Created for new places starting on the journey and existing destinations who need to revisit the essentials for a solid destination foundation. Here are our top tips.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Ask yourself these questions. Who are currently visiting? Are they from Australia or overseas? Where are they coming from? How did they get here? What are they doing? Who do we want to attract?
Once these questions have been answered from your own intel and available analytics, it is time to do some desk research from Tourism Australia, your State based tourism organisation and even local councils to understand the wider visitor economy and how your place, precinct or experience fits into it.
Here are some links for NSW as a starting point;
MAP THE VISITOR JOURNEY
Now that you know who your visitor is, start a simple flow chart of your visitor journey from the moment they start researching your destination to actually arriving and the pathways into and out your business and then further along to their next engagement with your brand or business.
This is called 'mapping the visitor journey'. Try to be as detailed as possible to understand their experience, their pain points and where they had memorable moments. This exercise will highlight the opportunities to enhance the visitor journey and your destination as well as way to minimise visitor frustrations.
GET INVOLVED!
The tourism industry are a friendly bunch. Get involved with key tourism leaders and organisations for your region - we can help make these introductions! An easy way to set and forget and keep your finger on the pulse is to subscribe to their newsletters.
THINK HOLISTICALLY
Showcase the holistic destination through your owned channels. Your destination is more than a singular pillar. For example, a shopping centre is more than its brands or stores. It might have a great history, architecture, lifestyle or vibe, food and drinks, location or quirky people. Think of your destination without boundaries - a customer won't know or see these political, council or business boundary lines.
LIST WITH ATDW
ATD...what? ATDW stands for the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse. In a nutshell, it is one tourism listings that you update and manage that gets distributed across multiple tourism and travel websites like www.australia.com or www.sydney.com It is an essential listing for any place, precinct or product wanting to play in the tourism space. Best thing is it's free in most States to sign up!
CONSISTENT DESTINATION LISTINGS
Can your destination be easily found online? Some of the major destination listings include Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor, Yelp and ATDW.
These listings are critical points of information for your visitors online and need to be kept up to date and consistent. They also are a great help for your websites search engine optimisations! Need help to keep these listings fresh? Leave the admin to us.
DESTINATION CONTENT IS KING
Travellers are increasingly visual creatures. The old saying of 'a picture tells a thousand words' rings true for tourism destinations. Using stock imagery will only make your destination look generic. We recommend investing in engaging destination content to showcase the holistic experience which can be shared through your owned channels, your key tourism stakeholders to reshare and your listings. This content could be imagery, videos, articles, listicles, suggested itineraries or even Instagram stickers.
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Did you know that Instagram lets you use up to 30 hashtags on a post to help increase reach? Start building a destination and tourism hashtag list. Here are some starters #feelnewsydney #ilovesydney #seeaustralia #restaurantaustralia
SAY G'DAY TO AN AUSSIE SPECIALIST
Engage with the Tourism Australia Aussie Specialist Program by uploading training videos and rewards to showcase your destination.
Want more ideas to continue to build your destination? Contact Gemma from Destination Partners for more.
DISCLAIMER This document is the property (including but not limited to copyright and intellectual property rights) of Destination Partners. The information contained in this document is given in good faith and has been derived from sources believed to be accurate as of this date. No part may be reproduced, exploited or used without
prior written permission by Destination Partners.