Promote town and region to keep guests longer
In achieving business success, there are always a variety of activities that need to work in sync to produce a great result. One aspect not often seen as a success factor is the need for promoting tourism to a guest.
Invariably, you will hear park owners say that they do not even bother telling customers as they feel its the ‘job’ of Tourist Information. In Park Talk this week, and to follow on from the Friendliness Park Talk last time, I want to consider the matter of....
Promote town and region to keep guests longer
in the series of “How can I make my caravan park more successful?"
“It’s easier to keep a guest than to get a new one!”
Once you have a guest in your park, its generally so much easier keeping them. So how do you ensure they stay longer? If you are delivering on all the other important needs of your guest, providing local tourism information is a no-brainer. The benefit of having travelling nomads as a target audience is that many travel for prolonged periods with no fixed agenda. So they are not in a rush, and are mostly open and happy to stay longer if they knew what could be done in or around the town. This is a perfect opportunity to give your guests a reason to stay longer.
Does it really matter to guests though?
In a recent survey we asked the following question of travelling nomads.
"Assuming you are staying in a park that meets your needs, would you be likely to stay longer if you were given useful tourist info on the town or region?"
- Definitely
- Sometimes
- Not at all
Not surprisingly we had nearly 90% state that they would DEFINITELY or SOMETIMES stay longer if tourism information is shared with them. In comments made by guests who recorded SOMETIMES - this was generally linked to their itinerary.
How easy is that? Take a few minutes to share what is on offer in and around town and you may find the one night may become 2, 3 or longer - what a return on the time investment!
Here are some tips on how you can maximise the opportunity of promoting tourism to your guests.
- Have a website page that promotes all the tourism activities in and around the town and area
- Identify the best tourist sites and try and arrange discount vouchers - so encouraging guests to visit these sites.
- Provide maps for Bushwalking & Cycle Tracks, Scenic Drives and Historic sites
- Make arrangements with local Bowls and Golf Clubs for guests to use these facilities
- Prepare a pack of flyers or brochures from local sites to share with guests
- Develop a 2 to 3 day plan of activities and the time these activities will take
- Provide a list of selected businesses that travellers may want to use, such as Doctors, Dentists, Pharmacies, Vets, Vehicle repairs, Caravan Repairs, Camping gear stores, supermarkets etc
- Provide information on selected Food and Wine venues in the area, including cheese and chocolate factories and wineries etc.
- Negotiate deals with good local restaurants, cafe's and pubs offering vouchers to your guests
- Know the times that venues are open, such as museums etc.
- Know how you can make bookings for your guest.
The more involved you are in these initiatives the longer the guest will stay, and business will increase. Another easy step to more success!
All of this takes effort, but the rewards are worth it!
What ideas or initiatives are you implementing on the success principle of sharing Local Tourism with your guests, that you can recommend to other parks?
What opportunities do you have of increasing your activity in promoting local tourism in your park?
What is Park Talk
Park Talk is a blog for all caravan parks that have a passion for their customers and their parks. The focus of these blogs will be on subjects not commonly reviewed in many of the formal publications available within the caravan park industry. Park Talk is about discussing things that can help improve your business performance through improved customer satisfaction and by improving the way you present your park and deliver services to your guests.
Next time on Park Talk: "Present a well maintained and neat caravan park." on Park Talk
