FREE copy of Lookers into Bookers

To help all tourism, accommodation and tour and activity businesses during the Coronavirus crisis, my book, Lookers into Bookers, is now free on digital format. Download your copy here. Hope it makes the difference of your business surviving or not. Chris

Chris   Torres  Founder & Director  Tourism Marketing Agency  Turning Lookers into Bookers  +44 141 221 2090  chris@tourismmarketing.agency  tourismmarketing.agency  41 St.Vincent Place, 6th Floor, Room 3, Glasgow, G1 2ER  Purchase Lookers into Bookers

Tourism Marketing Agency 41 St.Vincent Place, 5th Floor, Room 8, Glasgow G1 2ER, Glasgow United Kingdom

Digital Travel Marketing Trends for 2020

The last months of the year are the right time to slowly summarize your business results and create a digital travel marketing strategy for the next year.

If you’ve been thinking about what would be good to apply next year to attract more tourists at a lower price, then it will surely be useful for you to know the key things that will present the crucial difference in market competition in favor of those who apply them.

These are, in our opinion, the six most important trends and key changes that you need to implement in your digital travel marketing strategy to effectively promote and sell your services in 2020.

5 Differences Between Email Marketing & Facebook Messenger Marketing

Email marketing and Facebook Messenger marketing are two powerful tools for attracting, communicating with, and ideally retaining customers. They share the same goal: effective communication with the target audience. Since each method demonstrates different results, they each have their pros and cons, so knowing the key differences between the two can help you determine which one suits you best.

TELLING VS. TALKING

While you may think of these two concepts as interchangeable, in reality they differ significantly. A marketing email typically tells you to do something rather than open a dialogue. You do not give subscribers the chance to express their opinion or even ask questions. The purpose of these emails is to simply inform clients about certain events in the company, make personalized offers, compose trigger chains of letters, and gradually incline people to click on targeted actions for the site. While reaching your subscribers, meeting their needs, and beginning to turn them into loyal clients is fair and expected to some degree, email marketing can be very one-sided. That’s why we refer to this as “telling”.

Facebook Messenger marketing has a very different process entirely. The client now has the opportunity to engage in a conversation with you. They can instantly ask questions and receive answers directly, where it’s from a company employee or a chatbot. Many client decisions are impulsive and emotional, but there is often a need to ask questions; if a customer can get an answer quickly, that may influence them to make a decision more quickly. Instant messenger marketing enables quick and effective dialogue, meaning you’re more likely to have the opportunity to close the sale faster than via traditional one-way email marketing.

TARGETED MESSAGE VS. SPAM

You may be wondering how Messenger marketing has become more popular. The answer is simple: people read the direct messages they receive. Sure, they also “read” their emails, but the truth is they really don’t. They tend to stick to work-related emails and regular mail, leaving the other unknown, unnecessary junk to simply be deleted. With instant messengers, consumers have an instantaneous choice to make. If the targeted individual isn’t interested in interacting with the brand, they can simply close the chat. Those who opt to interact will wait for new messages. Once they have the chance to read, respond, and ask questions, they may end up going to the site, and hopefully making some sort of purchase.

Overall, email newsletters tend to risk being judged as spam, while communication in the Messenger is often targeted and lively, and more importantly, it takes place on a voluntary basis.

PERSONALIZATION VS. TEMPLATE

Promotions and newsletters are as easily personalized in instant messengers. With the ability to personalize your content, you can then develop individual offers for specific clients, which a client is more likely to trust and therefore purchase. Maybe you work with a multilingual audience — translating the newsletters/promotions into various languages, using The Word Point for example, will allow you to reach a wider audience and attract more potential clients.

The fact that instant messengers provide the opportunity for more personalized and individual interactions is no secret, and customers usually appreciate this. It’s comforting to know that when the company interacts with you via Messenger, they aren’t also contacting hundreds of potential customers with the same message at the same time. This develops the relationship between the brand and the subscriber much faster as trust is established early on and allows loyalty to form.

HOW YOU GO FROM THE MEET CUTE TO STEADY COMMUNICATION

The stages of interaction between the client and your company are another battle to tackle. A welcome chain of emails can be ideal for meeting a new subscriber. It’s the perfect avenue to unobtrusively tell them about the company and what it offers, and it does not obligate your subscribers to take any action. That being said, email marketing alone isn’t enough to develop a relationship with a client. A more personalized way of communicating is the faster, more effective way to achieve trust and loyalty. At this stage, it would make sense for you to switch to an instant messenger service, provided the client is interested in such an interaction.

In general, email is the best option if you have a long and deliberate message to share with your clients. Our recommendation is to focus more on instant messenger marketing overall, and leave email marketing for special occasions. For example, if you have a special Black Friday promotion to share, sending out an email newsletter is more efficient and appropriate, rather than spamming hundreds of people with instant messenger messages.

