10 Attraction and Experiences Reopening Best Practices

Our friends at Redeam have created a helpful info-graphic for those reopening to the public. These are excellent suggestions and a great reminder that reassuring your customers is an essential task in the coming months.

Share Your Safety Measures with Travellers

74% of surveyed travellers said a checklist of safety measures on Tripadvisor listings would be very or extremely helpful.* To help rebuild traveller confidence, we’re launching our new Travel Safe initiative, which allows partners to share a checklist of their safety measures and their overall response to COVID-19. Businesses that activate the checklist will benefit from:

Listing Page Updates Capture traveller attention with a notification at the top of your listing page that links to your safety measures and COVID-19 response Enhanced Traveller Reviews Gather information from recent visitors about their safety experience at your hotel with an enhanced review questionnaire COVID-19 Search Filter [launching 23 June] Increase your visibility and drive bookings by ensuring that travellers find you when they search for hotels that have added their safety precautions

You can add your safety measures in your Management Center beginning on 16th June. If you activate them by 19th June, you’ll be included in the launch of the overall COVID-19 search filter for travellers. In the meantime, you can check out our recent webinar for more information about traveller safety. https://goto.webcasts.com/viewer/event.jsp?ei=1324248&tp_key=3e335a6257

Watch Webinar

Hospitality Health Check - How to Make the Best of Your Brand Website

Despite the unprecedented challenges we currently face, some hoteliers have used this quiet period as an opportunity to review their current sales, marketing and operational strategies. Get advice from hotel tech experts and plan for your recovery.

IDeaS has collaborated with a few industry partners to deliver a series of Hospitality Health Check webinars to provide professional insights and suggestions on how to stay competitive and refine your business strategies.

Please join us for the next 15-minute webinar in partnership with D-EDGE: “Revenue by Direct Booking – How to Make the Best of Your Brand Website.” Click here to view the details.

More health check videos are coming with different topics covering Competitive Intelligence, Channel Management, and Distribution & Optimisation.

Enjoy the videos and stay healthy!

IDeaS partnered with D-EDGE, the industry leader in hotel digital marketing and distribution technology, to help hoteliers review their current digital marketing and brand website strategies, and to optimise revenue by direct booking.

Watch the video for information on:

• Making the best of your online storefront
• Building an effective hotel brand website (7 tips)
• Tracking the success of brand website marketing initiatives
• Driving revenue by direct booking
• What to do differently for building a website in China

WATCH NOW

Where Will Your Bookings Be in 12 Months?

Greetings to our friends and colleagues around the world.    From all of the Travel & Adventure Show Team – to all of you, we hope you and your families are well and we can not wait to see you in person, face-to-face – with a little distance mixed in.   Over the past 16 years we have produced the Travel & Adventure Shows through three recessions, including the “Great Recession,” and now this most sudden COVID-19 economic downturn.  Along the way, I have learned a few things and thought now might be a good time to share them: First – this current downturn is different.  It was sudden and not financially or economically induced. It was Government generated in response to a worldwide pandemic and simultaneously supported with massive stimulus and liquidity. Second – It resulted in a massive and extremely quick increase in unemployment. Third – It mandated travel restrictions. Fourth – It may be a quicker recovery than anyone predicts. Unlike other recessions, this one has hit the travel and tourism industry hard and swift.  Yet I see signs that the industry will also enjoy a rapid recovery.  Let’s look at three very important recent data points:   Contrary to what most expected, U.S. personal consumer income SURGED by over 10.5% in April – thank you stimulus.

Personal Consumption retracted 13.6% in April.  If you are like me you were at home and stores, restaruants and entertainment are all closed there’snothing to spend on.

Most importantly, the consumer U.S. Savings Rate skyrocketed to 33% in April. Let’s sum it up – income is up, spending down. The result - high savings.

Consumers are flush with cash tired of being at home and have massive pent up demand.   We already see airlines are increasing capacity and resuming schedules as consumer bookings begin to rise. Businesses are reopening and we are seeing a decline in jobless claims.   Consumer Sentiment turned the corner and rose in May from April lows – compare that to the Great Recession that began in 1998 – Consumer sentiment was much lower and took over four years to regain traction.

