Travel & Technology:
Redefining The
Visitor Experience
Five technology automations that visitors expect and cannot be ignored.
This story’s digest:
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Most DMOs update website business listings multiple times a week, and accuracy is a challenge
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Existing Content Management Systems don’t offer automated solutions and score low in user satisfaction
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Innovative solutions and automated web content are already available to solve the DMO’s current challenges
Advances in technology have changed the way we travel, and these new developments promise an even more interactive and exciting experience. Today, nobody doubts that technology and travel are the perfect combinations.
What can destinations offer visitors on their website – after all, this is where their journey starts – if visitors use new technology to begin their planning journey? For example, is a long page of business listings with an image as an afterthought the best we can do as destination marketers? Thanks to dynamic software and technology, the good news is that the answer is a resounding “No!”
Here is the hard truth: if site visitors do not find the information on the DMO website, they will leave and find the information they want on Google. How do we know that to be true? Ready for the brutal reality check? Take a moment to look at the audience engagement on your website using Google Analytics. How “sticky” is your site? What is the User Journey through your web pages?
What are the Five Technology Automations that visitors expect and cannot be ignored?
1. Events Calendar
A powerful and up-to-date Events Calendar is key. Buy a ticket online, share the event, open GPS directions and view the Google Reviews of the venue, as well as get excited to see other upcoming events.
2. Accurate Business Listings
Yep, it is true. But unfortunately, depending on business partners and staff to update listings is not realistic. Integration with the Google API allows you to incorporate all the information travelers want. Reviews, images, Nearby Places, hours of operation, and GPS directions. If your website does not offer this information… Google does, and so do all search engines. Claim those visitors!
3. Interactive Suggested Itineraries
GPS-enabled experience ideas created according to interest and showcasing destination tourism assets are the name of the game. Word documents with “day one, day two” travel ideas did not work then and most certainly are not working now.
Instead, offer shareable suggestions and actionable points of interest to influence visitors to come back often.
4. Trip Planner
Group Planners and Visitor Center staff LOVE the flexibility to create a custom trip with a click of the mouse to organize points of interest. And yes, of course, it is GPS-enabled. Preview it and build your own trip.
5. Instagram UGC
Help tell the destination story with Instagram libraries. Although this strategy and software have been around for a number of years, it is still an effective way to communicate the energy a diversity the tourism destination has to offer.
“The optimal website strategy uses a combination of DXP content (to maintain up-to-date place data, event listings, and UGC) and CMS content (like blogs, welcome pages, and contact information).”
The industry is amid a profound metamorphosis. Of course, there are many mitigating factors, but the new technological solutions are some of the main actors.
Tourism Marketing is a world economy. Eurecat Tourism Innovation Department Director Salvador Anton Clavé commented during the Forum TurisTIC de Barcelona that “the change goes beyond improving processes or the tourist experience; it entails transforming the tourism system itself.”
Ready to take the next step?
Schedule a consultation with us to review our suite of automated solutions for DMOs. Our products will enable you to deliver destination content efficiently and affordably, without rebuilding your website.