Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months with nonstop, wall-to-wall coverage of the disaster, it’s effect on the local economy, human interest stories and enough beach-backed live shots to piece together your very own episode of Miami Vice.

Even with a $25 million BP grants to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, fighting this story — let alone the spill — with traditional advertising seems to be gaining little traction in consumer minds.

Yes, the leak reportedly has been stopped, but the spill continues to bubble up within consumers’ perception of Florida.

So, what should Florida and some of its local communities do with additional grant money?

To start, don’t spend it on advertising.  At least not yet.

Why?  Because consumer sentiment has been pushed so far toward the disaster side of the story, it would be difficult — if not impossible — to pull people’s perceptions back toward reality in the short-term.

By the way, the reality is that most of the beaches in northwest Florida are clean and open, with more sand than tar.

Consider a sentiment analysis study about Florida tourism and the oil spill on Twitter, which I selected because of available reporting tools from Wordle and the popularity of the social network.

The graph below is simply a visual representation of the data.  If I had conducted a full study about Florida or a local community, a much deeper analysis would have been required to reduce the margin of error.

As you can see, the consumer sentiment — at least on Twitter — is very focused on the negative implications of the spill, rather than the recovery, deals or jet ski rentals.

This finding corresponds with a new Travelocity poll of 2000 Americans which found that 25% of respondents cited the Florida Keys as one of the top three destinations most impacted by the spill, “although the beaches are clean and open.”

Knowing this disparity as evidenced by the Twitter analysis and the Travelocity poll, my recommendation for a local Florida community or tourism board would be to focus efforts on public relations and social media outreach (find as many partners, champions and brand advocates as possible to tweet for tourism) for the next several weeks.

Ah, but  the stats above show such a large divide on Twitter and by implication other social networks, so why would you dedicate more resources to that medium?

Frankly, because you have to start somewhere — and that somewhere is at the grassroots level of this campaign.

This strategy should not be about placing a full-page ad, running some TV spots and hoping the message comes through.

No, should be a post-to-post, one-on-one communication combat mission to sway the opinion of your potential visitor.

This strategy will require micro communication, before mass communication.

Once complete (easier said than done), re-evaluate the overall sentiment, and if the gap between oil-spill fears and Florida tourism has narrowed, then begin shifting resources to a more traditional advertising campaign.

Sure, that full-page ad in the New York Times may have looked great, and I am sure the circulation numbers were high, but if the readers of the paper did not absorb the messaging into their overall perception of Florida, it will be quickly overshadowed by the next tweet.

Certainly still part of the overall travel planning puzzle, DMOs (the general term we will use for both organizations throughout the rest of the article) have built a remarkable bond of trust with the vacationing consumer. However, DMOs concurrently struggle to have the same consumer recall and utilize this unbiased bastion of travel knowledge at the opportune time.

Is it simply an issue of information overload — tweets, posts, videos, reviews, status updates, texts — or is the DMO model outdated in the digital age?

How does a DMO position itself to achieve a level of mindshare appropriate for such a valued resource?

First, let’s review the standard goals of any DMO: visitation/heads in beds, revenue through taxes or advertising and finally, information dissemination.

The first two goals are difficult to track (or at the very least show direct metrics) and the third goal is proving to be highly time-consuming to manage in today’s splintered market.

The bottleneck for most DMOs is attempting to squeeze new techniques and mediums into the template of old model goals.  A better measurement methodology is not the answer, but rather the establishment and inclusion of new goals.

Goals that take into account the traits of the digital traveler.

The tripecho accounts for the lasting effect of travel

Visitors come and go, often once in a lifetime, but what is the true value of that visitor? How do they communicate their trip, experiences and opinions about your destination?  What is their lifetime value?

Do they post a photo gallery on Flickr? Send tweets during dinner?  Write a review on TripAdvisor.  Maintain a blog? Even just pass on the printed visitor guide?

And, what about the local audience, friends, relatives, etc?  What is the value of a local recommendation on Yelp or a friend’s foursquare check-in?

How do we account for all of the ripples caused by the social nature of digital communication?

We need a new goal, a new metric and a new term…the tripecho.

Visitation is better represented by the consumer’s tripecho or a valuation on the communication/social impact of the travel experience.

Relevancy — the new revenue

In simple terms, communication that is targeted becomes more relevant for the consumer and, therefore, more likely to generate revenue.

