If you want the world to change, become this change.
Mahatma Gandhi
Any obstacle is overcome with persistence.
Leonardo da Vinci
Foreword
How do we attract tourists? How not to get lost against the background of thousands of offers from other cities and countries? How can you convince Russians that you can rest comfortably in Russia too, and that a small town far from Russian capitals is not necessarily a "hole"?
As the practice of recent years shows, these questions can be heard at all conferences, round tables and forums dedicated to the development of tourism in Russia. They are also heard during our conversations with representatives of local and regional administrations from different parts of the country. And these issues concern not only officials, but also heads of travel agencies, owners of hotels and restaurants, directors of museums, sanatoriums and even local residents who rent out their living space to vacationers ...
So what do you do? "Take an example from Myshkin!" - this dangerous advice is repeated like a worn-out record, all sorts of "gurus". Myshkin is a wonderful city, but, firstly, its strategy will not suit everyone (there are about 6 thousand inhabitants in Myshkin), and secondly, it is pointless to copy the tip of the iceberg without seeing and understanding everything that is hidden from the eyes in thicker than water.
Three or four years ago, participants in tourism exhibitions representing Russian cities and regions said: "We would only have money for advertising, and people will come to us!" The money was allocated, the tourists did not go ... Today there is a more professional understanding that attracting tourists is not so much an advertisement as a whole system of tasks, which need to be addressed at the territorial level. And this book is a story about who and how should solve these problems, what mistakes and pitfalls can be here, what resources can be used in work and how to highlight accents. And of course, examples of success.
The book “How to attract tourists and become a tourist brand in Russia” is based on an analysis of the experience accumulated in Russia and the CIS, both successful and unsuccessful, as well as the experience of some foreign countries in the development of tourism and promotion of the territory in the tourism market. In addition, the material for the book was some observations and conclusions made while working on the projects of the consulting company "Konkretika".
This book is methodical, sometimes unpleasant and even offensive, because it tells not only about the possibilities and hidden potential of Russian cities and regions, but also about their typical mistakes and shortcomings. But the main value of the book, in my opinion, is concrete practical recommendations explaining WHAT need to do and HOW to do, as well as 420 real-life examples that provide rich ground for your own ideas and solutions.
I hope this book will be your assistant in your work. Enjoy your reading!
Nadezhda Makatrova,
director of the consulting company "Konkretika"
Chapter 1
Travel brand: to be or not to be?
Fate leads the one who wants to go, but the one who does not want to go, it drags him.
Cleanthes, ancient Greek philosopher (IV-111 centuries BC)
In the Soviet Union, they did not hear about brands. But at the same time, all the citizens of our vast and multinational country firmly knew that:
If you want to go to the sea, then you have to go to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus or to the Crimea. With small children - to Anapa or Evpatoria;
If there are no vouchers to the Black Sea, then - to the Azov, to Yeisk;
The intelligentsia preferred the Baltics;
If you need to heal, the direct road to the sanatorium of the Caucasian Mineral Waters;
For fans of excursions and cultural and historical values - Moscow, Leningrad, the cities of the Golden Ring and, perhaps, also Pskov and Novgorod;
Military-patriotic education - Volgograd with its famous Mamayev Kurgan.
All Soviet people also knew about Baikal and Kamchatka, but they did not even dream of getting there - the flight was too expensive, a simple Soviet family could not afford. These are the real travel brands, created, by the way, with the powerful support of the state ...
Of course, there were many other interesting places and routes in the USSR - "hits" of the district and regional scale, where excursion groups from schools, universities, enterprises and institutions were continuously sent, but they could not compete with the all-Union "giants".
25 years have passed since perestroika ...
Today, looking at the MITT or Intourmarket exhibition in Moscow, you can see hundreds, if not thousands, of new tourist sites and routes throughout the country at the stands. One is better than the other, with intriguing descriptions and amazing photographs. It would seem that new times are new names.
No matter how it is!
Ask an ordinary Russian what cities or resorts in our country he considers the most popular with tourists, and you will most likely get the same list. True, Crimea and the Baltic states (as abroad) will have to be deleted from it, and St. Petersburg will take the place of Leningrad. Let the interlocutor include foreign resorts in the list, and Turkey and Egypt are guaranteed to get into the first line. I'm talking about mass routes. Alpine skiers will habitually call Elbrus, fishermen - Astrakhan.
"How so? Why? The tourist potential of Russia is not limited to 10-15 popular routes ?! We have two orders of magnitude more! " - one of the readers will be indignant. The potential may not be limited, but the perception of the tourist, according to the laws of marketing, alas, is not rubber. The law states: the number of bright, memorable images on the market is limited. I recommend that you re-read the highlighted phrase two more times.
