Étiquette : social network

Successful events now rely on getting the participants involved

Auteur de l’article Par Chantal Neault
Date de l’article 9 février 2017
Aucun commentaire sur Successful events now rely on getting the participants involved

The Tourism Intelligence Network was asked to give a workshop at the Salon de L’Organisateur, put on as part of the SATQ-FEQ conference on Quebec festivals, events and tourist attractions, held November 8, 2016. The workshop title was Rethinking Your Business Meetings (Réinventez vos réunions d’affaires). The information below was presented in the section on delegate engagement.

Actively engage with your participants

Getting participants involved in your event means actively engaging with them. Today’s delegates are no longer interested in one-way communication; they want to share their ideas rather than listen passively, so you need to start thinking about them as active participants rather than passive spectators. Ideally, events should offer 10- to 15-minute mini-conferences and small group sessions, both of which are conducive to knowledge and skills sharing. These should be interspersed with group work to help the audience stay focussed. Physical activity not only improves participants’ health and well-being, it can also enhance learning, help people clarify their goals, stay awake, connect with other participants, and simply have fun.

Source : EMEC

Engage with them on social networks

Prior to the event, use social media to announce or solicit participant feedback on the line-up of events, sell advance tickets, and give special discounts or rewards.

Create a hashtag

Choose a hashtag and get the word out to your participants. It should be short, relevant and available (i.e., make sure it is not already being used). Share it on your social networks and encourage your participants to use it when posting photos on Instagram or tweeting on Twitter. You can also help them share information with a “Tweet this” link or button. Frontwall – which includes all the photos, comments, shares, etc. using the same hashtag from all social networks – is your new best friend, as it will generate and maintain excitement about your meeting or event. Remember to use your influencers before, during and even after the event. Ask them to use your hashtag on their own networks to provide your event with additional visibility.

Source: Successful Meetings

Say it with games

Why not encourage your participants to connect with you on social networks through games?

Once you have established your event’s purpose, decide how a game could help you achieve it. If your event is a trade show, you could organize a scavenger hunt and ask participants to share their discoveries on Instagram or Twitter. Or, how about a quiz? Participants can collect stamps by correctly answering questions about the exhibitors; the person with the most stamps wins!

Another winning strategy is to hold a photo contest as part of your networking event, where the person who takes a group selfie with the most people wins a prize. This is a terrific ice-breaker and will create great memories for all involved. Yet another way to get them talking to each other is by rewarding the participant who collects the most business cards. The possibilities of gamification are endless.

Say it with technology

New technologies can even promote interactions between people who don’t attend your event. There are many possible ways to do this, including RFID technology, mobile applications or live streaming on platforms such as YouTube, Livestream or Ustream.

RFID bracelets, such as those from Connect&Go, enable participants to share their experiences, live, with other participants, their colleagues or even their friends on social media. For example, the Just for Laughs Festival recently introduced on-site photo booths and mobile cameras, where users could use RFID technology to digitally record their experiences, share them on social media and enter them in contests and challenges in order to win prizes. On-site photo booths and recording stations, as well websites and mobile apps, are all SMS-enabled.

Source: YouTube

When conference participant badges incorporate RFID technology, organizers can gather real-time data such as:

participant information: contact details, interests, career path or any other personal information that is in the public domain;
participant movement within the conference venue: what rooms are visited and how much time is spent in each room, etc.

RFID technology enables participants to:

exchange virtual business cards;
get in touch via text message;
create a list of everyone they met.

Mobile applications are also useful ways for participants to meet and talk. The market is currently flooded with apps that aim to maximize your networking results. One of them is Ties, an app that has been tested in events of 100 to 200 people. People sign up with their LinkedIn account, add the events they are interested in attending to their profile, and specify whom they would like to meet. Once at the event, they can get in touch via text messaging.

In closing, remember this: reducing the number of programmed events and creating space for conversation is a sure-fire way to generate engagement.

Source de l’image à la une: Pixabay

Étiquettes business, events, good practices, social network, technological tools

Marketing @en

Instagram: from Promotion to Monetization

Auteur de l’article Par Amélie Racine
Date de l’article 20 décembre 2016
Aucun commentaire sur Instagram: from Promotion to Monetization

In 2015, Forrester Consulting proclaimed Instagram the King of Social Engagement. The reason for this is simple: the average Instagram engagement rate for top brands was 58 times higher than on Facebook, and 120 times higher than on Twitter. Since it first launched in 2010, its popularity has grown steadily and its user base in undeniably loyal: of the app’s 500 million users, 300 million use it every day.

Content marketing that promotes engagement

On Instagram, as on many other social media platforms, there are several steps involved in getting users to purchase the desired product. One of those steps is creating visual content that is sufficiently attractive to create engagement, such as a comment, regram, or Like.

Here are five tips you can use to boost the performance of your Instagram account:

Resolve all the technical issues: put a URL in your bio that takes followers to your website, or to a page specifically designed for your Instagram needs. Next, make sure this site is compatible with all mobile browsers. Identifying and using the right keywords is also crucial for conducting campaigns or contests, appearing in users’ search results, and categorizing content.

Find your style: Instagram is full of inspiring content, which means it is no longer enough to create quality content. Now, you have to provide a context for your content, and give it a style that fits with your corporate image. Use photos, video or Instagram stories to tell a story: storytelling is a great way to play on the reader’s emotions, present experiences and create wonder, and is worth so much more than a clearly ad-focussed message pushing a product or service.

Interact with your followers: respond to their comments and/or discuss their content, comment and Like their photos. Do likewise with your competitors’ followers. Many followers enjoy seeing their content “regrammed” so consider reposting, but remember to give credit to the original Instagrammer.

