The Digital Age is opening up myriad opportunities to connect with customers before, during and after their visit to tourist destinations. These are influencing future tourists. The challenge is to integrate digital with traditional platforms to enhance the destination’s brand identity.
While the fundamentals of branding tourist destinations haven’t changed, in this world of speed and choice, expectations have morphed. And now there are extensive opportunities for destinations to bring their brand to life and deliver value and amazing visitor experiences. In this increasingly interactive world, tourists are expecting this.
The challenge is to orchestrate and influence encounters to be as close as possible to the brand vision at every critical touchpoint. This integrated coverage may be in the form of a magazine ad, tradeshow, booking, website, tweet, kiosk, smartphone apps, map, street sign, tour guide or other encounters.
A location that doesn’t optimize the use of these assets and fails to present itself as interactive, engaging and experiential won’t develop a meaningful brand.
Mobile devices have provided consumers with the 24/7 ability to source information (web), navigate (GPS), be entertained and learn (video), communicate (text), compare (Yelp), meet (Foursquare), brag (Facebook and Instagram) and review (TripAdvisor) while wandering through a museum, walking a forest trail or driving a historic route.
In this way, they are dramatically changing the way that visitors interact with places. And that means that tourism management is no longer a one-way dictate from organizations or managers. Destinations must fit within an environment that demands interaction, transparency, flexibility and relationships.
Written by Marie Nelson for Mijo! Brands of Mexico.