It only seems at first glance that it is enough to come up with "something original", and you will be noticed. You can think of anything you want, but here's the question:
- Will they remember this (against the background of competitors' proposals)?
- Will they buy it (by comparing different offers)? And buy more than one season, but at least ten years in a row.
For clarity, here are two useful analogies.
1. Each class has its own "excellent student", "poor student", "clown", "sportsman", its own "beauty". And sometimes - his "outcast" (remember the movie "Scarecrow"). It is very problematic to characterize all other children in terms of their role in the classroom.
2. In the 90s, many different shops and shops were opened in Russian cities, and today most of them "died", giving way to network players. By the way, in Europe, about 80% of goods are sold through chain stores.
What is the conclusion in relation to tourism?
In five years, a new pool of travel brands of all-Russian importance will be formed in Russia. It is clear that Moscow and St. Petersburg will automatically retain their leading positions due to their exceptional starting opportunities (just as there are three main TV channels in the country and ... all the others). Resorts on our warm seas will also be in a privileged position (unless a sharp climate change occurs). And who else will be included in the list of the strongest is still in question ...
If the heads of the city and regions mentioned at the beginning had been actively developing during the 25 years of perestroika, and had not relied on the tourist resources accumulated over the previous decades, then everyone else would not have been destined to catch up with them in the foreseeable future. However, the development was remembered only 5-7 years ago, thus giving a chance to their neighbors.
The importance of getting into the leader pool is illustrated by the Zipf (Zipf) curve
Picture 1
Zipf (Zipf) distribution
Those cities and regions that find themselves in the tail of this curve may not count on anything serious ... Perhaps they do not need this, and tourism for them is like birch sap in an ordinary grocery store: they hardly take it, but for the assortment there is ...
At the same time, our conversations with representatives of local and regional administrations indicate that in many parts of Russia they take tourism seriously, hoping with its help to give a new impetus to the development of the territory and replenish the budget. For this purpose, short-term and long-term programs are being developed everywhere, new travel brands are announced, advertising catalogs are printed, exhibitions and presentations are held, journalists are invited, etc.
Why can't many cities and regions make a leap forward and significantly increase the tourist flow? What needs to be changed at work? A detailed answer to these questions will be devoted to the subsequent chapters of the book, and here I will only outline the key points.
1. Cities and regions, like people, have desires, but there is “heredity” and “natural inclinations”. When choosing a new image, the second is useful to take into account. It is difficult for a tall teenager to become an outstanding Formula 1 pilot or a single skater - long legs get in the way. And in volleyball or basketball, tall stature, on the contrary, is useful. The same principle applies to territories. You can argue with nature, but it's expensive, and not everyone has the patience. (Read more about the influence of territorial characteristics on the creation and promotion of brands in Chapters 2 and 3.)
2. A brand without reference to its target audience is doomed. The strength of a travel brand is not determined by the size of the advertising budget or the number of advertising products and the big name of a PR agency that came up with slogans and logos. A good brand is, first of all, a good idea, that is, an idea that makes a given object interesting for a specific target audience. And this target audience should clearly understand why this object is better for it than others. In other words, a strong idea in itself forms the target tourist flow. (For more on positioning and targeting segments, see Chapters 4 and 5.)
3. We need not single solutions, but a system (!) Of solutions.
Fact: in a highly competitive environment, single successful finds are copied "for the next season." Therefore, a strong brand, in addition to the key idea, implies a system of accompanying solutions - it works better at attracting tourists, and it is more difficult to copy it.
Have you ever attended a well-organized wedding? What about a poorly organized one? The difference between the first and the second is that at a good wedding, guests enjoy the process without thinking about anything. They have already thought about everything for them. At a poorly organized wedding, guests bicker with the toastmaster, either look for something to do, or struggle with the consequences of their own or other people's activities. The region is, of course, not a wedding, but the principle of consistency is the same here: big things are made up of little things. (For more information on creating tourist sites and useful additional services for tourists, see Chapters 6, 7 and 8.)
4. Interference - inertia of thinking and lack of feedback. Often, residents, day after day contemplating their hometown, town or village, cannot break out of the framework of established stereotypes and look at places dear to their hearts through the eyes of a visiting person ... he thinks wider - he is out of the pan. ”) If managers of tourist facilities, as well as local and regional authorities from time to time asked the opinion of tourists, travel agencies, investors, as well as consultants about the attractiveness or unattractiveness of their territory, many problems could have been avoided. And invented slogans and brand ideas would not cause a sympathetic smile. (You will learn more about the stereotypes of tourists and travel agencies regarding holidays in Russia in Chapters 9 and 10.)
