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Tourism’s Top 10 Most Unique Destination Websites

Written by Marina de Moraes Lopes on August 30, 2021. Posted in Uncategorized.

Understanding what makes a travel destination website successful is crucial for anyone interested in reaching more potential travelers online. Sparking travel inspiration is a tough task, so we have compiled a list of the top 10 destination websites that inspire us and motivate us to imagine creative ways to entice travel plans. Check out these high quality, user friendly travel websites:

Machu Picchu 360 Destination Website

Machu Picchu 360 has adopted a creative and unique way to promote this awe-inspiring Peruvian landmark. By creating a highly interactive virtual reality tour, the website allows the visitor to emerge themselves into the ancient city of Machu Picchu, one of the seven wonders of the world. From the sound of the birds to detailed interpretive information, the prospective visitor is taken on a truly immersive experience. The website gives such a detailed visual experience that it attracts tourists to understand more about Machu Picchu and inspire a visit to see it first-hand.

My Switzerland Destination Website

Other than having a complete set of information about Switzerland’s main attractions, My Switzerland promotes experiences aimed at all target markets. Relevant for specific travelers, the site also displays clear information about Covid-19 safety protocols with indications on where and how to get tested. Although it catches the attention for being a very beautifully designed website, one of its most unique features is the separation of experiences by season, promoting a varied experience and showing that Switzerland is a travel destination to see all year round.

Travel Belize Website

One of the first things you will see when entering the Travel Belize landing page is a health and safety warning letting visitors know that the country has reopened and is ready to receive tourists in a safe and internationally certified way. To display such certifications is becoming increasingly important in order to rebuild tourists’ confidence to travel again. The website includes the publication of blogs that together form an excellent guide. The interesting element of this guide is that visitors can make their travel plans around archaeology, backpacking, beaches and coast, birding, ecotourism and hiking so that guests can find their niche and the experiences that interest them the most. Travel Belize did an excellent job in displaying the colorfulness of Belize’s nature without ignoring the cultural aspects, all while paying tribute to its diverse ethnic background.

Love Cape Town Website

Destination Marketing: Love Cape Town — Love Cape Town

As with many other destination websites, Love Cape Town has been updated with useful Covid-19 information, safety instructions and the latest news affecting tourism. The website is well divided in different types of attractions such as nightlife, eat and drink, wellness and arts & culture. One unique factor of this website is the presence of a ‘Travelwise’ section that highlights responsible tourism practices that gives information about local tours to more off-the-beaten-path destinations. Other than that, Love Cape town also displays the businesses that support the destination so that visitors have the opportunity to chat with the their tourism teams.

Visit Phoenix Destination Website

Visit Phoenix Website: Tourism digital marketing — Visit Phoenix Website

One of the features of Visit Phoenix’s destination website that catches visitors’ attention right away is the high quality use of Instagram pictures from locals and travelers. This strategy shows what Phoenix is truly about and how it is seen from the visitor perspective. Additionally, it makes the visitors interact with the destination management organization (DMO) through hashtags for the opportunity to be featured on their website. Engaging tourists through social media is a great technique to raise awareness towards your destination, especially in attracting younger travelers. As with many of the websites highlighted before, this site is separated in different travel categories showing the visitor what to see and where to stay. But one unique aspect of Visit Phoenix is the LGBTQ+ travel section that shows more about LGBTQ+ historical sites and promotes local artists and events aimed at this market.

NYCGO.com Website

This official guide to New York City provides a unique platform to deep-dive into trip planning for the most visited city in the United States. What stands out with NYCGO.com is the sheer amount of content the website covers. From the different boroughs to spotlights on specific communities, the site details so many trip options and features a plethora of locally owned businesses. The site also has their finger on the pulse of why some may be inspired to travel to the city. For example, at the time of writing, In the Heights, a film that was shot and takes place in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan, has an entire section of the website dedicated to visiting the area and exploring spots from the film. The amount of options the high quality travel destination website offers perfectly encapsulates the diversity of things to do found in NYC.

