The CenStates board of director, under the guidance of Chair Brenda Myers, has developed a three-year Vision Plan for the chapter to empower its members to produce travel and development research to enable flexibility and responsiveness. The areas of focus are: leadership, membership, education, communications, and research. The award-winning CenStates chapter looks forward to a fulfilling and productive new year…for you and with you!
Read the Vision Plan HERE.
It also showcases how print usage in US travel is far from being in decline and has held firm and even grown slightly over the last decade. Still around half of US travelers still use print at some point in their trip planning or travels each year. Print is showing continued strength in travel but certainly the role of print has shifted towards a far greater emphasis on inspiration and motivation. For more on the role of print – see our research summary from partners such as Destination Analysts and Longwoods in our white paper, The Value of Print.
Not surprisingly, a look at different generations of US travelers shows a far higher mobile, UGC and social usage among younger, Gen Y travelers. However still just under half of all Baby Boomers use traveler reviews and UGC in trip planning and almost one-third use social media content posted by friends/family.
This research highlights how content and media planning needs to respond to a highly complex, multimedia, fragmented marketplace. US Travelers are accessing more information from more places than ever before. Considering how to deliver your message across multiple channels and media types is key as is the ability to generate “cut through”. Measurement of results – though still highly imperfect, is essential to understand which content, creative, media and channels are working – and what are not.
Check out the companion blog “The Rise of the Hyper Informed Traveler” for added context and detail on these recommendations.
In today’s world of information and technology, consumers are using a wider variety of tools available to them and are using each of them at a higher rate of frequency. The types of media, websites, apps, channels and devices are mind blowing but traditional media is still an effective and critical part of your toolbox. While traditional may not get as much attention these days, it may just be the tipping point in your consumer’s decision-making process. Regardless of the channel, the key for today’s marketer is making sure your content is compelling and that its reaching the right consumer at the right time. Content personalization is now expected. If you’re not already using data to provide personalized messaging, it’s time to start exploring that option. While the use of data and technology are changing the way we deliver the messages, there are things that don’t change. Storytelling and emotion effect our decision making process throughout the day but especially when it comes to larger investments such as a vacation. Finally, word of mouth is still the number one influencer. The best way to generate word of mouth is by giving your visitors a reason to talk about you. A destination’s brand is built one visitor at a time….so give them something good to say.
This is an excerpt from a webinar presented by the South Dakota Department of Tourism and Miles Partnership. A recording of the webinar is available here. You can see this blog and read the Miles white paper for more on the Hyper-Informed Traveler. For further information contact the author Chris Adams, Head of Research & Insights at Miles Partnership at Chris.Adams@MilesPartnership.com
DECEMBER | TOURISM COCKTAIL
Jayne DeLuce, | President & CEO,
Visit Champaign County
You’ve got to make the most out of what you have. Jayne DeLuce, Visit Champaign County’s Executive Director, tells us the signature research cocktail she uses to get $404.4 million in visitor spending, 3,140 jobs supported, and a tax savings of $1,300 per resident.
SEPTEMBER | TOURISM COCKTAIL
Patrick Remming, Marketing & Research Manager,
Explore St. Louis
In St. Louis, we use a wide variety of primary research and secondary data to help inform our decision making across our sales and marketing efforts. We make sure the following examples are always in the mix.
CenStates members share some information they learned at the June conference:
The latest Portrait of American Travelers (POAT) study by MMGY Global found that there are really two different segments in the millennial generation. This is due to that generation aging and now the older segment once considered millennials are starting to transition into a different stage in their lives. The older millennials are now 38 years old. For instance, older millennials are seeking relaxation on their vacation while the younger segment travels more for thrill-seeking. The older millennials and young millennials also vary greatly in average spend with the older segment spending $4,558 per trip and younger segments spending $3,648 per trip. They also vary greatly in their use of shared accommodations. 43% of the younger segment have stayed in shared accommodation while only 31% of the older segment has. This seems to indicate a widening gap in travel trends with the millennial generation.
Another interesting finding of the POAT is that obligation vacations are on the rise. These are trips that are the primary reason for traveling is due to a wedding, graduation or anniversary of a friend or relative.
Kirk Hulstein, South Dakota Department of Tourism
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be defined as the ability of a program to imitate intelligent human behavior. For tourism purposes, AI could be an automated chatbot on a Facebook page or on a website providing responses to questions asked by viewers. The use of an AI system would provide a 24/7 source of knowledge for visitors, potentially affording them a more enjoyable experience since their questions can be answered relatively quickly no matter the circumstances. With the rise of AI-assisted interfaces, we could start to collect and analyze entirely new data sets. The real question is how are we going to turn these new data sets into meaningful and actionable insights?
William Graves, Visit Wichita
In a session on How Data Analytics is Shaping the Future of Our Industry, Ashley McHugh with Memphis Tourism shared some of her insights on the battle between survey results and behavioral data:
SURVEY DATA IS STILL USEFUL…
Our website visitor profile survey can still give us indicators about what our current website visitors want to find. Additionally, we can segment our survey to analyze what nightlife visitors find appealing about Memphis to guide more nuanced content creation across our organization. Relying on this kind of segmentation is more likely to give us strong results than creating generalized conclusions about how the overall preferences of our website visitors will correspond to the in-destination behavior of actual visitors.
…BUT BEHAVIORAL DATA WINS
While our website visitor profile survey can certainly guide our website content creation process, it does not accurately reflect in-destination behavior. Our website seems to attract more potential visitors who are interested in museums, while actual visitors are more likely to go to entertainment districts when they arrive. Because of this data, we are trying to reach our nightlife visitors more effectively with targeted video content and digital ads, attracting them to our website so that we have the opportunity to influence their trip planning process.
Kim Caplinger, Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department
