Tourism is one of the key drivers of economic growth in a lot of countries and more so in this age of wanderlust. Statistically, tourists tend to spend above average amounts of cash when traveling, and as such, countries that attract the highest number of international tourists stand to benefit the most from this lucrative industry.
Well, the covid 19 pandemic has hurt world travel and led many people to online alternatives such as slot machines online games rather than going to land-based casinos. But even then, there are a lot more reasons to travel apart from gaming or any other form of entertainment that can be accessed over the internet.
The Tourism Industry is Bigger Than Ever
The need to tap into the activities of the foreigners traveling into a country for leisure is not the government’s alone. That’s because the profitability of local businesses in specific niches may depend most on the rate at which tourists are flocking to that destination. In addition, more and more people worldwide are reaching an income level where they can take a couple of overseas trips once in a while. We are talking about 25 million annual tourist visits in the 1950s to just over 1.4 billion today. This means that more than 1 in 7 people of the world population travel internationally every year!
Thanks to the internet and especially social networks, the travel, and tourism sector is experiencing one of the fastest transformations ever seen in previous years. Trends are constantly shifting when it comes to the ideal travel destination. Some cities are even flooded by tourists to the point of creating safety hazards like in the case of the 2019 poppy superbloom – Instagram users flocked to Lake Elsinore, Southern California, just to get a shot of themselves with the poppies.
Whether the government or a local hotel is looking to attract domestic and international tourists, their strategies will heavily depend on understanding the target market and their trends.
Find out the Travel Motivation
Even if your country may be considered non-touristy, you need to remember that people have all sorts of reasons for traveling to another country or even within their own country. It may be a corporate visit that doubles as an opportunity to explore the place, or it could be for the love of food and culture. It comes as no surprise that the reason for travel differs significantly between older tourists and younger generation tourists. Discerning the different needs of potential tourist demographics is the number one factor that will help you better develop your tourism marketing strategy as a business, city, or national government.
Of course, current trends on social media shed light on the subject and make it much easier to pinpoint exactly what tourists look for when planning a trip. The point is capturing their attention before they even start thinking about planning that trip, maintaining their interest during the trip, and ensuring that the memories stay on well after the experience is over. So how do you take advantage of tourist motivations to reel in tourists to a destination that is not that well-known or even less desirable?
Work With Social Media Influencers
The modern-day tourist is constantly scouring the web for places to go, and social media influencers have become go-to figures when anyone wants to look for travel destinations. Consumers are developing a deeper connection with influencers than with a given product or service provider, and it’s much easier to create brand loyalty by tapping into this relationship than by putting out a commercial ad. That’s why using local and international influencers could tremendously change how potential visitors view a non-touristy country. Some of the most successful tourist destinations have capitalized on influencer marketing which has driven up the numbers.
So, setting aside a social media marketing budget for driving traffic to your country is the best decision any government could make. You may end up generating publicity for hangout joints, monuments, vacation homes, street food, and more in just a single post at a fraction of the cost it would take to set up a traditional advert.
The most reputable influencers would never promote a product or destination that they don’t believe is an excellent match for them or their followers. So, this means that before engaging them, you need to be sure that everything is as promised because bad reviews could drive away potential visitors. Even national governments are now starting to realize the importance of influencer endorsement to the tourism sector. Governments like Dubai, for instance, are taking advantage of this to create some hype about their city and different tourist destinations.
The Time to Tap into Tourism is Now
Keeping up with emerging trends is your best bet to take advantage of the current tourism boom in a society that keeps reinventing itself. While the pandemic has slowed things down, the tourism industry will grow much bigger in the coming years.
Social media influencers aside, there are more ways to attract tourists to a destination that isn’t very well known. They include improving or advocating for the improvement infrastructure if in a developing country, revamping monuments and sites that highlight the country’s cultural identity, optimizing lingual and currency options at tourist sites, using your own website and driving traffic to it through targeted ads, maximizing on corporate or group bookings, and so on. There’s no better time to reap tourism rewards than now!