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41st Annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism – Part 2

As mentioned in my previous post, the theme of this year’s conference was “Turning Green into Gold” and held this past week in Orlando.

Here are some of the highlights from one of the other seminars: “Five Social Trends that will Propel Florida Tourism into the Next Decade”. We were told that in order for our industry to win more customers and make more money, we need to be aware of these trends. It seems that our customers are not just waiting for us to fulfill their needs, but are they are expecting us to meet these demands.

The Five Trends are:
1. The Experiential Economy – This is about feeling (experiencing) something “cool”, something to show off to your friends that is new and different, something to tell others about, something that is surprising and delightful. Our job is to look at all the things we provide at our company (hotel) and ask the question: How can we change it to make it surprising and delightful?

2. Personalization/Customization – (We’ve talked about this is previous posts, too.) This means creating something just for our guests. Giving the visitor choices, the tools, to design their own or choose their own options.

3. The Tyranny of Transparency – This refers to the tremendous online access to information/reviews posted by consumers on various websites that are growing stronger every day. You must learn to deal with this -- how to be better at what you do and by responding to complaints in a timely manner. Make sure you visit all the sites regularly to know what’s being said about your business. In addition, make sure you give customers the tools on your own site to post comments. If you respond to them immediately, you will limit any negativity.

4. Going Mobile – (We’ve had presentations on this trend at a couple of our past HSMAI meetings.) There are many things happening in this area as devices become more sophisticated and more widely used by more people. It is important to be in on this direct communication with customers.

5. Marketing Sustainability – The “green” movement is not a passing fad, but it will only get bigger as time goes on. You should offer services that people will talk about. Make sure you creatively tell people about going “green” – what you are doing and what it took to get there.

In summary, the question to ask yourself is: What can you do now to change something to respond to these social trends? Make sure you use the language of these trends in your marketing efforts so that you let your customers know you understand (and can provide) what they’re looking for…