By the way, if you missed ATTF click here for a replay.  Over 1,000 travel and tourism executives joined us for a three-hour virtual conference chocked full of economic, industry and demographic information on the state of the American Traveler.   American Traveler Sentiment continues to rapidly increase. In the first week of June, Destination Analysts saw over 50% of travelers are ready to travel for the first time since the pandemic lockdown.

The fact is the American Consumer is resilient and is getting ready to spend.   The Question is: Will they Spend with you? So back to lessons learned from past recessions.   During tough times MARKETING is more important than ever! There’s an adage that captures this well:   “If sales are your problem today, marketing was your problem 12 months ago.”  The problem here is that when finances are tight, executives have a hard time thinking long-term. It seems simple to cut back on efforts that won’t pay dividends immediately, so it’s common for marketing to be the first to go.   Resist the urge to go this route. All you’re doing with this strategy is giving yourself a bigger revenue problem down the line. In six months, eight months, or a year, you’ll be wondering where all of your customers went—and the answer will stem from your marketing cuts.   Think of your marketing costs as the costs of acquiring and maintaining your customer base.   Marketing is the cost of generating revenue. Why would you cut back on those efforts?   Is there a pent-up demand for travel?  Of course.   Are consumers ready to travel?  Getting there.   Will where and how they travel change?  YES.   Many tourism boards and tour operators are already adjusting how to offer exciting vacation options in a COVID-19 world.  There is quite optimistic information growing on multiple effective vaccines being available in Q4 2020, and infection rates are rapidly declining.   One thing is for sure - travelers will put added emphasis on their PROCESS OF TRAVEL as a decision point in booking vacations.   So, for travel marketers and tourism organizations the time is now to put into motion marketing and communications to build confidence and inspire travelers to plan their trips.   The main takeaway is that companies that invest in marketing during a recession achieve greater gains in market share (both during and after the downturn) than companies that cut back.    We know that Travel Enthusiasts will be the first to travel and the first to book both domestically AND internationally.    It’s why the Travel & Adventure Shows are AMERICA’S TRAVEL RECOVERY SHOWs and the ONLY Major Shows in 2021.   What’s more, we are actively increasing our digital reach to our attendees and delivering new marketing vehicles for you to get your message to Travel Advisors & Consumers.  Look for our announcements soon for both TravelShows.TV and our new TAS Virtual Trade Exhibit Hall / Directory.   We are here to help you every step of the way.    The Dallas Travel & Adventure Show is on in August and we still have booths available to help you capture bookings.  Our 2021 schedule is published at TravelShows.com and our Recovery Rate Special has been extended to June 15th to help you stretch your budget.   Call us today and let us maximize your marketing spend reaching the Americans who ARE TRAVELING.   Till next time… the Adventure Continues.

John Golicz CEO, Travel & Adventure Show Series

http://e-campaign.travelshows.com/from-the-ceo-travel-adventure-show-update-4

Investment Readiness for Green Finance Mechanisms initiative

GREEN INVESTMENTS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

• ALL REGIONS

Registration

Under the new Investment Readiness for Green Finance Mechanisms initiative, the UNWTO will work alongside the IFC, which is a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries, on a series of training programmes. One of the main focuses of the new initiative will be working with private sector partners to promote green finance and share experience in resourcing sustainable buildings. The initial cooperation will consist in a series of trainings to promote green investments for a long term the recovery of the tourism sector. The first training is planned to start on 4 June, 2020 at 15:00 CET (Madrid time) in a webinar format, and it will culminate with an accreditation training provided by the EDGE Experts.

PURPOSE

UNWTO is partnering with the IFC for a series of technical training programmes aimed at promoting green finance and unlocking its potential to accelerate tourism’s recovery and stimulate sustainable growth.

EVEN MORE HILARIOUSLY BAD MANAGEMENT RESPONSES ON TRIPADVISOR

You’ve put in the hard work, the blood, the sweat, the hours, everything you can possibly think of, all of which you did with a smile on your face. But at the end of the day you get home, turn on your computer and there it is: not just a bad review, but an outright terrible one. You’re absolutely fuming, and in the moment you put your professionalism aside and you fight back, writing a rude answer blaming the customer, using irony, personal attacks, sarcasm, and totally denying the situation. Then you wake up and realize that it was a dream. Because you’re not that person.

