The Tourism Industry in my opinion can be defined as the welcoming committee for a country. We often are the only people that travellers encounter and we thereby create the impression that other countries will have of us. We as tourism operators will generate, or fail to generate, a rapport with travellers that entices them to visit our province, destination, attraction, or property.
As of late, the industry in Nova Scotia has definitely been striving to provide that "Unforgettable experience" for newcomers to Nova Scotia. One of the best steps that the industry as a whole can do is create that relationship before they even get here.
The old ways of marketing are slowly dying. People are purposefully avoiding commercials, DVR-ing to their heart's content, and reading blogs and review sites more than they are visiting web-pages and reading magazine articles from "experts".
We are in the business of people - Serving, entertaining, housing, transporting, and feeding people. But in order to compete with other destinations and attractions we need to get past the first two levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and tap into their need or sense of belonging.
We in the past have done a very good job of providing shelter, food, safety, and all those physiological and safety needs but people have come to expect that and to up our game we need to reach out to travellers and give them that sense of "I belong in Nova Scotia" which if done correctly will not only generate new visitors, but I believe will get visitors to come back.
So how do we do this? How can Tourism create that sense of belonging and family with people we've never even met? The key here is finding what tools are already available, free, and reach the targeted markets you are looking for.
I know a lot of industry partners are sometimes intimidated by the unknown factors of social media. Sites like twitter, facebook, and flickr can often make many employers cringe because they see it as a hindrance to productivity rather than utilizing the skills and knowledge of the upcoming workforce to use this to their benefit.
If you know that your employees spend 30% of their paid work time on social media sites, they may as well be doing it for you. You might even ask yourself why do they become so addicted to these sites? Why do they need to be on them 4-10 times a day? Because it fulfills their need to feel like they belong to something. It's not just here either that this is the case.
We create that sense of belonging by finding people with similar interests, people with specific questions and curiosities about our locations. We go to the forums where people are discussing vacations. We can answer questions that people put on twitter about Nova Scotia, about where they can find good seafood, or cheaper coastal vacations. We can no longer put out mass-media and hope that someone somewhere is listening and interested. Why do that when you can go directly to the people interested and invest your time and money in a much more selective target market that is most likely to give you a better return on investment.
Why spend thousands on a website without taking into consideration a twitter account that could be a daily reminder to people of what's new and upcoming with your organization? Link your winery account with the thousands of wine fanatics listed on listorious.com. Learn to maximize your employees' ability to navigate these sites and although it has been hard to calculate the dollars generated by these sites in the past more and more data is available on the success of using social media as a marketing, connecting, and tourism tool.
I know the pool is big, deep, and scary but if we want to compete we need to swim to the other side. Take a chance, get your feet wet, and I promise in no time you'll warm up to the idea that social media really is the new best thing in tourism.
This is my Nova Scotia ~ and I love it!
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