Work with influencers: there are many influential Instagrammers out there. The right partner(s) are the ones who share your brand’s values, have a large following and are aligned with your intended audience. The reason for partnering with an influencer is to target a specific community that would otherwise be difficult to reach.

Increase your visibility through advertising: Increasing your community organically requires a lot of time and energy. Running ad campaigns, possibly in partnership with an influencer, extends your brand’s reach.

The Call to Action

You’re posting inspiring images and spot-on accompanying descriptions that are aligned with your content strategy; great! But, don’t forget the call to action. If you want your followers to book a table at your restaurant, spring for a vacation package, or get in touch with you, you have to tell them so – and be specific! For example:

“Like what you see? Book now by clicking the link in the bio.”
“Want to enjoy this experience? Press Contact to check availability.”

Make It Easy to Buy

The whole point of marketing initiatives is to make a sale, right? In order to do so, the buying or booking process must be as hassle-free as possible. There are tools to make the online experience visually and technically flawless. In fact, Instagram will soon feature a Shop Now button, that lets users buy the products on their screen directly through the app. Until this new feature has been fully tested, here are two tools used in the hospitality industry:

Conrad Hotels & Resorts uses Curalate’s Like2Buy solution to direct its followers to a gallery hosted by Like@Buy. Followers simply click on the link in Conrad Hotels & Resorts Instagram bio to get to the gallery, where they can browse a wide range of tempting photos; clicking on any one of the images takes them to the chain’s reservation site. To encourage web surfers to click on the link, each picture description includes a call to action.

Source: Instagram

Tribute Portfolio, a collection of independent hotels and resorts from Starwood Hotels & Resorts, helps users book rooms at its Le Metropolitan and Le Dokhan’s hotels straight from their Instagram account with LIKEtoKNOW.it. When someone Likes one of the photos in the @tributeportfolio account with the #independentmoments and #liketkit hashtags, they receive an email with a link to the hotel’s website, where they can go to complete their reservation.

Source: Instagram

Be creative! Look at what your competitors are doing and get ideas from companies in different sectors. Instagram is the perfect social media platform for promoting travel. Do you feel more prepared now to use Instagram as a tool to market your business?

Étiquettes Instagram @en, Internet strategies, social network, viral marketing

Management Marketing @en

Creating an Effective Social Media Strategy

Auteur de l’article Par Amélie Racine
Date de l’article 4 avril 2016
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“Take the time.” This is probably the main reason most companies have not yet set up a strategic approach to their social media initiatives, even though the time they devote to it would be well rewarded. By doing so, your organization could have a more structured approach, undertake more targeted initiatives and achieve truly significant business objectives.

Here are some worthwhile steps, from two training sessions given at Campus Infopresse by Jean-Sébastien Giroux, Vice-President and Partner at Substance Stratégies.

How Active Are You?

Several companies are already somewhat active on a few social media platforms. Before going any further, let’s take a moment to assess your existing presence. Are you an active user? Are all your profiles up to date, in terms of visual elements, description, contact information, administrator privileges, etc.? What is your goal for each social media channel? Filling in the following table will help provide an overview of your current situation.

Now that you’ve got a clearer picture of your current level of activity, take another moment to ask yourself a few questions about other aspects of your social media presence, then make adjustments based on your answers. Some sample questions include:

Do your communities include your target audience?
Is your presence on every social media platform actually relevant?
What tactics have proven most effective in helping you reach your goals?

Set your goals and choose your tactics

Your goals are the reason for your social media presence, so bear them in mind when planning any activity on your various carefully chosen platforms.

Your goals are the reason for your social media presence, so bear them in mind when planning any activity on your various carefully chosen platforms. Be mindful of your company’s mission and vision when asking yourself: what do you want to accomplish through social media? It could be to:

Enhance your brand: showcase your corporate identity, become recognized in your field of expertise, humanize your company image, monitor its reputation;
Connect with your customers: provide customer service, share information, start a dialogue to find out your network’s opinion on a given topic, collect strategic information on their needs, preferences and expectations;
Gather competitive intelligence: learn about industry trends, find out what your competitors are up to, discover new approaches, stay on top of industry issues;
Develop your business: develop new channels for selling your products or services, advertise your product or service, inform your customers of promotions, improve your website conversion rate, find new partners, expand your customer base;
Recruit and network: identify new talent, promote your business to potential employees, run a recruitment campaign, network with industry professionals.

When identifying your goals, try to make them as specific, realistic and relevant as possible. This will help you measure your success in achieving them.

A strong knowledge of social media and of your target audience, choosing the right tactics also calls for creativity and a strategic mindset.

How do you intend to achieve the desired results? In addition to a strong knowledge of social media and of your target audience, choosing the right tactics also calls for creativity and a strategic mindset. Filling in the following table will help you develop an action plan.

How you measure your performance depends on the goals you have identified. Broadly speaking, you should be aware that there are a number of tools that document your social media activity, starting with those provided by social media platforms. Google Analytics and other free or paid resources can provide essential information about your activity. However, always remember the qualitative aspects, such as the quality of conversation with your audience or the value of information collected.

Producing, Recognizing and Posting Quality Content

Listening to your communities and observing how they interact on your pages can help you

Mastering social media means always posting content that is well-suited to the platform. Content segmentation makes your company’s presence on its chosen social platforms more relevant and means it is more likely to achieve its objectives. Listening to your communities and observing how they interact on your pages can help you identify influencers and intermediaries, define your editorial policy and how you will communicate with your audience, understand the expectations of your network and adapt your content to them in order to increase its reach.

