World Tourism Day, Thursday September 27th: Theme is Digital Transformation | over digitalizing the distribution of travel information
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This entry was published before it was finished, therefore it has been republished with a new date and the missing addendum of three particularly interesting best practices for visitor services.
I had intended on reading this book, The Competitive Destination: A Sustainable Tourism Perspective in advance of publishing these pieces but I didn't get around to it:I did re-read the out-of-print Tourism Development Handbook: A Practical Approach to Planning and Marketing, and except for one chapter on digital marketing which is now 15 years old, it's still excellent.
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World Tourism Day
This year's theme is on digital transformation. And I am going to take a slight luddite position.
While there is no question that digital provision of information and services is vitally important, I'd argue too many tourism agencies are "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" by at the same time that they are increasing their focus on delivering information digitally, especially through social media, for many agencies this is coming at the expense of providing and distributing printed (analogue) matter.
The basic point they made is what is now called "omnichannel" marketing, delivering through all possible channels, choosing the ones that work best, and determining which channels make the most sense for which segments.
This matters because there are multiple channels for communicating with potential and actual visitors--in other words, communicating with people before they visit a place and communicating with people once they visit a place.
From a marketing and advertising standpoint, people need a variety of triggers, especially once they're in a place, to learn about and decide to visit places they may not have been aware of previously.
The belief that all this communication happens digital is mistaken.
But increasingly, visitor centers are shifting away from providing printed information, directing people to kiosks or attendants, either of which can only be "accessed" by one person at a time. And also losing the value of printed matter as "visual cues" to introduce people to a wide variety of topics and places that they might not have considered otherwise.
I've seen this change in visitor centers in communities such as Lancaster, PA, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City.
The visitor center in Park City, Utah is a mix. It still has a heavy provision of printed matter, although less provision of items from across the state in a structured way. It also has digital screens, exhibits, and one or more attendants. That particular center is in a building that serves as a gateway to town and in a welcome twist, the space includes an affiliated coffee shop.
They also have converted some of the brochure products that function as large scale maps into large scale maps, by laminating them and displaying them on a counter so people can consult them.
Some best practices
-- Miami-Dade County, Florida. By contrast to DC, Miami-Dade County has a very active program in supporting the creation and maintenance of welcome centers across the city and county ("Why Miami-Dade has more visitor centers than any city in the U.S.," Miami Herald). And cities like Montreal and New York City have both main visitor centers as well as welcome centers in high profile neighborhoods such as the Fashion District in Manhattan or Mont Royal-Plateau in Montreal. Every state in the US has a network of visitor centers involving state and local agencies and groups. 
-- Melbourne's approach to visitability. Years ago I came across a presentation on what the Melbourne tourism agency calls "visitability."
THE FIVE PILLARS OF VISITABILITY-- Queensland State, Australia's program to support visitor information centers. Tourism and Events Queensland has a program of support for locally-provided visitor information centers. Certainly there are comparable programs in the US, such as in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Five key factors were identified as having a significant impact on an outstanding visitor experience and journey. We focus on these pillars to help guide businesses in their delivery and development of positive and valuable visitor experiences.
Sense of Welcome
Sense of Welcome is the first impression a visitor gets of a destination, service or product, including your website. Visitability is about ensuring your visitors feel highly valued, and the connection at each stage is warm, friendly, and – where possible – personalised.
Digital Connectivity
Visitors worldwide increasingly rely on modern technology to plan, book, travel to and share their holiday experiences. Ensuring businesses are visible online, and are using up to date technology, is critical to Melbourne’s relevance and ongoing success as a destination. For example, providing free, reliable WiFi is widely expected by today’s traveller.
Integrated Messaging
Integrated messaging, or the integrated provision of visitor services, aims to ensure that visitors receive consistent messaging and information from all aspects of their visit to provide a seamless experience. This factor is focused on three elements in particular; signage and way finding, printed and online products and key messaging.