THE OBVIOUS DIFFERENCE IS THE RESULTS

Instant messenger services are without a doubt on the rise, so much so that they are beginning to threaten the place of email marketing in your marketing strategy. While scrolling through emails during long trips or work breaks is increasing the number of emails being read, the click-through rate in email is gradually decreasing. For marketers, this means that you are more likely to create a letter that reaches your target audience, but using only email newsletters will reduce the profitability of your business because emails are being ignored more and more. Expanding into instant messenger marketing gets you an instant response from the user, therefore allowing you access to necessary information to measure the success of a new product; because let’s face it — an email response may never come.

HOW TO APPLY IT: TWO RULES TO FOLLOW WHEN CHOOSING AN APPROACH

Clearly formulate your marketing goal. This will allow you to choose the most effective channel for influencing a particular customer. If you can define the goal that you want to achieve, you will be able to properly build up your communication with the client.

Pay attention to your target audience. Older clients are more used to email marketing from past experiences, while younger audiences tend to respond better to instant messengers since they are more current.

Article by MARY HUNTER

Mary is a well-known American freelance blogger with advanced writing skills. She currently works as a translator at The Word Point translation service. Mary had experience in editing, marketing, and her works appeared in different publications and website articles. From 2015 till the present has been studying at William Paterson University as a philosopher. Her main goal in life is not to set up any goals and keep working every day.

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The Digital Battle for Tours

What The Californian Consumer Privacy Act And The Gdpr Mean For Consumers And Tour Businesses

Regarded as one of the most sweeping data-privacy laws in the US to strengthen consumer security, the California Consumer Privacy Act entered into force in January 2020. In simple terms, this law aims to empower consumers to access, alter or remove their personal data that is held by certain businesses. For companies, it promotes transparency of the use of personal data and its trade between organisations. Californian businesses need to meet one of three thresholds for this law to impact them:

• deriving 50% revenue from selling consumers’ personal data;
• having an annual gross revenue of over $25 million; or,
• those companies that buy, sell or receive the personal information of at least 50,000 individuals, households or devices.

However, this law will likely impact all types of businesses extensively, including in the travel industry. Here, we will explain what consumer privacy laws are and how they will impact tour operators.

Personal data and why it needs protecting

According to this new legislation, personal data can include financial information, health data, geolocation, family information and household purchasing data, just to name a few. Put simply, personal data means any stored identifying information such as names, addresses, credit card information, age, email addresses and phone numbers. Data processing firms buy, sell and trade this information in order to target advertisements, identify markets, prevent fraud or report on consumer activity, among other reasons. This is often done without the consumer’s knowledge (unless you are one of the 3-8% of people who read the terms and conditions).

California Consumer Privacy Act

This new law will require consumers to opt-in to having their data stored and shared, rather than having to opt-out. It also requires companies to explain in simple, concise terms the reasons for the data collection and, if this changes, request a reiteration of the consumer’s consent. What’s more, consumers will now be able to request access to the information that is stored by the company without reasonable delay while also offering them the power to request that the data is erased or transferred elsewhere.

California being the state to implement such a law is no coincidence, considering it hosts the highest concentration of technology companies in the world. Silicon Valley is the reason that the state’s economy is the largest in America and among the largest in the world. For this reason, a law like this is likely to have far-reaching effects on almost all other industries and represents a shift in consumer privacy laws that started with Europe’s own General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

European Union General Data Protection Regulation

The GDPR came into force in May 2018, reportedly received over 95,000 consumer complaints in under a year (by January 2019). Although similar in scope to the Californian Act, the GDPR impacts more businesses and individuals. This is because even if you’re simply marketing your goods or services to the EU (while not necessarily operating within it), then the law applies to you. This means that consumers have more rights and businesses must practice more transparency in their use of personal data. In addition, sensitive identity information is given stricter conditions to protect users regarding things like race, gender, political affiliation, health-related data and more. Similar to the CA Consumer Privacy Act, businesses are required to express how they process personal data in clear and simple language rather than through legal jargon and longform fineprint.

Tour Operators

The Californian statute and EU regulation only applies to certain businesses, but that includes tour companies or DMCs to some degree. While the Californian Act applies to a fairly specific group of business, the GDPR on the other hand, applies to all organisations that process and store the data of EU citizens. So how can you be prepared for this new data era?

The need for good data practices and transparency is becoming more and more relevant to all companies. There are a few things that every business should be doing, regardless of whether they are impacted by either of these privacy laws. You never know when consumer privacy laws will affect or apply to you, so it’s a wise idea to be prepared ahead of time with these useful tips.