5. To promote a brand you need not so much money as a working head. In a sense, Russian cities and regions are lucky: there is foreign experience in promoting tourist sites. There are marketing techniques that are successfully used in the most progressive industries, for example, in retail trade, telecommunications, etc., including in Russia. Therefore, channels and means of promotion should be chosen critically, and not rely on the advice of a "familiar" advertising agency, which makes money not on real attraction of tourists, but only on advertising. Remember, as in the monologue of the genius Mikhail Zhvanetsky:
“For five thousand rubles, he somehow interrupted. I was already suffering for ten thousand rubles. But he felt a real need when he began to receive sixty thousand rubles. "
(Read more about effective ways to promote tourism potential in Chapter 11.)
6. A brand is not created by one person or his team. It is a product of the entire territory as a whole. A brand idea or a promotion concept can be developed by one or more professionals in the field of territory promotion. This is fine. But turning ideas on paper into a working brand requires the participation of both the authorities and the local business community, and the involvement of local residents, and not only the initiatives of travel agencies, museums, hotels and restaurants. A tourist will not be delighted with brand new lanterns if they illuminate a trash heap or a broken road; if homeless people are sleeping next to a modern hotel, and curious local teenagers opened the car left in the parking lot, taking part of the contents of the cabin as a souvenir. This is a complex work for years to come. (For more information on interaction between the tourist industry, authorities and local residents, see chapters 12 and 13.)
Yes, travel brands are not as simple as we would like ...
Unlike sales of everyday products (tea, sausage, bread), here you need to build a strategy for years to come, and then achieve its step-by-step implementation. Is it possible otherwise? It is possible, but it will resemble Brownian motion ... And your neighbors-competitors will learn from your mistakes.
It has its own rules of the game and its own methods of work, somewhat similar, but somewhat different from other spheres of the economy, so you will have to master a new area of knowledge - marketing of territories.
And I want to end this introductory chapter with words from Holy Scripture, partly consonant with the ideas expressed above: “So the last will be the first and the first will be the last, for many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 20:16; 22:14).
So it's time to roll up your sleeves ...
Chapter 2
On the marketing objectives of tourism development
We rarely fully understand what we really want.
François de La Rochefoucauld, French thinker and politician of the 17th century
It is believed that a correctly set task is a half-solved task. If we analyze the situation with the attraction of tourists and the creation of tourism brands in our country, we will find that the task of "developing tourism" with the same wording carries a different meaning for different cities and regions. There are, of course, common subtasks for all: in particular, increasing the recognition of specific tourist sites, positioning the territory in the tourist market, or detaching it from competing neighbors. But there are also special tasks that depend on the level of tourism development in the region, on the image of the region in the eyes of Russians, on those guidelines that the territorial authorities have set for themselves in the field of tourism. If we take the experience of tourism development in the territory as a basis and analyze the tasks that arise at different stages, then we can conditionally divide all territories into five groups:
Group 1. "Old Guard". These are the regions and municipalities that Russians strongly associate with certain types of tourism, where a steady tourist flow has formed over many decades. These include the cities of the Golden Ring, the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory and the Caucasian Mineral Waters, Dombay and Priel-brusye, Karelia, Altai, Baikal, of course, Moscow and St. Petersburg and a number of other territories and natural objects. The promotion of these territories has been actively carried out since Soviet times, but they also have an urgent need to develop new types of tourism, create new attractions, improve the level of service, etc. For what? In order to prevent energetic competitors from “pilfering” their tourist flow, as well as to increase tourism revenues. Marketing tasks relevant for this group of territories are presented in Table 1.
Table No. 1
The solution to each of the listed tasks is not limited to advertising and PR, but implies a whole list of interrelated activities, including organizational and technical. It will be useful to solve the above tasks for territories from other groups, but for them they are not priority ones.
Group 2. "Hidden Reserve". This includes territories that really have significant objects of display, but did not have strong advertising support in the past - "promotion" from the state - and for this reason they are not very popular among Russians and even more so among foreign tourists. Exceptions are residents of their region and closest neighbors. These include: Perm Territory, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Buryatia, Adygea, South Ural, Bashkortostan, Arkhangelsk Region, Khakassia, etc. interaction with travel agencies, etc. Overcoming them is a matter of time and the will of the territory's leadership. As for advertising and marketing tasks, first of all, you need to pay attention to the tasks presented in table No. 2.
Table No. 2
Group 3. "Adapters". These include cities and regions whose tourism industry was based on a specific topic that has lost its popularity among Russians over the years. As a result, there are attractions, but few tourists. The most striking example here is Ulyanovsk.
