Marketers are finding it hard to sell their products and services in a virtual world, as a recent report in the Los Angeles Times states. With a low active user count and low tendency of Second Life users to make purchases online, savvy companies who purchased & developed land in the virtual world are re-considering their investment. Even Starwood's Aloft brand, the first hotel to enter the virtual world is pulling out and donating its land to charity... the virtual Aloft was a great way to gather feedback that could be implemented in the real world hotels, but now thats done, there doesn't seem a more 'compelling reason to stay', as Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft says.

tags: wane, decline, pull-out, marketing, aloft, hotels, resorts, starwood, second-life, virtual, community, social, cgm, social-media, 3D

A hotel blog aggregator has been launched at www.hotelblogs.org to provide a one-stop update on what high-profile hotel bloggers are writing and talking about. The site allows for free syndication for quality blogs pertaining to the hotel and tourism industries and points all content to original author blogs. The Tourism & Hospitality Blog has already been syndicated as the first member!

tags: blog, blogging, blogger, aggregator, hotel-blogs, hotelblogs.org, hotels, resorts, hospitality, tourism, travel