There will be more than 2 billion international tourists by 2025, twice as many as
today. But not all destinations will benefit in the same way. At the same time, the supply
of destinations is exploding and competition is growing and diversifying. Tourism demand is changing and supply is becoming more competitive. At a time when tourism is responding to the search for new customers and, in particular, the necessary conquest of foreign market shares, the regional tourism offer must also adapt to international promotion. A region must go beyond the administrative boundaries of the territory and continue to bring together all the tourist institutional and professional actors to bring out touristic communities.
Tourism communication is evolving rapidly, adapting to new international tourist flows,
emerging practices and increased competition between destinations. Rapid changes in
tourism supply and demand, increased competition, but also new digital tools are making tourism communication more complex than before.
This communication must have the capacity to adapt to the complexity. It is for example,
necessarily multi-target and multi-channel. The expertise of the communicant is
therefore strongly sought, especially in terms of marketing and social networks.
Customer trends and expectations.
The number of people who surf the internet from their phone is constantly increasing.
The sale of tablets could exceed that of laptops and desktops. The meteoric rise of the
mobile Internet is directly related to the commercial success of smartphones and digital
tablets that invade our daily lives. Mobile users are looking for information at home, at
work, in transport, at any time, on their smartphone as on their tablet! Tourism
promotion must also adapt to these new uses.
We are in the information age. There is no doubt. The new technologies are
responsible for this transformation, latent changes in each and every one of the
sectors of our society. Tourism, without a doubt, is a clear example.
Traveling is on trend right now. And as you know we travel in a very different way than
years ago. Back then, it was a luxury just for a few. Nowadays, there are leisure trips for
practically every pocket. Tourists have also changed their habits of consumption. Today
travelers seeks experiences, sensations.
Just as travel has changed, so has the way we market tourism products and services.
And this is where tourism marketing comes into play. New technologies have created the
tourist 2.0. The most profound effect that social media has had on the tourism industry
to date is the democratization of online reviews.
Marketing has to be the best part about managing a business, as you get to
communicate the benefits of your awesome business to your ideal customers –
something that we should be super passionate about. But the hard part about marketing
is trying to not be all things to all people – to be really focused and specific about what,
how and where you communicate your messages to get maximum impact. To have a plan of attack, which is almost guaranteed of generating a positive return on investment, is crucial. A marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complex.
Compelling reasons why you need a marketing strategy for your tourism business:
1. Identify your ideal customer. If you aren’t specific with your messages, then
you aren’t optimising your chances of making as many sales as you possibly can!
2. To identify what you want to achieve from your marketing efforts. Setting
goals and objectives is a big part in making your marketing dollars accountable,
and also being able to report on your return on investment – which is so important
considering tourism businesses have a limited budget to spend on marketing
activities.
3. To articulate what sets you apart from competitor. Knowing what makes your
business unique or different from competitors in the industry is a very powerful
selling tool, and communicating this in a way that ‘speaks’ to your ideal customers
is a big part of creating sales
4. To have an action plan to achieve your goals and objectives. A marketing
action plan is literally a plan of what marketing tools and tactics you plan to use to
achieve your goals and objectives, which are selected based on your marketing
objectives and your Ideal Customer’s predispositions.
5. To better understand your marketplace. A strategic marketing plan allows you
to assess your industry’s competitive environments, consumer trends and
demands and gives you the opportunity to reassess and align your offering to suit
the ever-changing marketplace and your ideal customers within it.
6. To help you focus and hone in on the most important tactics. At the end of the
day you have limited resources to get your message in the hands of your ideal
customers. A strategy will allow you to feel confident in your actions knowing that
they are focussed and strategic, and will avoid making rushed and wrong
decisions! (like agreeing to a print advert in the local visitor guide on the spot without thinking about potential
return on marketing investment) that may end up being a waste of resources.
7. To measure your return on investment.
8. There is absolutely no point investing in marketing activities if you cannot
track the return on investment. A strategy will outline how you intend on holding
your actions accountable and will force you to review activities that are not
generating a positive return of investment.
Attract with your content. Generate compelling information, spread it online and
get everyone to come to you, to find you easily. Inbound marketing is a nonintrusive
way of marketing that adds value. The one you can actually fall in love
with. There are innumerable actions of Inbound marketing to achieve that
attraction of the clients towards your hotel. However, they all converge on the
same thing: creating content and sharing it. Content must be interesting and your
design has to be attractive. Then, you won’t need to chase your target audience,
instead those consumers will want to know about you. This methodology has
always in mind the potential customer. And do you know what is your main secret?
Promote your product in a personalized way.
Also, How to make a difference: Five Key Success Factors:
Watch and observe the competition
You have to know how to look at the competition as it is from the point of view of
demand. Identifying the demand and the competing offer remains the driving force
behind tourism strategies.
