Tourism for Memorial Day - It's the Start of the Season

Next weekend is the yearly benchmark start of the tourism season that takes us to Labor Day at the end of the summer.?It's time to roll up our sleeves, put on the sunscreen, and find a way to navigate our business plans that rely on these visitors to make our industries and local businesses a success.?Are you ready??Here are a few things to ponder…

50 million visitors come to Orlando every year and even more when you add Port Canaveral.?They have a scheduled agenda with their stops on it already.?Disney and others have made it so that you now even need to plan your dinner reservations several weeks/months ahead of time.?Are you already on their schedule for your business and how they are going to spend time and money with you??Is the international traveler aware they are spending time with you and your business before they arrive in the US and have they already scheduled or spent with you in advance?

We know that people travel with both agenda and flexibility.?Each to their levels of adherence.?Do you have a plan to get their attention while they are here to get them to you??I’m not talking about your marketing and advertising, I’m referring to your steering plans to steer business to you actively.

Do you have a good relationship with your suppliers that has already discussed the anticipated changes in supplies and goods that will increase and had any discussions about working with others in exchange for goods or services to offset costs?

The idea that because we open the floodgates of people into the area they will naturally spend money is one that has worked to a significant degree in building up the area, however, we no longer have a world that is disconnected from each other as much.?With Amazon and eBay as well as the shipping providers that get things anywhere in the world the fastest ever there are no longer the mass shopping necessities for products that aren’t available elsewhere in the world, so now it’s a matter of choices and price. Do you have products that are either unique to the experience you provide, appealing and attractive from your perspective that they cannot get anywhere else, or do you have the ability to provide a unique personalized memory that they can either display as an experience or trophy storytelling icon?

In the Digital Media world, we find ourselves in the role of being a strategist.?We look at each of the social media, marketing, and advertising channels and we devise individual as well as coordinated strategies toward driving traffic (both digital and walk-in) to businesses.?Each platform like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram plays a different role but serves the same overall purpose.?You want to be their choice and now you want them to do it before they even get here.?

As the kids wrap up their school schedules in the next week or so and get ready to storm the theme parks with their parents all summer, take the time to remember your customer, the traveler or visitor that is going to be a better person because they met you and came to your business.?Close your eyes and walk through their experience of being your customer.?As they learn about you and what you do going through and interacting with each of the people you have representing you, how is that going to be successfully making the season happen for you??Take the time to reach out to someone like myself or another Digital Media professional and have a serious talk about how much reach your business has to a person outside the reach of your storefront.?What can you do to get on that elusive itinerary that they are building more and more into a wall of time available to even get to your business??What can you do to claim your voice in a concert of voices screaming for their business??

Memorial Day is a 3 day weekend that gives us a great opportunity to try some of the ideas we may be counting on later on in the summer.?Don’t wait until the 4th of July week to make your year.?The time is now.?Take the effort and focus this week on being a business that is ready to make its season rather than one that is waiting for it to happen.