Destination Marketing Archives - Solimar International

Tunisia, destination that uses situation analysis

How to Conduct a Situation Analysis to Develop a Tourism Strategy?

Written by Madison Tomaso on December 2, 2022. Posted in Blog.

What is A Situation Analysis?

Tourists at destination after successful tourism strategy — A successful tourism destination requires situation analysis.

Traveling to a destination can feel like an individual journey. But, did you know that most tourism destinations develop thoughtful strategies to ensure their destinations attract visitors in intentional and measured ways? A tourism strategy is designed to highlight a destination’s best aspects, such as food and history, while also offering solutions to tourism challenges that a destination might face, such as limited infrastructure. A successful tourism strategy is a first step to making a country safe, educational, and enjoyable for travelers. Essential to every tourism strategy is a situation analysis that details the supply and demand of tourism to the destination along with the opportunities and challenges that a destination faces using techniques such as stakeholder interviews, online data analysis, and on-the-ground assessments.

Why is a Situation Analysis Important?

The tourism industry is a critical source of jobs and economic growth, as well as a decisive factor in a nation’s sustainable development. While a tourism strategy is necessary to help develop tourism, a cookie-cutter approach will not be effective at addressing each destination’s unique circumstances. Thus, individualized situation analyses are critical for creating an effective tourism strategy. In this blog, we will examine some guidelines for performing an impactful situation analysis, as well as the use of situation analysis in one growing destination, Tunisia.

Situation Analysis, as Explained by the World Bank

Analyzing data for situation analysis — Data analysis is a crucial aspect of conducting a situation analysis.

How do tourism practitioners go about conducting a situation analysis of a destination? Solimar International, for example, follows the strategy guidelines outlined by the World Bank, a global partnership dedicated to using sustainable solutions to combat poverty. Per the World Bank’s method, there are four essential steps to conducting a successful situation analysis.

Project planning
Desk-based research
An in-country evaluation
An analysis of their data to compile a report detailing both their research and conclusions

Each step requires complex research, discussion, and analysis. Within these guidelines, the World Bank also offers detailed suggestions on how to complete each step: A situation analysis team must interview a range of stakeholders within a country’s tourism industry, everyone from artisans selling goods to travel booking agents. Desk research entails compiling and studying all documents relevant to the destination’s tourism, and the statistical analysis of comparing the performance of the country to similar countries. This data must then be analyzed to identify the opportunities, challenges, and solutions surrounding the destination. Finally, the World Bank advises the team to use all their data, research, and analysis to create the final tourism strategy document.

What Should be Included in the Final Report?

Because the main objective of a situation analysis is to identify both the biggest opportunities and constraints associated with a given destination, the report therefore must outline the destination’s offerings. These can include anything from thriving wineries to well-preserved cultural sites. However, the report must also acknowledge the challenges that were pinpointed by the analysis. Issues such as poor infrastructure or lack of safety can be major hindrances to tourism. In addition, a proper analysis should identify potential solutions to the constraints, and these should be included in the report as well. It is also crucial for the report to list key stakeholders in the local tourism industry, in addition to potential partners that may help to implement the plan. This detail ensures that the plan includes everyone who has a vested interest in helping the strategy succeed.

Practical Application: How A Situation Analysis was Used in Creating Tunisia’s Tourism Strategy

View of Tunisia, destination using situation analysis — *Tunisia is a beautiful destination for tourists to enjoy*

Tunisia is a wonderful destination, with numerous activities for tourists to enjoy. It is rife with opportunities for successful tourism, from a Mediterranean coastline to historical sites. However, the destination is not yet on par with nearby destinations such as Morocco and Egypt. Tunisia receives approximately a million tourists per year, and the country hopes to grow its tourism sector. To achieve this, Solimar is currently working on the USAID Visit Tunisia program Tunisia’s tourism visibility. One of the program’s initial goals was to develop a national tourism strategy, which included a comprehensive situation analysis.

To complete the analysis, Solimar interviewed major stakeholders in Tunisia, including those in the public and private sectors. It is critical to converse with stakeholders in order to understand the expectations for the plan’s results and to provide further insight into the destination’s current tourism situation. Extensive desk research was conducted this included comparing Tunisia’s data to that of competing countries, and reading previous strategies and relevant documents for Tunisia. Solimar also reviewed all available tourism sector data from Tunisia. Through this data, Solimar was able to better understand both the problems and advantage tourism faced in Tunisia. Finally, Solimar analyzed the statistics from Tunisia’s tourism sector. Using this data and analysis, Solimar was able to form a solid foundation of the country’s current tourism industry to inform the development of recommendations for the National Tourism Strategy.