Branding your image on social media demands creativity and quality content. Publicizing that content requires planning in order to reach the right audience at the right time. Many online community leaders deal with this challenge by setting up a detailed posting schedule that gives them an overview of the content to be published according to format (text, photo and video) and type (inspirational, educational, events, promotional, etc.). Table 3 matches each content type with a colour so you can easily visualize what to post, when, on what social media. Depending on the level of activity across the platforms, days can be broken down into hours.

Being present on social media means accepting that not all interactions can be planned, nor can all discussions be controlled. You must therefore allow for spontaneity, be prepared to moderate some conversations, establish a netiquette and have an emergency plan in place in case certain situations get out of hand. Developing a decision matrix ahead of time will help community managers decide what resources to call upon, and what decisions to make, in tricky situations.

Knowing the characteristics of each social media platform, creating value-added content that begs to be shared and reshared as a means of helping you achieve your own specific goals – this is an exciting challenge! Whether you manage your social media yourself or hire an expert to do it for you, don’t waste any more time improvising. The time to create your social media strategy is now!

Source of the header image: © istockphoto

Étiquettes gestion, marketing, marketing, social network

Management

Let intelligence help you look into the future

Auteur de l’article Par Maïthé Levasseur
Date de l’article 23 mars 2016
Aucun commentaire sur Let intelligence help you look into the future

Admittedly, the Tourism Intelligence Network may not provide the most objective assessment of the value of strategic intelligence. However, what it lacks in objectivity it makes up for in expertise and enthusiasm. Herewith a call to all companies to set up their own monitoring process. If you’re reading this, you’re already off to a good start!

For tourism companies especially, there are many excellent reasons to gather intelligence as it enables them to:

monitor industry trends;
better understand customer segments;
be aware of its position in relation to its competitors;
build on best practices;
monitor emerging new markets and products;
monitor and maintain its online image;
analyze its online reputation.

Fishing for Inspiration

Competitive benchmarking is the process of comparing a firm’s practices and performance measures with that of its competitors. Sector-specific benchmarking is the process of identifying competitor operating methods on which the company can build. At a certain point, benchmarking can be useful as a means of answering a specific or ongoing question. This is where monitoring comes in.

Competitive intelligence is used by companies to compare and position themselves in relation to their environment and adopt best practices.
Sector-specific intelligence enables companies to stay abreast of the latest developments in a given sector and build on others’ best practices.

Ultimately, benchmarking fosters the kind of strategic decisions that bring the company to the forefront of its sector and keep it there.

There is no single solution for competitive or sector-specific intelligence. Subscribing to newsletters, signing up for Google Alerts, content curation tools (like Scoop.it) and intelligence tools are just some of the means at your disposal. Curation tools gather Web content on a given topic or area of interest and display it in a single interface. While effective, these can also be expensive.

To quickly and efficiently monitor a number of websites, for many years now, the Intelligence Network’s favourite tool has been the RSS feed aggregator, Netvibes which, like others of its kind (Feedly, for instance), is a customizable platform that aggregates content from other sites.

Source: my personalized Netvibes interface

Anticipating Customer Needs and Expectations

The participative Web gives companies the benefit of ongoing feedback from its customers, both positive and negative. Monitoring this feedback means they not only stay on top of and react to it, but above all, are able to understand their customers’ expectations and evolving needs and thus anticipate them. In other words, managing your online reputation begins by monitoring what is being said on social media and consumer review sites. There are many monitoring tools that help you do this, but it can also be useful to combine a few of them for better coverage. There’s ReviewPro and TrustYou for review sites, Hootsuite, Topsy and SocialMention for social media sites, to name just a few. Marketing and social media expert Frederic Gonzalo explains 30 of them here.

Remember:

Comments on social media and review sites do not necessarily represent the views of the majority;
There are many monitoring tools and they evolve quickly. They should be reviewed from time to time, especially those that monitor social media, to ensure they have not become obsolete;
Effective monitoring should take into account new information sources and emerging networks;
As a general rule, quality is more important than quantity.

The Human Factor

Whatever the objective of the process or tool in question, the person doing the monitoring must be qualified. Human analysis can determine which information is relevant to the company’s strategic direction and upcoming projects, and enables the company to detect innovative content. The person who monitors its online reputation is supposed to assess the relevance of customer feedback. While only a few comments will lead to corporate change, most of them deserve an answer, or some kind of follow-up.

In order for it to be relevant, it is crucial that the monitoring be done with the greatest possible objectivity, especially when it comes to consumer reviews. The key is to truly focus on and tune in to trends and consumer needs.

The Time Factor

A study of 300 French decision-makers in companies with 20 or more employees found that 61% of them averaged two hours of monitoring per week. Some managed even more, with 35% spending an average of four hours gathering intelligence. Most of them were CEOs and, generally speaking, the monitoring was done outside of office hours. What about you, Quebec managers? How do you measure up?

The obstacles encountered by French managers include: the time required to find relevant information, the glut of information available, and source identification. The solution is often to delegate this task internally or to outsource it.

Did you know that for the past 10 years or more, the Intelligence Network has been gathering intelligence for Quebec companies?

Take another look at our 2007 Trendwatching Guide (in French). While some of the concepts and tools it mentions have evolved, the basic principles remain the same. It’s early in 2016; why not make a resolution, right now, that you will devote some time each day to gathering intelligence!

