Member of Travel Tourism

Marketing tips for smaller tourism oriented communities

The month of February is a good time for travel and tourism destinations to begin to consider new and innovative marketing ideas. Large tourism communities often can afford specialized agencies to develop new marketing plans. The same is not true however for the smaller (or poorer) destinations. Often a single person or just a few people staff these tourism offices, businesses or convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs). These people are therefore faced with a great deal of multi-tasking and rarely have the time for innovative ideas. Even larger tourism businesses and tourism offices need to reinvigorate their marketing efforts. To help you develop new marketing ideas, Tourism &More offers the following ideas and suggestions.

-Think about your name and what it says to the outside world. All too many tourism entities go for cute over clear. Use names that are clear, precise, and permit your customers to know what you have, what you offer, and what they can expect. If your community has the same name as a place in another country or state, make sure that people know who you are and in which state or country you are located.

-Develop a brand and be creative. When developing a brand involve as many parts of your tourism industry as possible. Having a cross-businesses brand means that your tourism locale will show consistency. Make sure that the brand unifies the entire tourism product so that wherever a client or customer goes the brand is unconsciously connected with your locale. Not only should the brand plus logo be on everything you produce, but it should also appear on all mailings that the locale produces.

-Connect your website with your brand and keep your website simple. The trend in tourism today is less flash and more elegant simplicity. Websites that are hard to read often turn visitors off rather than attract new clients. Remember that many people will now view your website on their smart phones. That means that the website has to accommodate a much smaller screen. When developing a website think about how many drop-down windows will work on a smart phone and how hard or easy it will be for a person to navigate the website. The bottom line in tourism websites today is get the essential information to people in the most efficient and simple manner and leave out the fluff!

-Remember that tourism is all about your community. All too often members of the tourism industry forget that they are part of the local community. That means market not only to out of town or out of country guests but also to the local community. Visitors do not judge a community by the efficiency or productivity of a tourism office, but rather on their experiences in your community. Just as in the case of politics, all tourism is local! The best way then to market your locale is to make sure that the people living in your locale understand your tourism product and find joy in it. Some of the ways to market to the local community are: creating school excursions to local sites, articles in the local media, creating local appreciation days, where residents receive discount coupons to local attractions and restaurants, and creating promotional options that encourage people to spend a night in a local hotel, dine in a new restaurant or see a new part of their community.

-Develop a tourism calendar that unifies the entire tourism product. All too often smaller communities will hold festivals that fill hotels but fail to connect the festival with the local business community. Tourism is more than merely "heads in beds". It is an economic generator that should both unify a community and make that community more prosperous. To accomplish such a task local tourism officials, especially those in smaller communities, need to create coordinated efforts. For example an event that occurs when all of the local business are closed, may bring people to town but will not increase the community's economic prosperity and may even harm it.

-Do what you promise. One of the great challenges in tourism marketing is the lack of credibility that comes from over-promising. Never use a photo that does not come from your community, always promote yourself but do so in a manner that when the visitor arrives s/he will not be disappointed. Do not promise what is not true!

-Seek new and creative attractions or things to do. One of the great problems in tourism is what to do during periods of inclement weather. Integrate your climatic conditions into your marketing plan. Seek alternative events so that if the weather turns sour, your guests do not simply pack up and go home. Instead work with everyone from local farmers to miners, from the local theaters to indoor arenas and create the "inclement weather brochure" so that people have a sense of sunshine even when it is raining!

-Work with the local media to get your message out. The news media often seek stories to fill their newspapers, and or the local news programs. While this need is especially true of the smaller markets, it is also true for even the larger markets. Send a new story to your local media on a regular basis. Meet with media leaders and ask them how you can be of service to them. All too often we hear that tourism people only contact the media when they want something rather than realizing that their local media are an integral part of their marketing efforts.

-Good data produce the foundation for good marketing. Take the time to meet with a local statistician to find ways to collect data that are useful to your community. Often tourism offices spend a great deal of time and money developing questionnaires that produce inaccurate or misleading results. It is wiser to spend a small amount of time with a professional statistician who can guide you data collection rather than having misleading information that produces a marketing plan based on false premises. The best way to save money and time is to do build your data collection on a solid foundation.

For a complete listing of topics and information, please check our web page http://www.tourismandmore.com/contact or e-mail us at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com

Our trained staff of professionals are ready to meet with your board and you to discuss specific strategic planning in this most difficult of times.

