If Memorial Day was any indicator of what can be expected for leisure summer travel in 2015, then there is much to celebrate in the tourism industry. AAA estimated that 37.2 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more during the recent holiday weekend (a 4.7% increase from 2014). That’s the highest travel volume for Memorial Day weekend in the past 10 years.
If you’re an attraction with limited marketing dollars to load into the shotgun, below are three tips for capitalizing on record summer 2015 travel expected in the weeks to come:
- Wait for them to come to you.
Every attraction has an opportunity market they’d like to pursue in order to increase attendance. For many of our New England-based destination clients, it is often New York, Boston, or Providence. However, odds are you don’t have the budget to sufficiently cover both your local market and a larger (usually much more expensive) opportunity market. Rather than spreading yourself too thin and losing on both ends, focus your attention and dollars on creating as much frequency as possible in your immediate and surrounding region. If visitors from San Francisco aren’t commonly vacationing in proximity to your destination, your $100K marketing budget isn’t going to be enough to change their travel habits.
- Terrestrial radio is still alive.
Of the 37 million Americans that traveled over Memorial Day weekend, 33 million (89%) drove to their destinations. Regardless of the year, make or model, there is one feature that 99% of those cars shared – a radio. Satellite radio, streaming music, and mobile music devices may continue to chip away at the terrestrial audience, but traditional radio is still king of the highway. According to Pew’s State of the Media report from 2014, 91% of Americans 12 and older still listen to traditional radio at least once a week. Considering more and more Americans are making last minute decisions while traveling, what better medium to use than one that constantly follows them and adapts to their physical location.
- You’re losing business without a mobile website.
I’m likely not the first person in the past month to tell you that your website needs to be mobile-friendly. If the risk of Google’s new algorithm destroying your SEO ranking isn’t enough for you to invest in a mobile website, consider the millions of travelers researching and booking travel on their smartphones and tablets. It’s estimated that in 2015 over 25% of smartphone owners will book travel via phone. That number increases to 50% for tablet users. If updating your website is not in the current budget, find a way to make it happen, because six months or a year down the road will be too late.
Don’t let a summer of record-breaking travel slip by your attraction. Look no further than your own backyard to capture the attention of millions of road warriors without exhausting your media budget.