Source of the header image: Pexels

Étiquettes innovation, reputation @en, social network

Marketing @en Products and activities

Innovative promotions from the events industry

Auteur de l’article Par Claudine Barry
Date de l’article 14 janvier 2015
Aucun commentaire sur Innovative promotions from the events industry

A best practices benchmarking study of the festivals and events industry carried out by the Transat Chair in Tourism for Festival et Événements Québec and several other partners highlights initiatives in various facets of the events industry. Here are some examples of these practices in the fields of promotion, product development and customer experience.

Film

Video is a powerful media, especially when it comes to promoting an intangible product. Festivals understand this. Tomorrowland, the Belgian electronic music festival, creates a half hour film to recap each year’s edition. The 2012 Official Aftermovie has been viewed nearly 16 million times. This video is featured on the Tomorrowland website’s home page.

Source: Tomorrowland.com

Think social media

In addition to video, the Wanderlust yoga festival has developed several tools to promote its events. Organizers provide models for social media status updates to encourage participants to share information and message templates for yoga teachers who would like to invite their students (see example below).

Source: Wanderlust.com

On top of its official account, which organizers use to publish festival news, the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts created the @Glastoinfo Twitter account specifically to act as an information centre. During the festival, authorized users of this account answer questions from festival-goers from 8:00 am to 11:30 pm.

For the 2014 edition of the Tomorrowland festival, organizers linked attendees’ RFID bracelets to Facebook to help them make new contacts. When two festival-goers in the same vicinity pressed a button on their wristbands at the same time, they were each sent a Facebook friend request.

Go off-site

The Nashville airport is promoting Bonnaroo by featuring works of art inspired by the music festival.

Taking place in late February, the Glasgow Film Festival in October presents free screenings of movie classics in shopping centres or department stores. During the festival itself, films are also screened in unusual places, like the subway and Glasgow Cathedral.

The Bluesfest in Ottawa has joined forces with its neighbour, the Canadian War Museum, for the display of festival posters. During the Bluesfest, the Museum’s lobby walls are decorated with an array of posters from past years.

Engage the community

The Reebok Spartan Race and the Festival IF3 have put together teams of ambassadors who work to publicize the events and encourage people to register. The Spartan Race Street Team will be made up of over 5000 members around the globe. The more people these team members sign up for the race, the more rewards they receive, like products, coupons or free admission.

Bluesfest organizers have also set up an advisory committee of some fifteen high school and university students to better identify their interests and ways to reach this public.

Since 1980, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has organized a competition inviting young people ages 5 to 16 to create the official festival poster.

Source: edfringe.com

For its events in Montreal and Quebec City, the IF3 International Freeski Film Festival holds a contest inviting local amateur filmmakers to create an urban skiing video and present it at the festival.

Improve your product

Events must renew their product offerings to maintain their momentum, stay competitive and encourage return visitors. At the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, a temporary structure featuring the theme of water was set up on the banks of the Yarra River. A three-storey space with an open kitchen, floating bar and rain garden, the Immersery – Festival Kitchen, Bar & Raingarden was the centrepiece of the 2014 edition.

Source: Archello.com

The Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival has featured Pool Night since 2012. Five pools and a spa offer an evening of swimming with a light show, music and various activities.

The 2014 edition of the Glasgow Film Festival included Street Food Cinema, which offered the public an opportunity to enjoy dishes associated with the film being screened.

Source: Glasgow Film Festival

Customize

The events industry has not escaped the trend of increasingly personalized service. The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, and the South by Southwest (SXSW) multimedia happening in Austin, Texas, have both created customizable areas on their websites, where attendees can create a list of favourites, plan their schedule and manage their loyalty program.

This is also true of the Festival d’Avignon and Lollapalooza music festival websites, the latter of which features the « My Lolla » zone that enables users to create their own festival page with their favourite artists, custom lineup and the type of information they wish to receive. They can then share their choices on social media.

Source: Lollapalooza

Get inspired

Festivals and events follow and adopt the trends that best suit their themes and target customer segments. The events studied are constantly evolving and demonstrate truly inspiring energy and creativity.

Analysis written in co-operation with Caroline Lévesque

Image on first page: © Minnie Roe, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Étiquettes customer experience, events, marketing, partnerships, personalization, social network

Management Trends

Co-creation in the participatory era

Auteur de l’article Par May-Lisa Vézina
Date de l’article 18 septembre 2014
3 commentaires sur Co-creation in the participatory era

At the dawn of this renaissance, the competitive environment of tourism is being redefined by new models of consumption and production. Collective intelligence is now considered an abundant precious resource that must be exploited if one is to remain competitive. Organizations that use co-creation (similar to crowdsourcing) are ahead of the curve because they are identifying consumer expectations and getting innovative ideas from their community.

The dynamic duo behind meaningful experiences

Today’s connected tourists are ideally positioned to actively influence service providers, at every stage of their visit. In this new context, businesses must listen closely to their customers if they want to satisfy them, a task made easier by the emergence of social media. Impressing travellers requires adopting an approach that artfully combines the following two elements:

Technology to enhance the organization’s processes and products while facilitating interactions among the various stakeholders
Co-creation to empower consumers to design their own tourist experiences by contributing ideas about a product or service, discussing with others, personalizing the products they are offered, etc.

Examples from the hotel industry

Crowdsourcing is gradually entering the hospitality sector and radically changing design and marketing practices. Given the phenomenal rise of Airbnb and fierce competition from online intermediaries, hotels are now building on this trend to enhance their brand reputations, attract Millennials and discover user-generated content that can help them better communicate with their clientele.

