We are as an industry in truly exciting times where we have online marketing opportunities, that will NEVER arise again. Pretty serious stuff. This is all due to the infancy of semantic search - the search engine algorithms that determine what is presented to a traveller why they are searching for holiday ideas. It is a time where you have the opportunity to really strengthen your business or destination brand in a way that you will never be able to do again. How strong and tight your brand is will determine your success. And because we are … [Read more...]
Archives for 2016
Millennials in Tourism: When Millennials Grow Up
Globally the influence of Millennials in tourism & travel and on marketing has been profound. In the US, Millennials are as large a generation cohort as Baby Boomers. In China, they are a smaller generation numerically thanks to the one-child policy. But as the first generation to benefit from China's astonishing economic growth, 80's children (as they are known) are a wealthy and high-consuming group. The word Millennial has almost become synonymous with youth. But that is about to change. Millennials (Gen Y) were; broadly speaking born … [Read more...]
ARTN Young Tourism Professional
We were really excited and proud to sponsor again this year the Australian Regional Tourism Network Young Tourism Professional awards. Michelle Reynolds from Willow Springs Station in South Australia is the 2016 Australian Regional Tourism Network MyTravelResearch.com Young Tourism Professional. The Chair of The Australian Regional Tourism Network, David Sheldon, and Joint CEO of MyTravelResearch.com, Carolyn Childs announced the 2016 Young Tourism Professional at the Australian Regional Tourism Convention’s Gala dinner, held in Roma Outback … [Read more...]
Accessible Tourism for World Tourism Day
As a tourism operator or destination marketing manager, it is hard to imagine what it would be like travelling with an impairment or disability. For example, medieval cobblestones at a castle ruin are a charm to many, but for a wheelchair user, Rick Steves in his John Sage accessible travel blog tells us, it can become nearly impossible to cross (and not all cobblestones are created equal). Accessible travel is perhaps the travel industry’s greatest untapped opportunity. Today, there are literally millions of people worldwide looking for … [Read more...]
Is luxury travel really that unique?
I’ve just finished researching a whitepaper on luxury travel ahead of launching our exciting Luxperience MyTravelResearch.com luxury travel research. So I was really delighted when Australian public broadcaster SBS showed a two-part story from the BBC/Tern Television on ‘The Story of Luxury’. It’s one of the nice things about being a researcher is that business and pleasure so often intermingle. The series starts with concepts of luxury from Ancient Greece and then looked at how these evolved both there and in the European Middle Ages. It was … [Read more...]
Is Tourism Innovative?
Does tourism suffer from the innovator's dilemma? A couple of years ago, we were commissioned to build an evidence-based marketing plan for a tour operator. At the time, they were highly successful but an external review had identified that they lacked process and a way to drive the next wave of growth. This was where we came in. When we sat down for our inception meeting, I commented how excited I was to be working with a business at this stage of the business cycle. This is exactly the time a business should scan the horizon looking for … [Read more...]
Tourism Marketing Blueprint
Join us in becoming a tourism marketing rockstar through evidence-based decision making. Our biggest product launch of the year. Click here to buy and have access to all of our awesome bonuses including: Your free ticket to the next Tourism Marketing Rockstar Convention Your copy of "The Ultimate DIY Marketing Toolkit for Tourism Professionals" Buy your Tourism Marketing Plan Blueprint now and literally save yourself hundreds of hours! … [Read more...]
Nominations Open for ARTN MyTravelResearch.com YTP Award 2016
It's that time again... But nominations are now open for the ARTN MyTravelResearch.com Young Tourism Professional Award. If you are under 30 and driving the future of regional tourism in Australia have the opportunity to grow that on a larger stage. The programme includes mentoring from Bron and I, a $2,000 bursary we provide to support professional development as well as the chance to sit at the table as an ex-officio member of the ARTN Board. And of course there's the title! If you are now a Young At Heart Tourism Professional rather than … [Read more...]
Toilet Tourism: Why toilets and tourism is a perfect match
Every year I love reading about the Ig Nobel Award. This is an international science award that every year recognises a great truth about humans. If we can make an emotional connection to an issue, we are more likely to do something about it. The idea of the award is to recognise science that ‘first makes you laugh and then makes you think’. The same is true of #toilettourism: the impact that toilets can have on the visitation of a place. Whenever we talk about it – including when Bron published her piece last year on the subject - people … [Read more...]
Riding The Dragon: Connecting With Chinese Travellers
Carolyn Childs has authored a white paper on China outbound for our friends at PATA. Download your free China report here where she talks about the latest changes and maturing of the market. Tourism is known to economists as a ‘higher good’: the wealthier we become the more of it we do. This is nowhere more evident than in China. Over the last 37 years, the Chinese economy has grown more than 30 times its original size. This extraordinary growth has powered a growth in tourism (both domestic and outbound) on an unprecedented scale. In … [Read more...]