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Download The Two Most Important Questions in Evaluating a Travel Experience
A simple model for evaluating consumer satisfaction with travel experiences, destination brands and tourism marketing efforts.
Download It's a Hard Knock Life
Packaged goods marketers have an easy life compared to the folks involved in tourism marketing and destination branding.
Download The Drag Queen Theory of Tourism Marketing
Up-selling is one of the keys to increasing revenues in tourism marketing, but what do you do when your base product is already meeting the needs of consumers?
The Two Most Important Questions in Evaluating a Tourism Experience
Short of conducting a fulll-fledged survey, how can you keep tabs on how your tourism experience is being received by customers?
The simple question "Would you recommend us to a friend?" is often cited as being an easy to gather and powerful indicator of consumer satisfaction. The question provides an important data point, but it's not a great diagnostic tool, especially in the tourism industry.
If consumers buy a can of soup but say they wouldn't recommend it to their friends, you can be pretty sure you have a product problem. It's a comparatively one-dimensional experience. But if consumers say they wouldn't recommend your travel experience to their friends, you're going to have to do some further digging to figure out where the problem lies - and it might not be with your "product."
At its core, reaction to a tourism experience is based on two factors: what you expect the experience to be and your enjoyment of the actual experience.
What consumers expect an experience to be is shaped by everything they've heard about your product and their experience (if any) with similar products. Often, the image they've built up in their mind -- coloured by pop culture, history, the evening news and the opinions of friends and family -- may bear little resemblance to the reality of your product. But to the consumer, if that image isn't matched by the actual experience, they may come away feeling your product was not "authentic."
Authenticity is a big topic in tourism circles and the real experts are elsewhere, but the important thing to remember is that "tourists don't visit the reality of a destination - they visit the stereotype that exists in their head."
If, for example, a tourist comes to Montreal expecting "Mountains, Mounties and Moose" they're likely to go home feeling they didn't have an "authentic" Canadian experience. The reality of their visit didn't live up to their perception of the brand.
It's why consumers will rate a good experience at a two-star hotel better than an only average experience at a 5-star hotel. The experience at the 5-star hotel may still have been better than that of the 2-star hotel, but the consumer's expectations prior to staying at the 5-star hotel were much higher.
Which brings us to the first of our two most important questions in evaluating a tourism experience:
- Was it what you expected?
The second most important question in evaluation a tourism experience is just as simple:
- Did you enjoy your experience?
Here's how it works:
- Consumers will respond in one of four ways:
- The experience was what they expected and they enjoyed it;
- The experience was what they expected but they didn't enjoy it;
- The experience wasn't what they expected, and they didn't enjoy it; or
- The experience wasn't what they expected, but they enjoyed it anyway.
Now you've got your diagnostic tool.
If most of your customers fall into the top left quadrant (the experience was what they expected and they enjoyed it), you're in great shape. Keep making improvements on what you're already doing to get more of your customers into the happy group.
If a large percentage of your customer fit into the lower right quadrant (wasn't what they expected and they didn't enjoy it), you've got a problem. Your brand is making a promise that your product can't deliver (and by "brand" we mean whatever the consumer believed to be true about you and the category of business in which you operate). You can either re-configure your marketing program to be true to your actual product or re-configure your product to be true to consumer expectations. Take a look at what Wales is doing for a great example of the former.
If the bulk of your customers fall into the lower left quadrant (it wasn't what they expected, but they enjoyed it anyway), your product is probably fine but your brand isn't correctly positioned or at the very least is under-leveraged -- and you may be sitting on an untapped marketing goldmine. These are the customers who have real potential to become advocates for your brand - the folks who will spread positive word of mouth - because they've been surprised by your experience in a positive way.
Customers who fall into the upper right quadrant (it was what they expected, but they didn't enjoy it) are the most difficult to figure out. Your immediate reaction might be "if you knew what you were getting into, what's your problem?" but the answer probably lies in one of three areas:
- They may have been traveling with someone else who was attracted to your experience and only came along reluctantly;
- Your overall experience may have delivered on what they expected but one or two "moments of truth" let them down and negatively afftected their overall enjoyment; or
- They may have reluctantly picked you by
default (e.g. yours was the last available hotel room or the restaurant
they wanted to visit was closed).
