Understanding visitors

Are you feeling happy to see your destination full of visitors, and businesses with full calendars? After months of empty rooms and attractions, it feels good to see the tourism industry starting to get back on its feet.    

The one consistent element of these difficult times has been that we’ve had to learn and adapt as we go. The need to try different approaches is ongoing, even now most businesses have re-opened.

Should we congratulate ourselves on a destination marketing job well-done? Or …

While the lockdowns made many of us feel like it was constantly Ground Hog Day and that time was suspended, they also accelerated some trends. 

Visitors change over time. The visitors themselves change, as they go through different life-stages. The type of visitors each area attracts change too. Places with a niche appeal become more mainstream. Hidden gems become known. Well-loved destinations can fall out of fashion. 

The reasons why we travel, make decisions to visit an attraction or try an…

There are a lot of dandelions in my garden. Some still in bloom, most now carrying the 'clocks' we used to blow as children to tell the time. Do children still do that or are digital devices just too enticing? 

Some people would see my dandelions and think I'm a very lazy gardener. Others might spot the bees in the nearby field and realise I'm thinking more about them than the state of my lawn...

Whatever your view, I think we can agree that in the UK most people see dandelions as plentiful wi…

Many years ago we stayed at a hotel in Canada. It was off-peak and the large hotel wasn't full. Every evening for five nights the owner served us dinner. Every evening he introduced himself, asked where we were from (no other Brits in the hotel at the time), and explained the short menu and the buffet starter arrangements. Every evening. Not a flicker of recognition. Still the same spiel, despite us making it increasingly obvious that we'd heard it before. I don't remember much about that trip, …

Humans can be very cynical. Or if not really cynical, certainly cautious.

Offer something that people really want and too often the response is ‘that sounds too good to be true’.

You’re spent ages choosing the perfect photo, agonised over your pricing, refreshed your website, pondered the right social media messages and considered every word you use. You’ve done everything right and offer an amazing service.

And then the frustrating response to all this is ‘that sounds too good to be true’.

I might have fibbed a bit when I wrote 'Hollywood is calling'. But you're reading this blog now so it sort of proves a point. 

We're fascinated by the glamour of the film industry, by 'red carpet' events and might even secretly enjoy being a little star-struck from time to time. How would it feel to be part of it? 

I'm not actually offering you a starring role in the latest blockbuster, but I am inviting you to consider how it might feel to walk on that red carpet? 

You're probably wondering …

Sometimes it pays to look backwards and think about the past, to use old ideas to create new opportunities and new markets. Nostalgia is a powerful motivator, and particularly effective in tourism marketing.

After the past difficult year it's perhaps not surprising that nostalgia has become so important. It's been found to help counteract loneliness and anxiety, conjuring up positive emotions. A glimpse of happy times from the past can help people cope with stressful times in the present.

Usin…

When VisitBritain first started to promote Britain to Chinese visitors, there was a problem. Chinese travellers were less interested in coming to Britain than other European countries. When Chinese people were asked to think about London and what they expected to see, they thought it might be foggy, perhaps even dirty. London was rarely thought to be as attractive as Paris. Why? 

It turned out that the Chinese media had depicted London as foggy since Victorian times, drawing on descriptions in …