The New Age of Tourism
By Roger Brooks
Before she met the wizard, Dorothy lived with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in a black and white Kansas. When a tornado dropped Dorothy - house and all - into the Land of Oz, the dust settled, she opened her front door, and the world was in brilliant Technicolor. Dorothy picked up her dog and said, "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. We must be over the rainbow!" There was no mistaking Oz - it was as different from Kansas as Disneyland is from, well, Kansas.
Any community trying to attract more visitors needs to be a little like Oz. They need to take visitors over the rainbow to a new place, providing them with activities significantly different from what they can find closer to home. They need to tell the world how they're truly unique and worth a special trip. That image, the vision that sets one community apart from all others, is its brand, and branding a community is critical to its success in creating an outstanding downtown destination and increasing tourism spending.
Attracting more visitors hasn't always required such emphasis on being unique. What's brought us to this situation is three-fold: a change in the international psyche, the state of the economy, and the plight of travel.
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Relevancy in Research:
What's Important for Your Destination
By John Kelsh and Jane Brooks
If you're planning a vacation to somewhere you've never been before, perhaps Tibet, you're sure to do plenty of research before you decide where to stay and what to do while you're there. You'd want to find out about security issues, language barriers, health concerns, transportation, monetary exchange rates, local customs, technology in terms of cell phones and internet access, and voltages for your electric gear. Without doing ample research, your vacation wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable; in fact, it could be disastrous.
But, in doing all your research for a trip to Tibet, you probably wouldn't feel the need to find out about lodging in Paris, or the exchange rate in Brazil. That type of research just wouldn't apply to your needs.
The same principles apply to branding and marketing your community as a destination. Solid research must be the foundation for developing a community brand, but the research must be relevant. When you purchase data, statistics or trends, you should know how those numbers apply to your needs, how those statistics affect your planning, and how those trends will influence your decisions. If you're going to spend time and money on research data, you want that data to help you reach your goals.
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