Crafting a Focused and Effective Strategy for Tourism Companies

The best marketing outcomes start with an amazing experience and an excellent customer service. No marketing technique can out beat these two basic principles. They are essential to grow your tourism company; through the most efficient marketing technique there is : mouth to mouth marketing by your own happy customers and satisfied customers coming back for extra business.

To grow faster you can amplify the great marketing work happy customers do for you. By spreading the love of your customers to more people like them.

And this is where digital marketing kicks in. Its the cheapest and most effective way to find, notify and convince people who will love your business. Or maybe even better, making sure they find you, because your are visible when they are looking for ideas or planning their next holiday.

The tourism companies and organizations that do this most successful all have a strategy and plan to execute that strategy. This helps them to create creation for their target audiences that is consistent with their vision, values, USPs and the niche they operate in.

The basic components of a strategy that are wise to write down.

One of the main reasons a strategy works is because it makes your company able to guide a potential customer step by step to a sale. With the right content, at the right moment, which is almost impossible without with a strategy and plan, especially when you are working with a team and or generative AI.

With the 100+ tourism organizations i have worked with, it were only those who first set a basic strategy in combination with a brief year and content plan, that could significantly grow their business.

In this blog I will explain how i help tourism organization's create an effective strategy that drives business success. You will get practical and actionable tips with frameworks and templates that are easy to execute without extensive time and  investments. With the help of an AI tool and this document will be able to create a solid strategy that works.

When reading this blog you will:

• Be able to develop a solid strategy without spending hours on research and documentation.
• Receive easy-to-follow tips and a strategic framework with template that is used by successful tour operators and destination marketing organizations worldwide.
• Understand how to maintain strategic focus and discipline, ensuring consistent messaging and step by step guidance of a travelers through your customer journey.
• Discover ways to connect with your customers on a deeper level, aligning your values and vision with their needs and desires.

Implementing the strategies discussed will lead to increased bookings, better customer satisfaction, and overall business growth.

Let's get started !

At the bottom of the article you will find a link to the strategic framework document i used with many tour operators and destination marketing organizations in several countries.

What is a Strategy ?

A strategy defines what you have to do to achieve your set goals. Which destinations, type of experiences and tours to focus on and to who you are selling them through what kind of channels.

But maybe the most important thing is that it defines why you do what you do, and the moral values you try to achieve your goals. Enabling to connect the organization on deeper level with your customers what the and together travel the path to your vision.

Which makes running a tourism business a lot of fun.

Before thinking what you have to do to get to your goal, it helps to visualize and write down what your travel organization looks like if it reached it's goal, how many clients will you have, how many employees, what will be the role of you, others, with what kind of systems will you work. How will a day in the office look like if you have reached your goal.

Doing this exercise makes it much easier to understand what is needed to reach your goal.

A strategy helps you to stay focused

The reason of having a strategy is to stay focused. There are so many opportunities these days, and with in the internet so easy accessible that its easy to get lost.
To stay focused its important that you and your team are very clear on what you offer but also on what you ultimate want to achieve with the company and or being active in the tourism business. What drives you as an owner, what kind of future do you want to help to create. What niche you are in and what kind of customers you want to serve. To craft a brand that consistently tells your customers what you are, why they should buy with you and how that benefits them.
To start the thinking process you start with your Vision.

Purpose;

Most of the time an owner or a destination has a purpose a reason that is the base motivation of why the organization exists. It's a statement that motivates and unite the people in an organization.

There is an interesting Ted Talk of Adam Leipzig that helps to define a person a purpose in 5 minutes. I feel this is also helpful for any travel organization.

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Vision, North Star & Goals

Weather you can debate on what a vision and north star is and how they work together I like to work with the following principles to create directional clarity for a tourism organization. Both act as a binder for the members of the organization and its customers to understand and energize on the end result of what they are ultimately working or contributing on.

A vision is a dream state in your ideal future world and defines the ultimate goal or world the organizations wants to be part of and actively wants to work on. A vision thus becomes an important trust element to bind your customers and team towards the main next goal which is a north star.

So a vision might be a little unrealistic like world peace where a north star is a very doable point to work on the long term.

A north star is a fixed point, where you want to be in about 10 years, your main point in the future that will bring you closer to realize your dream.

Where a vision might be something that takes generations to accomplish a North Star is a point that should be reachable with the current generation.

Creating a vision

To create a vision starts with having a clear idea about where you ultimately want to be, what is it you ultimately working on to realize with organization ?

