Ever wish you could peek into the minds of tourists to see how they plan visits to educational attractions? Where do folks want to go? What moves them there? Do they share their experiences? We thought it would be valuable to get an inside look at the decision-making process, so we conducted a survey of 150 men and women this summer to find out. While we predicted some responses, others came as a surprise. Let’s take a walk through some of the highlights and see how these insights from Summer 2017 can help you improve attraction attendance in 2018. [Full infographic at bottom of post]
Social sharing is still trending hard, but surprisingly, only 39% of respondents said they followed any educational attractions’ social channels. This could be reflective of the attraction’s social site itself. If it doesn’t offer interesting content, it won’t gain followers. The real social value came from the respondents themselves. 80% said they share experiences at attractions on their personal social media pages. Take that stat and make it work for you. Let your visitors double-time as your marketers. Hang signs and install exhibits that encourage photos and social sharing, and you’ll have a league of brand ambassadors sharing on your behalf. Many attractions are already capitalizing on this trend. Have you?
Surprisingly, nearly half of the survey respondents said they are likely to share their experiences on TripAdvisor or Yelp. This means that visitor experience and customer service should be considered a top priority for all attractions. The better experience your visitors have, the more visitors you’ll have in the future. Make sure you are aware of all your attraction’s reviews, good and bad, and set a plan in place for customer service marketing – it goes a long way in creating goodwill.
When it came time to plan an actual visit, a whopping 73% of respondents said they relied on the attraction’s website when researching. This means that your website is still your number one marketing tool – provided it’s up-to-date. A website that’s not optimized for mobile, has a frustrating layout, or lacks valuable content will send visitors elsewhere, fast.
Speaking of content, 70% of respondents were influenced by visual content and video. Furthermore, nearly half were influenced by travel articles. The takeaway? Your digital, social, and email marketing has the potential to capture lots of tourists, provided it’s done right. Take the time to reevaluate your content program as you wrap up 2017.