The same group includes those territories, the flow of tourists to which has become noticeably smaller compared to the Soviet period due to fears, misconceptions, and misunderstandings that have appeared in society. This applies, in particular, to the regions of the North Caucasus, as well as to those regions where an emergency happened with the participation of tourists. These seemingly different groups have the same task - to move from an already established niche in the minds of Russian tourists to a new, more promising one. As a rule, the key tasks for the representatives of this group are presented in Table 3.
Table No. 3
Group 4. "Hermits". These are the territories that, for all their uniqueness, remain aloof from the turbulent tourist activity due to the remoteness and high cost of passenger traffic from large Russian cities. This group can include Kamchatka, Chukotka, Kola Peninsula, Yakutia, Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, etc. Sometimes the situation is complicated by a special access control. Along with attracting Russian tourists, such regions need to immediately establish work on the international market due to the greater solvency of foreign tourists and their increased interest in places untouched by civilization. The specific tasks for representatives of this group include the following (see table No. 4):
Group 5. "Blank sheets". These are cities, districts and regions that have embarked on the path of active tourism development quite recently, and in relation to which the bulk of Russian tourists have not yet developed any intelligible ideas. These include the Republic of Komi, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Bryansk, Voronezh, Tambov, Kursk, Belgorod, Kirov, Omsk regions and a number of other republics, territories and regions. Of course, these regions also have something to be proud of and something to show tourists. These are museums, temples, monasteries, nature reserves, old city buildings and estates, sanatoriums and boarding houses, etc. However, all these objects for a long time were focused mainly on the inhabitants of their region, and not on the flow of thousands of guests from all over the country - hence lack of stereotypes.
Unlike the rest, this group of regions should start not so much from their own resources and ambitions as from what others do not have, that is, look for free niches and close them. It is difficult, but there is no other way.
It is possible that the idea of developing tourism in these regions is nothing more than a fashionable fad in connection with the next "party task". If so, then there is no need to waste your efforts. Better to invest the allocated funds in improvement or social projects. If the leadership of the municipality or the region takes tourism seriously, then it is necessary to start with the marketing tasks presented in table 5.
Table No. 5
The formulation of tasks is, of course, good, but how to solve them and what exactly to do? We will talk about this in the next chapters of this book. And summing up this chapter, I will mention three more tasks that, to one degree or another, face all territories:
1. Attract investors to create tourism infrastructure (this applies to both external investors and interaction with local businesses).
... This type of distribution was originally discovered in linguistics and reflected the relationship between the frequency of use of words and their popularity. But later it turned out that such a distribution is also typical for biology, economics, sociology, science of science, etc. For more details: I.L. Vikentiev. Living vocabulary of a business coach: 300 terms, 190 examples. - SPb .: TRIZ-CHANCE, 2007.S. 149.The proposed classification was developed by the author and, like any classification, is a simplified model. However, it helps to better understand the differences in target setting for territories with different "tourist heritage".
The term "price justification" was proposed by S.V. Sychev, director of the company "Sychev and K" (Rostov-on-Don). Price justification implies a convincing answer to the question of why the price of a given product or service is exactly the way it is, and why the investment of these funds is justified.
Vitaliy Karpinchik, resident of Slonim, host of weddings and corporate events, professional traveler and accompanying tourist groups
In the section "Three Ideas for Slonim" our compatriots share their thoughts on how to make our city more attractive for tourists. Today Vitaliy Karpinchik, a resident of Slonim, is proposing his ideas.
There is no effective recipe for making Slonim, like any other place, tourist. Not a single idea, which seems to be very successful and even implemented, will guarantee that tourists will tumble into the city. First of all, the residents of Slonim themselves should want and be interested in more tourists coming to the city, and not only want, but also to advertise their city and invite guests. And for this, residents of Slonim need to know and love their city, its sights, history. Because an increase in the interest of tourists in our city can be achieved only thanks to our own love for our city. Only our love and care, our hospitality, coupled with event tourism, could give a quick result.
Vitaly Karpinchik
1. To hold an official Guest Day
Tourism and hospitality are very closely related concepts. Therefore, I would suggest holding an official Guest Day in Slonim. Slonim would become the only city in the Republic of Belarus where such a holiday would be held.
Discounts in cafes and restaurants on this day, free admission to museums, half the fare on buses - all this would testify to our respect for our guests and our hospitality. The residents of Slonim could have a day off that day.
This idea could work. People would understand that this is a great day to invite friends from other cities. In addition, we have many sister cities in different countries. Therefore, the Day of Guests could be an excellent occasion to invite delegations from these cities.
Gnomes - a symbol of Wroclaw
2. To come up with a symbol-brand for Slonim
The topic of city branding has become trendy lately. For example, several years ago a Belarusian designer made symbols for Belarusian cities as a graduation project, basing the visual images of cities on the historical aspect. So, the crystal became the symbol of Soligorsk, Smorgon - the bear.
