Weekly stories curated exclusively for digital tourism marketers
A great resource comes from our friends at CrowdRiff. They’re publishing a “curated stream of content to equip you with the insights and knowledge of what other travel and tourism brands are doing to effectively respond to this current pandemic.”
Community matters! Catch up with the growing stream of information being shared and submit your own here.
A roundup of such incredible resources from our eTourism Community.
Help yourself to real data gathered by experts to feel confident in your decision-making.
Please let us know if there are other resources to be added.
U.S. Travel Association — The go-to place for COVID-19 CARES Act Relief Resources. “The CARES Act, the largest economic relief package in our nation’s history, was signed into law on March 27 and includes major provisions U.S. Travel fought for to deliver economic support to travel businesses, travel workers and their families.” Also online, an 11-page PDF with more information: “The Small Business Owners Guide to the CARES Act.”
Also from U.S. Travel Association: “We are proud to work in cooperation with MMGY Travel Intelligence on a new bi-weekly survey tracking U.S. business and leisure traveler sentiment in the months ahead. Initial results will be shared next week.”
For more information, visit the MMGY Global “COVID-19 Research, Insights, & Resources” hub where the company’s information is gathered.
Also from MMGY Travel Intelligence — In association with Destinations International Foundation, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Destination Management Organizations in North America” (click for the link) was published on March 23. This is the second of a multi-wave study that notes,”…went from a sense of uncertainty to a strong expectation of extreme impact over the next 6 months. Since last week, the percentage of destinations reporting coronavirus-related postponements and/or cancellations of conferences, meetings, or events surged from under 40% to almost 100%. Although only 30% of destination organizations have their own pandemic emergency plan, they continue to play an important role in reassuring the traveling public.”
Also from Destinations International — Wednesday, April 1 at 11:30 a.m. ET is another weekly “Coronavirus Industry Update Webinar” (click to register). Past webinar content and a link to future webinars are found here. This week’s update focuses on how destination organizations are creating value right now in their communities. This week’s panelists:
Longwoods International — “COVID-19 American Traveler Sentiment Survey,” Wave 3 fielded March 25-26 has been released. An easy-to-digest presentation with week-over-week comparisons, Amir Eylon, President & CEO, says the weekly research report “…indicates that the decline continues but the rate of decline in key sentiment factors has slowed. Potential silver lining: almost 3/4 of traveling Americans still are indicating they will travel in the next six months, suggesting the large volume of pent up demand…” Miles Partnership says, “We’re proud to support Longwoods International as they share the latest findings…” The survey covers 1,000 traveling Americans each week and the most recent highlights from the data are published every Tuesday morning. Longwoods’ news release summary of the findings is found here.
Destination Analysts — Update on “Coronavirus’ Impact on American Travel” for the week of March 30 is released. Among the data-rich findings, DA also asked American travelers how they feel about travel at the moment, expressed in one word, as seen in this word cloud.
Simpleview — For a step-by-step tutorial on how to add or update your CMS pages to display updated listings (open for business; temporarily closed; takeout available; delivery available), see the recent webinar, New Business Continuity Amenities in CRM. For a more in-depth look at how to build COVID-19 landing pages for your destination, register for an upcoming webinar on Friday, April 3.
You can also watch “Marketing in Times of Uncertainty” (13 minutes) with Jason Swick, VP of Digital Marketing and Digital Marketing Strategist, Katie Cook.
Skift — “Coronavirus and the Travel Industry” is a continually updated blog from the editorial team with the latest industry news for staying on top of things, also with pages for the airline, cruise and hospitality sectors.
Madden Media — “Protect. Plan. Recover.” is written for DMOs during their transition from destination marketing organizations to destination management organizations, it’s a “framework to provide you and your partners with a helpful guide to thinking about not just short-term actions, but preparing and planning for the recovery of your marketing efforts for your destination.”
Entrada Insights — “Five Recommendations for Leading Through a Crisis” suggests, “While medical experts race to understand more about the public health implications, as the leader of a DMO, you are left to manage your stakeholders who are looking for answers on how to protect their businesses, adjust their operations, and lead their employees through an uncertain period. Here are five things DMO leaders can do…”
Sparkloft Media — Providing a free Weekly Coronavirus Sentiment Report as a means of helping everyone better understand what consumers are thinking. A new format expands the section of Sparkloft’s recommendations on what marketers should be doing based on the most recent data plus an indication of where they think things will be going. To get the weekly report, use the form found here.
Break the Ice Media — A virtual tourism conference, Destination on the Left, takes place throughout April. Registration is free, and the topics of 12 presentations are themed around digital marketing, travel trade marketing and niche marketing. Among the presenters are speakers from Destination Innovate, ADARA, Family Travel Association, World Food Travel Association and others. Some topics will address the current outbreak, while others offer evergreen marketing advice.
