Digital Marketing or "online marketing" for tourism has now become the key marketing focus at all stages of a traveller's interaction with your business.

If you think about this customer journey in marketing terms, and more specifically for tourism marketing, we talk about The 5 Stages of Travel which include: Dream, Plan/Research, Book, Experience and Share.

The 5 Stages of Travel

There's a lot of information about digital marketing and plenty of sources of advice - it can actually seem a bit over-whelming to try and figure out your own digital marketing strategy! This guide is aimed at providing an "overview" of all the different components that might make up your digital marketing plan, with links to information on topics you may want to delve into further.

Digital...

For many years the primary focus for building reviews for tourism businesses has been with Tripadvisor listings. However the ways in which travellers now access information and reviews about your tourism business has evolved.

Travellers no longer solely use Tripadvisor - now they will make judgement calls from a variety of review sources including Facebook (pages and friend referrals), Instagram, OTA review listings, and most prominently, from your Google Business Profile.

Why Google Reviews are important for your tourism business

Your business reviews are part of the Google local search results.

For travellers, local search is a vital tool for both travel research and as a guide when on the road. Your Google Business Profile will appear in results along with your...

Selling private or “exclusive use” accommodation, tours, and activities is not a new concept in tourism, but it’s increasingly becoming a significant opportunity for tourism businesses.   

Selling your tourism product as a fully private experience is no longer just the domain of the luxury or VIP market. Businesses that have never considered or marketed this option before are now seeing a significant increase in enquiries.  

Across all sectors, the growth in demand is being driven from a broad range of travellers who are seeking a more private and meaningful experience principally because of the COVID pandemic and being more cautious about sharing spaces.  

What are the benefits?

People want to get away from the crowds and value more than ever before their own space....

We all talk about the weather on a daily basis and for tourism businesses the weather often has quite a significant impact on your bookings and visitation numbers. Whether it be for seasonal or simply short-term weather conditions, the weather can dictate who turns up. 

What if you could be a bit more clever about the weather and integrate it into your digital marketing plan to attract bookings? This brings us to what we call “Weather Ads.” 

What are Weather Ads? 

As the name suggests, “Weather Ads” is an ad campaign tactic based around the weather forecast to match an activity or location with upcoming weather conditions.  

Will it be snowing next weekend? Then ski packages are a timely ad to use. Will it be hot and sunny on the coast? Then let people know they can...

Crypto. Bitcoin. Blockchain. You’re probably starting to hear these words more and more frequently. And even for Millennials who are used to quickly grasping new digital concepts and trends, they can still seem like a lot to digest.

At Tomahawk we’ve been hearing a bit of chatter recently about the role of cryptocurrency in marketing . Naturally, tourism operators have questions. Do they need to be using it? Is there a commercial opportunity to get involved sooner rather than later? Should they be preparing for the Metaverse in some way? What systems do they need to have in place? There are a lot of questions, but not a lot of answers that make sense.

So let’s start at the beginning – what is cryptocurrency, and what is blockchain?

Cryptocurrency is a form of currency that...

Business Confidence Survey Results

We recently sent an online survey to our Tomahawk clients to get a gauge on business confidence and how our industry is feeling about their business outlook for the next 12 months.

Key Survey Results

There is still low confidence and a lot of uncertainty for 2022 as to when businesses will see solid recovery starting to happen. Over 72% respondents are either unsure or don't see their business outlook improving in 2022.

The Australian border reopening is definitely seen as having a poor effect on New Zealand tourism businesses with nearly 59% of respondents believing it won't improve their outlook.

Given the challenges we have nearly 30% feeling positive, another 30% unsure and 41% feeling negative about their...