The COVID-19 pandemic sent marketing teams back to the drawing board when it came to building awareness about their destinations. First, there was a focus on keeping destinations top of mind, even when travel was at a standstill. Then, as signs began to point towards recovery, it became: What is the correct way to reach both our residents and leisure travelers?
During “Travel Sentiment: A Guidepost for Recovery” held July 14, the focus was on what destination organizations can learn from sentiment, and how it can be used as a tool for measuring engagement.
Andrea Godfrey, Vice President, Longwoods International, moderated a fireside chat featuring Jay Salyers, Senior Vice President, Miles Partnership; and Katherine O’Donnell, EVP, Richmond Region Tourism.
Godfrey opened the session by talking about what sentiment is and how it can be used in the tourism industry to gain insight.
As stated in other sessions, due to the pandemic, the resident has moved front and center.
Godfrey explained that from measuring sentiment, they started to understand that travelers were more comfortable with outdoor activities, and that clear health and safety protocols were major factors when selecting destinations. “We had to learn about the needs of our travelers,” she said.
Godfrey then asked each speaker to touch on ways that their organization has used, or seen sentiment used, in marketing campaigns.
O’Donnell explained that her organization used sentiment in three different phases as they moved through the pandemic:
First, sentiment was used to make marketing decisions. “We used it to decide when it made sense to welcome people back to the area,” she said.
After a year with limited interaction, Richmond focused on helping their visitors create memorable experiences. “When you’re ready, find your moment,” she said. “We based this on how people were thinking about travel.”
One thing that O’Donnell said that one area that her team knew they had to tread carefully was resident concern. “We used sentiment date around how residents felt comfortable having visitors in their area,” she said.
The city launched a friend and family campaign, something they hadn’t done before, to remind residents about the benefits of living in Richmond.
Her team also measured sentiment related to post-pandemic perceptions of Richmond, specifically relating to the past year’s social justice events.
Salyers seconded O’Donnell’s comments about the importance of sentiment for the tourism industry. “Sentiment always has been a critical part of how we make decisions,” he said. “What changed during the pandemic was we started to look at sentiment not to just understand the traveler mindset, but also tied to travel in general.”
He also said that a lot of organizations started their relaunch campaigns by targeting residents, then starting to expand their reach as conditions improved.
Asked by Godfrey if there was a particular sentiment metric that rose to the surface during the pandemic, O’Donnell said it was to make sure we were respecting our residents.
“We’re first and foremost here to serve our community,” she said. “If the sentiment is that they don’t feel safe, then we have to consider that and balance that with our mission.”
She said that being communicative with their community was very important.
“We did a lot more social listening than we have in the past,” O’Donnell said. “Yes, outdoors has been awesome and people are doing a lot in the outdoors. But we still want to listen and find that when people are ready to do more indoors, to make sure we’re promoting things that people want to do now.”
Even with news about rising COVID cases due to new variants, Salyers said that sentiments about feeling good about travel are rising. “Travelers are making those plans for the next six months,” he said.
One area of concern for both Salyers and O’Donnell is the impact of workforce shortages, and how it may impact tourism experiences.
Service-level expectations may not align with what cities can currently provide, O’Donnell explained. “People still think they are going to get better service, and there’s a disconnect,” she said. “We don’t want them to have bad experiences. How do we communicate this? I worry for everyone as to how this will go.”
Salyers said there are definite concerns that travelers may view a destination in a negative light because of workforce shortages. “Tourism is such a large part of our economy,” added Godfrey. “As we look forward, it is going to be very important to understand traveler expectations.” ■