The motivation behind myTobago
Posted: Thu May 15, 2003 11:12 am
Within minutes of posting a reply to Charles (General Questions - http://www.myTobago.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511 I received an email from an irate reader who hadn’t the balls to post his message directly in the forum. Probably because he was a she. Anyway, that’s by the by.
This friendly correspondent more-or-less accuses me of being a fraud, alleging that I claim the site to be non-commercial while actually promoting certain businesses. My mention of John Malcolm and/or The Red Door in the reply to Charles seems to have triggered the outburst. She infers that there must be a commercial relationship between us. I don’t think the email came from disgruntled competitor in Tobago. It’s difficult to tell with hotmail.com email accounts, but it would have been remarkably early in the morning if posted in Tobago.
For obvious reasons I cannot publish an email sent to me privately, but ethically I see no reason not to reply through the forum. So here goes, nice lady:
May I please refer you to the home page of our site. This clearly states our aim and intentions. Nothing has changed since we first expressed those sentiments.
Our goal is simply to help employment on Tobago in appreciation of the wonderful holidays that we have enoyed there. I have been visiting the island, on and off, for 45 years. The beauty of Tobago is not just the scenery or beaches – it is the local people that make the real difference.
So, by promoting tourism to the island, we will, in our own small way, help local employment. How do we promote tourism? Well, my theory is that we tell the TRUTH about the island – quite simply because it is one of the few places left in the world that you can be truthful about. Readers will hopefully be both convinced and captivated by this approach. As one reader said to me some time ago “better the devil you know”. She was referring to the fact that myTobago made her feel that she knew the island and what to expect, despite never having visited Tobago.
Given this thesis, our method is simple. By steering visitors to the best places and away from the worst, and by providing all necessary and essential information, we believe that we can enhance a visitor’s holiday experience. Follow our advice and the advice of our forum contributors and your visit will not just be a GREAT holiday, it could be the holiday of a lifetime. The better the holiday, the more likely you are to return and to recommend the destination to others. Ergo, we achieve our aims and hopefully aid local employment.
Now, the crux of the matter is how to steer visitors to the “best” places and away from the “worst”. Bearing in mind differing tastes, standards and budget, this obviously has to be done in a responsible manner. One must also bear in mind the possible impact (good or bad) on the businesses mentioned.
All our aims would be worthless if we did not mention the “good” and the “bad” by name. Surely that is the whole purpose and value of the site? The fundamental issue I must stress is that nobody PAYS to be mentioned on this site. We do not receive commissions, fees or advertising revenue of any kind to favour or mention anybody. We only mention businesses when our experience and/or research indicates that the particular business is deserving of mention (good or bad).
Over and above this assurance, dear lady, I would have thought that even a baboon would have been able to recognise that anything and everything we say would be for nought if not totally endorsed by the general readership of the site. I provide this forum to allow others to agree or disagree with our personal recommendations or warnings and to suggest other businesses that we may not have thought or know of. Many of the businesses that we do recommend came to our first notice through the suggestions and comment of readers. We very largely simply reflect the view expressed here. If we were to start ‘promoting’ businesses that were not deserving and readers posted messages of contradiction, the validity of our views – and therefore the integrity of the entire site – would be quickly destroyed. So, we try to make our recommendations wisely, honestly and without bias.
How do we decide who to promote? Well, there’s no easy answer to that question because there’s no single method. Many hotels and restaurants have well established and widely recognised reputations, so they are easy to identify. Smaller businesses and services are sometimes harder to identify. We reviewed two accommodation properties this year purely on the basis of a nice letter from the owners. Those letters were followed by extensive research to ensure that local contacts and visitors endorsed the service provided, but the start of the chain was a simple letter.
We also like to find ‘new’ places and we particularly favour local businesses that are putting something back into the community.
We have an increasingly large list of Tobago contacts, both private and business. Sometimes we write to our contacts asking for their advice and recommendations when looking for the ‘best’ sources of a specific service. Sometimes we even post a message in the forum asking readers likewise. Our recommendation of both John Malcolm and The Red Door fall into exactly this camp (Readers may remember our post "Health & Beauty - Help Required). Prior to our last visit, we had established that John and Abigail were the “top operatives” (as a certain BBC2 presenter would say) in their chosen fields. During our visit we took the opportunity to try their services and are now able to endorse the general view. Therefore, we are not afraid to give them our ‘official’ myTobago seal of approval.
We actually try to avoid using the term ”best”. It is too subjective a term. We simply say that if you use any of the businesses we recommend, you stand an extremely good chance of not being disappointed. Remember that saying - “Better the devil you know”.
So, dear lady, may I respectfully suggest that you use your time a little more constructively. Letters questioning our motive are more a sad reflection on your own character than an attack on ours. This is a private site. If you don’t like it, or wish to question its methods or motives, feel free to post your views – or simply SWITCH OFF!