There are countless stories of bizarre or ridiculous TripAdvisor reviews, and the hospitality industry can be a vicious one. Perception is everything, and while it’s hard not to take certain comments personally, this is the business of customer service. It’s important that you answer all reviews, regardless if they’re positive or negative, but with not-so-glowing responses, what you write requires some additional consideration. What remains essential is acknowledging and accepting responsibility for what went wrong, indicating that you’ve learned something and that you’re going to do better next time.

Accordingly, it’s time for another installment of bad management responses to TripAdvisor reviews, where we look at answers that likely should have been kept on the inside rather than put out there for the whole internet, and what would have been a better way to approach responding. Be sure to check out our earlier two blogs to be caught up on all the tips and ways to address these precarious situations. As you’ll see, we’ve identified a variety of ways not to respond. Once you’re caught up, keep reading for more laughs, examples of what not to do, and suggestions for how to positively diffuse negative reviews.

Five Hilariously Bad Management Responses on TripAdvisor
MORE Hilariously Bad Management Responses on TripAdvisor

FULL POST HERE....

Outdated Website Features to Avoid

The abundance of web features available may leave you more confused than ever, rather than excite you. Knowing which components to include and which to ditch feels like the task for an expert but it isn’t! Here is a short guide to highlight the website features you should avoid.

Before we begin, it’s important to understand why outdated features can be harmful to your website. There are certain elements that are affected by website features, one of them is user experience. It’s something you need to constantly be referencing and taking into account when building or improving your website. User experience, as the name implies, is all about giving visitors a positive experience on your site, making processes easy so that they want to return to your website. The design of your website helps to point customers in the right direction and finalise sales.

Another factor influenced by web features is page speed. Although many web features can look good, they can considerably slow down your page’s loading speed, and as a loading speed of as low as 5 seconds increases your bounce rate (the rate of people leaving your site) probability by 90%, it’s pretty clear that sometimes you need to choose speed over style.

Nowadays, we are all short of time and people make snap decisions about whether your website is worth their time or not. Outdated features can make your website look poorly maintained, not exactly a factor which inspires trust in your visitors. And we all know, no trust means no purchase. A professional, up-to-date website can be the key to sealing the deal on a sale.

Let’s look at those features that you need to leave behind to be able to move forward.

GALLERY SLIDERS

You might be shocked by some of the features we recommend avoiding, and gallery sliders will probably be one of them. They are one of the most common website features, but times change. What are they? A series of pictures, sometimes with content included, which showcase the companies products on a carousel which you can move along with arrows.

These are often used in the hero area of a homepage, the prime real estate of a website. The area that visitors see first and where they make the crucial decision whether to stick around to find out more or move on. You may be thinking, well they are a great idea, you can showcase your key products in a small, important space. This is the very reason they became popular to begin with, but we have learnt a lot since then, including new methods to use space to our advantage.

What’s more, packing all that information into a small space is more likely to overwhelm visitors and obscure your company message. You need to make sure that the hero area is a clean and precise space with a stunning photo. Your visitors should land on that page and know exactly why you are special. Use a designated section further down the page to showcase your products, your users will appreciate the comprehensible, uncluttered structure.

Even more convincing is the fact that these gallery sliders can negatively impact your page loading speed as well as your user experience. Getting rid of this feature can improve your website’s structure and increase your site speed. Two for one!

POPUP LIGHT BOXES

These popup forms often appear when you first enter a site and darken the rest of the page, drawing your attention to, most commonly, a newsletter subscription. There’s a lot that’s wrong with these, firstly, it’s not a good idea to ask people to subscribe to a newsletter before they’ve had time to read your content. If you do insist on having a popup, ensure it pops up after a certain amount of browsing, or when users exit the website.

Secondly, and one of the most important factors, the popup lightbox interrupts the visitor’s navigation through your site. This lack of control can often cause visitors to simply leave the site, especially if it is mixed with the frustration of not being able to close the popup. Allow users to navigate the site as they please.As a mild control freak myself, I can tell you, seeing a popup lightbox on a website often sends me straight back to Google search.