Travel Oregon Website

The Travel Oregon website gives travelers a wide variety of travel options, similar to NYCGo. The difference here is the overall look of the website. It perfectly captures the essence of Oregon with a variety of photographs of the outdoors, an embedded Instagram feed, and a cinematic video that previews your potential adventures when you visit the state. A big part of traveling to a state like Oregon is driven by its natural beauty and the emotional effect it has on those who travel there. Travel Oregon captured this perfectly when they developed their site and even created an entire section devoted to travel inspirations within Oregon. Utilizing emotion and feelings to help curate a trip is one of the most unique ways of travel recommendations that we’ve seen, and think it holds a great key to curating the perfect trip. Be sure to check out their interactive map.

Visit Reykjavik Destination Website

Set as the jumping off point for the rest of Iceland, Visit Reykjavik paints the city as being more than just a city. What stands out with Visit Reykjavik is that the site knows the demographic of those who visit. Over half of the visitors to Iceland in 2018 were under the age of 35, signaling that the destination has a lot of appeal with younger travelers. The front page highlights their understanding of the core traveler by including subjects like local bars and clubs, coffee shops, and vegan food. It’s important to understand your target market, and Visit Reykjavik demonstrates that well.

Visit Norway Website

Sometimes a destination doesn’t need a fancy angle for their websites. Visit Norway demonstrates this with their sleek and simple website design that gives curious visitors a jumping off point but without an overwhelming amount of information for those who are looking to plan a trip. It encourages narrowing down exactly what the tourist would like to do, then it gives them the data, which is refreshingly simple.

South Africa Tourism Destination Website

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Norway’s simplified site, South Africa’s site provides an almost “Choose Your Own Adventure” type of experience. This experience begins with a landing page asking what type of trip the visitor to the site is looking to plan. Then the site eloquently customizes a visitor’s visit to the site by telling them how long it would take to get to South Africa from their location and allows visitors to explore offered activities. Consider this a digital, accessible travel guide.

Solimar has worked on numerous projects around the world to build effective destination websites for our clients, such as the recent development of the Atauro Island site for this emerging Destination Management Organization in Timor Leste.

If you are interested in learning how to make an effective, engaging destination website, contact us today to learn how Solimar can help you with your digital tourism marketing needs.

By Kevin Lewicki and Marina de Moraes Lopes

Tourism Improvement District – A Funding Model Case Study

Written by Alicia Winfield O Hare on August 6, 2021. Posted in Uncategorized.

A Tourism Improvement District (TID) is a revolutionary way to fund destination marketing programs. They are typically run by local businesses that collaborate and invest collectively to support the growth and development of their destination’s tourism industry. Depending on where you are in the world, the concept of a Tourism Improvement District has several different names. The United States first started using this term in West Hollywood in 1989. The UK and other destinations soon followed, by developing similar public-private partnerships sometimes called “Business Improvement Districts” or “Tourism Marketing Districts”. Though they have different names, the goal is the same – increase the number of overnight visitors using business and services.

Lodging businesses are usually heavily involved, charging each visitor a per-night occupancy tax (also called a lodging tax, room tax, hotel tax, or tourist tax) usually ranging from 1-5% of the total bill. These funds raised are then directed to a destination marketing organization/destination management organization (DMO), and must be used on programs that increase paid nights spent in the destination. The TID tends to fund services such as marketing programs, tourism promotions, and projects to regenerate the destination to make it more attractive to prospective visitors. The period of the district varies, ranging from one year to a ten-year term, with some contracts lasting even longer. A 2016 survey of tourism districts revealed that most districts took between six and twelve months to form.

West Hollywood Tourism Improvement District Case Study

West Hollywood is the city where it all began and the home of the first TID (and now one of ninety-five of California’s cities that have a TID). In 2013, West Hollywood revived its previous TID and increased the hotel’s levy from 1.5% to 3%. The levy was then given to the West Hollywood Travel and Tourism Board where they used these funds to form strategic plans to promote the identity of West Hollywood, create a destination marketing strategy targeting potential visitors, and undertake advertising solely focused on the travel industry. In 2014, they implemented a three-year plan with the following objectives:

Increase demand of the destination
Strengthen domestic and international awareness
Improve and grow partnerships
Be a leader in developing the destination
Reinforce a culture of innovation

To achieve these objectives, they spent a total of $6,289,440 with the hotel levy contributing a staggering $5,900,000.

