One of the things that I like best about the tourism industry is how it is ever changing and evolving. Technology, world politics and economics help to change the tourism landscape every year. Here are the other five words I presented at a VisitRochester event.
6. TripAdvisor If you are in the tourism industry, you have to be aware of your TripAdvisor listing. This company has done more to enable peer to peer sharing of information than any other tool. I hope you have claimed your listing and that someone in your organization monitors all the reviews. TA has many free tools available to maximize the impact of your listing. New in the last eighteen months is their purchase of Viator, an attraction ticketing software. People can now buy tickets to your attraction right after they read the reviews. Seamless- and brilliant. You now have an additional ticket booth.
7. Mobile. I’m not talking about having responsive design in your website- that’s for the techy folks to deal with. I am talking about how you make sure your potential guests can find what they need to purchase tickets from you when they are on a mobile device. Most attraction tickets are purchased once a guest is at a destination so that means they are not on a desktop or laptop. Your web team does not know your customers as well as you do so help them to make it easy as possible. Once they have arrived, is there free wifi? That is becoming a need of guests, not just a want. And when you provide wifi, it makes it easier for them to share images on social media websites – free advertising for you.
8. Local This has become a buzzword over the last few years, but I see that 2016 is when local experiences and foods becomes a decision maker in the vacation process. Airbnb and their new tagline- don’ t visit there, live there- is the best example. Hotels realize that the local stay experience is a real threat. How can attractions benefit from this? Can you serve local foods in your food court and promote those businesses? Can you partner with a small, locally known spot for group tours? I often speak to group tour operators who ask for unique restaurants because that becomes part of the day’s experience. Make sure your frontline staff can answer questions on other things to do in the area. Frontline FAMs are a great way to accomplish this.
9. Collaborate I am convinced the tourism industry is one of the only industries where you need to work closely and in a collegiate manner, with your competition. Only Disney and Universal are popular enough to drive a vacation decsion. The rest of us need to work collectively with our destination, and other attractions to drive visitation. That process has coined the term ‘ Coopetition’. I often develop multi day itineraries for group tour operators and include attractions that are my direct competetition. Why? Because my goal is to get guests through my door, and if creating a sellable program enables that, then I am ok. And besides, the other attraction or destination often repays the favor. The other phrase defining this trend ” A rising tide lifts all boats”
10 Fun! Even though we all know how much work is involved in getting visitors through the doors, it is important to remember that we work in a wonderful industry. We get paid to travel, get to meet people from all around the world as they visit our attraction, and get to interact with tourism professionals who become friends. Its the only industry for me!