in one city or opting for a vacation rental home.

Mancation

This term refers to a “men only” vacation (think girl’s weekend or all-girl’s getaway for guys). With the trend catching on, travel packages are now catering to this type of travel. Interested in a mancation of your own? Urban Navigator can help you book packages that include things like golf, camping, and hiking.