Interested in learning more about strategic planning for tourism? Be sure to like Solimar on Facebook to stay updated on our latest projects!

DMOs destination management planning across many maps

Why DMOs must be about Management, not just Marketing

Written by Veronic Santapa on October 11, 2022. Posted in Blog.

DMOs are crucial organizations within the tourism industry. They were primarily established to promote destinations. However, with the rapid growth of tourism, the need for its sustainability and management of the sector eventually emerged. Therefore, whether DMOs should focus only on marketing or broaden their activities and be a management organization is part of the future agenda. At Solimar, we have seen time and time again why the M in DMO must also be about destination management, and not just destination marketing.

Let’s define what a DMO is, what roles they fulfill within a destination, and find out why these roles are mostly related to the management of the destination:

What is a DMO?

DMO stands for Destination Marketing/Management Organization. At times, the role of a DMO is mistakenly perceived to be limited to the marketing efforts, but in reality, DMOs contribute majorly to the development aspects of a destination too. Effectively, the UNWTO defines it as “the leading organizational entity which may encompass the various authorities, stakeholders, and professionals and facilitates partnerships towards a collective destination vision”. Thus, DMOs are not only about marketing, but also about management. But what do DMOs manage exactly?

Why are DMOs important?

Originally DMOs were established to competitively market the destinations by image-making, branding, and advertising what a place has to offer to tourists. However, in order for a destination to be successful, applying good marketing strategies or setting up an outstanding promotional campaign is no longer enough. Strategic management of the destination is also extremely important. Thus, it is clear that for the future of more sustainable tourism, DMOs must take the lead, as they hold the skills and the knowledge to support the destination through the management of tourism activities. Additionally, they have the ability and the tools to monitor the destination’s performance, allowing them to create the most suitable and sustainable approach to destination development.

To effectively manage a destination, DMOs should:

Manage the variety of different stakeholders involved in tourism. This is also connected to the creation of a common website platform, where stakeholders can engage and contribute to the destination’s development
Consult visitor-related sectors, namely, accommodation, food and other services related to tourism. To this regard, DMOs also facilitate the introduction of quality standards in service
Help communities become more visible. Developed and advanced communities raise the sense of pride among their residents
Support local economies
Encourage sustainable development of tourism

As shown, apart from marketing and brand image creation, DMOs can truly contribute to developing sustainable destinations.

What is destination management?

DMOs are vital for touristic destinations, especially where national or local governments struggle to manage and control all the activities related to tourism. DMOs are especially crucial in the destinations with emerging economies and the tourism sector. The roles of DMOs involve destination development, management of all the available assets and monitoring of the tourism impacts at the destination. DMOs’ ultimate goal is to maintain the destination successful, competitive, and socially and economically developed, and in order to achieve that, it is necessary to create and implement the destination’s development plan.

Destination Development

DMOs’ main role is destination development. Destination development includes a range of different activities, such as marketing efforts, improvement or diversification of tourism products and quality of the services supplied. For DMOs, it is crucial to create a development plan which will lead all the activities in the short or long-term perspective. With the development plan, DMOs set the target goals and indicators for businesses, communication, marketing and product development. All the actions taken by the local stakeholders and the DMO itself should be in line with the destination development plan.

Much of Solimar’s work is oriented on destination development, as many destinations and, consequently, DMOs need facilitation and support at their early stage.

Management and coordination of destination assets

Every destination comprises a variety of resources provided by different organizations, and these resources need to be coordinated accurately to develop a competitive and sustainable tourism offer. The development and maintenance of a tourism destination is a complex process, and it requires a strategy capable of generating and sustaining synergy among all the various elements involved in the sector.

Local stakeholders, entrepreneurs, government, citizens and visitors have their own roles at the destination, and they are all part of the development process. It is the DMO’s prerogative to bring together representatives from each group to establish integrated and regular interactions and collaborations. These collaborations are essential to create the tourism product, the destination strategy, policy and crisis management plans to foster investments and funding and to evaluate the overall destination’s performance. Moreover, DMOs are also expected to provide services related to the improvement of physical and human resources, supply assistance and advice for hospitality and tourism businesses.

