Each year tourism departments in governments, companies, and associations spend millions of taxpayer dollars on market research and insights relating to the travel and tourism industry. Unfortunately, much of this effort is wasted. Why? Well, there are several reasons. First, National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) often do not have the resource to take the market research process one step further and distribute the findings to regional tourism organisations and the local travel industry. Full reports and findings are often lengthy and in … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
Top 5 Mobile Marketing Trends in Travel Research
The search landscape is moving fast. In particular, mobile search and mobile usage by travellers - both business and leisure. We have seen great emerging trends this year and it presents a great opportunity for those willing to truly connect with their potential customers on the path to purchase via mobile. Travellers have become very demanding of their content and information as Google tells us there are millions of searches for hotels and travel-related experiences. Not only that, we have seen travellers and consumers in general take to … [Read more...]
Pay Per Click for Travel and Tourism Marketing
Pay Per Click Advertising with Nigel Ayling - Expert Interview In a 40-minute audio interview with Bronwyn White of MyTravelResearch.com, Nigel Ayling Director of Solutions4.biz in New South Wales explains the opportunities available to small tourism companies who want to cut out the middle man, increase bookings and stop paying commissions of 12.5% and more to online travel agencies. If done well, pay-per-click (PPC) for the travel industry is an efficient, targeted, measurable, and cost-effective type of marketing with no up-front costs. You … [Read more...]
Generation Z and Tourism Marketing
The travel and tourism environment is always changing. Just when you have got used to the idea of Gen Y, Gen Z is about to enter our markets (in fact as influencers they are already there). Gen Z is in their late teens / early 20's. They are digital natives living in a world previous generations have damaged. They demand respect and are ready to engage. We haven't heard a lot about them yet, but they are ready to travel! In this short video chat, Carolyn Childs, Head of Travel Research at MyTravelResearch.com will introduce you to the next … [Read more...]
Generating Tourism Dispersal In Regional Australia
The following is a guest blog piece by Australian Regional Tourism Network (ARTN) Chairman David Sheldon who is also the owner/operator of Elm Cottage in Tumut. We are proud to be affiliated with them through our sponsorship of the ARTN Young Tourism Professional award Over 45% of the Visitor Expenditure is currently in Regional Australia. That means our network needs to begin updating its practices to fit the current climate. Today’s ever-changing economic challenges should be seen as opportunities as opposed to roadblocks. Tourism is a … [Read more...]
Building Digital Assets For Tourism Businesses And Destinations
The last year (2014) has been a rocky road for those in the industry who have put all their social media eggs in the Facebook basket. Many tourism businesses and destinations saw a dramatic drop in their organic Facebook reach last year. This impacted many. This meant that fans were not seeing posts. Then it became official that this was is a deliberate move as part of Facebook’s revenue-generating strategy by making businesses pay more for fans, exposure to fans, and the opportunity to engage with fans. As a result, less than 4% of fans … [Read more...]
Perception is Reality Marketing Both in Diplomacy and Tourism
Perceptive readers of this blog will notice that I tend to draw on a lot of history - and especially military history - analogies. (So as you can imagine I am loving doing all the work on our culture and heritage blogs right now – and watching with great interest all the coverage for the Anzac Day Centenary) My piece on tourism strategy about asking the right questions, and the lessons from World War II drew on Margaret Macmillan’s great book ‘The War that Ended Peace” to see the lessons for strategy in tourism businesses. As I noted then, … [Read more...]
Like plaiting fog? Defining cultural and heritage tourism
In our previous blog on the benefits of culture and heritage tourism, we noted the value of cultural tourism to the visitor economy. But just like tourism (the visitor economy anyone?), cultural tourism is an often confusing and complex industry that is quite difficult to describe. There is little agreement as to what constitutes cultural tourism. Moreover, because culture and heritage are inherently linked, it’s hard to separate “culture” and “heritage” in the mind of the consumer. So we thought it might be useful to summarise some of the … [Read more...]
How VFR Hosts Can Turbo Charge Your Visitor Economy
In this video we talk about how visiting friends and relatives (VFR) hosts are largely ignored when it comes to marketing efforts, yet they represent an extraordinary opportunity. The latest research from Tourism Research Australia tells us that 48% of the domestic travel industry is VFR. This market is the low hanging fruit of domestic tourism. If you want to see a gold star campaign for VFR hosts in action, check out Destination Southern Highlands, My Southern Highlands campaign, created with the help of creative agency Wisdom. To … [Read more...]
How Travellers Plan and Book Their Trip
In this recorded webinar we take you through the journey of what happens when travellers start dreaming of a holiday right through to their post holiday sharing. You will see that content is crucial to your tourism and marketing strategy.We also show you some cases of where it is done well.Press the play button on top of the travelling pooch.[icon name="fighter-jet" class=""] Do you want to hear more from us? Want to be kept up to date with the latest travel and tourism insights? Join Our Mailing List. Every 2 weeks, we send the latest … [Read more...]