Getting to your vision is a matter of keep on asking why are we doing this ? Directed by the strengths and values of your company. You can also think about the bigger role of your company in society, are there issues you like to solve as a company ?

When developing or reviewing a Vision, a manager or business owner the vision holder.

Put your vision on a white board and let the team react through several rounds;

• Round 1 Questions; Do they have any questions about the vision (so everyone understands the vision)
• Round 2 What is missing; all team member state what is missing nobody reacts nothing is wrong we just ask for ideas
• Round 3 The Manager adapts the vision based on what was missing and explain why is chosen for this vision
• Round 4 Question Round about the new vision
• Round 5 Objection round - every team member shares if they agree or not agree, those who not agree explain why, when there is an objection it needs to be clear why the vision is harmful for the organization
• Round 6 The Manager integrates all valid objection where possible and adjust the vision
• Round 7 New Objection Round
• Continue until a new vision is defined.

Above process sounds very long, but in my experience and sessions with governments on national and local level, and businesses from big to small this process is actually much faster and more inclusive then other processes i'm aware of. The model is based on integrated decision making from Brian Robertson.

You can also use AI to help you assist you during this process.

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Creating a north star

To make you vision a reality you can create an ultimate goal a north star.
For a north start define a horizon of about 10 years from now. What do you want to achieve in this time frame?

How do you want you companies future to look like ?

Intrepid Travel for example aims to be the world’s largest vertically integrated experiential travel company.

Setting Goals

Now you have a rough idea of where and how you want to go in the long term its time to set concrete objective that will lead you to results within the time line of your strategy.

Make your the goals concrete and doable.

Identify 3 main "Goal pillars" you need to achieve to get to your North Start and define them with 3 smart sub goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound. Which means it easy to measure if you achieved them and if they will contribute to your vision.

Think about the growth of your company, maybe the number of offering or the number of customers you want to get.

Example Vision - North Star Goals

In this example i used a travel portal for local experiences

Vision

To be the world biggest online portal that connects travelers with authentic local experiences through the power of storytelling, connecting each local businesses and community in the world through a story and offer them a fair way of presenting themselves to the world.

North Star

In 10 years, we will be the world’s leading platform for immersive, story-driven travel experiences, deeply connecting 1 million travelers annually with local communities and cultures across 25 countries, with a particular focus on Western Europe and the United States. We aim to connect 25% of tourism experiences in those countries rated 4 out of 5 on Google to our platform, generating $10 million in direct economic benefits for local businesses and communities while promoting sustainable and responsible tourism.

Strategic Goals:

Goal Pillar 1: Expand Immersive, Story-Driven Travel Experiences

• SMART Goal 1: By 2027, establish partnerships with local storytellers in 25 countries, creating 1,000 immersive, narrative-driven experiences, based on 25 story themes and 250 story characters on the platform.
• SMART Goal 2: Ensure that by 2028, 50% of the experiences on the platform are rated 4 out of 5 or higher on Google, improving the quality and appeal of available experiences.
• SMART Goal 3: By 2026, introduce AI-powered personalization to match 75% of users with travel experiences that align with their interests, increasing user satisfaction by 40%.

Goal Pillar 2: Focus on Impact in Western Europe and the United States

• SMART Goal 1: By 2025, secure partnerships with 500 local businesses and tourism providers in Western Europe and the United States, ensuring at least 25% of them are rated 4 out of 5 or higher on Google.
• SMART Goal 2: By 2027, expand into at least 10 new destinations in Western Europe and the US, adding 500 new high-quality tourism experiences to the platform annually.
• SMART Goal 3: Ensure that by 2028, 60% of travelers on the platform are from Western Europe and the United States, enhancing the focus on these core markets.

Goal Pillar 3: Drive Economic Benefits for Local Businesses and Communities

• SMART Goal 1: Generate $10 million in direct economic benefits for local businesses and communities by 2033, with a focus on sustainable and responsible tourism.
• SMART Goal 2: By 2027, partner with 50 community-run businesses, ensuring that at least 70% of them offer sustainable travel experiences.
• SMART Goal 3: By 2026, develop a system that tracks the economic impact of each experience, providing quarterly reports on the revenue generated for local communities.

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Set your Values

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What do you believe in ? What do you stand for ? Setting your values helps to communicate what the company believes in, in a consistent way.