Solimar International’s examples of DMO and asset management

Solimar recognizes the value and importance of DMOs – collaborating with them is a key part of many of our projects. But most importantly, we strategically assist destinations where such institutions are inexistent, but are essential for a sustainable tourism development.

For example, in our current project USAID Visit Tunisia, we are supporting the country in differentiating its tourism offer by promoting six lesser known regions in the country. In most cases, tourism in Tunisia is solely managed by the national tourism organization. The lack of regional DMOs compromises these emerging destinations’ possibility to create and implement a tourism strategy and development plan adequate enough to support the emerging destination and its success.

For this reason, Solimar is assisting these destinations by encouraging and facilitating the dialogue between the public and private sector and the local communities at a regional level. Under the guidance of our expert Solimar team, the local stakeholders are collaborating and drafting destination development plans, which they are also using to advocate for a local DMO to be established with the help of the national tourism organization. Through this project, we are also supporting Destination Dahar, the first DMO in the country.

Why DMOs must monitor tourism impacts

As the tourism market and destinations change and evolve, they create an immediate urge of monitoring the impacts created by the tourism activities. This is crucial to evaluate and manage the change and respond to the challenges.

The main goals of monitoring are:

To understand the effects of tourism
To identify improvements or/and challenges. This will help the future planning and response
To enable destinations to remain competitive

Another aim of monitoring is to find out how strategic goals of the destinations are met and measure the main indicators of the destination development. Monitoring impacts helps DMOs collect data on tourism activities. This facilitates the process of analyzing the tourism impacts and coming up with an adequate response, in particular to the most challenging ones. This way DMOs stay responsible, accountable, and fulfill their strategic goals.

DMOs track positive and negative impacts of tourism

Monitoring tourism impacts covers the following main areas: economic, social and environmental. Tourism impacts can be seen as negative and positive. Growing number of visitors positively contributes to the economic growth within the destination. However, it can also cause some threats to the cultural and natural assets of the destination if not managed and controlled properly. For example, in the case of cultural heritage, not well-managed visitor flows can cause damage to the sites.Or in the case of nature, tourism can cause major environmental challenges.

As seen above, monitoring helps DMOs to evaluate tourism impacts and take the appropriate measures. Various projects implemented by Solimar across the globe cover supporting development of DMOs and naturally, this involves facilitating them to acquire different roles, including monitoring the tourism impacts and effectively responding to it. Solimar’s ongoing project Bangladesh Ecotourism and Conservation Alliance envisages supporting one of the most important protected areas – the Sundarbans. With the project, Solimar works to implement a series of interventions in order to improve tourism and natural resources management in the area. One of the outcomes is creating a local DMO, which will unite the private and public sector and contribute to the conservation of the protected areas through sustainable governance.

So, why must DMOs make this shift?

DMOs facilitate the social and economic development of the destinations. This is especially important in the case of societies where tourism and the economy are in their emerging phase. In this process, fulfilling merely a marketing goal is not enough. Through proper management and leadership, DMOs can create inspiring and attractive destinations that will contribute to their socio-economic growth.

Interested in discovering how Solimar can support the management of your destination? Find more information about our services and training courses. And don’t forget to check out more Solimar blog posts to learn everything about the importance of DMOs: here and here.

Blog by Veronica Santapa and Teona Zhuzhunadze

digital marketing displayed in times square

What is the Value of Digital Destination Marketing?

Written by Lisa Elmes-Bosshard on May 24, 2022. Posted in Blog, Tourism Marketing.

The digital era is synonymous with a time of constant change. Innovations are transforming industries at incredible speed. The travel and tourism industry is no exception. Technology is driving the way in which travellers are searching, accessing and consuming travel content. But how much has the industry changed? Find out below!

According to Wex’s US Travel Trends Report 2019, technology influences the imagination and preparedness of travellers today – this cannot be overstated. More recently, Google Trends insights highlighted that the pandemic has resulted in consumers having even higher digital expectations. They have adopted new digital habits, and changed their online behavior as a result. Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) therefore need to understand the value of digital destination marketing as an essential part of the marketing strategy. Digital is now the norm and a tool to reach consumers around the globe.

Digital marketing refers to all marketing that uses an electronic device or the internet.

But, what is digital destination marketing?

