Manage The Tourism Experience – Step by Step

The relationship between tourism and online marketing continues to grow. According to a recent survey, 50% of business travellers use mobile to search or book their hotels.

It is increasingly important to ensure every step of the tourist experience is well considered.  It is 7 times more expensive to obtain a new customer than it is to sell to a current one, highlighting the importance of tourist retention.

This includes catching people’s attention, optimising their tourist experience and ensuring they leave happy to share their experience. Mobile technology has the potential to enhance consumer experience due to the accessibility. The objective of the following article is to highlight three stages in the tourist experience and how tourism suppliers can manage that process by using online platforms to retain customers.

Eye your prey – Social Media

Social Media is a known for its versatility towards sharing lots of information, which can either be in short snippets or viral clips. A popular example is how the airline industry has evolved using this mode of communication. To quote a recent statistic:

“Air [travel] remains the strongest online category, accounting for more than 50% of sales by value in North America and Australasia in 2010. “

KLM have created innovative campaigns by listening to social media platforms. Not only have KLM communicated their message in a creative way, but the end result has been greater brand awareness through viral marketing.

Destination management companies have also adapted well to social media, by engaging with ‘national brand evangelists’. The content being generated is interesting, but it also adds an element of personality and culture to each destination.  For example, Cape Town Tourism actively engage with their community to provide interesting and relevant information about Cape Town. Not only is this welcoming to anyone looking for a place to travel, but it is also reassuring that destination management boards are interested in what people have to say.

Make the most of the adventure – Location Based Marketing

Location-based marketing is increasingly becoming an innovative channel to market. The retail industry has used this technology to augment in store experiences. Pioneers in the hotel industry such as The Radisson have introduced a similar concept to enhance their tourist experiences by using location based marketing.

Quick Response codes (QR codes) are now being adopted in various restaurants in the UK to communicate specials on the menu as well as other information. However, there is still an opportunity to provide much more information on the ingredients used, calorie counts as well as the sources of supplies which is ideal for food conscious guests.

Hotel location-based marketing provides an opportunity to improve the overall experience. For instance, having QR codes in hotel rooms would help provide an ideal source of information rather than having guests constantly calling reception for room service. It also provides an opportunity for guests to have constant contact at all times especially with mobile platforms being so accessible.

Leaving a lasting impression – TripAdvisor

The most important stage is ensuring the guest leaves with a lasting good impression. The idea is twofold, to ensure the guest had a memorable and wonderful experience and secondly to ensure that they are literally eager to share their experience. Platforms like Tripadvisor continue to play a large role in referrals and recommendations.  Being able to manage what people say about their experience is important not only in terms of identifying opportunities to build lasting relationships with your guests but also to alleviate any possible loss of customers and ensure customer retention. It would be interesting to see the outcome of TripAdvisor’s latest list of the top destinations. 

These three steps highlight ways in which each experience can be enhanced. Mobile technologies have the potential to revolutionize the tourist experience, through their specific applications and also by sharing information through social media platforms and websites like TripAdvisor. In my opinion mobile technologies will play a large role in managing tourist experiences as well as providing a platform for all stakeholders to communicate. Ultimately the main objective should be to ensure the management of online information, in order to maintain a strong position in the competitive market.