Polish Wroclaw, for example, is considered not only a city of bridges and students, but also a city of gnomes. Gnomes have become a full-fledged symbol of Wroclaw and are loved not only by city residents, but also by tourists. People believe that they bring good luck and prosperity to the city.
The first bronze gnome figurine appeared in Wroclaw in 2001. Now sculptures of fairy gnomes, and there are about 400 of them, are scattered throughout the city center. The search for small residents of the city by tourists turns into an exciting quest: after all, inconspicuous figures are in the most unexpected places, even on a lamppost. Moreover, each gnome has its own meaning and profession. For example, a gnome-traveler with suitcases will meet you at the station, and a friendly gnome will invite you to dine at the entrance to the cafe.
A similar brand symbol could have been invented by the residents of Slonim, based on some local legend or historical fact. To do this, you just need to invite people who are not indifferent and really love their city to a round table.
The production and installation of such a symbol of the city could be timed to coincide with the aforementioned Guests' Day, and over time there would be more distinctive symbols in the city.
3. Make the shortest street one of the city's business cards
In the center of Slonim there is a very short street that leads from the square to the synagogue - Pereskok Lane, which has been recently noticed. This lane could become one of the smallest and narrowest streets in Belarus, if, of course, you beat it correctly.
In Amsterdam, for example, there is a narrow street on which it is difficult for even two people to miss each other. Nevertheless, it is the most visited place in this city.
And in conclusion, I note that no one will go to our city to see the sights or celebrate unique holidays, if its residents themselves do not do this and do not attend these very holidays.
READ
From Rostourism. In 2014, which is associated with the beginning of the crisis, 42,921 tourist trips abroad were registered among the citizens of the Russian Federation. In 2017 - 39 629.
Yes, there is definitely a downward trend. But 7 or even 8 percent is not the number that can “kill” the market. People travel, and in the TOP-20 for 2017 there are Germany, Israel, Italy - countries with far from the lowest prices.
If so, where are the customers?
Many travel companies emerged in the first decade after the collapse of the USSR. At that time, people, in front of whom the "Iron Curtain" had just collapsed, just had to hand over a plane ticket and a hotel reservation, and that was all. The man is happy. He has escaped to see the world and can tell his friends how it is abroad.
Time has passed, and now the bulk of potential clients for the tourism business are children of the 80s and 90s. With a different worldview, more free and independent.
They do not want to lie belly up on the beaches of Antalya. Is that once a year, when you need to "walk" parents and a small child. And they do not want to crowd together with dozens of complete strangers around the next cathedral or monument. They can organize their own vacation via the Internet, without intermediaries.
What do they want? Vivid, juicy impressions that are difficult to get on your own. Hot air balloon flight over Cappadocia. Walk through the "secret" courtyards of Istanbul. Drive to the "Hobbit Village" in New Zealand. Participation in a national holiday. They want to make their dreams come true and sparkle with beautiful photos on social media.
Conclusion: the market is changing, and you need to change along with it.
Promising niches for the next few years
So we come to the main thing. You can talk as much as you like about how the world is changing, but where to run? What can you do to attract the current generation of tourists hungry for variety and experience?
First of all, move from standard solutions to unique ones. Develop your own routes, establish relationships with new format tour operators, collaborate with private guides.
And most importantly, treat the tourism business as creativity, and not as a craft. Creativity is in vogue today - in the broadest sense of the word.
Here are some examples of fertile niches:
- Organization of individual tours. People who have money do not want to travel like everyone else. Give them the opportunity to order a tour from you with the most flexible conditions, without standard solutions. Large tour operators such as TUI and PAC are already beginning to explore this niche. They organize trips according to individual requests to almost any country in the world, without reference to ready-made "packages". There are also small private companies like White Label Travel, which specialize in the premium segment. But this part of the tourism market can still house a lot of companies.
- Organization of thematic tours. Bike trips, diving tours, cooking classes - find the destinations that are interesting to you and in which you can offer something unusual. It was with this approach that Velovuyki became popular in their niches, which organize cycling trips across Europe, or Safari tours, which specialize in diving tours and dive safaris. By the way, large tour operators also often make such programs - designed not for a wide audience, but for individual thematic segments. This means that the market exists.
- Organization of author's tours. Bloggers have huge readership, and many of them specialize in travel. In partnership with them, you can develop unusual programs. For example, one of my favorite Travel Inside projects has grown out of a purely blogging format. They do not have a special thematic niche, they use a different approach - they gather their own warm audience that travels only with them. You can do the same or partner with popular bloggers and organize tours together.
