Late last year I wrote a series of articles outlining how destinations can not only stay relevant in the digitised travel environment but effectively position their region against the increasing dominance of OTAs. The objective being to re-capture their region’s digital sovereignty and stem the outflow of booking revenue from their economy to offshore tax [...]
The war in Iran and consequent record fuel prices and shortages has meant booking windows have shortened. In a hyper short-term tourism market, static or ‘stale pricing, clunky booking processes like manual confirmations and outdated listings will cost you bookings, more than ever. We all know as consumers ourselves that there are markets and [...]
As we come into the sharpest peak of the Australian tourism calendar we are all confronting a ‘perfect storm’ of record fuel prices, uncertainty as to whether we can even get fuel and a teetering punch-drunk economy. With Easter, school holidays and ANZAC Day upon us, I wanted to give you my take on [...]
You don’t need a huge budget to improve GEO. Most gains come from making your site clear, structured, and proof-rich, especially on the pages that matter most. Tip 1: Fix the “core truth” on your top pages. Start with your Home page, top 3 product/tour/accommodation pages and your Contact page On each product page, [...]
GEO will change the way traffic arrives at your website and what that traffic expects when it lands. For tourism operators, the biggest shift is that visitors will increasingly arrive already informed, and they’ll be looking for one of two things: confirmation or booking. Here are the most likely impacts you can expect. More [...]
As I wrote in my three-part blog series on AI you don’t need to be an expert in AI, but you do need to understand what it means to your business and how to effectively respond. In this series of three blogs, I’m going to introduce you to an impact of AI that is [...]
I speak to a lot of Small tourism business owners about the importance of marketing. Most sheepishly admit they “should do more marketing” but in today’s world, who has the time? This is where AI shines: not as a magic wand, but as a force multiplier for the time and budget you do have. [...]
In tourism, the ‘last mile’ from looking to booking is where money is either made or lost. AI is starting to quietly speed up, smooth out and personalise this part of the journey. From the perspective of a small tourism business like yours, what’s changing, and how can you harness this momentum without needing [...]
Remember when your tourism business’s online visibility and simply “being found” online meant ranking on page one of Google relied on keeping your website up to date and your OTA listing halfway decent? That’s now not enough because the world, and particularly tourism, is shifting fast. Artificial intelligence (AI) is quietly rewiring how people [...]
With conversion patterns in place, you need payments and trusted plumbing that suits SMEs and lowers risk for your organisation. For too long, most destination DMOs HAVE ceded their strategic marketing role by turning away from the ultimate marketing outcome…conversion of the leads they created. Many DMOs historically avoided handling payments and customer data [...]