360DigitalInfluence

I love free things, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Last week, I saw a free theater performance in Chicago, got a certificate for a free haircut from the salon in our building, ate two free muffins from a local restaurant and a got a free burrito from Chipotle. Free is very satisfying – it makes you feel like you won something – even if it’s something small.

In the travel industry, now is probably the best time ever for incentives encouraging people to travel…discounts are almost necessary these days to get business, and free things are everywhere you look. The travel industry is doing everything it can right now to get people to spend money, and one of the most prominent ways is FREE STUFF.

Hotels across the country (and across the world!) are throwing in extras like free breakfasts, free nights, free side trips to area attractions and more. For example, the Joie de Vivre hotels in California are offering a third night free, hotels in Vegas are offering extras like passes to shows and VIP admission and the Rosewood Mayakobá in Playa Del Carmen even offers a free shot of tequila along with a free night.

There is a method to this madness, though. Extra days spent at the hotel not only mean travelers are more likely to book their vacation today, but also ensure more money spent at the hotel restaurant and local attractions, thereby benefiting the entire community.

Extras like free drinks at the hotel bar and free valet parking can upgrade a normal vacation to something a little more special – at no cost, and make travelers feel like they got something for nothing.

Does the “free” tactic work for you? And would it provide that extra incentive to make you book a vacation today, if you were hesitating…? In an industry of bargains, how do travel providers stand out above the rest of the deals?

The seventh annual Fall Travel Trends Survey conducted by Travel Leaders was released this week. The survey was conducted with information from 452 Travel leaders agents, managers and owners from August 4-28.

So what are the favorite destinations for fall? Las Vegas and Caribbean cruising – again. They are continuously ranked number one in the survey and this year is no different. They are warm (something us northern dwellers look for in fall vacations), fairly easy to get to, provide a myriad of things to do for people from every walk of life, and have a seemingly endless supply of rooms that are discounted this year like you would never believe. New York knocked the revolving Hawaiian destinations off their #3 spot as travelers look to take advantage of the Big Apple’s rock bottom prices, which are certainly not going to be around forever.

Other good news to come from the survey is that many more Travel Leaders are more optimistic about their business then they were last year and there is even speculation from Piper Jaffray at Citibank the travel industry may have already bottomed out. Nearly 60% of Travel Leader respondents were optimistic about their business in the upcoming year. Maybe because, according to Christopher Elliott, 2010 is supposed to be the year of travel deals .

What are leisure travelers doing to take full advantage of the good deals? According to the survey they are staying at all-inclusives (69.9 percent), using frequent-flyer miles (64.1 percent), being flexible with dates (62 percent), booking only if there is a promotion/deal (54.9 percent), shortening trips or vacations (traveling fewer days) (51.5 percent). With all the fun things to do and see out there and the amazing prices things are being offered at, it’s worth shopping around, and then taking advantage, of the best deals.

Most of my work in communications involves policy advocacy for global health and  development issues. Last week, I served on a panel at the Corporate Council on Africa’s bi-annual conference in Washington. The subject of the session was how to reposition Africa as a tourist destination.

At first glance, tourism and development  might seem to have little in common. But nothing could be further from the truth. For many African countries, tourism provides a major source of foreign exchange and foreign direct investment, and it is a major money earner in the “formal sector” (i.e., the sector of the economy that provides wage employment, is “on the books,” and generates tax revenues that can fund development).

The challenge is that Africa currently earns very little from tourism relative to other world regions.  (Go to the web sites of the UN’s World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council for more information.) While some African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa enjoy significant proceeds from tourism, the scale of their revenues just doesn’t compare to destinations in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America.

How can African countries turn this around? I think the solution requires a mixture of tried-and-true approaches to destination marketing, as well as a  disciplined approach to: (1) recruiting a broader array of brand ambassadors, and (2) getting the bulk of African news off the front page. (More on that second, seemingly counterintuitive, point below.)

The tried-and-true approach includes a combination of proactive marketing and reactive crisis communications.  This means that African national tourism boards still need to invest in marketing their countries via multiple media channels, trade shows, and events, but they also need to develop effective crisis communications plans that empower brand managers to respond to crises when they arise and take steps to reassure the public and the tourism industry.