Leveraging the consumer should be a mutually beneficial partnership, not a one-way advertising push.  We know so much about the consumer, primarily thanks to either a desire for personalization or the unknown results of information sharing.

It seems ridiculous that this information is commonly pushed aside in favor of a shotgun marketing technique.

The traveler is happy to share information if they receive relevant results.  Then, the revenue will follow.

Conversation replaces information

One-way information dissemination is no longer tolerated or appreciated in today’s interactive planning process.  Little more than a push of information via a mailed visitors guide was acceptable as recently as 15 years ago, but the modern demographic is expecting a conversation.

Twitter, TripAdvisor, VirtualTourist, questions and answers, texting…all of these new information highways follow a common path of communication.  DMOs must learn to adopt and embrace open, meaningful conversation via a variety of mediums as an important indicator of travel.

Does it make sense, in today’s market, that one-on-one conversations on Twitter or via a call center are given less value than an obscure visitor guide request?

The tripecho, revenue relevancy and conversation are the points on the new digital roadmap.

The time is now to define your version of the roadmap and plan a route to marketing success in the digital age.

There is little doubt that Facebook is well on its way to becoming the dominant homepage for many online users in the United States.

Not to mention the social network’s slow but steady rise in popularity around the world.

For marketers, it is a basic concept.  We want our message to be in front of as many consumers as possible for the lowest possible price.

Put 350 million people in one place, online or otherwise, and marketers will fall over themselves to hock the value of their product or service.

In the case of Facebook, we know the audience is there, but are they listening to the message?

For example, take our recent tweet from @travel2dot0:

“Facebook users will vote for anything if you ask: http://ow.ly/12Cy8 Which state will reach 1mil fans first. Did DMOs miss something?”

The tweet is referring to an article about one of the many flavors of the week on Facebook – numerous pages devoted to which US state can gather 1 million fans first.

Alas, these state pages have been created specifically for this contest and do not represent the official DMO Facebook pages.

That said, in less than a month, Texas has amassed more than 714,000 fans in this very unscientific survey.

But what types of users are represented in the 700,000 number?  As a DMO, we want to be friends with all of these users, right? Are these users as valuable as all others?

We have some thoughts on that.  We call them status hoarders.

Of course, there are numerous users within Facebook who are brand advocates for their favorite destination (Breckenridge), coffee shop (Starbucks) or sports car (Ferrari).  We need to be careful not to paint everyone with the same broad brush.

Status Hoarders:  Users who attach themselves to numerous groups, typically relating to a pop culture or fashionable topic, in order to maintain a hip or favorable perception among other users.

Ah, now we are getting somewhere.  As we mentioned in the tweet, users on Facebook (or Twitter for that matter) will vote for anything… Avatar, the Oscars and, apparently, states around the US.

This is a perfect example of how Facebook exaggerates the already existing social tendencies of our culture online.

The majority of us care deeply about the perception of others, how cool we appear and what products, people and things we are associated with – not to mention our inherent competitive nature.

Which brings us back to the state popularity contest on Facebook.  The article asks several questions about the post-vote existence of these pages:

So what happens to these pages after the first state reaches 1 million fans is a good question. Will Facebook roll them into the states’ official pages? Will states try to obtain them and turn them into tourist or government-focused pages?

Um, no thanks. And here is why.

The users who have become fans (ah, such a nice term) of these pages are simply passing through and have no real loyalty or interest in a deeper conversation.

They are, for the most part, status hoarders, voting for their state in one of several non-productive breaks during the work day.  I am pretty sure they also voted for their favorite Jersey Shore cast member, some sort of Star Wars vs Trek debate and probably a celebrity-related fashion question.

No, you can keep those users; DMOs really don’t need fans like that.

 Those of you who know me well are already aware of what drives my personal ambition as well as my writing:  travel, technology and the environment.

And while future posts, articles and theoretical ramblings will present a stronger focus on tourism technology, I felt it appropriate to address a larger subject.  Global, if you will.

At present, while you sit at your desk or check in on your various RSS feeds via the ubiquitous Blackberry, the world is changing.  At grassroots gatherings and worldwide summits, such as the recent Climate Week in New York City, thousands of our peers are addressing the issue of our time…climate change.