A 2015-2016 annual report by the West Hollywood Travel and Tourism Board, noted there were 1.38 million visitors to West Hollywood during this year. These visitors spent a total of $737,212,000, and directly supported 5,289 tourism industry jobs. In 2017-2018, West Hollywood saw record-breaking visitor numbers and spending, with over 3.59 million visitors, spending $1.73 billion, with an increase of employment supporting total 7,958 jobs. These numbers indicate how vast growth occurred in just two years.

Beyond West Hollywood, TIDs have developed other global destinations such as Visit Britain registering a 4 million increase in visitor numbers annually, and Visit Barbados showing an additional 2 million visitors per year. Once a Tourism Improvement District is implemented, destinations must be sure to maintain focus on the implementation of a tourism development strategy for consistent tourism promotion. Businesses in a destination need to collaborate and sync their efforts, to consider innovative ways to effectively market their destination.

South Africa’s Women’s Day: Destinations to Celebrate African Women’s History

Written by Amélie Keller on August 4, 2021. Posted in Uncategorized.

August 9th is South Africa’s Women’s Day

Did you know that August 9th is South Africa’s Women’s Day? This special occasion honors the 1956 march that united more than 20,000 women in Pretoria asking for the end of the Pass Laws Act of 1952. These Pass Laws made it mandatory for all black South Africans over the age of 16 to carry a pass book with their biometric data (known as a dompas) everywhere and at all times. This law was designed to control the movement of black South Africans under apartheid as you could not move to a new area of the country without prior approval from the government. Those who violated the pass laws lived under constant threat of fines, harassment, deportation, and arrest.

South Africa’s National Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time on August 9, 1995 to remember the powerful women who fought against this injustice and the motto “You strike a women, you strike a rock” that developed from the resistance. South African women observe it now to commemorate the role women played in ending apartheid, while recognizing that the fight against injustice for women is not over.

Why Does It Matter to Have Women in Tourism?

At Solimar, we strongly believe in tourism as a way to help the world attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs (gender equality is SDG #5). Women are an important part of the tourism and hospitality industry accounting for 54% of people employed by tourism worldwide in 2019. Therefore, creating equal opportunities and supporting women’s livelihoods plays a large role in the fight for true gender equality. When done correctly, tourism is a source of fair employment, fosters entrepreneurship among women, and inspires leadership in young girls. To honor stories of powerful women across Africa, this blog highlights historic attractions focused on African women. These sites demonstrate how tourism can play a role in empowering women and preserving their legacies.

*Source:* *South African History Online*

5 historical sites to remember African women’s fights for equality

The Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa.

This is the most symbolic site for South African Women’s Day. On August 9th, 1956, this is the spot where 20,000 women banded together to protest the Pass Laws Act of 1952 and left a strong legacy protesting both gender and racial inequality. The Women’s March filled the entire amphitheater of the Union Buildings, the official seat of the South African Government and offices of the President of South Africa, as well as the place where President Nelson Mandela’s inauguration took place in 1994. With such powerful, iconic meaning and history, the Union Buildings and their gardens have also become a national heritage site and a popular tourism attraction that offers a stunning view of symbolic Pretoria. If you ever have the chance to visit the exteriors, you will not only admire the many statues – including Nelson Mandela’s – but also the memorial created by Wilma Cruise and Marcus Holmes to the Women’s March, reminding everyone that “Wathint’ Abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo!” – “Strike a woman, strike a rock!”

2. Women’s Living Heritage Monument in Pretoria, South Africa

In 2016, a monument was erected for the remembrance of the four heroic women who led the protest at the Union Buildings. Lillian Ngoyi, Sophia Williams-de-Bruyn, Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa, the great leaders of the Women’s March, had the pleasure to attend the inauguration of their own statues on August 9, 2016 in Pretoria. Check out this article to know more about this Women’s Living Heritage Monument.