In regard to recruiting a broader array of brand ambassadors, I believe that there are four key markets to engage.  First, there are high-net-worth Americans, Europeans, and Asians who are looking for the vacation of a lifetime.  The African tourism sector can target this group with vacation packages that highlight the five-star quality of many African vacations and the unique qualities of a holiday in the Serengeti, or Kruger, or by the boiling waters of Victoria Falls.

Second, African tourism boards can target what I will call - for lack of a better expression - the “backpacker set.”  These are the twenty-something experiential tourists, the returned Peace Corps Volunteers, the American and European university students who pick Ghana or South Africa for their semester abroad, and medical and nursing students who want to practice their professions in communities that need access to primary health care.

If we can target this set when they are young - using the social media channels that are their most credible source of information - we can convert them to the cause and create lifetime brand ambassadors.  This younger set can also sing the praises of destinations that are stilll off the beaten track for high-net-worth tourists - like the beautiful hillsides overlooking the Zambezi inland delta in Mongu, Zambia or the rugged shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.

A third critical target audience are African Americans who are seeking to reconnect to their heritage.  The west African tourist industry in particular can benefit by working with African American destination marketers to create tourism packages that highlight 500 years of cultural connection between west Africa and the Americas.

A fourth target audience is the sizable population of first- and second-generation African immigrants to America who maintain strong connections to their countries of origin and can broaden the conversation about Africa beyond landmarks, flora, and fauna to contemporary conversations about music, food, fabrics, and art.

This brings me to my counterintutive observation.  People who think about Africa’s image in the world often say that Africa never makes front page news unless the story relates to war, disease, hunger, or hardship.  While this statement oversimplifies matters (and is a definite reflection of the specific tone and focus of media coverage in the U.S., UK, and Germany), it also bears real elements of truth.

I believe that we need to change the image of Africa by investing in a rebranding process that features more stories - stories that appear in the Food Section, the Business Section, the Style Section, and, yes, the Travel Page.  We need to start telling new stories - based on credible facts - about Africa’s economic growth over the past decade, about Africa’s unrivalled biodiversity, about Africa’s potential leadership in the production of organic foods and materials, about Africa’s diverse cuisine and innovative music scenes (in Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya).

Telling new and surprising stories is key to repositioning Africa as something other than front-page tragedy.  Front pages are normally reserved for crises, wherever they happen, and it’s time to get the bulk of African news off the front page.

World Travel Market – the colossal b2b travel trade event held each year in London’s Docklands- and I will both be celebrating our 30^th birthdays this November, so I thought that it was time I expressed my long-held secret love for the show that costs me my sanity every year.

There’s plenty of reasons for the British travel PR to hate November – not seeing daylight for four entire days, existing on a Morgan Spurlock-style diet of pastries, realising your client is half a mile away from the waiting journalist who you have BEGGED and compromised yourself in five different ways for an interview, I could go on, but I’ve still got to admit that I really quite love WTM week and there’s two main reasons for that:

Firstly, it’s a bit like Ready…Steady…PR! A little holiday from all that strategising, taking the long view, etc. You’ve got a tiny bit of budget, about 3 working days, an eye-watering level of competition from every other travel PR in London but your client is only here for 2 days so it’s well worth pulling something impressive out of the bag. My number one career highlight happened at WTM: back in 2007 I was in the mobile radio studio with Carlos Alberto, captain of Brazil’s 1970 World Cup-winning team. Slightly demented with caffeine, I found myself shedding a little tear as he described the team effort that went into one of the world’s all time greatest goals. It’s not often that you get to sit in a 3ft-wide caravan with a legend.

Secondly, it’s the age-old desire of human beings to get together in one place, have a drink and dish the dirt. Maybe I’m a bit sad, but WTM is one of the few weeks in my year when I’m greeted by more than one person who I know but haven’t seen for a while. Just like the early Britons embraced Christmas because there was already a Pagan celebration to break up the winter misery a bit, no matter how much the travel trade socialises and sells online, I reckon WTM will always be a relevant focal point of the year. Anyone else feel the same? What’s the US version of WTM like?

Luxury travel in the 1980’s was all about materialism - where did you holiday? How expensive was it and what famous faces had been there before you?

