The Future of the Digital User Journey

Back in late September 2022, we embarked on a journey with VisitDenmark to analyse what the future of the digital user journey will look like between 2025-2030 in light of the many technological developments and how these are impacting consumer behaviour.

In defining this and also making it relevant for DMOs, we worked with five different hypotheses which guided the whole process. These were:

1. Tourists will still need public destination websites as part of their digital decision-making process from 2025-2030
2. Using as few digital channels as possible (as an entry point to the destination) is an advantage for the tourist - both for digital guest service and for marketing use
3. It still makes sense to have a common national tourism database
4. As a public DMO, we should focus more on non-commercial products that are not covered by commercial players such as Google, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, etc.
5. Web 3.0 will challenge DMOs to reassess and reevaluate their digital structure

In addition to looking at these hypotheses from the proposed angles, at the DTTT we always like to go a step further and incorporate a holistic perspective that takes into consideration the wider tourism landscape. Therefore, when carrying out the research and setting out our conclusions, we also took into consideration products and experiences, sustainability and brand discovery.

We understand that tourism will continue to be an all-encompassing experience sector, therefore looking into how digital can keep shaping experiences is a key area to explore. For this reason, we decided to look into digitally enriched experiences, experience-led inspiration and the role of distribution and booking to evaluate their impact on consumers' digital decision-making.

We also acknowledge how sustainability is shaping the future of travel, including the digital user journey. This led us to look into the importance of digital transparency and into visitor expectations when talking about sustainability, measuring how this is expected to evolve over the following years.

Lastly, having an understanding of how people get to know new brands in tourism and which channels play a stronger role for this is also key to remaining relevant in the market and top of mind for consumers. The team at the DTTT therefore, evaluated the role played by different channels and social, the differences observed between promotion and service-led based approaches and, lastly, also looked at the influences that different types of content have on users.

With a broader understanding of what this project looked at, let's have a look at how we developed an innovative methodology for the project, which allowed the DTTT to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders in the Danish tourism industry, as well as with international industry players that allowed us to reach insightful conclusions.

An Innovative and Wide-Ranging Methodology

What did the team at the DTTT do during this project to have such an innovative methodology that incorporated so many different perspectives in order to reach the best possible conclusions?

The research process started with desk research, which analysed existing research on themes, such as destination transformation, digitalisation, destination technology horizons, visitor behaviour and preferences and trend reports. Together with this step, the team also carried out a digital benchmark of other leading destination websites, providing insights on the different features that can be incorporated into these sites, what brings the most value and showcase best practices.

Something close to the DTTT's DNA is?Design Thinking . We placed this method at the core of the entire research process in order to get a better understanding of the hypotheses and the experiences of those directly involved with the systems and content. In total, we carried out two design-led workshops. Both of these workshops covered the five hypotheses, surfacing different challenges and expectations.

The first workshop was organised with the internal team at VisitDenmark, whilst the second one invited 19 Danish DMOs to participate. Both of them generated hundreds of ideas which allowed the DTTT team to establish a better direction for the conclusions to follow later.

Bringing into the process diverse perspectives was key. That is why we organised a digitalisation expert panel, a digital leaders roundtable and interviews with Danish tourism stakeholders. The aim of the first two activities was to gather the perspectives of two tech entrepreneurs to understand if our thoughts, based on research, matched their experiences, and also to gather the perspectives of 10 digital DMO leaders from across the world to get a better understanding of the work they are doing and their thoughts around the 5 hypotheses.

Five stakeholder interviews allowed us to get a deeper understanding of the needs of the Danish tourism industry, allowing us to define a way forward that benefits all industry players and strongly positions Denmark as a tourism destination. With all of these insights gathered, the team at the DTTT was able to further establish conclusions and make recommendations based on what seems to be the best direction within the industry.

The last method we employed, which served to validate our conclusions and better define digital user needs and desires, was a consumer video panel. Using a self-surveying video tool, we were able to reach over 1,000 participants, which looked at how users plan their trips and make decisions online. This allowed us to gather a very large number of qualitative insights in a fairly simple and straightforward way, whilst still collecting all of their details to allow us to get in contact with them at a later stage if more information was needed. This resulted in a total of 39 consumer videos from people from all over the world which allowed us to better understand users and identify two main types of online users, differentiating how they guide their decisions online.

The Outcomes

The research process resulted in a total of 14 recommendations which have been developed to help and support future decision-making in the process that VisitDenmark has already embarked on.

The recommendations have been developed with three considerations in mind:

• They provide good value for money
• They are sharp and concise
• They are presented step by step to facilitate their implementation

These recommendations look at a wide range of topics, from the redesign of the destination's digital presence to industry digitalisation programmes and a remodelled database. At the same time, the conclusions reached by the DTTT will be used as the foundation for future digital development initiatives providing essential understanding, foundation and considerations, as difficult technology choices present themselves now and in the future.

Everything established during the research process, from the data collection to its analysis and the formulation of those conclusions has been collected in a Research Report, composed of 9 chapters, and an Executive Report, which has 4 chapters.

The research process was concluded in mid-January 2023 when a presentation of the findings, conclusions and recommendations was delivered to the Danish tourism industry, inviting any questions regarding the process and the project.

What We're Doing Now

This summer, the DTTT team is carrying out an extensive study for the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions about the use of digital technology in the Dutch tourism and hospitality sector. The research will use desk research, industry surveys, stakeholder interviews, focus groups and workshops as well as expert panels to create a Digital Vision and Agenda that is aligned with the Perspective 2030 strategy and supports organisations with practical tools.