I submit to you that climate change is not simply an issue for Greenpeace and the United Nations; it is now an issue for you, for us and for our industry.  The time has arrived to lend our voice to the congregation and become a part of the solution.  The travel industry…utilizing technology…can help lead the way.

Sounds good you say, but how?  And furthermore, why?  Why us?  Why me?

All of us love (or should love) to travel.  We travel to see the world, to experience different cultures and to embrace the variety of natural wonders that exist on our wide-ranging planet.  Beyond that wonderful and sugar-coated fact, we sell destinations and, for the most part, we sell the natural surroundings that exist in these destinations.

Our budgets, profits, local taxes, salaries, families, friends and bankers depend on the revenues that are generated due to the splendors of these amazing sites.  On top of that, our jobs depend on the environment that we sell so eagerly to willing travelers.  That fact alone should be enough cause for you to read on, regardless of personal opinion.

But, as quickly as these wonders of the world are being discovered by the masses, they are at risk of being destroyed due to a changing climate.

The crumbling and deteriorating ruins throughout Greece and Egypt are under attack by the acid rain produced, in part, by exhaust of the rental cars and buses that bring thousands of tourists to these marvels in the first place.

Or, take the first 90 degree day in the Valley of the Sun… Phoenix…a location from which I speak with experience.  According to yearly readings from NOAA, the first 90 degree day in Phoenix over the past 25 years is, on average, April 1, however when isolating the last 10 years, that date jumps to March 29.  On paper, only a two day difference, but in terms of evolutionary time, those two days (over such a short period) represent a large shift in climate patterns.

As you can imagine, it becomes difficult to sell the idea of a lovely alfresco lunch when the temperature reaches 120 degrees.  Trust me; all the misting systems in the world will not cool you down.

Perhaps the most startling and troubling example of this disastrous trend is the tiny nation of Maldives.  The archipelago lies just off the coast of India and is literally being washed off of the map due to our lack of action on such issues as capping carbon emissions.

And the list goes on…drought in Australia, an overpopulation of pine beetles in Colorado and much of the Rocky Mountain West as well as glaciers disappearing from mainland Europe.

The destination that we sell is being destroyed, or at best, becoming nearly unrecognizable.

But we have a green program, you say.

Nothing more than talk, I say.

Sure, you have a couple of recycling cans in the office, perhaps you even buy locally grown produce for your restaurant and let us not forget about that expensive ‘We are Green’ brochure on your website.

Kudos, perhaps the people of the Maldives can build rafts out of those shiny new brochures and sail off to a new island home.

We need to do more.

We need to be at the head of the table, providing real and tangible ideas and solutions for our community to survive.

Solutions like the E-Move Charging Station in Denmark.   The newly unveiled carbon offset kiosk at SFO. Bicycle exchange programs such as the successful experiment in Paris.  Recycling programs like RAFT in Denver, which provides school supplies to teachers from leftover convention materials.

We need to use technology to educate our consumers about the natural beauty that surrounds them and what we, as the travel industry, are doing to protect it on the local level.

We need to stop printing guides, materials and mailers that consumers do not want and start thinking about how our decisions can be improved with technology and how that technology can improve the natural world.

Simple answers do not exist in this post or topic.  This is a serious issue that calls for serious and thoughtful solutions, which unfortunately cannot be provided in a nice, neat bulleted list.

However, I can provide one solution for this paradox that I have so willingly unleashed on these virgin pages.  We, the travel industry, need to start talking.

We need to start talking to each other, to our consumers, to our peers, to our politicians and to the world.  All too often we spend endless hours discussing the best way to entice visitors to our destinations without even mentioning or blatantly ignoring such issues as air quality, carbon offsets and the potential for environmental damage.  We have trained ourselves to focus on short-term gains and let someone else worry about long-term effects.

Technology is standing by and ready to make an impact on more than the way we communicate with tourists.  Technology is ready to help us change the future.  We simply need to start the conversation.

If you have made it this far into the post, then congratulations, I can assure you that future rants will provide more actionable solutions than the previous novel.  And we will certainly talk at length about Twitter, AR, GIS, GDS and every other techie acronym that we can think of, but this subject is beyond important.

I leave you with one final thought.

It is our responsibility to protect and preserve the destination that we sell to millions of travelers each and every day.  It is time we accepted this monumental task and stopped providing excuses.

Otherwise, our children might have no other choice except to visit the Maldives on Wikipedia.