Club Med

For its future Val Thorens ski resort in France, Club Med adopted a crowdsourcing approach and encouraged public feedback on the concept. Using a participatory application designed for Facebook, Club Med fans voted each week on the elements they wanted to see in the resort, such as the name, logo, design and even the activities offered.

Source: e-marketing.fr

17John

Democratizing real estate investment, architecture and urban design is the mission of the Prodigy Network. 17John, its New York City extended-stay hotel project aimed at business travellers, will incorporate innovative ideas generated by a crowdsourced campaign involving architects, designers and other creative professionals (see video). The organization used the competition to help it redefine the building’s spaces so as to create more collaborative, communal and connected ways of working and meeting.

Marriott Hotels

Marriott Hotels’ Travel Brilliantly initiative is in its second year. This dedicated Website invites guests to share innovative hotel ideas in the following six categories: technology, culinary, work and play, wellness, design and style, and other. Though the concept was initially aimed only at US consumers, this year’s edition also includes those in the UK. According to a Marriott executive: « There is no creation anymore except co-creation. To build any idea in a vacuum is more of a risk than building it with the insight of your guests and your associates. »

Initiatives targeting local populations

Residents can be a source of many innovative ideas and play a key role in developing and implementing new strategies and campaigns. Co-creation makes it possible to develop tourist experiences that are more beneficial to host communities while also satisfying visitors’ desire for authenticity.

Museums and co-creation

Given that the average museum-goer now wants to « do » rather than simply « view, » many museums have adopted a more participatory approach. These establishments are rethinking their role as the sole authority for determining which stories should be told and are instead working with the community to co-create stories.

For example, in October 2013, the Chicago History Museum asked the public to determine the theme of a future exhibit. The city’s residents were then invited to vote for their favourite on Facebook.

Source: hstryqt.tumblr.com

Tourism becomes a force for change

Travel2change , a non-profit organization, wants to foster social innovation by inviting local populations to propose unique activities that visitors could find rewarding. The best suggestions are then passed on to travellers interested in responsible travel. The digital platform provides a meeting space for tourists and locals who want to get together to support a cause.

Source: travel2change.org

« Open source » festivals

The interdisciplinary SPARKcon festival in Raleigh, North Carolina, is billed as a « creative potluck » that showcases the local artistic community. In addition to enjoying an opportunity to present their artistic efforts, participants can help plan, program and organize the event.

Along similar lines, the Helsinki Festival in Finland invites the public to be part of the event’s creative process, thus highlighting local talent.

Artists redraw national parks

To mark its centenary, the National Parks Conservation Association, in cooperation with the Creative Action Network, launched the See America crowdsourcing campaign. Artists and designers were invited to create a collection of posters celebrating these heritage sites. The initiative uses collective creativity to showcase this precious resource and encourage the public to visit the parks.

Source: seeamericaproject.com

Increased competition due to the burgeoning number of alternative products is forcing businesses to rethink how they do things and reinvent how they relate to consumers. Having understood the new rules of the game, tourism-based organizations that do more to encourage the participation and commitment of their customers and stakeholders will increase their chances of success. What can you co-create?

Article written as part of a partnership with Tourisme Montréal on cultural tourism

Étiquettes customer experience, hotels @en, innovation, social network

Customer segments Products and activities

Generation Y, the new face of business travel

Auteur de l’article Par Chantal Neault
Date de l’article 30 juin 2014
Aucun commentaire sur Generation Y, the new face of business travel

Why take an interest in the business travel of Generation Y?

First of all, because of the potential: Millennials currently make up about one-third of all passengers on business flights in the United States and their share should rise to 50% by the year 2020, while that of Baby Boomers will drop to 11%.

Secondly, they spend more on travel than members of other generations, according to a survey by Boston Consulting Group. When travelling for business, they indulge in extras: they frequently make last-minute reservations, opt for refundable tickets, change their seat for one with more legroom, make changes to their itinerary, and splurge on high-end meals or onboard Wi-Fi, all of which leads to higher-than-average business travel expenditures.

Booking and planning travel

Spontaneity and connectivity are the hallmarks of Gen Y business travellers, so mobile devices are crucial: nearly one third (32%) of Millennials use smartphones to book travel while 20% use tablets, compared to just 12% of business travellers over 45. They are also much more likely than their elders to use mobile devices to enhance their travel experience: nearly three-quarters of them have travel apps on their smartphones.

for Gen Y, meetings have seven possible purposes: celebrate, decide, educate, ideate, network, produce and promote

To satisfy this demanding clientele, the Marriott chain has introduced an innovative concept that reinvents how meetings are planned. Meetings Imagined is a very visual, social site that offers expert advice, information on the latest trends in the world of event planning and hundreds of inspiring photos to stimulate creativity. Users of the site can work with the hotels to design customized experiences or browse the ideas proposed by participating hotels. They can also post their favourite images on social media sites like Facebook and Pinterest. The concept was the result of research showing that, for Gen Y, meetings have seven possible purposes: celebrate, decide, educate, ideate, network, produce and promote. So instead of concentrating solely on dates, rates and floor plans, the Meetings Imagined approach focusses on the specific purpose of the meeting to create and design a more personal experience.

The importance of social networks

The majority (80%) of young business travellers attach considerable importance to online reviews when planning travel. They are also much more likely to post a negative online review of a hotel, restaurant or mode of transport (airline, public transit, taxi or rental car): 26% of those 34 and under said they had done so in the last year, compared to 14% of their older peers. Hotels were the most popular subjects of negative reviews from US business travellers, just ahead of restaurants.