1. Have explicit consent from your customers to store and use their data. This should be in an opt-in format that offers concise and transparent details around how personal data is being processed.
2. Consider any software or third-party services that your business uses to collect data. These companies might be impacted even if you aren’t, so you may need to review contracts and discuss what they are doing to meet these new requirements.
3. Alter your privacy policy so that your company is in line with the change rather than behind it. Adapt your onboarding or sign-up process so that consent is as clear as possible.
4. Organise the data that you have stored, and be prepared to transfer or delete it or explain what it is used for if requested.

Beyond

Technology and the internet continues to evolve at an unprecedented rate and although the legislative process is slower, it is beginning to catch up. 2018 was the first time in history that more people were online than offline, and moving into 2020, this will only continue to grow. Now more than ever, it is crucial for companies to have good data practices because information continues to operate as an economy within the tech-industry. If you need help updating your website to ensure the information you collect is handled the right way, Tourism Tiger can help. Consumers are now aware that when they aren’t paying for a product, they are the product, which means that having control over your own online identity is becoming increasingly important.

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https://www.tourismtiger.com/blog/consumer-privacy-laws-and-tour-operators/

Google just made tracking your marketing campaigns a whole lot harder

The world’s most popular browser, Google Chrome, is following the likes of Apple’s Safari in restricting the use of third-party cookies and it’s our job here at the Tourism Marketing Agency to warn the tours and activity industry exactly why this is a big deal. The changes to Google’s cookie policy could mean that it will be much harder to track the efficacy of your marketing channels and campaigns. This means that you will no longer be able to use third-party cookies to see exactly which campaign or channel your bookings come in from.

little background on cookies For those who don’t know what a cookie is (the digital, less-delicious form), I’d like to explain in a little detail. A cookie is a piece of code that provides the website owner or webmaster with information on how a user interacts with a website — telling them how a user finds the website and also how they move through the webpages on the journey towards making a purchase. The two most well-known third-party cookies are Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel, and the insight they provide marketers is immeasurable. So, with this in mind, you will understand why Google Chrome’s intention to restrict third-party cookies is going to be a ‘ball ache’ for all tourism businesses and marketing professionals alike. Cross-platform targeting We’ve covered the theory; let’s look at a more practical example: cross-platform targeting. A typical cross-platform targeting strategy may look something like this: you run a Facebook campaign that directs users to a specific product page on your website and they don’t make a purchase. So, in order to hold on to the user’s attention, you run Google display ads that ‘follow’ them around the web so that they remember your brand later, when they are ready to make that purchase. Without third-party cookies, cross-platform targeting may no longer be possible. Why is Google changing its cookie policy? Google isn’t just trying to frustrate business owners and marketers the world over with this change in policy; it is doing this to protect its users’ privacy — which for some may seem enjoyably ironic... But Google really does seem to be taking the right steps to protect privacy and safeguard its users, however, it is not yet clear how this will work in conjunction with Google’s own advertising platform. How might this change benefit Google? One benefit to Google that will almost certainly come from this change, is the additional control they will have over where you spend your hard-earned ad budget. For a while now, I have been an advocate of Facebook Ads as they are a cheaper and, arguably, more targeted way of advertising to your target audience – especially as the price of Google Ads is ever increasing, which is partly due to OTAs (Check out my Battle for Tours and Activities – Part 2 for more on this topic). With Google’s changes, you won’t be able to tell in Google Analytics whether a booking on your website originated from a Facebook Ad. It’s obvious that this would benefit Google and harm Facebook. However, I do expect that you will still be able to see these transactions from within Facebook’s own analytics. I have mainly concentrated on channels like Facebook and Google, but consider how this may affect OTAs like TripAdvisor, GetYourGuide, etc. It may end up being harder and more expensive for them to track the user journey or to create their own paid ad campaigns on Google. Time will tell... What this means for your marketing campaigns Although it’s very early days, it seems that you will need to run your ads on both Facebook and Google, and that you will have to keep your campaigns separate to have a chance of seeing where your customers are arriving on your site. This will increase the amount of time required to review and report on your strategies as well as possibly making it more expensive for marketing agencies. Tracking conversions is something Google is looking at, along with Apple, who are at the early stage of developing a way that businesses and marketing professionals may be able to track conversion data without identifying the individual user. It’s still unknown whether this will be free or a paid feature… This move will do one of two things to your marketing efforts: i) you will continue to use multiple platforms and it will just be harder, or impossible in some cases, to know where a customer’s purchase journey started or, ii) you will be forced to choose one platform and concentrate your marketing efforts on this. I suspect many will still use multiple platforms, but I urge readers to be prepared to spend more time reporting and analysing how effective they are. How you can future proof yourself? If you really want to be able to market your business through any channel, you need to collate and own the data you collect on your customers at the booking stage. This enables you to make better marketing decisions and create better, more-informed strategies that adhere to the rules that Google and the others have set. Collecting data on potential customers will now take more effort through email campaigns or competitions rather than relying on scraping this information from Facebook or Google. Luckily, we have been doing the former with our own customers for years so this will help offset some of the upcoming ‘issues’. If you don’t know if you’re ready for the upcoming changes to Google’s cookie policy or you’d like some help with your digital marketing, please feel free to get in touch; we’re always happy to hear from new tour and activity companies. Google’s changes to its cookie policy also highlight something I have said many times before and I will say it again: without owning the data you collect on your customers, your business will not win in today’s digital world… and this will only become more apparent in the months and years to come. Cheers Chris