Source : International Women’s Day 2021

3. Women’s History Museum in Zambia

In Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, the Women’s History Museum was established recently to bring together and preserve African indigenous knowledge, with a particular focus on women. It aims at documenting and safeguarding historical narratives of African women, especially for the rich amount of knowledge and intangible heritage that is in danger of disappearing due to the impact of British colonialism. In addition to collecting and exhibiting traditional quits, audio recordings and photographs, the Women’s History Museum created the Leading Ladies animated video series to tell the histories of prominent Zambian women in pre-colonial times and make their stories more accessible.

4. Musée de la Femme in Marrakesh, Morocco

Heading to North Africa in the old Medina of Marrakesh is another women’s museum that represents the great culture and heritage of women. Since 2018, the Moroccan Musée de la Femme hosts different exhibitions to showcase the important contributions of women in the North African country. The museum also offers space to talented women – from photographers to artisans or leaders – bringing them out of the shadows and giving them the spotlight to be more widely recognized.

Source: Musée de la Femme in Morocco (Atlas Obscura)

5. Voices of Women at the Phansi Museum in Durban, South Africa

Another project emerged in South Africa this year – ‘Amazwi Abesifazane – Voices of Women’ – a museum dedicated to the artwork of local women. Creator Andries Botha’s goal is to protect and conserve 3,000 unique archives (including embroidered cloths, memories and stories) to remember the fascinating lives of South African women. As a living museum, these exhibits provide sound excerpts in indigenous and English languages for each piece of art, thus offering a voice to these often unheard women. The Phansi Museum displays some of the greatest collections of arts and crafts from the country. This site is a meaningful portrail of South Africa’s Women’s Day.

Conclusion

At Solimar, we are committed to fostering inclusion and it is important for us to position ourselves as allies in the fight for women’s rights. Creating opportunities for women to succeed in the tourism industry must be a priority in sustainable development. From the DMOs to the tourists, everyone in the industry can take part and choose to make tourism more responsible and inclusive of all genders, races, and sexual orientations.

If you are interested in learning how tourism is inclusive for women, make sure you follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn. Stay tuned for our Sustainable Destinations Podcast through the Institute for Sustainable Destinations, available wherever you find your podcasts.

By Amèlie Keller and Keller and Marina de Moraes Lopes

How Tourism Can Protect Cultural Heritage

Written by Solimar International on August 3, 2021. Posted in Uncategorized.

At Solimar, we value tourism for the economic and social development that it brings to communities all over the world. Protecting cultural heritage is one of our utmost priorities as well as a core development objective in all of our projects. When done right, building a strong tourism economy is a great way for local residents of any region to nurture their own cultural heritage and also provide meaningful educational experiences to visitors. Today’s travelers are looking for more than just pretty views and fancy dinners; they want the authenticity that comes from diving into an entirely new culture. From rural communities in Armenia to World Heritage Sites in Portugal, learn more about how tourism can protect cultural heritage.

Community Building and Empowerment

One of the most impactful ways that tourism can protect cultural heritage is through community empowerment. This occurs when tourists are educated about the history and traditions of the local community, and in turn that community feels a stronger cohesion and sense of pride in that cultural history. Additionally, tourism based around cultural assets encourages locals to continue to pass on traditions and practices that are embedded in their history. The process of teaching other community members about these traditional methods creates a sense of unity through history. The feeling of community allyship is strengthened when tourists visit a place specifically to experience the culture.

Having people from all over the world know about the importance of a community’s history and cultural heritage is something to be proud of, and community members will embrace their heritage more and more as that pride grows and spreads. In Atauro (a small island in Timor-Leste), tourists are encouraged to visit the local arts and crafts markets. Rising popularity of the markets encourages locals to continue crafting and creating goods that reflect their culture. When tourists appreciate local markets such as these, it sparks pride in the community and allows them to continue doing work that is culturally significant. In order for this to occur, Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and local governments must ensure that community stakeholders are present and involved in tourism development.