AUTOPLAY ON AUDIO AND VIDEOS

The autoplay feature is when videos or audio from a website automatically play when you enter a page, and it has often been described as a user experience nightmare. Imagine you are on a conference call and quickly want to check something on a website but you are disrupted by the site’s loud autoplay audio or video. As I said, a nightmare.

Consider your users with visual impairments, the autoplay overwhelms screenreaders, making it impossible for them to navigate the website. They arrive at your website and are then bombarded with unwanted audio and have to investigate how to turn it off (if they can even be bothered). Not exactly a pleasant experience.

This is another situation where power dynamics are important, you’re restricting visitors’ freedom to move through your site. We know the domino effect of curbing control: customers become frustrated, they leave the site, leaving you with no sales and a higher bounce rate, which means you move down the Google rankings. The takeaway: you need to give people the option to start and stop media when they want.

EXTERNAL LINKS OPENING IN THE SAME TAB

It’s definitely worth adding external links to respectable websites into your content. Think of it as a tree creating roots to stabilise itself. You stabilise yourself in the Google rankings by referencing other websites and getting them to link you in their content.

But don’t neglect the basic rules of web design, you want users to stay on your site. If your external links open in the same tab, you’ve lost them. Your users are galloping off into the expanse of another website. In 2020, there’s no excuse for having external links open in the same tab, check and double-check that all open in a new tab, and keep those visitors on your website.

Also from a personal perspective, there’s nothing worse when you open a link to read later and lose your place in the current site because it opens in the same tab. Think about the user experience from your point of view, and what processes frustrate you when you’re visiting a website, I know I have a long list. Then when building or improving your website, make sure you avoid those features.

NON-RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN

Last but not least, non-responsive web design. In our mobile device-driven world, responsive web design is a must. If your website is not optimised for mobiles and tablets, you are missing out on sales, because not only do over 50% of website views come from mobile devices, it also improves your Google ranking.

It’s a feature which adjusts the display of your website according to the device it’s being viewed on. It adjusts the menu, images, and pixels to improve user experience and to facilitate the management of the site. Instead of paying for different websites for mobile and desktop, you have one site that adjusts to all platforms.

If your website display doesn’t adjust to mobile devices, it looks outdated to visitors. If they’re on the fence about buying from you or your competitor, this feature could be what convinces them to go with your competitor. Responsive design makes your website more accessible and opens the door to a whole new audience.

If you’re reading this article and realising that your site is in need of a serious redesign, there are options. Ask customers, friends, and family to go through your website and give you feedback. We’ve also got a range of tips on how to improve your website in our blog. Or even better, reach out to us. Our design team knows the ins and outs of user experience and can help you build a website showcasing up-to-date features and technology. It’s never too late to upgrade your site!

COVID-19 Webinar Series – Making Decisions in Challenging Times (EMEA)

Tour Business Virtual Summit - Managing Cashflow In A Crisis

Thursday, April 2nd from 9:00-9:45 am pacific time

Casey Clark, CEO and co-founder of Cultivate Advisors, invested all of his savings and was scaling 50+ franchisees across the US, when the 2009 US financial crisis hit.  

He learned first hand how to approach cashflow management and what levers to pull to maintain cash. 

 Join Casey to receive an essential cash flow management tool, advice on how to navigate your runway, and most importantly learn about the key decisions that will make or break your survival during these hectic times.

https://www.beabetterguide.com/Replay/

5 Strategies to Survive a Global Crisis...and Thrive Afterwards

In this webinar, you'll learn:

1. How to manage and reduce expenses for your tour, activity or rental company

2. Forecasting cashflow to prepare for the worst case scenarios

3. Current and future revenue generating activities you can implement in your business

4. How to minimise damage and protect your tourism business

5. Where to find your community to seek help and support

www.trekksoft.com/recordings-5-strategies-to-survive-a-global-crisis

March 2020 - Strategies to survive a global crisis.pdf

3 ways how LinkedIn can be a marketing tool for tour operators

Doing business as a tour operator can be pretty tough, the competition can get stiff, and return on investment can be low. A key strategy to staying on top of the business is to make sure you are visible to old and potential customers.

