Tourism has undergone massive changes along with advances in digital technology. The concept of digital tourism has emerged as an effort to integrate technology in the marketing and promotion of tourist attractions.
By harnessing the power of digital platforms, businesses can effectively promote their travel destinations to a global audience, driving engagement and ultimately increasing revenue.
What is digital tourism?
Digital tourism is the use of digital technology in all aspects of tourism, from marketing, reservations, to the tourism experience itself.
This includes the use of the internet, social media, mobile apps and other technologies to increase the visibility and accessibility of tourist attractions.
The changing significance lies in the ability to reach a global audience, interact with potential travelers, and offer personalized experiences.
Benefits of Digital Tourism Strategy
Implementing a digital tourism strategy provides benefits for developing tourism businesses in the digital era. The benefits obtained include the following:
1. Increase Visibility and Accessibility
With an effective digital strategy, tourist attractions can be more easily found by potential tourists from various parts of the world.
2. Increased Visitor Engagement
Interesting and interactive digital content can build visitor engagement and motivate them to visit the tourist attraction.
3. Better Analysis and Decision Making
Digital data can provide valuable insights into visitor behavior, preferences and trends, which can be used to improve travel experiences and optimize future marketing strategies.
Digital Tourism Strategy for Promotion of Tourist Attractions in the Digital Era
In the digital era, businesses can utilize various marketing strategies to promote tourist destinations effectively. Here are some Digital Tourism Strategy Tips:
1. Create a Website
Before going on vacation, most people do research about the location they want to visit. Having a website is an important step for a business, where information such as location, costs, facilities, prices, live chat services, and even hotel bookings can be accessed.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
To increase website visitor traffic, search engine optimization (SEO) is the right step. SEO is an effort to optimize a website to rank better in search engine search results.
3. Google Ads
Google Ads can be a solution for displaying paid advertisements on search pages like Google. By using Google Ads, you can reach more customers and increase your business visibility online.
4. Google Business Profile
Having a complete and verified business profile on Google Business is also important because it will help increase your company's visibility in Google search results and Google Maps.
5. YouTube Ads
YouTube is the largest video platform in the world, which can be used as an effective medium to reach customers. Through Youtube Ads, you can show video ads to potential customers.
6. Social Media Management
With the majority of Indonesians being active on social media such as Instagram and Facebook, social media management has become important. You can reach more customers by leveraging this platform for your hospitality business.
7. Selling Tickets Online
Selling tickets online is also an important strategy for tourist destination businesses. By providing online ticket booking services through your website, customers can easily plan and book their tickets before arriving.
Digital tourism is more than just a simple reservation
Considering that digital tourism is indeed an important contributor to the economy, there is something that needs to be clarified.
When we talk about digital tourism, we should not make the mistake of assuming that the digital component only plays a role in booking and paying for travel, accommodation or transport. Instead, digital transformation is realized in all phases of the journey, following the path that travelers take in their customer experience step by step.
The internet is now an important component of the experience every tourist has when deciding to travel. From searching to purchasing, from writing a review to publishing it: at least one of these actions is performed online by every traveler during their vacation. As a traveler, you can imagine how pervasive and influential the digital component is in all these activities.
TripAdvisor is a great example. For some time, the world's most famous restaurant and hotel review platform has been a permanent reference point for travelers: when you visit a new city or want to try a new restaurant, one of the first things travelers will do is browse TripAdvisor and read other travelers' reviews.
In other words, what was once analog word of mouth has been replaced by digital word of mouth that is in some ways much more effective. In fact, as shown by Oxford University's research company Oxford Economics, TripAdvisor is actually able to influence the majority of activities carried out by tourists. In 2017, the platform has played a key role in increasing travel, encouraging travelers to spend 15% more, thereby driving the equivalent of $80 billion into the sector, to date with nearly over one million reviews.
However, digital tourism is not just about easier booking, sharing images on social media, or a marketing tool enhanced by digital devices.
Digital tourism also represents a new approach to the types of experiences that professionals in the sector can offer tourists.
For example, through the Internet of Things (IoT), you can host guests in a smart room, which can react to simple voice movements of the guest, who in this way, has a personal virtual assistant who can immediately fulfill all his needs and requests. Or think about the use of Big Data, which is a useful strategic tool for small hotels as well as airlines and large travel sites.
Thanks to Big Data all these operators can perfectly profile their clients and build highly personalized offers that suit their characteristics and preferences. After all, it is no secret that tourists 2.0, namely tourists in the era of digital transformation, expect this from the companies they do business with. Today's travelers expect experiences that are unique and personal, digital and memorable at the same time.
When explored further, digital transformation is not only “changing the tourism business”, introducing useful tools and technologies for those who want to develop and enrich their business, but also changing tourists and their priorities permanently.
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