Chris Torres Founder & Director Tourism Marketing Agency – Turning Lookers into Bookers +44 141 221 2090 chris@tourismmarketing.agency tourismmarketing.agency 41 St.Vincent Place, 5th Floor, Room Eight, Glasgow, G1 2ER

Google My Business Optimisation - How to Turn Your Listing into a Client...

Blue Economy, Ocean Tourism, and Sustainable Ocean Infrastructure Conference

The Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association (APAEA), South Pacific Tourism Organization (SPTO), Ocean Policy Research Institute (OPRI-SPF), and Fiji National University (FNU) will co-host a conference on the “Blue Economy, Ocean Tourism, and Sustainable Ocean Infrastructure” in Nadi, Fiji on 25-27 February 2020. 

The conference will convene policy makers and experts from Asia and the Pacific to examine ocean-related development, sustainability challenges, and policy solutions, with a special focus on ocean tourism.

From 25 – 27 February 2020" in Nadi, Fiji.

Sustainable Island Tourism Conference, Santo, Vanuatu, November 27-29, 2019

LT&C member Seychelles Sustainable Tourism Foundation is cooperating with Sustainability Vanuatu, the Department of Tourism Vanuatu and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council to organize a Sustainable Islands Tourism Conference from November 27th-29th 2019 in Vanuatu.

Expect an authentic and innovative conference with different themes of relevance for sustainable tourism in small island states and hands-on local experiences and visits.

The detailed conference programme will be communicated soon via the website www.tourism.gov.vu.

Expressions of interest for participation and presentations can be send to the Director of Tourism: Jerry Spooner, jspooner@vanuatu.gov.vu.

Part of the conference will discuss the contribution that tourism can make to conservation, so it will be of high relevance for LT&C members from other island destinations!

SPTO launches Pacific Sustainable Tourism Newz Beat

SPTO’s Sustainable Tourism Development Division today launched their monthly update for the industry, to share key highlights in the region. SPTO CEO Chris Cocker noted that this was a key focus for the Organisation moving forward, “Sustainable tourism is a key issue in the Pacific particularly with the negative impacts of climate change and natural disasters we are experiencing and the forecasted increases in tourism arrivals over the next few years. As part of SPTOs commitment to ensure that we in the tourism industry are not working in silos, ensuring that the developments in the tourism industry are moving in the right direction as well as sharing of valuable information amongst the tourism industry, we are therefore launching the Pacific Sustainable Tourism Newz Beat to share success stories, best practices as well as the latest developments in the industry”

“This inaugural issue focusses on our greatest assets, our people, and the experiences that they have had in tourism and their careers either as small business entrepreneurs, communities or as individuals. It is fitting we do this given our theme for this year’s World Tourism Day is “Tourism and Jobs; a better future for all”. The Pacific’s tourism industry employs around 131,000 people of our region and World Bank expects by 2040 that an additional 127,000 jobs will be added to this current figure. The sustainable tourism industry itself is a fast growing sector with green jobs a key component in ensuring changes in the industry. Employment in this sector is set to grow promising and exciting opportunities for Pacific People”

“In this issue you will read of women from the community who are turning plastic bottles into amazing jewelry and craft, you will meet island entrepreneurs developing their business in an environmentally friendly manner learning new culinary skills, you will meet an artisan who has championed sustainable development his whole life, you will meet a career focused individual who is now based at the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and you will meet interns who are just starting their careers. The diversity in the sustainable tourism industry is amazing and provides business and career opportunities that are quite dynamic.”

“SPTO continues to work with our partners to promote sustainable tourism development at all levels and across all sectors to ensure we take a holistic approach to meeting the needs of our people whilst at the same time developing tourism in a responsible manner. Above all else our focus remains in ensuring that sustainable tourism remains in the forefront of our development agenda for the region moving forward.

“I would also like to thank the team at SPTO who have been working tirelessly to promote Pacific Tourism globally and to ensure that development in tourism is conducted in a holistic manner to safeguard our resources for future generations.

I wish everyone a happy World Tourism Day”.