Ideas

Recent economic predictions have indicated we could be in for a rocky time. inflation increases, fuel price hikes and an uncertain economy mean that not everyone will want to think ahead and book a holiday or feel good about spending on a day trip. Combine this with the discounts available on overseas' holidays and iffy British weather and the domestic tourism industry isn't feeling as confident as a few months ago. 

So, there may be tricky times ahead. What can you do about it? 

First of all,…

Have you tried letting your visitors do your marketing for you? 

The 'normal' ways to do this is through word of mouth recommendations. I'm suggesting going a step further with four different ways to encourage your visitors to help promote your business - without being pushy.

First of all, you can encourage word of mouth recommendations through social media, simply by suggesting people follow you or asking happy customers to post photos of their visit. 

The second way is to think about offeri…

Do you ever feel like your potential guests and visitors are just 'not getting it'?

That maybe people just don't realise how good you are, that you have the most fantastic business?

Perhaps they keep asking the same questions over and over again, or miss the point on what you have to say? 

Or maybe you're sometimes downhearted because you know you're offering a brilliant service or experience and yet you just don't seem to be able to charge the prices you'd like, or attract the visitors you want? 

Pre-Covid, celebrations were a major trend. There was a significant increase in visitors meeting up with friends and relatives for a celebration of some kind, often a big birthday or anniversary. Celebrations are a great market. They often take place outside the main season. One person invites others to come along, so you can attract new visitors, and people are generally in a good mood and ready to spend!

There's now even greater demand as people try to catch up on all the celebrations they mi…

If your marketing budget is tiny (I don’t know any tourism businesses with a big budget!), it’s easier to stand out from the competition if you focus on being different or special in some way.

How about being so special and different, you’re the ‘one and only'? 

It’s easier than you might think.

You can choose a ‘category’ and be the king/queen of that category. Here’s how. It works equally well no matter what type of tourism business you run. 

Let’s say you run a self-catering holiday cotta…

There's a growing trend that you may have missed. You might even say it arrived by cover of the night...

It's a trend that could be valuable to accommodation businesses, food and drink outlets, activity providers and attractions. 

After dark activities

Visitors are increasingly interested in what they can do after dark. They're ready to have new and different experiences after dark. This could be nature-spotting or enjoying the dark skies. It could be sitting outside with a rug over their lap…

There's a row of images, or series of short films.

Each one shows something going wrong in the world, or is a shouty message 'this person is terrible', or a photo of something horrible or bad. There's just one that shows the green shoots of daffodil stems, and grass starting to grow again. 

Another row of images has a similar bank of negative images. There's one that feels different: a sunrise, full of promise and light. 

Which of these images are you most drawn to? 

Positive stories and im…

When your marketing budget is limited, there's an easy way to add power to your promotions: piggyback. Piggyback marketing essentially means using someone else's marketing budget to benefit your business. 

Obviously I don't mean actually using their money, but rather harnessing the power of their activity and piggybacking on the awareness they're able to create. It's a bit like riding in the slipstream of a more powerful vehicle. 

Read on for some ideas for current trends you can easily piggyb…

There's a Japanese expression and approach that many Western business leaders have started to use: Kaizen*. I think it's also invaluable for small tourism business, especially those with tiny marketing budgets and no time.

The Kaizen approach is based on the idea that small continuous steps and tweaks build up to more substantial improvements over time.

Kaizen is good news for all of us for three reasons:

1. Small steps are easier, especially when you don't have a lot of time;

2. It costs practicall…