Please contact us at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com for more information regarding costs and available dates.

All seminars and speeches can be presented in English, Portuguese, or Spanish.

Brand New Lectures concerning the World's Economic and Health Crisis:

1) Surviving Economically Challenging Times: Best Practice from Far and Wide.

2) How tourism can profit from currency fluctuations

3) New forms of tourism: from agro-tourism to dark tourism.

4) How much of a threat to tourism is terrorism? Deciding how best to spend your tourism budget?

5) Successful and failed tourism marketing strategies.

6) Avoiding tourism crises by using good risk management techniques

7) Should the crisis occur, how to overcome it and go beyond it.

-Marketing to the Baby-boom Generation, Generation X and beyond.

-New Trends in Tourism Marketing and International Tourism.

-When the Market is Tight and the Economy Is Slow: New Ideas in Marketing.

-Developing a Successful Agricultural and Rural Tourism Industry.

-Something from Nothing: The Art of Creating New Attractions.

-Tourism Ethics: Linking the Wisdom of Moses to Your Tourism Product.

-Understanding Tourism Statistics: When is a fact a fact and when is it not? How to present data to the media?

TOURISM ON-LINE/EDUCATION

1) TOURISM SECURITY. The George Washington University's Tourism Destination Management and Marketing Certificate Program announces the launch of "Safety and Security for Tourism Destinations: Achieving a Safe and Secure Tourism Environment". This is a course designed to help tourism professionals understand the importance of safety and security within a destination, as well as provide them with the "tools" needed to create a secure environment for both visitors and residents. World-renowned travel safety and security expert, Dr. Peter E. Tarlow, has developed this course by drawing on his wealth of experience and the growing number of publications in this area. The course is available worldwide via Internet-based distance learning. For more information please contact Kristin Lamoureux at klam@gwu.edu.

Call for Papers

Dear BEST Education Network Friends

We have initiated a major book project with the WTTC to prepare 12 case studies based on the Tourism for Tomorrow Award Winners. We would like to invite authors from around the world to write up these case studies for a book.

We are keen for authors who are based close to these areas, or who have active research interests in a particular area to assist. Some information is available from the WTTC to help prepare each case study but we expect that case authors will also need to collaborate with the winners to gather more detailed and timely information. The WTTC has kindly agreed to facilitate these introductions. A small payment of appreciation will also be made to each author.

If you are interested in writing a chapter, please contact Dr. Pierre Benckendorff: <mailto:p.benckendorff@uq.edu.au>p.benckendorff@uq.edu.au

If you read Portuguese and just off the press: "Abordagem Multidisciplinar dos Cruzeiros Turísticos" (A Multi-disciplinary Approach to the Study of Cruises) by Dr. Peter Tarlow, Ericka Amorim, Cyntia Andrade, Nina Cardona and Valéria Mariotti. Please contact Ericka Amorim at email: erickaaa@msn.com for information on how to obtain a copy. We are also seeking someone who can translate the book into English and/or Spanish. Plese contact Ericka Amorim if interested.

http://www.amazon.com/TWENTY-YEARS-TOURISM-TIDBITS-ebook/dp/B004Q9TIWW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1299276788&sr=1-2

1) Event Risk Management and Safety (ISBN 0-471-40168-4) by Peter E. Tarlow, published by John Wiley & Sons. Presenting theory and practical applications. To purchase this book, visit http://www.wiley.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/. If you would like Dr. Tarlow to speak or train people in this area, please contact him at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com

2) Restoring Tourism Destinations in Crisis by Dr David Beirman: Published By Allen & Unwin (Australia & SE Asia) and CABI Publishing North America/ Europe 2003. For more information contact the author at mailto:david@aicc.org.au.

3) Leisure Travel: A Marketing Handbook, by Stanley Plog, Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004. It's available through the website of Pearson Prentice-Hall for $25.

4) Tourism in Turbulent Times. Toward Safe Experiences for Visitors. Edited by Jeff Wilks, Donna Pendergast, and Peter Leggart. Published by Elsevier.

5) Tourism Security & Safety, from Theory to Practice. Edited by Yoel Mansfeld and Abraham Pizam, published by Elsevier.