Tourism as a Cultural Teaching Tool

When looking at tourism as a tool to protect and inform cultural heritage, it can also be seen as a teaching tool. Tourism can be viewed as a process: money is exchanged, parts of a community are engaged through a tourist’s stay, and the tourist walks away with memories and feelings for the location. However, when the tourist is engaged with an itinerary that focuses on heritage tourism, the takeaways or “post-visit behaviors” are likely to be more significant. This is for two main reasons: 1) Someone who seeks out cultural heritage tourism is more likely to be motivated to learn something on their trip. (Check out this awesome study by Indonesia University of Education to learn more about what their study revealed) and 2) The nature of cultural heritage tourism allows for an extra layer of a destination to be revealed.

For example, let’s say a tourist visits a beach to watch the sunset at a particular destination. They walk away with an impression of the beauty of the location. What if it was framed through cultural heritage? Instead of just watching the sunset, the tourist gets to watch the sunset while engaging in a traditional feast that honors the island and all that it gives and includes a local folktale of what the sunset means to local culture. Now, that sunset experience has more significance for the tourist whose motivations resided in seeking knowledge. A large part of tourism is the intentions that motivate tourist behavior, and engaging with cultural heritage tourism allows a tourist to expand their horizons and connect more deeply with the people and the destination.

UNESCO World Heritage Sustainable Tourism Toolkit

The universal recognition and classification for the world heritage sites were adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1972, originated in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Their mission is to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of the valuable cultural and natural heritage sites to humanity around the world, regardless of the boundary limitations.

To help site managers, national/local authorities, local/international tourism industry, or even visitors and residents fully understand the essence of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites and sustainable tourism, a toolkit is provided by the UNESCO with the holistic guideline for managing heritage sites in destinations. Step by step guidance from understanding, strategic planning, governance to stakeholder engagement are available on the website with real case studies are available on the website.

Building on this work, Solimar recently launched its World Heritage Journeys of the Silk Road, a 10-week virtual training program for tourism and cultural heritage authorities in Central Asia. This program builds on the results from the sustainable tourism planning and management capacity building workshop that brought together tourism stakeholders from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The workshop introduced participants to UNESCO’s World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme and the tools necessary to conserve cultural and natural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value. This Virtual Training program will build on these learnings by reuniting World Heritage and tourism authorities from the participating countries to work together to learn how to better manage sustainable tourism, how to recover and prepare for the return of tourism in the era of COVID-19, and to develop a series of cross-border itineraries that are hosted on UNESCO sustainable tourism platform – World Heritage Journeys.

institute for sustainable destinations — Solimar’s Sustainable Tourism & World Heritage in Central Asia Course, available at institute.solimarinternational.com

As a specialist consulting and marketing firm in sustainable tourism, it is always our mission to ensure that sustainability underlies everything we do. We must work to ensure that the cultural and natural resources are protected in the development process, which leads to the long-term success for destinations. By building a sustainable tourism environment, empowering local communities, and preserving cultural values and heritage boosts the understanding and collaboration between stakeholders in different sectors. Working with local communities, we can help more destinations realize how tourism can protect cultural heritage and cherish our shared history of place.

Interested in learning more about how your destination can improve its cultural heritage offerings? Contact us today.

This blog was written by Gabby Whittaker, Kevin Lewicki, and Kuanlin Lu in July 2021

Building a Successful Social Media Tourism Marketing Campaign

Written by Lena Eckert on July 14, 2021. Posted in Uncategorized.

Social media plays a massive role in traveler decision. Learn what makes a successful social media marketing campaign

Emerging approximately 15 years ago, social media platforms have dramatically changed communication and marketing – including the way we both plan and share our travel experiences. Instead of sending a postcard, travelers now share pictures and photos on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and Facebook. Instead of visiting a travel agency or browsing print travel catalogs, travelers now use social media to gather inspiration of stunning destinations. Influencers have grown in popularity as users that have a widespread digital following and capitalize on the opportunity that the platforms offer. They are now able to share their content and opinions to their audience, while often being compensated for their reach. The world of marketing has shifted, leaving a great opportunity for Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) to inspire travelers with inspiring content and a successful social media marketing campaign.