- Organization of tourist groups in a club format. Accommodation, transportation, entertainment and sightseeing are the bare minimum for organized groups. But you can go further and arrange parties, socializing and other elements of team building while traveling. One Life and Mikhail Kozhukhov's Travel Club can be prominent representatives of this format. Their clients are not just groups that meet every few days and say goodbye forever. No, they have been traveling with them and with each other for many years.
- Organization of tours in Russia for foreigners. All the same approaches can be used within your country (unusual, author's, thematic tours). As examples, you can take Express to Russia or ExploRussia, as well as foreign companies such as Responsibletravel, which organize tours to Russia for foreigners. They focus not only on history and typical walks in the center of Moscow or St. Petersburg, but also on natural attractions, holidays, and national cuisine. The market exists, but is not yet filled with competition, and the scope for new business is huge here.
Personal experience
I started working in the tourism business in 2015, at the height of another crisis. Most of the clients are from the countries of the former Soviet Union. At that moment, my husband and I managed to intuitively find the right direction and we founded Time 2 Travel club - a company for organizing individual travel.
Which worked well:
- Experience and personal example. We travel a lot in Europe and Asia, we constantly post about it on our social networks, and clients trust our advice on choosing attractions and hotels. Moreover, they want us, as people who have seen everything with our own eyes, to advise them on the best options.
- Individual approach. We do not offer ready-made tours, but we ask what the client would like. Yes, often the choice comes down to one of a dozen popular countries, for which we already have blanks. But this is how the client gets involved in the process, begins to plan the trip even before the payment is made, feels that this is his trip, his dream is coming true. And, as a result, he goes with us to the very end, and does not look at how competitors are doing there.
- Honesty. We play openly and tell our clients: this is the cost of the trip, this is our commission. Oddly enough, bargaining is extremely rare - apparently, they understand that the earnings on one trip are not so great, and they do not fantasize about huge hidden commissions. Also, we always honestly tell people what they pay for, why one option is more expensive or cheaper than the other, what to expect on the spot. This is highly valued and pays off handsomely in the form of positive reviews.
With the organization of individual tours, it was a good decision and we decided to go further. Now we are expanding our business and will soon launch an online project under the same name Time 2 Travel - a search engine that will unite organizers of excursions, tours and tourist attractions, as well as travelers who are looking for unusual experiences.
Photo: on
This new project grew out of our pain as travel organizers: it is difficult to find quality excursions and entertainment. When clients ask to arrange a walk in Istanbul or Paris, the last thing they want to do is get a standard "historical reference" several hours long. I would like to find a person who loves this city, lives for it and will not just tell and show, but will give travelers an impression.
Here we can again return to the issue of vacant niches in the tourism business. Agree, a tour guide is not the rarest profession. But if you do not work like everyone else, but do something unusual, truly high-quality and from the heart, and not according to standard templates, it will be much easier for you to find your audience and sell your services to them at good prices.
A few key words
Free niches constantly appear on the market and it is not so difficult to find them. What you need to do is watch how people's preferences change. Yesterday they just wanted an organization within the framework of "visa, ticket, hotel" - it was necessary to meet these needs. Today they want entertainment, impressions and beautiful photographs - these new desires need to be satisfied. Tomorrow this will also change and other tourism destinations will begin to gain popularity.
To keep your finger on the pulse, it is useful to regularly read social networks and forums, listen to feedback, and most importantly, ask your audience directly. This should all be part of an ongoing and regular workflow.
Don't be afraid of negative reviews. When a client says they were missing something, they give you the most valuable free consultation and are actually pointing out what can be improved. In the same way, you can follow the reviews of competitors and get ideas: what their customers like, what they don't like.
With this approach, you are unlikely to have a shortage of ideas. Of course, then there is a lot of work to implement the plan, but this is already a topic for another story.
Today in every city there is enough many travel companies and the competition between them is quite high. How to make sure that customers turn to you?
When opening a travel agency, pay great attention to its name and location. Original but catchy name will be a small advantage. Place, where the travel agency is located, also often influences the choice of tourists. It's good if you can get to it both by personal and public transport. Do not be afraid of competition and you can open an office where there are already travel agencies. As a rule, before the vacation, people look at several companies to find a profitable and interesting offer.
The simplest and at the same time well-working method of advertising is word of mouth... When opening a travel agency, tell your friends and acquaintances about it, they can use the services. If customers are satisfied, they will recommend the company to their friends, because, as a rule, people turn to travel agencies for the first time based on the reviews of friends. Do not expect a large flow of tourists right away, but in a few years your own customer base can be formed.
Do not forget about business cards and flyers... It is not expensive to make simple flyers, and distributing them where a large number of people gather can interest customers. The main thing is that the leaflet is interesting and original and can interest people.