6) The Economics of Tourism Destinations, by Norbert Vanhove, Published by Elsevier

7) Beach Safety and the Law, Edited by Jeff Wilks published by Queensland
(Australia) Law Society

8) Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis, by Eli Avraham and Eran ketter Published by Elsevier

9) Tourism Development: Growth, Myths and Inequalities. Burns, P. and Novelli M. eds. (2008). Wallingford: CABI

10) Tourism Management: Analysis, Behavior and Strategy, edited by Woodside and Martin, published by Cabi, London, England

11) Tourism and Mobility, Burns, P. and Novelli M. eds. (2008). Wallingford: CABI.
12) Two new books for Spanish readers: (1) Inversión Hotelera, by Alfredo Ascanio and Turismo Sustentable both by Alfredo Ascanio and Marcus Vinicius Campos, You can purchase both of these books at http://etrillas.com.mx/trillas/busqueda/php

Unless otherwise stated, English is the conference language.

February 8-9, 2012
Asan, South Korea
Korean National Police Seminar
For more information contact: Aaron Cunningham at (773) 655-7862/ acunningham@itota.us or Sung Joo Lee at (773) 655-7621/ sjlee@itota.us.

March 19-21, 2012
Tunica, Miss.
Southeast Tourism Organization (STS) Spring Meeting
For more information contact: Neville Bhada <mailto:Neville@southeasttourism.org>Neville@southeasttourism.org or visit http://www.southeasttourism.org/SpringMeeting.cfm

April 9-12, 2012
Coyhaique, Chile
6° Congreso SOCIETUR CHILE, 2012

April 23, 2012 - April 26, 2012
San Antonio, Texas, The Westin Riverwalk
Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada 14th Annual Conference
For Further Information: please visit www.thiaonline.com

May 14-15
Las Vegas
XIX Las Vegas International Tourism Safety and Security Conference
For more information contact Ray Suppe at rsuppe@lvcva.com or visit www.touristsafety.org for additional information and to register on line.

June 4-6, 2012
Aruba
III Bi-annual Caribbean Tourism Security Summit;
Conference hotel: Grand Occidental
For more information please contact: Roland W. Peterson allamanda@setarnet.aw or Dario Soemers at Dario@arubasecurityfoundation.org

June 17-19, 2012
Virginia Beach, Virginia USA
2012 TTRA Annual Conference
"Innovation in Destination Marketing Research"
Contact: Kathy Palmer at <mailto:kpalmer@ttra.com>kpalmer@ttra.com or +1-248-708-8872, ext. 203

June 24-27, 2012
Gréoux les Bains, Provence, France
BEST EN Think Tank XII - Mobilities and Sustainable Tourism
For more information, please visit: http://www.besteducationnetwork.org/index.php

July 29-Aug. 3, 2012
Dahlonega, Ga.
Southeast Tourism Organization (STS) Marketing College
For more information contact: Neville Bhada <mailto:Neville@southeasttourism.org>Neville@southeasttourism.org or visit http://www.southeasttourism.org/MarketingCollege_meeting.cfm

August 10-12, 2012
The 6th International Conference on Management and Service Science

For more information, please contact Secretary: Ms. Zhang at TEL: +86-155 2742 6990 or at
Email: mass@scirp.org

Oct. 31-Nov.2, 2012
Virginia Beach, Va.
Southeast Tourism Organization (STS) Fall Meeting
For more information contact: Neville Bhada <mailto:Neville@southeasttourism.org>Neville@southeasttourism.org or visit http://www.southeasttourism.org/FallMeeting.cfm

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About the Author:

Dr. Peter E. Tarlow is the President of T&M, a founder of the Texas chapter of TTRA and a popular author and speaker on tourism. Tarlow is a specialist in the areas of sociology of tourism, economic development, tourism safety and security. Tarlow speaks at governors' and state conferences on tourism and conducts seminars throughout the world and for numerous agencies and universities.

If you know of anyone else who might enjoy "Tourism Tidbits," please send his/her email address to ptarlow@tourismandmore.com, Please let us know of any topic that you would like to see covered by "Tourism Tidbits." We invite others to submit articles for consideration for publication.

You are welcome to reproduce "Tourism Tidbits" or any part of "Tourism Tidbits" with proper citing. We hope that you will see "Tourism Tidbits" as a place where tourism, visitor, and travel professionals exchange ideas and information. "Tourism Tidbits" does not offer or provide specific legal or financial advice. Our goal is to provide a "review" for industry personnel and discuss provocative issues. We remind all readers that every specific business decision should be made only after you have done the proper research. The author(s) accept(s) no responsibility for any loss due to any information published in "Tourism Tidbits."