Like many industries struggling to adapt, travel is ideally positioned to leverage the emerging Web 2.0 trends to maximize what are typically tight budgets. The beauty of social media is the ability to harness the power of the community. What better marketers for a destination could be found than satisfied and converted visitors? I would say none. There is no more powerful recommendation than a referral from a trusted source. When you aggregate these individuals, what you have is a credible community. Steve Rubel, among others, notes the launch of yet another Travel 2.0 style website. Right now I’m seeing the creation of plenty of these kind of sites and likely there will be some consolidation and attrition as time goes on. What should travel marketers do?

The big non-news here is the terminal condition of the analog advertising paradigm. What I find most telling is the suggestion that “consumer-generated” content will be the magnet that draws these dollars in.