Before traveling, many tourists look on the Internet, and Internet advertising can be effective and inexpensive. It would be nice to create your own website, which will host not only the offered tours, but also the reviews of tourists about their vacations and hotels. Reviews must be true.
contextual advertising can also attract clients to travel agency. This is one of the fastest and most effective ways to attract customers. If, when typing keywords, the company's website appears on the first page, then many will definitely look at it. This means that in the future they will be able to become clients of the company.
You can order the creation of a website and its promotion in our agency, see the services section.
Don't forget about popularity. social networks... It's completely free to create a group or blog. But you need to keep an eye on them. Be sure to post interesting and profitable offers, answer questions and comments. It is easy to invite to a group, it is often in the interests of you who is interested in tourism, such people are your potential clients.
To attract customers for the holidays, you can organize special, unique tours... And newlyweds, for example, can offer discounts and give gifts. Discounts always attract customers, but a good and exciting vacation is often more important than price.
Many travel agencies reduce prices due to great competition, but you can go the other way. Necessary offer really interesting and unique tours... Be sure to inform about new attractive routes on the website and in the group. Prove that the price is not the main thing in the trip, the content of the trip is more important. Then the clients will be interested, and having received a lot of positive impressions on vacation, return to your travel agency again.
Video marketing
Using video is one of the most powerful ways to attract customers. And you don't have to buy expensive TV airtime to do that. Placing videos on the Internet is no less effective, for example, on the most visited video hosting youtube.
The video can be made interactive, with reference to a specific tour, for example:
At the end of the video, a special navigation block is placed with the help of which potential customers can get acquainted with the most striking places of your tour.
For the Russian province to become a tourist attraction, full-fledged cooperation of the authorities with business and the population is necessary.
This was discussed by the participants of the Interregional Tourism Forum "History of Russia in Small Cities" held in Kostroma.
Today there are about 700 small towns in the country, but very few can be considered interesting for tourists. The Association of Small Tourist Cities, for example, has only eight members: Azov, Dmitrov, Elabuga, Kungur, Myshkin, Suzdal, Tobolsk and Uglich. In addition to these, there are, of course, other tempting "small" points on the Russian map, but in any case, these are crumbs in comparison with the general array of not yet used opportunities.
Meanwhile, tourism for the periphery is the most serious, and sometimes the only source of economic development. The representative of the small French town of Provens near Paris, Bruno Baron-Renault, who participated in the conference, named the figures that were absolutely fantastic by Russian standards: 700 thousand tourists annually visit this 10-thousandth town. Such a record is still unattainable even for the leaders of domestic provincial tourism.
It is well known what problems do not allow the Russian travel industry to soar, making it crawl. Probably only the lazy didn’t talk about the poor development of infrastructure. But along with the lack of normal hotels, even in "initially tourist regions", we have, for example, the problem of lack of standardization of hotel services.
Coming to every next hotel of a similar stardom, you are not sure whether there will be shampoo and slippers. Everything is completely unexpected and every time in different ways, - said Svetlana Razorotneva, a member of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation for regional development and local self-government. A separate problem, in her opinion, is the high cost of transport links. Tickets to Lake Baikal or Altai are more expensive here than to London or Rome, which is why tourist flows are redistributed in favor of abroad.
But the main problem that seriously hinders the development of tourist business in the municipalities, according to Svetlana Razorotneva, is the banal lack of interest in this by the heads of municipalities. This is one of the consequences of the existing interbudgetary relations, which have greatly narrowed the revenue base of municipalities, since taxes from business activities hardly go to local budgets.
Cultural tourism brings little return. The most profitable trips are on vacation
The current interbudgetary system gives rise to dependency, since more than half of the revenues of municipalities are formed through assistance from higher budgets, the expert believes. - A persistent stereotype is acquired: the worse you work, the more you get. Accordingly, the incentive to do and develop something by ourselves disappears.
We are now preparing a serious package of proposals for the redistribution of powers and financial resources in the structure of interbudgetary relations in such a way that a significant share of the revenues of local budgets remains in the localities. This is an extremely important task, ”said Evgeny Markov, President of the Union of Small Cities of the Russian Federation.
But, even if there is an initiative and the head of a small town is struggling to find creative solutions to attract tourists, he often prefers the implementation of large projects, forgetting that a small town primarily needs small programs.
The head of one of the municipalities, which has a unique tourism potential, explained to me this way: if he supplies a plant or a large hotel enterprise, it will be understandable and tangible, '' Deputy Head of Rostourism Evgeny Pisarevsky said at the forum. - And if you develop entrepreneurship, small hotels, folk arts and crafts, agricultural enterprises supplying products for tourists, the financial result will not be noticeable immediately. This is all true. But one must understand that the development of small and medium-sized tourist business primarily leads to the social well-being of the region: people will be busy, they will be employed. They will provide stability in the region. That is, tangible and intangible indicators should be harmonized with each other.