In the 90s materialism - the number of restaurants in the hotel and how you demonstrated your wealth - in the lounge bar or in the casion - were still examples of holiday success.
 
As we reach 2010, luxury travellers still want the finest things in life and spending is definitely still in, despite the financial crisis but it is being shown in a more discreet and conservative fashion.

Consumers may still want to spend thousands of dollars on their holiday but, its less crass, mass market stampede and more private, understated niche.

New global research by TNS has shown consumers today are redefining luxury - it is now about your holiday experience and how this meets your emotional needs rather than the product or physical offering.

Some Australian experts are terming today’s approach to travel - luxury prudence - rather than middling mass-stige.

lebua Hotels & Resorts’ luxury Lake Okareka Lodge, is tapping into this new customer trend.

The award-winning Lodge in Rotorua, New Zealand attracts high rollers from Europe, Asia and North Amercia and offers a bespoke, unique experience. Guests can enjoy a 24-hour butler and concierge service and relax in an environment which evokes timeless classicism. It is proving to be very popular.
 
The question will be - is this new luxury phenomenon a product of our global financial crisis or will this be the norm for many years to come? Only the success of those businesses which are focusing on this new breed of luxury customers will tell.

 With the summer travel season quickly coming to an end, I’m leaving this weekend for my second camping trip of the summer. The constant news this summer about “staycations” (one of the very worst combination words ever) and how the recession is affecting travel made me curious if camping was included in the budget-friendly vacation trends of the summer. It seems like the obvious fit – there are campgrounds within a 50-mile radius of nearly everywhere – and camping is an extremely affordable method of travel. If you have a tent, a blanket and a cooler to store your hot dogs and beer, you’re basically set. You can even camp in the back of a truck, or under a tarp! With a flashlight to find the bathroom in the night and some bug spray, you’re completely packed. And what better way to relax than set yourself down in a woods, with nothing to do besides hike or read a book, listening to the sound of the crickets?

So, was camping a trend this summer? Yes, but not as big as one might think. Most budget-friendly vacation guides promote cheap flights and hotels to travelers instead of the great outdoors. Of course, there are tons of articles about the Obamas visiting the Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, but I’m willing to bet they were sleeping in the best lodges there. There were special promotions at some of the national parks for reduced entry fees and even a free weekend, but nothing specifically related to camping. But most surprising, an article in last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about a new micro trend – “glamping.” (This is a word that makes staycation look almost poetic. Glamping?)

That’s right, glamorous camping… Defined as an “updated and upscale” visit to the outdoors, glampers may go places like “wilderness resorts,” equip their $100,000 RVs with satellite dishes, flat panel TVs, waterbeds and a traveling chef to make their outdoor experience more comfortable. To me, this sounds like a good way to make camping a lot more difficult and ruin the simplicity of this American pastime.

If the economy continues to be poor through next summer, promoting camping seems like the obvious way to bring tourist dollars back into a state. Instead of marketing cheap flights and cheap hotels, why not bring back a more basic form of travel? Call it what you will, camping has been around for ages, and now seems like a great time to celebrate it.

If money is tight, do you still prefer a resort, or would you consider camping a fun, low-cost, back-to-basics trip? Let me know – I’ll be in the woods, making s’mores.

How many times have you arrived at your hotel to find that you didn’t need to squeeze all those bathroom essentials into your luggage after all as everything that you need is already provided by your hotel.  Or, have you relied on your hotel to provide a good selection of grooming products only to find that something significant is not supplied?

With the rise of cheap flights and the need to keep costs down by just taking carry-on luggage, many of us spend a long time considering which bathroom items we will take to fit within the 10 x 100ml fluid allowance.

What if you knew exactly what you were going to find in your hotel bathroom before you left home?  Problem is, you never can predict what you are going to find; there simply seems to be no logic.  Sometimes the most desirable four star hotel in Italy might not provide body lotion or hair conditioner, whereas a bargain 40 Euros a night Spanish hotel might provide enough items to make you not want to leave your hotel bathroom at all.