The popularity of « bleisure » travel

The line between business and leisure is become increasingly blurred, particularly among young people. According to a survey conducted by the Hilton Garden Inn chain, 84% of Gen Y business travellers are willing to extend a business trip to take in a few days of leisure, a much higher number than their older peers. Furthermore, 65% said that exploring a new city was the best part of a business trip.

Are Gen Y travellers loyal?

although inclined to join loyalty programs, they do not actually show a lot of brand loyalty

Young business travellers are more likely to join loyalty programs: half of them take such programs into account when booking flights (48%) and hotels (51%), compared to a third of travellers ages 46-65 (31% and 30%, respectively). That being said, although inclined to join loyalty programs, they do not actually show a lot of brand loyalty. In fact, they are less brand loyal than their elders and more apt to switch from one airline or hotel chain to another if they believe the loyalty program is better for them. In fact, Gen Y business travellers do not seek the same program benefits as their colleagues. For example, they are more likely to use airline miles and points on free or discounted travel rather than on upgrades.

Youth hostels, an interesting alternative to traditional hotels

Youth hostels are becoming more popular among hip young business travellers – especially those on a tight budget – who don’t want to spend an entire evening alone in their room. Generator Hostels is one such chain: on certain days of the week, particularly during the off-season, nearly 20% of its guests are young business travellers. Another example is the Fusion in Prague, which is both a hotel and youth hostel. It offers individual standard rooms and dormitory-style accommodations, as well as non-traditional meeting spaces like its 360° Lounge Bar and Playroom, which features over-sized seating attached to the wall that can also be folded up and out of the way. In addition, its social media presence enables business travellers to meet other guests with similar interests, even before their arrival.

Young business travellers are still in the process of trying out different brands to determine what appeals to them most and best corresponds to their life style and travel habits. It is the ideal time for hotels, restaurants and other tourism stakeholders to listen to them and try to meet their expectations for they are the travellers of today… and tomorrow!

Étiquettes business, generation Y, good practices, hotels @en, loyalty, purchase behavior, reputation @en, social network

Products and activities

Enhance your product with dynamic nature interpretation activities

Auteur de l’article Par Nadège Domergue
Date de l’article 14 avril 2014
Un commentaire sur Enhance your product with dynamic nature interpretation activities

A perfect blend of entertainment and education, this technique is a powerful tool for helping visitors learn about an area. It triggers a response by playing on people’s emotional connection to nature. The education programs available today are constantly evolving.

A growing demand

Nature tourists seek sensory experiences. A study entitled Adventure Tourism Market Study 2013, published jointly by the Adventure Travel Trade Association and George Washington University, shows that adventure tourists look for travel experiences involving interaction with culture and nature.

How can interpretation affect the visitor experience?

Every park and organization has a message to deliver and, if this message is framed properly, interpretation can improve not only the visitor experience, but also the image of the destination management organization or agency. In places with the dual mission of welcoming the public and preserving the site, nature education has a very important role to play. A scientific interpretation of the environment can transform certain visitor perceptions and raise awareness of new concerns. The Mingan Island Cetacean Study Research Station, the Hands Up Holidays travel agency in Slovakia and the ExplorAysén tour operators association in Patagonia offer the public opportunities to take part in research sessions and interpretation tours in places of particular interest or with special features. This type of activity also guarantees a more dynamic visit and group interactions.

Suggestions for adding this type of activity to your products

Visitor expectations have changed: travellers want to do more than simply enjoy the scenery; they want to participate, have experiences and truly understand what they’re seeing.

Since « what to learn » is closely connected to « how to learn, » effective interpretation activities help visitors relate the information they are given to what they already know. Four aspects must be kept in mind when deciding how to approach the content:

It must be fun, to encourage tourists to participate in activities.
It must be relevant and provide clear information on the product in question.
It must be organized and structured to guide visitors throughout the program.
It must be linked to a theme and deliver a strong message so visitors do not forget what they have learned when they get home.

In fact, unless nature itself imposes a theme, it is a good idea to select a specific theme to generate client interest. Here are some examples: literary walks in Poitou-Charentes, guided night tours while snowshoeing in Quebec, mountain biking in the Alps or kayaking in Puerto Rico, tours combining observation and photography in Spain, animal tracking, role-playing, culinary tours in Florence, guided walking tours, the glass trail in Finland, a wild mushroom workshop at Au Diable Vert and edible forest plants in New Brunswick.

Source: Alpes du Léman

Source: Photographic services in Val d’Aran, Spain

Numerous elements can be highlighted, such as the site’s general characteristics (geography, ecosystems, climate, etc.), flora (plant variety, special features of trees, etc.), wildlife (animals specific to the area, rare species, nocturnal species, etc.) or the region’s history. Interpretation activities help individuals better understand their environment. When a destination relates what visitors learn to what they see or experience directly in the area, visitors become more aware, conscientious and act more responsibly.

For managers, it is important to provide just the right amount of information and find effective delivery methods. Some basic tips:

Become familiar with your clients’ expectations and adapt the information according to the context.
Find your own interpretation and facilitation style (pedagogy, listening skills and communication techniques).
Ask questions and enhance your own knowledge to provide high-quality, accurate information.
Organize the activity around points of interest (a vista point, peat bog, wetland, observation site, etc.).

Creative, original and stimulating activities

Explanatory panels, an interactive multimedia environment, a guide/interpreter or naturalist, brochures, videos, photos, geocaching and themed tours are all good ways to create a stimulating environment for your clients to learn and discover.

In particular, there is growing interest in using technological tools out in nature, which has the advantage of making information more accessible and getting beyond traditional sightseeing tours, even if these tools sometimes seem intrusive. The Park Path Explorer by Sépaq, the Vendée Vélo application on the Escapado Web portal in Provence and the iNature Trail in Florida are excellent examples of this.