According to Evgeny Pisarevsky, it is necessary, of course, to build large hotel complexes, but the advantage of small towns is that citizens living in urban centers come here to enjoy a quiet vacation in an environmentally friendly and uncluttered space. And these advantages must be emphasized.
However, the cute-looking pastoral, especially in its today's often squalid form, is actually very fragile. According to Evgeny Markov, the ongoing processes of concentration of financial and labor resources in several of the country's largest cities can lead to the emptying of the periphery and the outflow of the most promising, energetic and, most sadly, young personnel who could develop tourism there:
It is necessary to make every effort to prevent the buildup of this colossal process destabilizing the country's development - the concentration of resources, globalization, which even threatens the disappearance of the Russian province.
At the same time, small towns themselves should stick together: it is much easier and more convenient to develop tourism together. Evgeny Markov is sure that for this purpose it is necessary to form inter-municipal groups of small towns, to create transport clusters around them.
Svetlana Razorotneva also considers weak inter-municipal cooperation a brake on provincial tourism. According to her, if they decide to develop as a tourist center in some town, they rarely think about uniting in this endeavor with neighboring municipalities and creating a single program.
Still, the main thing in the tourist development of the territory, according to the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Territory and Planning" Anna Kurbatova, is a clear understanding of the potential of the municipality and a clear idea of what they can bring.
When you draw up marketing strategies for your cities, you should clearly be aware of which category of tourists you are targeting, how much money these people have and what they will spend it on, ”she advised the representatives of the regions who were present at the conference. - Because, judging by the presentations we have seen, a very average approach in terms of the hospitality model is developing in the regions.
According to the expert, tourism is primarily an economy, and if people come to this or that place, but do not spend money there, then the costs incurred by the municipal and other budgets practically remain irrecoverable.
Today we expect state investments in cultural and educational tourism, where we get relatively little return, - says Anna Kurbatova. - Guests leave much more money for the holidays (event tourism), but the most profitable type is travel for the sake of relaxation. And it is in the entertainment and relaxation industry that private funds are most willingly used. Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions that provoke investor investments.
Although a good marketing program, as it turned out, is not a panacea. The solution to any one problem out of several inevitably leads to a bias. An example of this is the Tver city of Vyshny Volochek. Moscow investors and architects were attracted here, large funds were invested, significant intellectual resources were brought up. As a result, the city received a tourism marketing program, and then even an award at the Venice Biennale of Architecture as a city where our historical future is shown on the basis of the Russian context.
But this is a city with a completely degraded urban environment. It does not have any services in terms of recreation, entertainment, infrastructure. Therefore, starting with communications, the authorities did not achieve results in terms of increasing the economic attractiveness and, in general, the attractiveness of the city as an object of display, says Anna Kurbatova.
According to Svetlana Razvorotneva, "it seems that the abundance of monuments in the regions simply turns off the brain" and that our embryonic tourism suffers from an orientation towards a very narrow target audience - "such intelligent ladies of Balzac age who know something from history, literature, art and they enjoy watching churches and museums. " Meanwhile, there are practically no offers on the market for children and youth. And where do they come from, if most of the small historical cities have an unpresentable appearance. The restoration and maintenance of their monuments, including those of federal significance, are, alas, mainly engaged in by the municipalities themselves, within the framework of their meager budgets.
So, according to the deputy head of the administration of the Uglich district of the Yaroslavl region Elena Kaneva, there are 167 historical and architectural monuments in Uglich, but over the decade the federal budget has invested 17 million rubles in them, the regional budget - a little less, and the local budget and investors - more than 300 million.
And this - despite the obvious underfunding from higher budgets - is a concrete example of the triumph of the initiative. Success can always be achieved - there would be a desire. Why, for example, in the Ryazan town of Kasimov, standing on the banks of the Oka, with an architectural ensemble no worse than in Suzdal, as a forum participant put it, "emptiness: no souvenir shops, no restaurants, everything is closed"? And in Yaroslavl Myshkin, on the contrary, each ship is greeted with songs and dances, trying to attract tourists to the city. This is certainly not the fault of the federal budget ...
The development of tourist programs in cities and regions cannot be carried out only through the efforts of the authorities, sums up Svetlana Razorotneva. - For these programs to be implemented and work, full cooperation with the business community is necessary and, of course, the involvement of the public in these processes is imperative. Where this happens, the tourism business begins to develop. Where this is not the case, all programs developed in the administrations remain a stillborn product.