What if there was a website which held exactly this kind of information?  Content could be posted by both consumers and hoteliers stating what to expect when you visit.  Comments can be made on the standard of toiletries (Ritz Carlton, Santiago Chile – more top quality Bulgari toiletries than you can imagine) and how often they are replenished (Hotel Scribe, Paris - three times a day). 

This site would be great for hoteliers; they could see how they fare against their competitors and guests would be happier as they’ve enabled them to be more clued up about the facilities before travel.

Maybe this site already exists.  If it does please do let me know!  If not, perhaps I’ve found something to do with my evenings.

In today’s economy hotels and resorts have to come up with clever ways to get your attention and differentiate themselves from the competition. That is just what the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Francisco is trying to do. Traditionally a luxury resort with three beautiful pools, an upscale spa, and a golf course where an overnight stay can easily run you over $200.00 a night, The San Bernardo is offering it all to you for $19.00 a night.

In a brilliant, or not-so-brilliant, marketing move, the Rancho Bernardo has just introduced a ‘Survivor Package’ where customers can whittle their room amenities down to nothing. For the deepest discount, $19.00 a night, you not only forgo breakfast but air conditioning, power, TV, pillows, sheets and a bed - all the luxuries of staying in a hotel. The staff will kindly pitch a tent for you in the middle of your dark, bed-less, towel-less, air-conditioning-less room.

While I like the idea of a-la-carting hotel amenities, do you think this goes too far or is this a brilliant way to differentiate themselves from their competition?

The New York Times had an interesting article today about Ryanair’s innovative way to save money – charging customers to use the on-board restrooms.

This is not the first out-of-the-box idea to come from Ryanair. In addition to coming up with ‘new ideas’ their CEO, Michael O’leary, is also known for making insensitive and aggressive public statements that would make many brand managers cringe. He has come up with several cost saving, some say crazy, ideas in the last year. In addition to removing restrooms and making them pay-per-use, O’Leary has suggested making a sizeable portion of the plane available for stand-up ‘seating’ to save space. Another idea O’leary has considered is making passengers responsible for hauling their own ‘checked luggage’ to the plane. I think I like this one though as it would ensure that you never have a bag misplaced on the wrong flight.

What makes Ryanair a successful airline in recessionary times? That’s an easy one - Ryanair has been successful because they have some of the cheapest flights around. They might not have a customer service department, a complaint department or much compassion, but  I lived in Europe for three years and bought several roundtrip tickets on Ryanair for less than €30 or €40 – you can’t beat that. They might not fly into every major city or airport in Europe, but for .99€  each way plus taxes it can definitely be worth it.

What makes O’leary the most successful businessman in Ireland despite his crass humor and outrageous public statements on behalf of his company’s brand? And how have they not fired him for this press conference?

It all comes down to Ryanairs brand promise. Ryanair does not promise to be the cleanest airline in Europe, they don’t claim to have comfortable seats, they do not claim to have the nicest flight attendants, the best food or even a customer service department - seriously, there is no customer service department.  However, what they do promise are insanely cheap flights with a pretty decent on-time record, few canceled flights and very few lost bags – period.  As a customer, anything you receive above and beyond this should be considered a luxury. Maybe you should even consider sending a thank-you note afterwards.

Ryanair is a good example of how a brand, which according to The Economist, “has become a byword for appalling customer service, misleading advertising claims and jeering rudeness towards anyone or anything that gets in its way” can still maintain a loyal customer base by managing the expectations of their customers and their brand. They do not pretend to promise much and for that they can be successful at offering very little.

What does your brand promise and are you living up to that promise?

Can you name the original Seven Wonders of the World? How about the Seven Wonders of the Natural World? There are many versions of this list (USA TODAY even has their own version!), but to put a new spin on it, a Swiss filmmaker and entrepreneur named Bernard Weber started the New 7 Wonders campaign “with the aim of promoting cultural diversity and preserving natural sites.”

From a marketing perspective, this seems like a great way to place these natural destinations in the news. And, if it’s not a place that is regularly included in travel articles, an interesting way to get consumers involved with the location and make it relevant.

Currently there are 28 finalists for the “New 7 Wonders of the Natural World”, chosen by a panel of experts, and voting is now open to the public! Click here to choose your favorites.

So, what’s it gonna be? The Maldives or the Mud Volcanoes?

Mud Volcanoes