Source: iNature Trail, Florida

Other destinations invest in innovative facilities and physical media like the concept of the underwater trail in Port-Cros National Park or Croatia, canoe trails with an audioguide in Obalski Park or panels in the Everglades, adapted routes like the interpretative tables and models set up in the Pyrénées National Park for visually-impaired or physically disabled visitors (watch the video), or tours in electric vehicles, like the biotrain at the Quebec Centre de la Biodiversité.

Source: Port-Cros National Park

Source: Lucy Wilcox Claiborne

Source: Parcs nationaux de France

To raise the awareness of future generations or target children, one must use a variety of approaches to increase attention and participation. Some ways to do this are outdoor shows, treasure hunts, finding the answers to riddles or telling stories and legends. The Marais Poitevin nature reserve, Yellowstone National Park and Canada’s Terra-Nova National Park all offer programs designed especially for children.

Source: Jérôme Chevereau, Marais Poitevin nature reserve

Touch, see, smell, taste, and hear: Awaken all five senses

Create multisensory environments with interactive situations that offer a wealth of opportunities for discussion. Listen to your clients, appeal to their emotions! Tell them stories! Interpretation activities can transform your product and help it become a driver of regional dynamism.

Étiquettes leisure, new products, social network, technological tools

Marketing @en Products and activities

Adventure tourism goes sustainable

Auteur de l’article Par Vincent Leclerc
Date de l’article 23 juillet 2013
2 commentaires sur Adventure tourism goes sustainable

According to TripAdvisor, in 2012, 70% of American travellers said they planned to make more environmentally responsible travel choices in the next twelve months; for its part, Trendwatching predicted that in 2013, tourists will be trying to make more tangible, environmentally beneficial contributions to destinations. What follows are the trends and best practices of a promising niche: sustainable adventure tourism.

A booming market

Outdoor travel companies are becoming more and more profitable. In fact, according to a study from the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), 63% of adventure tour operators saw gross revenues increase in 2011. The study goes on to say that adventure tourism receipts went up by 17% between 2009 and 2010, indicating the market is in a growth phase. The Adventure Tourism Development Index noted that, globally, one in four trips in 2011 included an adventure travel component. If this trend continues, adventure could be a reason behind nearly 50% of all trips by the year 2050.

Tourists increasingly sensitive to sustainability issues

Several 2012 studies reveal that consumer values are evolving; many of today’s travellers attach a great deal of importance to sustainable development.

The Global Corporate Citizenship Survey, an online survey of 28,000 consumers in 56 countries by research firm Nielsen, reports that two-thirds of individuals surveyed prefer to buy products and services from companies that benefit the host community. Furthermore, almost half of respondents were willing to pay more for services from such socially-conscious companies.
A TripAdvisor survey of 700 American travellers shows that 71% plan to engage in more environmentally responsible travel in the next twelve months.
A Travel Foundation report indicates that 70% of international tourists believe that businesses should be committed to preserving the environment.

In Quebec, according to the March 2011 Ipsos online survey conducted with the Tourism Intelligence Network (see: survey highlights in French), 43% of respondents consider respect for sustainable development principles as a primary factor in their decision to patronize a tourism company. Also, when selecting an online travel supplier, 38% of consumers prefer those that offer eco-friendly products and services.

The ATTA interviewed a number of adventure tour operators from Europe, North America and Latin America for their opinions on the industry’s current realities. Those surveyed mentioned, among other things, the growing importance of sustainable values among adventure travellers in the last few years. Other phenomena mentioned in these interviews support this trend:

the search for personalized, intense, authentic tourist experiences
an interest in local culture and the desire to give back to host communities
a concern for the environment and equity
an interest in health, physical activity and a « greener » lifestyle

According to Chris Doyle, ATTA Executive Director-Europe, the tourism industry must develop in a more responsible manner and redouble its efforts to preserve culture, flora and fauna. He adds that the best way for the industry to increase its impact is to convert travellers into defenders of destinations and their local cultures and environment. For this reason, more and more travel companies are adopting social and environmental best practices to meet the needs of adventure tourists.

Inspiring examples

The economic contribution of bicycle tourism

In addition to its limited ecological footprint and enhanced opportunities for interaction with local culture, the phenomenon of bicycle touring generates interesting economic benefits for rural communities. Since cyclists advance at a slower pace, they often spend their money in smaller municipalities, in other words, locations that are sometimes less popular with automobile tourists. The following clip clearly illustrates this reality.

Source: The Path Less Pedaled

In Brittany, towns that belong to the « Station verte » label (green resort villages) rely on bicycle touring to attract visitors. These destinations, which offer accommodations, services and nature activities, have created a 1,000-km route linking 30 stations vertes. The region is now developing other itineraries, given the success of the first one.

Hotels involved in their community

The Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge, located on an island in Costa Rica, offers its clientele a « 5-leaf » experience, the country’s highest rating in the certification for sustainable tourism program. In addition to numerous traditional activities (hiking, kayaking, scuba diving, etc.), tourists can participate in discussions about ecology and even go and plant their own tree in the tropical forest!

Source: Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge

Preservation as a prime concern

Clients of Aube Aventure, a company located in Gaspé, can enjoy sleeping in yurts as well as activities like sea kayaking and sailing. Winner of the Sustainable Development award from the city and chamber of commerce of Gaspé, Aube Aventure is known for its efforts to protect the environment and marine mammals as well as its contribution to the St. Lawrence Water Trail (route bleue). Its Quality Tourism Gaspésie certification guarantees the quality of its local services, facilities and menus. Aube Aventure is also a member of the Leave No Trace program, which aims to reduce the impact of outdoor activities on the natural environment.