Why I'm Not Worried About Global Warming
(The World Islands, Dubai)
Simply put, I believe the Saudi's will save us. Not because they necessarily believe Global Warming is an issue, but because they believe making money is a good thing. The Saudi's and their friends in Dubai are taking much of their oil riches and investing it in the tourism industry.
Why? Because (as they've been quoted as saying), they know that one day the oil will run out and they need to begin the process of diversifying their economy now in order to maintain their wealth in the future. The Crown Princes and their families now own major hotel and resort chains (including Raffles and Fairmont) and are heavily involved in projects of staggering proportions such as The World Islands in Dubai.
Here's the disconnect and the clue to why we should rely on the Saudi's to save us all -- when "the oil runs out", how do they expect travelers to get to the opulent palaces they've invested in all over the world? And would they really invest in re-shaping the coastline of Dubai only to have it covered by a melting ice cap?
As my future Egyptian mother-in-law is fond of saying, "om el arousa" -- which I believe translates as either "momma didn't raise no dummies" or "stay away from my daughter." Let's go with the former and assume the Saudi's have a plan to keep us all mobile when the oil wells begin to burp. Like the World Islands, it's a nice little fantasy.
(The World Islands, Dubai)
Simply put, I believe the Saudi's will save us. Not because they necessarily believe Global Warming is an issue, but because they believe making money is a good thing. The Saudi's and their friends in Dubai are taking much of their oil riches and investing it in the tourism industry.
Why? Because (as they've been quoted as saying), they know that one day the oil will run out and they need to begin the process of diversifying their economy now in order to maintain their wealth in the future. The Crown Princes and their families now own major hotel and resort chains (including Raffles and Fairmont) and are heavily involved in projects of staggering proportions such as The World Islands in Dubai.
Here's the disconnect and the clue to why we should rely on the Saudi's to save us all -- when "the oil runs out", how do they expect travelers to get to the opulent palaces they've invested in all over the world? And would they really invest in re-shaping the coastline of Dubai only to have it covered by a melting ice cap?
As my future Egyptian mother-in-law is fond of saying, "om el arousa" -- which I believe translates as either "momma didn't raise no dummies" or "stay away from my daughter." Let's go with the former and assume the Saudi's have a plan to keep us all mobile when the oil wells begin to burp. Like the World Islands, it's a nice little fantasy.
I Will Look On Your Treasures
(Most Glorious Nation)
I'm not sure any of this will make much sense, but recent events involving Kazakhstan, Australia, Newfoundland and Victoria BC have got me thinking about a bunch of things. Mostly about how the things that make a place a wonderful home aren't always the same things that make it a great place to visit, and how local communities often have a hard time reconciling their own self-perceptions with the images that make their community of interest to visitors.
Kazakhstan is up in arms over the Borat movie and while a superficial read of the movie might lead you to describe it as an unflattering portrayal of Kazakhs, it was also a fascinating one. (If the movie left you with the impression that most Kazakhs live with a cow in their front parlour you should probably stop reading this and check your email to see if that big cheque from a former Nigerian prince has come in yet).
Prior to Borat, Kazakhstan was known only for... umm... nothing comes to mind. It was just another one of those places ending in -stan that seemed to have closed up shop after the fall of the Berlin wall. Thanks to Borat, I now hear people singing the ersatz Kazakh national anthem in my office.
I've written elsewhere about the dangers of using controversy and sensationalism to promote a brand, but the real lesson here is how to leverage events that are outside your control. When a YouTube video surfaced showing the explosive power of Mentos mints dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke, the Coca Cola brand distanced themselves from the experiment while Mentos embraced it. The video was viewd by millions and spawned dozens of copy-cat videos. Diet Coke missed the boat -- Mentos reinforced its quirky creds.
Rightly or wrongly, the fact is that Borat has raised the world's awareness of the Kazakhstan brand. Rather than rail against his satirical portrayal of Kazakhs, the country's tourism authority should be figuring out how to capitalise on their new-found fame. In an age when most destinations are struggling to differentiate themselves, Kazakhstan has been branded as something very different indeed. Instead of going into crisis mode, they should take the opportunity to showcase their unique way of life and their culture. As a country with a rather spotty record on human rights, any opportunity to get a more positive message out should be welcomed, rather than reacting like one would expect from a former member of the Soviet Union.