Public Transport
The role of Visitability is to advocate for public transport systems to keep visitors' needs top of mind when delivering products and services, ensure that networks are easy and safe to navigate and that route and fare information can be easily found.
Accessibility
As well as providing socially responsible visitor services, an aging population and the importance of inclusiveness provides us with a compelling business case for making Victoria’s visitor industry more accessible and inclusive to all travellers.
VISITABILITY CASE STUDIES from Melbourne.
From the standpoint of analog versus digital dissemination of materials, they have a couple of papers on the broad topic:
-- Australia's Accredited VICs: Strategic Directions
-- A Way Forward For Queensland's VICs
Labels: cultural heritage/tourism, tourism marketing, tourism planning
posted by Richard Layman @ 1:39 AM&Permanent Link
6 Comments:
With international tourism, I think your area chasing the wrong ball here.
I know you are coming from a place making / wayfinder tradition and that is great.
But I’d say we have two overwhelming problem with international tourism, and a third related to to tourism generally.’
1. What is ther narrative. Can international tourists appreciate the same narrative as Americans? Everyone wants to see the White House right? But I’d say the narrative is very different for international tourists than national visitors. We are going beyond wayfinding here to ask why we even show off the city as a destination.
2. The global problem with tourism is cheapness and the struggle is to move upmarket. Likewise how many of those millions only approach to the narrative is a big bus tour?
3. I’d say the national;/international problem joins together when we are trying to seperate the District from the national narrative. How many international visitors go the Douglass farm? Also did you see the video that the DC lottery did on local neighborhoods which is far better tourism than 95% of what is made.
Well, I'd say the thing about narrative is that it is multifaceted and multithreaded.
And it pertains to other places, not just DC. The DC/federal-local issue is somewhat, but not exclusively, unique. Other places have it too, e.g., Salt Lake/place-outdoors vs. Mormons, etc.
The thing is to provide multiple paths.
But you're right. Your point makes me realize why I don't like the "DC Cool" campaign, because it appeals to only one slice of the market, and in fact ignores the historical and local elements that are outside of restaurants, clubs, and hotels, for the most part. I am not part of that, I'm not into that when I travel, so it doesn't resonate with me. But clearly it does with some.
The point is to do "Maximarketing" and market to multiple channels. It seems like DC picked one.
And yes, I've linked to that DC Lotteries video in a blog entry. It's excellent. (Their neighborhoods marketing campaign was good too. One of the potential awards was money towards a house I think.)
Some of the "local" will have relevance to multiple segments, although not likely international visitors except in niche circumstances. E.g., like you mention the Douglass House, which no I haven't even visited (I've been to the ACM a couple times, it's not that great).
That's ok. DC as I said has a tough row to hoe when it comes to promoting the local. People tend to not stay long enough to add a day for local. It has to be cultivated.
BUT WE DON'T HAVE A TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PLAN. So it's not developed. Kathy Smith's CulturalTourism DC did a lot of that, but never with enough funding and it devolved into the trail sign program, Walking Town, and the Embassy open house.
More on this in another post.
The thing too is the difference in communication requirements when you're planning a trip vs. when you're there.
You need a mix of both for people when they're here. And as I said, cues.
We are really sub-par when it comes to that. For one, we don't really have a set of visitor centers. Two, the federal centers don't distribute local information.
But big city tourism centers do seem to be moving away from having a fair amount of printed information, Chicago being an exception.
I think I've reached a point where I am having Richard Layman blog fantasies -- I thought you had a post on international tourism up but don't see it now. Sorry for the off topic.
On omni-channel vs digital, I agree you are limiting yourself with digital, but that may not be a winnable fight.
not a fantasy. I had only half written it, but I had set up a publishing time, and forgot about it in the midst of a summer cold.
So I took it down and I'll have to try to finish it today. There's a third half finished piece on fractional use (Airbnb).
speaking of international tourism, I was really surprised to see how parochial was the tourism information distributed in centers in London and Liverpool. Liverpool only, not stuff also in the region. Definitely not Manchester. London, London only, pretty much nothing about boroughs.
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