Arival 360 | San Diego (2024) was full of knowledgeable front runners in the tourism industry, sharing their expertise. Here are our top 4 takeaways that will keep your tours and marketing relevant in 2025 and beyond.
1. Lean Into the Shifts in Search and Awareness Marketing
Search marketing is shifting and it’s crucial to lean into the changes. In The Future of Search and Awareness Marketing, Nate Andrew, Managing Director at Blend, focused on how the future of search is social, zero-click, longtail, and paid.
Social
As travelers are becoming more spontaneous, they are looking to social platforms like TikTok and Instagram as search engines rather than Google. This means having a strong, consistent presence on social matters more than ever. Creating this presence can include staying active on your business profiles and utilizing other content creators to promote and experience your brand, and more.
Zero Click
Through Google Things To Do, AI Overviews, and other tools, people are finding the answers they are looking for without any need to click. As these tools begin to do the research for them, it is more important than ever to optimize your brand’s search engine results for answers first, utilize Google Things To Do, and optimize for generative AI.
Longtail
Future travelers are starting to use more specific, longer searches to find the answers they are looking for, meaning that curating blog content can be a game changer for getting top-of-funnel customers onto your site.
Paid
Paid search continues to dominate the platforms and isn’t going anywhere. Branded advertising, Google Things To Do, and other forms of paid advertising will continue to be necessary tools for success.
The Takeaway: Get to know how your customers are finding your business and make sure your brand has a strong presence on those platforms.
2. Lead With Intention Behind Every Detail
When you put thought behind every detail, you don’t need a huge budget or large-scale production to create an impactful guest experience. Caroline Boone, Executive Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering emphasized this point in her session From Transactional to Transformational: Re-imagining Experiences.
Caroline demonstrated that the true value comes from the thought you put behind each detail, not the dollar amount. The power comes from your ability to walk through the customer experience, anticipating their needs before they are even aware.
Examples for a Tour Operator
- If your check-in area isn’t obvious or the beginning of your tour takes place through a hallway, around the corner, etc., putting footprints, arrows, or signage to give your guests complete certainty on where they need to go is one step to creating a seamless customer experience.
- If your tour limits guest’s access to water, consider distributing water before, during, or after the tour.
- Provide a photo opportunity that represents your experience without interrupting the tour. Doing this protects the flow of the tour, allowing them to be fully immersed in the experience, while also thinking about their desire to capture and remember their time with you through a great photo op.
When you focus on how the details of your experience impact your customers, they will feel the difference between you and other brands. Your experience will resonate with them, leaving a lasting impression, and creating loyalty to your business.
The formal process here is called customer journey mapping, but you can start with an informal process. Walk through a customer’s entire experience, and look for those little friction points to fix, or new opportunities to delight customers.
The Takeaway: Get specific with your attention to detail, catering your experience for your customer.
3. Consider The Needs of Corporate Groups
Those with a well-suited product could find big opportunities within the corporate group segment. During his session, Joe Martin from UpLevel Tourism discussed how more companies are looking for ways to get their team together to connect, and many tour operators have the perfect solution. These groups also offer a larger lifetime value in a local market, which is often overlooked with so many focused on the tourist market.
Create a Product For Corporate Groups
Martin emphasized that operators shouldn’t sell a tour to a corporate group; they should sell a corporate experience. Corporate events are often full of coworkers coming off of a day of meetings, who may not have the capacity for the usual tour script. For example, if your tour is usually full of historical information about the area, this content may not cater well to a corporate group after a long day. Consider modifications to your experience like more time for socialization and intentional team bonding.
Make it Easy to Plan
Those designing an experience for this audience should consider ways to make the process easy for the planner. A lot of choices and customization are not always of higher value. Ultimately, your guests are looking for your expertise.
Another tip – To maximize the lifetime value of this market, make sure you have a pipeline to connect with groups that have booked with you in the past!
An Example: The Forge
The Forge, an adventure park in Illinois, has created three group packages specifically designed for corporate events. Keeping their audience in mind, they have left room to be social and explore while also considering needs like food, space to meet, etc. With three different options for each group size, planning is made easy, with slight customization available for straightforward packages.
The Takeaway: To successfully market to corporate groups, you need to modify your product and make it easy to plan.
4. Make a Positive Impact With Your Brand
One of the main points in Dara Mihaly’s session, Designing Tours for Tomorrow’s Travelers, was the importance of having a mission behind your brand. Customers are looking for brands that strive to make a positive impact, especially when it comes to sustainability. In 2022, Skift reported that “90% of consumers look for sustainable options when they travel.”
An Example: Skyline Hawaii
If there is a local or global mission you’re passionate about, structure your business around serving that cause. For example, Skyline Hawaii, offering zipline tours and national park tours on Maui, created their business out of their heart for conservation. They have worked towards protecting Hawaii’s environment by planting trees, hosting community events for reforestation and ocean cleanup, and donating to nonprofits that support their cause. Their website and their tours showcase this content.
Where to Start
You may not have built your business on a social cause, but it’s never too late to make an impact. Donating to or partnering with local organizations is a great place to start. Building relationships with organizations can also have other benefits, such as opening your company up to a new audience. Most importantly, choose a cause that is in line with your brand values, making your choice authentic to your business.
The Takeaway: Consider whether there’s a cause your company can/should support, to make a positive community impact.
As the industry shifts, leaning into these changes is key to building a business that will pass the test of time.