Folks with a keen interest in natural history might discover that the vast steppes of Kazakhstan were where humans first domesticated the horse (I found that on Wikipedia so it must be true). Travelers hoping to immerse themselves in a foreign culture will find a rich mixture of ancient ethnic groups who all share a warm spirit of independence and self-reliance.
Intrigued, we turn to the official Kazakhstan Tourism website to uncover the truth about this vast and mysterious land. A few excerpts:
Seriously, though, I want to go. And I can't even pick out Kazakhstan on a map.
Brutal Honesty, Beautifully Told
One of the dangers in relying too heavily on traditional research to position a destination is that every destination does the same research, achieves similar results, and ends up chasing after the same "Top 10" list of things consumers say they're looking for in a vacation.
Leaf through your favorite travel magazine and count the number of destinations claiming to offer some combination of: variety, city and country adventure, world-class dining, shopping and luxury hotels. The classic tourism ad is a patchwork of images showing a couple in a restuarant, some sort of cultural activity (often dancers), a guy golfing and the exterior of a hotel. Fluff up the pillows and chill the champagne because we've nailed the top activites on the list and everyone's going to be beating down our doors, right?
Wrong. Most often, in any category, the top criteria expressed by consumers are essentially the price of entry items. If you get a check beside each item they might take a look at you -- of you don't, they're probably going to move on (unless you offer them something special that's not even on the list).
The trap most marketers fall into is to try and be "better" than their competition at meeting the top 10 criteria.
But consumers, especially when they travel, are looking for something different, not just better. And when faced with the challenge of trying to discern which brand is "better" on a range of criteria, different will win out every time.
The other difficulty in judging yourself against a conventional set of criteria is that you may not, in fact, be very good at offering what's on the list. And that can be a beautiful thing. Because if being better simply isn't a choice, you're left with no option but to be different. For many destinations, the decision to be different comes only after a long period of struggling and not being honest with themselves as they chase the same conventional criteria. But out of that despair can be born a beautiful truth.
Take the case of Wales and one of my favorite destination campaigns. I've never been to Wales and I've never really imagined there was much to do there. Conventional destination marketing would say that they should launch an energetic campaign to tell me about the wide variety of things there are to see and do in the North country. But the crafty Welsh were smarter than that. Rather than engage the consumer in an argument challenging their perceptions of Wales, they decided to leverage their perceived weakness and re-frame it as a benefit to the consumer and a wonderfully different experience.
Miles and miles of undeveloped countryside becomes a chance for a peaceful escape from the headaches of modern society.
A lack of "modern conveniences" becomes a statement of authenticity and cultural pride.
A less diversified retail scene becomes an opportunity for adventure and discovery.
Wales found the brutal truth in their brand and turned it into a differentiating brand position. Instead of trying to convince the consumer that they were as good as their competitors, they focused on what makes Wales special. Turning a seeming weakness into a competitive strength is counter-intuitive, but it's sometimes the best place to look for your point of difference.
(Most Glorious Nation)
I'm not sure any of this will make much sense, but recent events involving Kazakhstan, Australia, Newfoundland and Victoria BC have got me thinking about a bunch of things. Mostly about how the things that make a place a wonderful home aren't always the same things that make it a great place to visit, and how local communities often have a hard time reconciling their own self-perceptions with the images that make their community of interest to visitors.
Kazakhstan is up in arms over the Borat movie and while a superficial read of the movie might lead you to describe it as an unflattering portrayal of Kazakhs, it was also a fascinating one. (If the movie left you with the impression that most Kazakhs live with a cow in their front parlour you should probably stop reading this and check your email to see if that big cheque from a former Nigerian prince has come in yet).
Prior to Borat, Kazakhstan was known only for... umm... nothing comes to mind. It was just another one of those places ending in -stan that seemed to have closed up shop after the fall of the Berlin wall. Thanks to Borat, I now hear people singing the ersatz Kazakh national anthem in my office.
I've written elsewhere about the dangers of using controversy and sensationalism to promote a brand, but the real lesson here is how to leverage events that are outside your control. When a YouTube video surfaced showing the explosive power of Mentos mints dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke, the Coca Cola brand distanced themselves from the experiment while Mentos embraced it. The video was viewd by millions and spawned dozens of copy-cat videos. Diet Coke missed the boat -- Mentos reinforced its quirky creds.
