With spring on the horizon we thought it would be an excellent time to talk about this year’s travel trends.
Travelers are looking for authentic experiences, trips which will connect them to history, food, people and traditions. Destinations where they can relax, but learn and do! Simply, luxury is out and authenticity is in. While adventure, educational and volunteer travel are not new, they are as popular as ever. What may be different now is the comfort or simplicity in the way participants experience these trips. According to a variety of national publications museums are seeing increases in ticket sales, gardening centers are selling out of seeds, knitting communities are on the rise, and articles and blog postings are abound with apartment swaps and rentals. People want to connect to the places they go and live like the locals do, if only for a few days.
The MidCoast is chocked full of historic and picture-perfect towns, where people can have outdoor adventures, meet local artisans, talk to the chef who cooked their meal, and feel the personal touch. However, having what people want is only 50% or less, the remainder of success is in letting your audience and potential audience know you exist and what you offer. What you have, how you tell your story and what channels you use to do so is very important.
Every year more and more people determine where they are going to travel, eat, stay, and what they will do on the Internet. Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter people can recommend or slam a restaurant or hotel. With Yelp and Tripadvisor consumers can get and share this information with strangers. According to Wikipedia, over 25 million people access Yelp’s website each month. All of this research is for free and available practically instantly.
How many people do you know with an iPhone? Check it out or go online and learn about the growing number of travel-related applications available from weather service, Yelp, Lonely Planet, Open Table and Urbanspoon. If you have time read the article National Geographic Adventure published on their top travel iPhone applications.
Travelers are not putting together itineraries the way they used to, because they have information at their fingertips constantly. Making plans a couple weeks in advance vs. months in advance. Besides booking a flight and place to stay, people are holding off on restaurant reservations (except for the savvy travelers who know the one month reservation policy at most upscale restaurants these days) until they hit town. Why not just pull over when coming into town and use the GPS navigation system to help locate places to eat, shop, and stay – all based on Tripadvisor ratings.
What this means is businesses need great websites, which tell their story instantly to whomever visits their site based on a link from any one of the travel sites the user is researching on. If appropriate use Facebook and Flickr or even a blog (though a poorly written or unattractive blog can be more damaging than good).
By all means use your chamber of commerce, after all the chamber’s website may be the first one a lot of travelers go to find out more about the area and only after spotting potential places to stay and eat will then go to other sites to research them.