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Create a Niche

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With the help of digital marketing its easy to reach well defined audiences like for example families who love trekking with children from 6 to 12 year while meeting native cultural customs all over the world.

Creating a business around such well defined audiences can be very successful.

Defining a clear niche with products targeted at such defined audiences (persona's) and a clear positioning of your company stands for and why people should choose it over others (Unique Selling Points) creates a solid focus for a successful digital marketing plan.  

Especially when you are starting a company, a niche is highly recommend, there are very few successful generalists and being one of them will involve big investments.

In stead of start looking at defined audience, you can also take a certain product as your start and select the right audiences for that product.

I like to start selecting what to focus on from my passion and my purpose (why do i do what i do).

What do i like to do, can i turn this into a product or service that creates value for others.

Focus on the positive side of your business and find the product market fit that suits your travel business.

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B2C or B2B

Define if you are going to sell your experiences directly to end consumer or rather to outbound tour operators that sell your business. Doing both is possible as long as you realize they each have their very specific marketing approach and content.

Select your target markets

You can't target the whole world in once especially if you are small you need to choose. Often if you check your database you will find out most of your customers come from 3 maybe 4 different countries.

Set these as your top Countries, can you even dig deeper ? Can you see top cities in your top countries ? Focusing on cities is easier because this can help you to get know quickly among friends who recommend your company to each other. Stimulating mouth to mouth marketing in very focused areas.

For big cities you can even narrow down on boroughs or other subdivisions.

Besides looking at your own data you can also check for example Google Trends in which countries your destination is popular. Or in a country which states, which can especially interesting for the bigger countries like the USA. When you search for Travel Nepal in the USA you notice for example that Nepal is relatively more popular then in other states certain.

Select your target Audience; a strategic approach

Based on your niche you select your target audience, don't choose many different audience, i even suggest you start with one, create targeted content that do that really good and if that works well, you can diversify your offer to other type of travelers.

The goal of creating a target audience is to select a type of customer that is most easy to sell to, someone that will love your company and is fun to work with. You are creating a target audience to understand what wows the audiences about your destination and experiences and what kind of deals they are looking for. With such a focus and understanding you are able to create tailored marketing content.

Turning your target audiences into persona profiles

The other part of creating a persona is that you need to be able to find your target audience, which channels should you use, how to target your advertising. To set this right we want add some demographics to our persona. Though sometimes a persona is really interest based and demographics are more secondary.

Define what your audiences like, needs, there preferences, what they want but also what they not want. What are there fears, what do they worry about ? For example a female solo traveler could find it very important that is safe to walk alone on the streets at night.

You want to understand exactly what inspires your target audience to purchase your products and services, but also what kind of question they have that need to be solved and or answered before they can buy your experiences and what might hold them back to not buy your products or services, so you can help them overcome these obstacles.

Start with the interests of your persona; for example nature lover, bird lover, mountain lover etc

Then think about demographics - Solo traveler, Family traveler, Budget Traveler etc

You can start by going through previous customers, from which customers did you get most of your turn over.

If you find it difficult to start working on a persona; follow these steps;

• Which country ? ; Netherlands, Canada, Australia, etc
• Which niche interest ? ; Nature, Culture, Adventure etc, (Check CBI Niche Wheel for an full overview)
• Type of traveler ? Solo, Family, Couple, Groups.
• Gender ?
• Generation ?

If you quickly trigger the above questions you get something like;

• Female millennials, from Netherlands, that love nature and travel solo

That is a really good base to start with, also note that AI than help you further, to build your persona, use market information documents like you find on CBI Tourism to feed the AI system.

Tune your base persona further with the next type of questions.

Defining a persona profile

You can define a persona profile by asking questions like;

• Why do they go on a holiday in the USA  ?
• What kind of experiences of do they like ?
• What do they expect / want when going to the USA ?
• What kind of struggles do face when they are going to the USA ?
• What is their fear ? What do they absolutely want to prevent ?
• What do they want to take home ?
• What do they want to know before departure ?
• What are their aspirations travel wise ?
• How can you convince them that the USA is their best next holiday choice (no worries you will love it)

To add a demographic perspective, consider specific interests. For example, why do nature lovers visit the USA? They might be drawn to the vast, untouched national parks. What experiences appeal to them? Perhaps exploring long-distance trails, which may be less suitable for families with small children.

There is no need to think long and start to create a full demographic persona if you won't use that data.

