A big challenge awaits the tourism industry: transparency. Known as glasnost at the end of the Soviet era, it is now resurfacing in the oh-so-capitalist tourism industry.

With the advent of new technologies, and in particular the Web 2.0 groundswell, we have witnessed the end of a tourism mainstay: the glossy brochure.

OK, so it isn’t quite dead yet and may even have a few good years ahead, but consumers no longer lap up the brochure’s sweet talk with the same naivety and sense of wonder.  They still look, dream… and then they turn to a site like TripAdvisor or Wikitravel to get advice from peers and other consumers who had the same dreams, went out and gave those tourist offerings a whirl, and aren’t shy to tell it like it is.

The unforgiving law of TripAdvisor . . . Despite relatively positive reviews, these two hotels find themselves in the middle of the pack (1009th and 1010th out of 1950).

The industry doesn’t control the discourse and images anymore. Those who realize and accept this quickly will unquestionably become industry leaders. Those who refuse and vainly attempt to control the information that is spread about them are wasting time and energy and should instead work on improving their product. This will influence the travellers who have themselves become the most influential voice for would-be tourists.

For more information, please read this article by Claude Péloquin on the tourism watchdog Web site or this other article on the ever-evolving behaviour of consumers.