DMO focus on markets. Having spent way to much time thinking about these, I have detected the following patterns and created 5 basic groups. They aren’t markets but represent people that are progressively more difficult to convert into a visitor because the barriers are higher.

We define key drivers for a visit as remarkable experiences. But the level of “remarkability” varies depending on the effort required. A restaurant can be remarkable to drive 5 hours for, but people won’t jump on a plane for it.

1) Residents & nearby

For these people it’s easy to visit your destination in one day and can make it back the same day. That means about a 2 hour drive and back. These people have a high awareness with the destination, products and experiences. Many things will trigger a visit, often the ‘non-touristy’ stuff in particular. This group might typically not br a priority for DMOs because there’s no overnight stay involved but under the right circumstances these people could ‘make a weekend out of it’.

2) Drive-in

These visitors are close enough to drive in but far away enough to make an overnight stay necessary. This group provides a big opportunity because the barrier for a visit is low and an overnight stay required. These people often know a fair bit about your destination but not everything, all the time. Informing these people about what’s new, cool or trendy is important. But events are the real opportunity because they can trigger a visit. And these don’t include just once a year festivals but also sport events or even a sales events at big brand stores or malls. It’s often the combo that triggers a visit; an event plus checking out a new restaurant.

3) Short flight

These visitors will need to take a (direct) flight to your destination about 3 hours or less. That makes it a reasonable investment in time and money to come for a visit. That also means there needs to be a pretty significant reason. There are dozens of places to compete with. This is where niche audiences become  important.

4) Long flight

These visitors come from far away, either with a direct flight, or maybe one transfer with a total travel time not exceeding 10-12 hours. It’s relatively easy to get to your destination but it takes time and money to get there. That means they’ll stay for a while to make it worth their while, a week or longer. That means there needs to be one pretty major reason to come visit plus enough other stuff to make the trip worth while.

5) Ultra long flight:

These visitors need to take long flights including multiple stopovers. They really, really want to come visit. That means there’s something about your destination that makes it all worth it. I’m talking bucket list experiences like the Taj Mahal, Serengeti or Carnival in Rio. Not many destinations offer these experiences but if you go niche enough you might be surprised.

Implications

When I was working at Tourism BC I figured out that the needs for the first two groups are significantly different from the latter. I realized our website served the latter 3 groups really well while the majority of tourism revenue came from the first two. A lot of that revenue might happen without the assistance of a DMO but I still believe that it’s a significant opportunity.

The point is that for each group, you need to find the products and experiences that serve as motivators. Then understand where in the funnel people get stuck. Based on this you can create a communication strategy that moves people along in the right way. That might mean doing something very different for one group compared to another.