The potential of social media in tourism is enormous. A survey of American tourists revealed that 36.5% use social media for travel inspiration. The most popular platform is Facebook (80%), followed by Instagram (60%), Pinterest (43%), and Twitter (26%). Even more surprising numbers from Great Britain show that 55% of travelers aged 18-65 book trips only based on photographs they have seen on Instagram. Consequently, using social media marketing for promoting the destination is essential for DMOs to inspire potential visitors and to build up a long-lasting and engaged online community.

Social media platforms allow us to create and share our own content that attracts attention. They give us the possibility to connect with people and to get inspired by others. Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms are used in tourism for researching a destination, for connecting with staff to ask questions, and for sharing memories and pictures during and after the visit. DMOs need to build their channels and show presence on the different platforms by creating inspiring and engaging content and by providing customer service. However, no professional social media activity should be done without a strategy as the platforms can become quite overwhelming and confusing. A strategy is the foundation of successful social media marketing and next to regular content about the destination that should be posted constantly, specific campaigns can be used to boost social media activity.

Building a Social Media Marketing Campaign

A Social Media Marketing Campaign must be coordinated to increase attention and influence the audience for a specific period of time. The following components should be the base of a successful campaign on social media:

Strategic plan
Goals
Channels
Partners

Without having a plan, your campaign will likely not be successful, as it is important to determine how the campaign should be set up, when you want to post and what you need for doing so. Moreover, it is essential to set up goals that should be reached with the campaign – do you want to increase the bookings, create more brand awareness or build a more loyal visitor community? Decide what you want to achieve and align the campaign accordingly. Using different social media platforms for the campaign is an efficient way to boost visibility and why not ask partners for help to increase the traffic to your page or to offer a price that can be won?

Great examples for successful social media campaigns in tourism can be found worldwide from New York with the engaging #NYlovesFall campaign that focused on fall foliage and encouraged users to post their own pictures of the changing leaves, to Switzerland Tourism, whose “Holidays without internet” campaign gained international attention as they offered a one-week holiday in a remote area, especially targeted at the high-internet-users and the winners chosen based on their spend time on Facebook. Those campaigns lead the destinations to create a lot of buzz on the platforms, a huge increase in followers and interest in the destinations- being talked about is what counts on social media and the destinations achieved that with their engaging campaigns.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced destinations to rethink their marketing activities with many DMOs choosing to focus on inspiring tourists to visit once the situation is more stable and safe. An example of a social media campaign focused on keeping dreaming about the destination was created by Visit Maldives with stunning pictures and a very important message that was supported by the hashtag #visitmaldiveslater.

Examples from a social media campaign in the Maldives

At Solimar, we are aware of the importance of social media marketing in tourism, which is why we dedicated a whole session of our DMO development course to the topic. We also work strategically to develop social media marketing plans and campaigns for destinations worldwide and are happy to have worked with, among others, the country of Namibia to foster its online presence by launching successful and inspiring marketing campaigns that led to a more engaged community and increased interest in the destination from the North American market.

Social media has become an indispensable part of modern life and DMOs need to use the potential that the platforms offer to build up a loyal community by providing engaging and high-quality content. Specific campaigns are beneficial to boost the community and engagement and reach certain goals over a certain period of time. However, they need to be created strategically and thoughtfully, to not get lost in the vastness of the platforms. Creating engagement and interaction with followers can be challenging in the overload of information existing nowadays. However, it can lead to an increase in loyalty to the destination, thus making a potential visit or revisit more likely. Reaching that is the ultimate goal that DMOs strive for through their presence and content on the buzzing social media platforms.

A 2015 Dry Tortugas National Park social media campaign

If you need help with planning a travel related social media marketing campaign, contact us to find out more about how Solimar’s marketing team can help!

Source: https://coralglass.media/news/visit-maldives-later-campaign-by-mmprc

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