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Mature travel destinations are challenged with keeping their traditional visitors happy, while evolving at the same time to remain relevant for the next generation of leisure and business travelers.
Toward that end, convention and visitor bureaus in places as diverse as Beverly Hills, California; Catalonia, Spain; and London, England have been publishing more rigorous research than typical around their signature visitor experiences in an attempt to expand their iconic brands into a shifting luxury marketplace.
The goal among the above destinations is not simply to reaffirm their ability to deliver travel and hospitality product for which they’re already universally respected, but rather to show how they’re trying to maintain their leadership positions in their respective markets.
“One of the wonderful things about being a mature brand is that everybody knows you, so you don’t have to waste a lot of time explaining what your offerings are,” said Julie Wagner, CEO of the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau. “But one of the challenges with a mature product is that people have a lot of preconceived notions. So while we continue to appeal to our current demographic, aspirational demographics don’t always understand what we do here is geared toward all different walks of life and all different generations.”
“Aspirational demographics” means Millennials. Like other traditional luxury destinations, Beverly Hills is fighting the perception that it caters mostly to old rich people.
It’s a question of relevancy for tourism bureaus. Solid research helps them codify how a they’re establishing travel trends today specific to their widest potential consumer base.
It also helps plot internal strategy against their competitive set; it works as a sales and content marketing tool to drive increased exposure; and it educates the bureaus’ destination partners on the future of the consumer behavior in general throughout the region.
“Research like ours certainly builds affinity with a brand among both our consumers and stakeholders,” said Wagner. “Like anything else, it’s all about how you build your story and prove your value proposition, and how those are aligned with tomorrow’s trends.”
London’s Experiential Playground
London & Partners recently partnered with U.K.-based Event Magazine to produce a new trend report called “London’s Experiential Playground.” An extensive series of case studies show how conference organizers are using England’s capital in creative ways that tap into the city’s eclectic mix of local talent and venues.
While we’ve focused on the convention bureau’s previous research reports, this collaboration with Event shows a marked improvement in terms of the depth of analysis and the detail of examples. Brexit and the overall improvement of convention facilities across European cities, London & Partners has been on a marketing blitz of late to promote the destination’s competitive edge in meetings and events sector..
“Brands have de facto become the patrons of good stuff,” said Jonathan Emmins, founder of London-based brand agency Amplify. They win audiences over by showing consumers that they 100 percent get them, and by creating experiences that those who attend know wouldn’t have happened without that particular brand’s help or vision.”
London, then, is positioning itself as a city who “gets” the world’s most global, creative brands with this research project.
“We want to demonstrate that London is the ultimate modern city to deliver activations,” said Deborah Kelly, business development manager for London & Partners.
A good bunch of the case studies focus on temporary pop-up experiences, like brand activations for the Fiat 500 in an underground train station, an Adidas venue in jogger-friendly Victoria Park, and a couple Propercorn gourmet popcorn pop-ups in hipstery Shoreditch and Brixton.
That variety of experiential programs throughout the research is designed to show how London can curate bespoke events, and how well those activations drive brand exposure. The report states that Propercorn earned a 60 percent lift in the amount of Londoners who rated the corn number one, among the 31,000 people who tried the product during the pop-up period.
The last third of London’s Experiential Playground encompasses the evolution of event tech used at conferences like Advertising Week Europe and sporting events including the recent Euro 2016 soccer championship.
Produce UK developed the Hyundai FanDome, for example, during Euro 2016. The pop-up venue provided a live 360-degree audiovisual immersion for over 45,000 people during the tournament. The inside of the giant theater was covered in large video screens that enclosed fans in what Hyundai called “Football Heaven.”
The research paper could use a bit more detail in the final technology section, showing perhaps more photos and illustrations with explanations of the event tech in action. But the rest of information throughout the individual case studies is solid, utilizing extensive quotes for context.
Source: skift.com