Trust us, this news is definitely the best news you’ll read! Our insights into the heritage tourism and economic development industry will give you the inspiration you need to tackle the week. In this edition, read about a unique campaign that features stakeholders, get another look at remote workers and travel, learn how scent is playing a role in the travel industry and so much more.

Destination BC in British Columbia, Canada is featuring stakeholder travel offers in their fall marketing campaign. The DMO hopes this will encourage more travelers to book a variety of the experiences, attractions and accommodations that British Columbia can offer travelers. Destination BC is providing this service at no cost to their stakeholders, giving them the opportunity to spread awareness about their offerings and it will increase the potential for bookings and purchases.

Stakeholders who choose to participate must provide their offer information in order to be featured on Destination BC’s website. Up to three offers are accepted by the DMO at one time. Offers include savings on lodging, travel packages, annual passes to attractions, unique events and much more.

This is a great idea for DMOs who want to give their members more opportunities to spread awareness and provides more value to those in DMO membership programs. Even if dedicating a whole website page to special deals and offers sounds like too much, giving stakeholders opportunities to have their offerings featured on social media can still provide real value.

With nearly half of American workers working fully remotely or in a hybrid situation, this creates new opportunities for the travel industry. According to Skift, 26 percent of workers who worked remotely or had worked remotely reported they took trips longer than 10 days. This flexibility allows employees to travel and “work from anywhere” and the trend doesn’t seem to be going away.

DMOs should be looking for new ways to include this type of traveler in their marketing strategy. Not only are they likely to travel, but also are likely to spend more at destinations, especially rural ones. Highlighting places that have adequate Wi-Fi and quiet locations to take calls will allow these travelers peace of mind knowing that they can work productively while still enjoying evenings out on the town. Continue listening to this segment to ensure you’re meeting their needs.

Businesses have been using sensory marketing for years, but now it’s making an entrance into the tourism industry. Airports and hotels are using scents to communicate with their visitors. Bathrooms and lobbies smell of lemon which is associated with cleanliness and hotels even develop their own shampoo and conditioner scents so visitors associate certain smells with their stay at the hotel. The smell of coffee is connected to increased cognitive activity, leading some airlines to use this scent at the end of long flights and this can lead to a more positive experience at the airline.

For DMOs, it’s important to know what other travel companies are doing to enhance their visitors’ experiences. Maybe this looks like picking a scent for your visitor center, encouraging stakeholders to include more positive smells in their customer experience or even associating a smell with your entire destination. This offers a lot of opportunities for communities to get unique in their approach to sensory marketing and ultimately stand out to visitors.

Visit Crawford, the destination marketing organization for Crawford County, Pennsylvania, was struggling to communicate their offerings to potential visitors. A disjointed marketing strategy and a lack of resources left the organization with ineffective ads, a limited digital presence and an unfamiliarity with its target audience and community brand. When new leadership took the helm, Visit Crawford realized that they needed to outsource their marketing efforts to achieve the results they needed.

Visit Crawford collaborated with Bull Moose Marketing to create a comprehensive marketing strategy that helped leverage the county’s heritage tourism offerings, cultural touchstones and rich history to help the region stand out. Beginning with a variety of workshops, the organization worked with us to identify the region’s unique value proposition, target audiences and other key points to help build a strategy that would put Crawford County on the map as an ideal tourism destination. This yielded a unified brand voice and strategy, increased engagement on social media, more stakeholder participation and more.

This shows how a comprehensive heritage tourism marketing strategy can make all the difference in a DMO’s marketing efforts. Learn more about how Visit Crawford and Bull Moose Marketing collaborated to overcome challenges and achieve goals here.

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