The other day, I was talking to a group of people who had created a tourism committee for our local region. His job was to get people from other regions to come and spend their money, enjoy the sights and things to do. There are many activities in our area, and it attracts a lot of people from outside the area. However, it occurred to me that they were spending all kinds of money in nearby counties and even other states. They were involved with all kinds of other groups and associations and travel networks. Okay, so let’s talk about this for a moment, okay?
That’s great, but that can also be quite expensive. What she had recommended was that they also focus on the local area, maybe even first. After all, in the nearby area there are millions of people along the California coast here. It seems like we should get people who are local to enjoy what’s available and then come back and tell all their friends, talk about it on their Facebook page and refer others to our area through word of mouth. local. Once the referral process gets going and tends to go viral online, now we are talking.
Interestingly, the tourism committee thought they knew what they were doing and understood the value of promoting “buy local” or the “stay home” concept, but they didn’t quite get it, so I had to explain everything to them. You’d be surprised how much local communities will support local tourist attractions if you give them a chance and invite them to participate. Whenever friends or family from another area visit, they will take you to local sights and attractions. After a while the word spreads, and people like to come more often, telling their friends in other areas.
The reality is that a tourism economic development committee does not have to spend a huge amount of money covering the country with national advertising, or publishing all the brochures and magazines abroad to seek out international travelers. The reality is that 6 degrees of separation is probably down to 3 now because of the internet, that’s enough people and it makes sense to start a whirlwind in your local area, in your own backyard to get things rolling. Before you go and spend a lot of money on big marketing campaigns outside of your regional area, I hope you will consider all of this and think about it.