Destination Marketing on the Web: Trends, Challenges & Best Practices
According to the latest statistics, the internet is nowadays involved in almost 85 % of holiday purchases while smartphone mobile usage is steadily increasing along with the demand for more travel information and location based applications. Word of mouth gets a megaphone through social media networks, whose influence on travel purchase decisions gradually grows.
2011 is the year that large travel suppliers strengthen their position on the web which means that destination bodies will need to catch up with them and stay relevant. DMOs have already started to swift their attention to online media, largely due to budget cuts and increasing pressure for result measurement. Even though many DMOs want to incorporate social media in their marketing efforts, many face difficulties in determining the best way to proceed, while facing challenges in providing quality information online.
Since a DMO’s role is not only to promote the destination as a whole but also the tourism businesses and suppliers in that destination, considering the latest web developments they need to go where the consumer is instead of trying to convince them to come to them. Towards this direction a DMO website should be visually appealing, easy to use and providing value adding features and information in order to keep the visitors.
An effective social media strategy needs to be created through quality market knowledge and value adding content in order to engage with the audience and promote the destination’s advantages. The DMO therefore needs to assess the social activities of its target groups, set the right objectives, plan the relationship they want to establish with their target market and finally decide upon the tools that best fit their objectives and strategy.
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[slideshare id=7331397&doc=destinationmarketingontheweb-110321044430-phpapp01]
COMMENTS
Manolis
Its true Dez, mobile purchases are constantly increasing and the vast majority of those purchases relate to travel related products (accommodation, flights, event tickets, etc.). 29% of US smartphone buyers book hotels and 24% flight tickets (comScore), while most of purchases naturally take place on the go, which shows the opportunities for on location services for destinations.
Dez
I wholeheartedly agree. With mobile hardware now surpassing desktop and laptop sales, expect to see both online travel purchases go up, as well as these transactions happening via mobile apps and webpages. Geolocation will play a massive part in it too.