Source: Aube Aventure

Changes in consumer behaviour are influencing the development of many tourism companies, including some working in the outdoor travel industry. Which ones do you feel have done the most to adopt more sustainable products and services?

This article was written for the EspaceTourismeDurable.com Website, which serves tourism stakeholders in the Gaspé Peninsula and Magdalen Islands.

Étiquettes adventure, environment, good practices, marketing, social network, travel behavior

etourism and technology Marketing @en

Instagram: A mobile partner for the tourism industry

Auteur de l’article Par May-Lisa Vézina
Date de l’article 12 juin 2013
Aucun commentaire sur Instagram: A mobile partner for the tourism industry

With 40 million photos uploaded per day and 8500 « likes » and 1000 comments per second, the Instagram mobile application has become an essential tool for Marketing 2.0.

Named « Application of the Year » by Apple in 2011, Instagram has popularized the art of mobile phone photography, or iPhoneography, by enabling users to personalize and share their photos with others. Purchased by Facebook for US$1 billion in April 2012, a year later Instagram boasts a community of more than 100 million monthly active users.

Hugely popular among young adults, Instagram offers businesses an ideal opportunity to enhance their visibility and public relations, especially if their target public includes members of Generation Y. Many brands, including companies working in the tourism industry, have joined the network and made it part of their marketing strategy.

Instagram 101

For those of you unfamiliar with Instagram, here’s how it works:

After taking a picture using Instagram or selecting a saved photo from your phone, you can modify the final image with one of the application’s 18 automatic filters before sharing it with your network.

Similar to Twitter, members subscribe to the accounts they want to follow and use #hashtags to label or describe their photos. Just like on Facebook, viewers can express appreciation for an image by « liking » it; they can also post comments.

Moreover, the application can be used to share photos on other social platforms.

Although Instagram does have a Web version, other Websites have adapted the mobile platform for larger screens, making it easier to navigate and manage your account: Webstagram, Statigram and Pintacular.

Source: Pintacular

How can tourism businesses and organizations benefit from Instagram?

With Instagram, businesses have access to user-generated mobile-optimized content. A convergence of two major trends, the rise in visual marketing content and SoLoMo (see also: Vous avez dit SoLoMo?), this medium is generating interest in the tourism industry, which sees it as a new way for communicating with clients. Making Instagram part of your marketing strategy can provide the following benefits:

Develop your brand image. Instagram can introduce users to a variety of interesting photos associated with the brand or destination.

Strengthen customer relations. Analyzing Instagram photo searches can help businesses better understand their target clientele. They can use the application to interact with their target market and participate in conversations about certain images, thus reaching a different digital community to complement those in other social media.
Create visual content. An organization can repost the best user photos of its establishment or destination on its own account. When you do this, the firm Adviso suggests adding a message to the photo mentioning the name of the user who took the picture, to give photo credit. You can also include Instagram photo albums on your Facebook page, thereby increasing the amount of visual content shared with your fans.
Increase your mobile presence among travellers. Instagram can be useful at every stage of the travel cycle, not just during a stay. Its content can provide inspiration, encouragement and guidance during the planning stage, and keep a potential visitor connected with the destination or organization after the initial contact. It is an opportunity to increase one’s presence among connected customers.

How can individuals use Instagram in the context of tourism?

What tourism businesses or destinations use Instagram?

The Canadian Tourism Commission has added Instagram to its social media strategy with the ExploreCanada account, which has nearly 15,000 followers. It invites members of the tourism industry to post images using the hashtag #ExploreCanada.

Source: ExploreCanada

The destination management organizations of Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Alberta have also created hashtags to showcase their destinations.

Source: #visitnovascotia, #tourismbc, #travelalberta on Instagram

Tourisme Montréal encourages the use of hashtag #MTL and incorporates user-generated Instagram photos in a page on its blog, Vivez Montreal/The Montreal Buzz. Some images are also reposted on its Facebook page or put together to form a special blog post. For summer 2013, the site has developed a strategy using the hashtag #mtlmoments on Instagram and Twitter.

Source: The Montreal Buzz

The number of major hotel chains using Instagram more than quadrupled in one year, from 19% in 2011 to 82% in 2012, according to Digital IQ Index: Hotels 2013. Some brands, like the Shangri-La and Four Seasons, have come up with hashtags (#lovingthemoment and #FSFotog, respectively) to encourage guests to share photos of their hotel stays.

Source: @althotel, @intercontinental and @fairmonthotels on Instagram

Furthermore, the ALT Hotel banner launched its second mobile photo contest, #ALTexpo, to create a mural of digital photos for the lobby of its new hotel at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. The video below presents a behind-the-scenes look at the first edition of the contest, organized for the ALT Hotel at Toronto Pearson International Airport:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od3CEQRrXpU

The application has also been enthusiastically adopted by the airlines, particularly Air Canada and WestJet.

Source: @WestJet, @Air France and @AirCanada on Instagram

With an adoption rate of 18% in the United States, Instagram is still an emerging platform, currently used primarily by young people. Some 28% of Americans ages 18 to 29 used Instagram in 2012, compared to 14% of 30 to 49 year-olds and 3% of 50 to 64 year-olds. However, it has significant growth potential and relevance for tourism, which is reflected in its current popularity among numerous industry organizations.

Étiquettes generation X, generation Y, hotels @en, marketing, social network, travel behavior