Breaking News: Pure Michigan budget vetoed once again by the governor in anticipation of state budget hit die to COVID-19.
We are all building the plane as it’s flying and two of the passengers are named ‘risk’ and ‘uncertainty.’ But the other passenger is called ‘recovery.’
Whether you’re adapting objectives, creating new messaging, providing different kinds of content or something else, this community wants to hear about your insights, realizations and fun ideas for engagement that hits the right notes. We will share your contributions for as long as you find them helpful, useful and hopeful.
After all, “innovation” and “sharing” is how digital destination marketing got born as eTourism Summit in 2000. This crazy moment is an opportunity for creativity and for building relationships.
Related: “Steal This Idea: DMO Tips in the Age of COVID-19“
A shout-out for all these innovative contributions. Do keep the terrific ideation coming so we can share more in Part III.
Color Your Springfield — Kids are home from school. “Springfield (Missouri) CVB Coloring Contest Aims to Alleviate Boredom” was picked up by the local news on OzarksIndependent.com. Print a picture from this page, color it and share via email or on social media tagged @lovespringfield. Visit Springfield says participants can win passes to Dickerson Park Zoo.
Threshold 360 — Publishes a rolling open call to creators, “We’re looking for photographers all over the country to join our network and help us continue to showcase the best spots that each city has to offer.” And, they’ve curated a list of platforms where creatives can find freelance work.
@OnlyinSF (SF Travel Association) — “What does San Francisco look like through your window? Inspired by our friends all over the world like @parisjetaime and @discoverla, show us SF through your window. Since you’ll be staying home through the end of April, use #SFThroughMyWindow or #SFFromMyWindow and we’ll share some of our favorites.” (photo @335kai #AlwaysSF)
Discover Puerto Rico — How about a night in with tropical cocktails, a candlelit dinner and salsa dancing? Bring island culture into your living room and benefit from lessons by local experts. ¡Que buena idea!
@VisitABQ — Via the hashtag #TrueABQ, Visit Albuquerque is sharing Acts of Kindness like this one: “Historic Old Town shop owners start up ‘Cat Care Committee’ to ensure that the neighborhood’s feral cat community is fed during closures.” And another, “More #TrueABQ acts of kindness arise as @oniellspub donates healthy snack trays to local first responders and nurses. Thank you.”
Visit Loudoun — Calling for support of the Loudoun Tourism & Hospitality Relief Fund and explaining how it works via an FAQ landing page on their website.
Visit Beaufort — The DMO has created virtual meeting backgrounds of some of Beaufort, Port Royal & Sea Island’s favorite spots and instructions for how to use these during Zoom conference calls.
Experience Columbus — Building out a content hub for showcasing relevant information on partner resources and how the community can help local businesses.
Another excellent installment comes from Adam Johnson at Adara, “Around the Midwest – Travel Recap.” Adam continues to find initiatives from DMOs across the nation, not only in the Midwest. And, he introduces the roundup with a link to a timely Simon Sinek video, “Let’s Reinvent,” (“…because these are not unprecedented times…”) that has been recommended by Josh Collins at Streetsense.
Care to see more examples? CrowdRiff is sharing its roundup, “How DMOs are Reacting to COVID-19” outlining initiatives in North America and beyond.
Don’t miss the outstanding effort from Visit Indy, selling t-shirts with the proceeds going to hospitality workers and artists. Update: Over $7k later, they’re now sold out.
“Right now, Chinese travel sentiment is positive, but there’s few places for them to go.” – Matt Grayson, President, Dragon Trail Interactive
There are lessons to be learned from the past few months in China that can help the travel and tourism industry weather the storm. Understanding which demographics are going to travel first, and how the crisis has changed travel plans and priorities, is key to marketing during the recovery period.
Two months after the coronavirus outbreak brought Chinese travel to a halt, that country is finally starting to return to normal. But, China’s recovery comes in a changing world—Chinese travelers did not take trips that were planned for Q1 and still cannot travel internationally, certainly not to the US.
Further comments from Matt regarding the report:
“For me, I think the key point is that…we asked travelers when will the crisis end…at the earliest and at the latest. The response was earliest in May, latest in June (you can see the monthly distributions). So there’s not a lot of disparity there. Also, it seems that family travel will be a priority afterward, with nature and self-driving leading the way. Those areas were already prominent in outbound traveler sentiment, but we’ll see that amplified when travel returns.”
Visit Dragon Trail Interactive for more insights and updates, including Weibo and WeChat weekly rankings.
“Here are some of the things we are doing as a destination marketing organization.” – Charles Harris, CMO, Visit Anaheim via LinkedIn
