At the risk of being throttled for saying this here, I thought the content was great but the lack of any interactivity (aside from a Live Chat option which was closed) seemed sadly absent and a bit of a missed opportunity.

The best part of the information is the carefully sourced and collated peer-to-peer observations from NZers who’ve been through it:

“I had massive reverse culture shock when I returned. Probably bigger than when I first arrived in the UK. Things I noticed: very slow nasal accents.. to name a few” – Loic Taylor-Bizet, Quarantine Officer

“I was shocked at the media – newspapers and television. So many ads!” – Vince Powell, Lawyer

These kind of personal observations are invaluable and inherently shareable. I would’ve thought it a no-brainer to at least whack a forum on to this section of the site to further enable people to intereact with and answer eachother’s questions.  Or what about the potential for a Social Networking element to help people connect with those who have or will be returning – again this could’ve been as simple as integrating Facebook Connect?

In fairness the Career Services parent site this content is connected with doesn’t incorporate any UGC. It may have  been decided as not appropriate or too costly to manage once in place. Or maybe there’s a Phase II? Anyway I better pipe down or I won’t be welcome back any time soon.

Image: kevindooley

Recommended Reading:

VisitBritain and user generated content by Richard Britton. Slideshare presention on the process VisitBritain went through when it decided to integrate UGC into the website

Social Media gives more returning visitors than Search by Joshua March. Suprising stats on visitor loyalty when referred from Social Media, and in particular Social Networks.