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PETROS MAVROS
The Internet has become the means of attraction of tourists for many “non-existent” tourist destinations worldwide. Places like New Zealand, Slovakia, Montenegro or regions such as Murcia or Extremadura in Spain almost did not “exist” before the Internet revolution. They took their online potential very seriously and invested time and money on their online actions and strategies. Below are three different approaches of how destinations could or do use the power and the potential of the Internet to lure visitors.
1. T.U.I: Traditional Uncovered Influence.
In the T.U.I model, the destination gives Thomas Cook, Thomson-Tui, American Express Travel or any other Big Tour Operator, an amount of, say, 3.5 million euros each in form of “marketing expenses” and seeks a return on investment (ROI). This money is used by the tour operator to “market” the destination and of course to market it online since 50% of the sales of the big tour operators are now made online and almost 98% of total sales are confirmed using online tools. Last week, Thomson-Tui was promoting Tunisia on its UK site for example and they were not doing it for free. If Cyprus is an expensive destination and Turkey or Tunisia are not, then obviously the tour operator will prefer to promote an easier-to-sell destination.
2. D.I.Y.O: Do It Yourself Online:
D.I.Y.O is a rather new way of attracting visitors. As all other D.I.Y methods, this requires new skills, new ways of thinking, new strategy, new planning and especially lots of courage and faith in what you are doing. It works the same way as D.I.Y for plumbing. If you do not have enough confidence in what you are doing or if your skills are not yet well developed then you may end up with the house flooded.
In politics flooding is dangerous, voters can punish you severely, just look what happened in the UK where ministers are falling off their chairs one after the other, but that is in the UK, and such things do not happen in the southern areas of the former British Empire.
3. N.E.T: Neo-technological Effective Tourism:
Ν.E.T has 3 legs: the Destination, the Suppliers and the Customer, all working as a team.
1. The Destination, a.k.a. the Tourism Board: With N.E.T, the Destination belongs to all and not all belong to the Destination. It needs to have proven flexibility, credibility and ability, not proven incapability. It needs to give answers online and not orders from-the-line. It needs to share valuable content and in an easy, indexed, universal and accessible environment and not hide content behind bureaucratic monsters and technological myths. In N.E.T “mood” the Destination has a regulatory role and not a regular role.
2. The Suppliers Travel Professionals : In a N.E.T environment the airlines have online services and not online barriers, the taxis are booked online together with public transport and not “hitch-hiked”, the hotels have online price parity and not online price asperity, the incoming agents are destination experts and not the destination desperates, and suppliers practice online customer care, not customer scare.
3. The Customer: a.k.a the One who Pays Our Salaries.: The Customer is not only the receiver anymore but also the transmitter. He/she determines online how to receive the service, how to feel the value from home on the PC screen and he/she “Pay Palls” it. The Customer is not scared to share and shout it out loud. How to do all that? By blogging and not blocking, by commenting and not complaining , by face-booking and not face-hiding, by twittering and not twisting, being on Youtube and not on Our Tube, by Trip Advising and not Trip Forgetting, by being seduced online and not ignored even online.
Petros Mavros is Director of Avantless Ltd in Cyprus. He is a tourism consultant specialised in travel 2.0 and on-line marketing strategies. Avantless is active in Cyprus, Greece, UK, Spain and the Middle East.