According to HubSpot, digital marketing refers to all marketing that uses an electronic device or the internet. Today, 65% of global travel and tourism sales are made online (Statista 2021), leading digital marketing to be even more important than traditional marketing. DMOs can creatively engage with potential visitors to raise awareness for its products and services, increase visitation, and maximize benefits for all its stakeholders.

Now more than ever, digital destination marketing matters. Destination Management Organisations are facing high competition for tourism dollars. They must not only find the right customers, but they also must standout, inspire, and engage them in the most effective and efficient way. Digital marketing facilitates these goals.

What is the value of digital destination marketing?

1. From local to global

As DMOs look to grow visitation, targeting new geographical markets are a logical step. Digital marketing brings a destination’s products and services to an audience anywhere in the world. Whether prospecting for new visitors using social media campaigns, or launching a paid search campaign, a destination can expand its presence beyond its immediate geographical vicinity.

2. Focused targeting

Using detailed customer data, perhaps from its website, DMOs can position its offering directly in front of its ideal consumer, that is, the audience which is highly likely to be interested. Messages can be personalized to increase the level of engagement with different segments. This reduces the wastage experienced in traditional marketing where one broad message is used to target everyone. Solimar’s work with destinations like Namibia integrates digital platforms in the marketing strategy to enhance the country’s awareness to its targeted audience.

3. Improved measurability

Tracking the results of traditional marketing activity is near impossible. With digital marketing, DMOs can see detailed performance throughout the life of the campaign. They can see precisely which activity is achieving their goals, and use this data to drive revenues and increase profitability.

4. Campaign agility

Due to its very nature, digital campaigns allow companies to make improvements at any point. Close monitoring provides data in real time and adjustments can be made rapidly. As a result, funds are spent smarter with less wastage.

Virtual reality transports travellers to the destination through a multi-sensory experience

What are the top digital marketing trends to inspire a DMO’s strategy in 2022?

1. Everything must be mobile, mobile, mobile

According to 2018 Google research, 45% of US and 48% of UK smartphone users are comfortable using a mobile device to research and book their entire trip to a new travel destination. Therefore, a ‘mobile first’ strategy is essential. DMOs will want to ensure that any action which they inspire consumers to take online, is easy to achieve on a mobile device.

2. Content is King

Content is at the heart of digital marketing. It refers to everything from text and images to video and audio, and more. It has the potential to increase search rankings, drive visibility to the right audience, enhance brand image and build brand authority. As travellers do more streaming and posting of content online, DMOs can reap big rewards with storytelling which showcases the authenticity of its products and services.

3. Go virtual

Accelerated during the pandemic, virtual tours are used to transport travellers through a multi-sensory experience. Viewers get an immersive pre-travel experience without leaving their home. DMOs can really create standout brand experiences with intriguing storytelling and short engaging videos. Even individuals who are unable to travel, can get a flavour of the destination. Virtual reality experiences can support a destination’s sustainable tourism goals, as they reduce the impact of physical footprints in vulnerable locations.

4. The power of video in destination marketing

Videos are powerful. They fully immerse the viewer in a different world more impactfully than images can. Google research cites that 65% of travellers search for travel videos online by destination. DMOs have an opportunity to create content in the format most appealing and likely to be found by potential consumers. Solimar International’s expertise in creating impactful videos was a key part of Jamaica’s successful community tourism programme. Four promotional videos, each showcasing a core theme of the community tourism experience, were launched on social media and other digital channels to raise awareness for the incredible sustainable initiative.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and, more recently, TikTok, are ideal for this. TikTok is now mainstream – with over 1 billion active users, the average user spends 52 minutes per day on the platform. It gets the highest engagement of any social platform and is seeing the 25 – 39 age group as its fastest growing segment. The quality of the content and the collaboration with influencers are the keys to success on this platform. By offering fairly low-cost opportunities for influencers to experience the destination, museum or festival entrance, for example, the content can reach large audiences.

So, why should I care about digital destination marketing?

The value of digital destination marketing is significant. It enables DMOs to promote its products and services to a more targeted audience, it affords the use of cost-effective channels to reach wider geographic markets, and it helps to enrich content. All of these combined drives success for the destination.

Solimar International creates strategic online marketing strategies and social media marketing plans for destinations worldwide, including Rwanda and Tanzania. Interested in how we can help you with destination digital marketing? Contact us to learn more.

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.

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Tag: Destination Marketing