Top
tips - influencing the influencers
Our
recent Tourism Network Meeting was on how the topic of how to
influence
the influencers – guide book editors, travel
trade, concierges, the media, blue badge guides, incoming tour
operators and destination marketing consultants (DMCs) etc.
You
really needed to be there to get the full benefit of the expert
panel’s
advice and the opportunity to network with them. However for
those of you we had to turn away because this was another
fully booked meeting, here are just a few of our top tips in brief.
DMCs are continually on the look out for new products (accommodation,
transport, attractions)
to promote to their overseas’ clients
so they are an ideal way of reaching overseas’ visitors without
the expense of overseas’ promotion. However you do need to
make personal approaches to them and to be very clear about your
Unique Selling Points, and what makes you different to or better
than your competition. Be aware also of the differences between
the DMCs – some of them specialize in particular types of
market.
Blue
Badge Guides often have specialist topics so can help you reach
specific
groups. They can also recommend you to others. There
are three key associations for you to be aware of: The Association
of Professional Tourist Guides, the Guild of Registered Tourist
Guides and the Institute of Tourist Guiding. To learn what they
all do see www.bluebadgelondon.com and don’t forget to take
the interactive tour within the site – The Tourism Network
developed it!
Exhibitions
such as the British Travel Trade Fair www.britishtraveltradefair.com are an excellent opportunity to make contact with new group organizers
and tour operators. However, Graeme Barnett of Reed Exhibitions
pointed out that there’s an enormous difference between say
British and American exhibitors. We just don’t sell enough!
Many British exhibitors are too polite to speak to visitors and
sell to them – and yet why do you think the visitors come?
Yes, they actually want you to sell to them!
There
are two essential points to make about the media – they
get very irritated by people who call and ask vague questions like, “did
you get my press release” (so think up a stronger reason
to call and time it well) and they like it if you can make their
job easier. That means being creative, writing good, accurate and
timely press releases and making sure you send it to the right
person.
When
promoting to overseas’ visitors, you need to understand
any possible pre-conceptions they may have so you can overcome
them if necessary. For example, many Chinese people base their
knowledge of London on the Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist – except
there it’s called, “The Orphan from the Foggy City”.
So before you can even start to sell to them you might have to
make sure they know we do have a summer – sometimes!
Many
of the concierges in London’s top 4*/5* hotels are
at liberty to choose which products they promote to hotel guests.
One way of making contact with them is through the Society of Golden
Keys
One
of the most frequently targeted groups are “empty nesters” but
what about other markets that sometimes get ignored? Children are
quite literally a growing market and their pester power is pretty
strong so there’s an opportunity to influence affluent parents
at the same time. But you need to take a completely different approach
to them and demonstrate you understand their needs. Specialist
companies like www.b3online.com can help you – they produce
in-flight and on-board trains for companies such as Virgin.
These
are just a few of the many points raised at the meeting. Most
of the ideas
discussed were too in-depth to describe here – just
make sure you make it to the next Tourism Network Meeting!
Susan Briggs
susan@tourismnetwork.org
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