Thanks to modern technology, visibility for your business has been made a lot easier and cheaper. Besides using your website, newsletters, blogs, or bulk mailing to market your tour operation business, another great marketing strategy is social media. While there are a ton of social media platforms to market your business on, if you want to focus on business to business marketing, LinkedIn is your best bet.

https://www.tourismtiger.com/blog/3-ways-linkedin-can-be-a-marketing-tool-for-tour-operators

Although LinkedIn might not have caught on as quickly as other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, it has evolved well and carved a niche among business professionals and recruiters alike. A good number of LinkedIn users have the decision-making authority on behalf of their organization, which makes business networking for your brand a lot smoother.

Before giving you a few tips on how to use LinkedIn as a marketing tool for your tour operating business, here are a few LinkedIn statistics you should consider:

• There are now over 660 million users worldwide
• More than 30M companies represented on LinkedIn
• Over 40% of users check their account daily
• LinkedIn is available in more than 200 countries
• It is currently available in 24 languages

Now here are the three ways how LinkedIn can be a marketing tool for tour operators:

INCLUDE EMPLOYEE LINKEDIN PROFILE

It is a no-brainer that as a tour operator, you already have your business page profile. So you might be asking, “why do I need personal profiles if it is the business I’m promoting?” Now here is the reason why; a tour and travel business is a highly people-oriented business. And because in the real sense of it, people do business with people, which is why it is vital to include an employee profile alongside your business profile.

Your LinkedIn profile and those of the other key staff in your business are the blocks you need to build up your tour business. People want to know more about who is in charge of the company they are about to patronize, so a well put together profile is going to make a lasting impression on your client.
Make sure your profile is 100% complete, therefore anticipating client’s questions. Add new industry-related skills, achievements, and examples of the top-notch work you do.

USE LINKEDIN AS A PUBLISHING PLATFORM

One thing I love about LinkedIn is the progress it has made with reinventing itself in the past 2-3 years. An example of one such reinvention is the room it has given its users for long-form posts on a content publishing platform, this allows users to write, edit, and share lengthy articles.

As a tour operator, there is just so much visual and written content you would want to post. The LinkedIn publishing platform gives you all the space to publish your long travel reviews, repost blog articles, tour adventures, and even reach different readers more easily. The great thing about this is that, unlike other social media platforms where people rarely read long posts, on LinkedIn we see the opposite.

Because you have a bigger platform to post more articles, you might need the services of writers such as Online Writers Rating to boost the content quality and numbers of material you post. The LinkedIn publishing platform also allows you to add third-party content to your article, so it’s easy to share articles from other sites. Just make sure you credit your source.

JOIN A DISCUSSION GROUP OR CREATE YOUR OWN

There are over two million discussion groups on LinkedIn that have an extensive range of topics for discussion. So it is easy to get a group that covers your business idea. There is a limit to the number of groups you can join (100 groups). So make sure you pick the groups that are relevant and add value to your business. Examples of groups you can join as a tour operator include:

• Social Media Travel
• Travel & Tourism Industry Professionals Worldwide
• Hotel Industry Professionals Worldwide
• Ski Industry Marketing and Sales Travel Professionals
• Tour Operator Professionals

These groups expand your networking pool, allow you to share business ideas, and also give you room to establish yourself as an expert in the industry.

It is also essential to listen to conversations first before engaging in any group discussions. Taking part in group discussion interaction is a great way to increase the views on your profile. You should aim to fall among the top five influencers, because this is a great way to build your brand reputation. These influencers are seen as contributors whose discussion generates extensive feedback from other group members.

Remember, if you can’t seem to find a group that suits your brand ideas and goals, you can always take the lead and create your own, invite old and potential clients and other service providers. Linked in allows you to setup up to 30 groups at a time

Additionally, you can conduct polls to learn about your competitors and customers and also to stay updated on current industry trends. The results from the polls allow you to share business insights with your colleagues and even place you as an expert in your field.

Whether you’re looking for ways to generate business leads, build awareness for your travel brand, or establish strategic partnerships, LinkedIn is the way to go.

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FRANK HAMILTON

Frank Hamilton is a blogger and translator from Manchester. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.

https://www.tourismtiger.com/blog/3-ways-linkedin-can-be-a-marketing-tool-for-tour-operators