Find your position on a well-evaluated offer, The foundation of a tourism communication must necessarily be based on real assets of the territory. But often, these are a little too overvalued by the actors of the territory, especially by elected officials, for whom their territory is always unique. It is necessary to start from the perception that others have of the territory to build the specific tourist offer. It is the offer that must be different and the communication must be adapted. A way to avoid slogans too often
interchangeable from one territory to another.
Adapt your communication to the identified targets
We must segment our target audiences. And do not run all the hares at once.
Upstream, this requires a marketing study more precise than in the past, even if it
can induce higher costs. Objective: to identify a ‘niche’ market, to correlate a
particularity of the territory that can meet a specific audience. And to each target
its adequate communication.
Customize communication
Once your target audiences are clearly identified, you have to personalize the
communication.
Evaluate to adapt and update quickly
Comunication with the world is becoming more and more online. We would dare
to affirm that the Internet is the pillar of our society and the tourist sector is a clear
reflection of it. Travelers use the Internet as the main tool ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’
travel.
These are the stages that a traveler goes through during the purchase process:
Dreaming, planning and booking belong to the «before» of the trip,
experiencing to the «during» and sharing mostly belongs to the «after».
Before
The latest figures point out that two out of three users purchase exclusively online travel.
There is a widespread belief that through the purchase on the Internet you get the best
prices for plane and hotel. But that is not all. The user also looks for information about
destination, gastronomy, sightseeing’s, must-see. Blogs and social media are often a
great ally when it comes to preparing a trip.
During
We cannot forget that the number of Internet connections through mobile increases
every day. The foresight indicates that this year 75 percent of the people who will
connect to the Internet will do so through a smartphone. Do you know what this means?
The user will consume and generate information during his trip, anywhere and at any
time. While a person enjoys his trip, he consumes content from websites with destination
information such as museum schedule’s, visit prices, markets, geolocation, transports …
And, at the same time, he generates content. Users take photos, videos and podcasts
and upload them to the network to share them on social networks. They comment and
share their experiences with the world on the spot.
After
Once the trip is over, the tourist 2.0 commits the three most important actions for you as
a hotelier. Why? Because it is time to share the experience, the feelings, impressions,
moods although some have already done it in the previous stage… It is also time to
value and to recommend the destination, the services, and of course, the hotel in social
networks, blogs, forums… Without a doubt, it is a key stage because the traveler
becomes a promoter.
>>>The idea of Tourism 2.0 or Travel 2.0 refers to a new generation of marketing concepts
emerging from the Internet era. The expression was popularized in 2008 in France. By
«Tourism 2.0» we mean «the supply, structuring and consumption of tourism products
conceived as a constant and multidirectional process between service providers, clients and
institutional tourism organizations, and based on Web 2.0 technologies».<<<
—————-
According to a recent issue of the UNWTO Barometer (World Tourism Organization)
The number of visitors notified by destinations around the world reflects a strong
demand for international tourism in the first half of 2017. Worldwide, international tourist arrivals (visitors staying overnight) increased by 6% compared to the same semester of the previous year, far surpassing the sustained and constant growth trend of at least 4% observed since 2010. The figures give the first six months of 2017 the best semi-annual results obtained in the last seven years.
The UNWTO Secretary General points out: «The first half of 2017 shows healthy growth in an increasingly dynamic and resilient tourism market, including a strong recovery in
some of the destinations that were affected last year by security problems. »
He adds: «As I explained in my article» Tourism: growth is not the enemy, but
unsustainable management «, international tourism generates employment, economic
growth and development opportunities for many communities around the world.
However, this source of prosperity must be managed efficiently, for the good of both the visitors and the host communities. This year we celebrate the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, in order to remind destinations and travelers that we must make concerted efforts to achieve a sustainable tourism sector that protects the environment, conserves the cultural heritage of destinations, and promotes respect for local communities around the world. «
Over 60 ministers of tourism and private sector leaders gathered on 7 November in
London for the UNWTO / WTM Ministers’ Summit on ‘overtourism’. Moderated by CNN
International’s Max Foster, the Summit concluded on the need for the tourism sector to
engage more and better with local communities.
Community engagement, communication, congestion management, adequate planning
and product diversification were highlighted as key aspects in dealing with ‘overtourism’.
The Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO-OMT), said opening
the Summit: “Growth is not the enemy; numbers are not the enemy; the key is to
manage the growth sustainably, responsibly and intelligently and use the power of
growth to our advantage”.
“We cannot continue to build five-star hotels in three-star communities. Jobs and
charity are not enough – we need to diversify visitors’ activities, reduce seasonality
and raise awareness of less busy destinations” he added.
Participants agreed on the need to build awareness among communities of the benefits of the sector, improve the use of big data to measure and manage the impact of tourists
and tourist flows, and promote the development of tourism experiences that engage and
benefit communities directly.
The emergence of new platform tourism services, or the so called sharing-economy, was
discussed at length, with participants recognizing that they will continue to expand and
need to be understood and managed by destinations on a case-by-case basis.
Ethics and social responsibility
http://ethics.unwto.org/content/global-code-ethics-tourism
Author: Jean Philip (information from various public international sources)
