Eight top tips for tourism marketers

Recently, tourism marketers from a wide variety of businesses gathered for the CIM’s ‘Taking Tourism Marketing to New Heights’ event at Aerospace Bristol. The afternoon included presentations from a panel of tourism marketing experts, as well as an audience discussion and the chance to step aboard the new museum’s star attraction, the last Concorde ever to fly.

Here, we look at eight key lessons to take away from the event:

1. Don’t miss the opportunity to incorporate PR opportunities into your marketing strategy. Build media relationships through positivity, cooperation and being open to new ideas. If the media want to try Facebook Live, capture drone footage, or similar, try to embrace the opportunity and say yes, even if it’s not something you have tried before. You may be pleasantly surprised by the results.

2. Think outside of the news media – could your venue be the ideal location for a photo shoot or TV episode? Aerospace Bristol shared the examples of Antiques Roadshow, Children and Need and Great British Railway Journeys, all of which – and more – have filmed at the museum in its first year of operation.

3. Work with social media influencers to reach new audiences. But as Kathryn Davies, Head of Tourism at Destination Bristol, explained, don’t just target influencers with the biggest followings – work with niche influences who have engaged audiences and will produce the exact type of content you’re looking for.

4. Always provide influencers with a clear brief, but be willing to risk giving up some control too. Visit Bristol have had great success with their weekend Instagram takeovers (@VisitBristol).

5. Don’t be too prescriptive. Allow influencers the freedom to communicate in their own voice – your audience may appreciate the change from an ‘official’ tone.

6. All tourism businesses want recognition in the form of awards, but how do you improve your chances of winning? Robin Barker from Services4Tourism explained how it’s vital to stand out from the crowd – daring to be different will make you stand out in the eyes of judges.

7. Show passion – judges want to see that you truly care about your customers and are passionate about what you do.

8. Give facts, not ‘fluff’! Don’t just say you offer ‘a fantastic service’ or that you are ‘the best’ in your industry – you need survey stats, visitor feedback and sales figures to prove your points to judges.

Thank you to Adam Jones, Marketing Manager at Aerospace Bristol and Tourism Ambassador for CIM South West, Kathryn Davies, Head of Tourism at Destination Bristol, and Robin Barker from Services4Tourism, for speaking at this event and to Aerospace Bristol for hosting.

Look out for more tourism events in our region coming soon, with discounted tickets for CIM members.