Rightly or wrongly, the fact is that Borat has raised the world's awareness of the Kazakhstan brand. Rather than rail against his satirical portrayal of Kazakhs, the country's tourism authority should be figuring out how to capitalise on their new-found fame. In an age when most destinations are struggling to differentiate themselves, Kazakhstan has been branded as something very different indeed. Instead of going into crisis mode, they should take the opportunity to showcase their unique way of life and their culture. As a country with a rather spotty record on human rights, any opportunity to get a more positive message out should be welcomed, rather than reacting like one would expect from a former member of the Soviet Union.
Folks with a keen interest in natural history might discover that the vast steppes of Kazakhstan were where humans first domesticated the horse (I found that on Wikipedia so it must be true). Travelers hoping to immerse themselves in a foreign culture will find a rich mixture of ancient ethnic groups who all share a warm spirit of independence and self-reliance.
Intrigued, we turn to the official Kazakhstan Tourism website to uncover the truth about this vast and mysterious land. A few excerpts:
Wa-wa-wee-wa! A sort of polo game played with a dead goat? How did that end up on the cutting room floor?"The women's national costume consists of a white cotton or colored silk dress, a velvet waistcoat with embroidery and a cap or a silk scarf. Elderly women wear a hood made of white cloth with a hole for the face (the kimeshek). Brides wear a tall pointed, richly decorated hat, topped with feathers (saukele)."
"The yurt is a sensible movable house for central Asia's nomads. It is a comfortable and practical home, ideally suited to the local conditions and way of life. It is easily taken apart (it is said that a Kazakh woman can do it in half an hour) and carried on horses and camels."
"National games. These are usually performed on horse-back and are an opportunity to witness the Kazakh's outstanding riding skills. The games baiga (horse racing over 25, 50 or 100 km), kokpar (a sort of polo game played with a dead goat), kyz-kuu (catch the girl) and alty bakan (six-pole swing) can all be viewed during the summer and particularly on holidays."
Seriously, though, I want to go. And I can't even pick out Kazakhstan on a map.
Brutal Honesty, Beautifully Told
One of the dangers in relying too heavily on traditional research to position a destination is that every destination does the same research, achieves similar results, and ends up chasing after the same "Top 10" list of things consumers say they're looking for in a vacation.
Leaf through your favorite travel magazine and count the number of destinations claiming to offer some combination of: variety, city and country adventure, world-class dining, shopping and luxury hotels. The classic tourism ad is a patchwork of images showing a couple in a restuarant, some sort of cultural activity (often dancers), a guy golfing and the exterior of a hotel. Fluff up the pillows and chill the champagne because we've nailed the top activites on the list and everyone's going to be beating down our doors, right?
Wrong. Most often, in any category, the top criteria expressed by consumers are essentially the price of entry items. If you get a check beside each item they might take a look at you -- of you don't, they're probably going to move on (unless you offer them something special that's not even on the list).
The trap most marketers fall into is to try and be "better" than their competition at meeting the top 10 criteria.
But consumers, especially when they travel, are looking for something different, not just better. And when faced with the challenge of trying to discern which brand is "better" on a range of criteria, different will win out every time.
The other difficulty in judging yourself against a conventional set of criteria is that you may not, in fact, be very good at offering what's on the list. And that can be a beautiful thing. Because if being better simply isn't a choice, you're left with no option but to be different. For many destinations, the decision to be different comes only after a long period of struggling and not being honest with themselves as they chase the same conventional criteria. But out of that despair can be born a beautiful truth.
Take the case of Wales and one of my favorite destination campaigns. I've never been to Wales and I've never really imagined there was much to do there. Conventional destination marketing would say that they should launch an energetic campaign to tell me about the wide variety of things there are to see and do in the North country. But the crafty Welsh were smarter than that. Rather than engage the consumer in an argument challenging their perceptions of Wales, they decided to leverage their perceived weakness and re-frame it as a benefit to the consumer and a wonderfully different experience.
Miles and miles of undeveloped countryside becomes a chance for a peaceful escape from the headaches of modern society.
A lack of "modern conveniences" becomes a statement of authenticity and cultural pride.
A less diversified retail scene becomes an opportunity for adventure and discovery.
Wales found the brutal truth in their brand and turned it into a differentiating brand position. Instead of trying to convince the consumer that they were as good as their competitors, they focused on what makes Wales special. Turning a seeming weakness into a competitive strength is counter-intuitive, but it's sometimes the best place to look for your point of difference.