Other useful demographics for a travel persona could be :

• Gender
• Income level: average, high end

Media Use

• What kind of magazines and online sources do they use
• What social media channels are they active
• Are there niche group sites online where "fans" gather

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See underneath video for a quick way to create a persona with the help of your website and CBI.eu

Please note that persona's are not fixed, a nature lover might be for another holiday a more culture lover. The idea is that with "fixed" profiles you help your team and AI systems to make consistent content that can guide people interested in your niche from discovering your business or destination to a booker.

B2B Personas

The same counts in a b2b environment, but then multilayered, your persona could be a buyer from a nature focused niche tour operator that is organizing tours in a neighboring destination. What does this buyer needs ? How does he make his customers and boss happy ? How can they make profits with your company, what type of collaboration are they look for, etc.

Once you've developed a persona profile, the next step is to determine where to find your audience. Where do they spend their time online? What magazines do they read? Identifying these geographic and interest hotspots enables you to tailor your marketing efforts effectively, maximizing your chances of sales success.

Pain points

Define which pain points of your persona you acknowledge and want to help overcome. Write down 2 - 4 pain points, this helps to force your organization to be service minded, but also gives you an competitive advantage you can communicate in your marketing.

Set your Unique Selling Points

Unique Selling Points are statements that define what makes you different than other travel companies or destinations. Why should customers do business with you. The help your customers to quickly recognize why that should do business with your tourism business vs your competitor.

Define your Unique Selling Points (USP) from your strengths.

Examples of Unique Selling Points are;

• Highest customer ratings in the area,
• Biggest choice of experiences,
• Most expertise,
• Best Guides
• Sustainable
• Best in a niche

When you defined your strongest points of your business or destination you analyze what they mean for your customers.

The highest customer ratings and awards could mean you deliver a guarantied a high quality experience, there is no risk in doing business with you company, if you are extremely confident, you can even take it a step further, you didn't like it ? We will refund your money.  

Best local guides, could mean your customers have true in-depth experience authentic experiences.

Quasar Expeditions is showing their USP's here really nicely, though they haven't fully flipped their USP to benefits for their customers fully. One of a kind Remote Destination means for a traveler indeed being an adventurer, maybe even a kind of explorer, being in places very few others have been, a guarantee for great stories at a party or amazing photos on Instagram.

Set your top experiences and destinations

Define which experiences you will focus on, most money will come from a few cash cows. You want to create a balance in your strategy on promoting your current cash cow and future stars. New created experiences you think can be your future hits. As a b2b travel organization it could work well to put a bit more focus on new products to brand yourself as an innovative travel company, while you give your agencies plenty of marketing materials to sell your cash cows. As a destination maybe you want to avoid people coming to your top destinations because of over tourism and you like to spread tourist more evenly over the areas you promote.

Key Messages

Construct with the help of AI a set of about 5 - 10 key messages that reflect your purpose, vision, USPs and resonate with your persona. Refine you messages, the key messages form a guideline to further stir the output of your digital marketing plan with the help of AI.

Unique Value Proposition

Finally we put al the ingredients together and make a emotional value proposition, how is your company transforming your customers with your experience, a mix of all your messages, strongly driven by the answers you gave in the purpose exercise above. How do people feel after they did your experiences, visited your destination ? This is the core of your brand, what is communicated as a background sauces in all you do. The Unique Value Proposition should be the key driver to stir your company away from competing on prices, because you are offering something that is unique and can't just be compared with other companies and then select the cheapest. In this era of AI an content explosion this is your way to stand out and give customers and their AI tool a reason to do business with you.  

Template

The Strategy template can be filled in this google doc (copy to doc to edit, give me suggestions to improve through the comment section.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17XlKZ4mOueB4K9dnVgIkiw_rqCNTRHPKSJhvjV594Uw/edit?usp=sharing

Use Chat GPT or other generative AI model to help you fill in the template, based on your website, reviews, information in the page and other useful online sources.

Tourism destinations that have content online that can help you to grow your business are;

Northern Ireland : Build your Tourism Business

Do you want extra help to grow your business or like us to train SMEs of your destination to create and implement easy to make and execute digital marketing strategies contact us through our contact form.

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Set, Act, Measure and Reset

In our philosophy every company goes through the management cycle of Set, Act, Measure and Reset. Where you first start to set your strategy and plans, than execute your plans, measure what works, and adjust ; do more of what works and stop doing what doesn't work.

Download the SAMR Framework

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