Here endeth today’s rant.
This friendly correspondent more-or-less accuses me of being a fraud, alleging that I claim the site to be non-commercial while actually promoting certain businesses. My mention of John Malcolm and/or The Red Door in the reply to Charles seems to have triggered the outburst. She infers that there must be a commercial relationship between us. I don’t think the email came from disgruntled competitor in Tobago. It’s difficult to tell with hotmail.com email accounts, but it would have been remarkably early in the morning if posted in Tobago.
For obvious reasons I cannot publish an email sent to me privately, but ethically I see no reason not to reply through the forum. So here goes, nice lady:
May I please refer you to the home page of our site. This clearly states our aim and intentions. Nothing has changed since we first expressed those sentiments.
Our goal is simply to help employment on Tobago in appreciation of the wonderful holidays that we have enoyed there. I have been visiting the island, on and off, for 45 years. The beauty of Tobago is not just the scenery or beaches – it is the local people that make the real difference.
So, by promoting tourism to the island, we will, in our own small way, help local employment. How do we promote tourism? Well, my theory is that we tell the TRUTH about the island – quite simply because it is one of the few places left in the world that you can be truthful about. Readers will hopefully be both convinced and captivated by this approach. As one reader said to me some time ago “better the devil you know”. She was referring to the fact that myTobago made her feel that she knew the island and what to expect, despite never having visited Tobago.
Given this thesis, our method is simple. By steering visitors to the best places and away from the worst, and by providing all necessary and essential information, we believe that we can enhance a visitor’s holiday experience. Follow our advice and the advice of our forum contributors and your visit will not just be a GREAT holiday, it could be the holiday of a lifetime. The better the holiday, the more likely you are to return and to recommend the destination to others. Ergo, we achieve our aims and hopefully aid local employment.
Now, the crux of the matter is how to steer visitors to the “best” places and away from the “worst”. Bearing in mind differing tastes, standards and budget, this obviously has to be done in a responsible manner. One must also bear in mind the possible impact (good or bad) on the businesses mentioned.
All our aims would be worthless if we did not mention the “good” and the “bad” by name. Surely that is the whole purpose and value of the site? The fundamental issue I must stress is that nobody PAYS to be mentioned on this site. We do not receive commissions, fees or advertising revenue of any kind to favour or mention anybody. We only mention businesses when our experience and/or research indicates that the particular business is deserving of mention (good or bad).
Over and above this assurance, dear lady, I would have thought that even a baboon would have been able to recognise that anything and everything we say would be for nought if not totally endorsed by the general readership of the site. I provide this forum to allow others to agree or disagree with our personal recommendations or warnings and to suggest other businesses that we may not have thought or know of. Many of the businesses that we do recommend came to our first notice through the suggestions and comment of readers. We very largely simply reflect the view expressed here. If we were to start ‘promoting’ businesses that were not deserving and readers posted messages of contradiction, the validity of our views – and therefore the integrity of the entire site – would be quickly destroyed. So, we try to make our recommendations wisely, honestly and without bias.
How do we decide who to promote? Well, there’s no easy answer to that question because there’s no single method. Many hotels and restaurants have well established and widely recognised reputations, so they are easy to identify. Smaller businesses and services are sometimes harder to identify. We reviewed two accommodation properties this year purely on the basis of a nice letter from the owners. Those letters were followed by extensive research to ensure that local contacts and visitors endorsed the service provided, but the start of the chain was a simple letter.
We also like to find ‘new’ places and we particularly favour local businesses that are putting something back into the community.
We have an increasingly large list of Tobago contacts, both private and business. Sometimes we write to our contacts asking for their advice and recommendations when looking for the ‘best’ sources of a specific service. Sometimes we even post a message in the forum asking readers likewise. Our recommendation of both John Malcolm and The Red Door fall into exactly this camp (Readers may remember our post "Health & Beauty - Help Required). Prior to our last visit, we had established that John and Abigail were the “top operatives” (as a certain BBC2 presenter would say) in their chosen fields. During our visit we took the opportunity to try their services and are now able to endorse the general view. Therefore, we are not afraid to give them our ‘official’ myTobago seal of approval.
We actually try to avoid using the term ”best”. It is too subjective a term. We simply say that if you use any of the businesses we recommend, you stand an extremely good chance of not being disappointed. Remember that saying - “Better the devil you know”.
So, dear lady, may I respectfully suggest that you use your time a little more constructively. Letters questioning our motive are more a sad reflection on your own character than an attack on ours. This is a private site. If you don’t like it, or wish to question its methods or motives, feel free to post your views – or simply SWITCH OFF!
Here endeth today’s rant.
