Destination rebranding & marketing for Millennials

• Colin Johnson, Ph.D

• Professor,

• Director, Center for Ethical and Sustainable Business

• College of Business

• Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management

• San Francisco State University

Synopsis: • Major economic trends on travel & tourism

• Where is Kenya in terms of brand?

• Industry examples of country branding

• Branding for millennials• Examples of innovative

scheme travel2change• Need for improved education

& professionalism in sector

Four megatrends:• i) evolving visitor demand; • ii) sustainable tourism growth; • iii) enabling technologies; and • iv) travel mobility. • Exploring the multi- dimensional implications of these

megatrends to 2040 is important to inform policy and shape the future of tourism.

• Would add one more- threat of overtourism• OECD 2018

PLATFORMS

COMPANYCREATORS

Software is eating the world.

Marc Andreessen

In short, platforms are eating the world.

MOST FAMOUS GLOBAL BRANDS

% is growth relative to prior year, $ is value of brand equity

Data Source: Interbrand 2015; Slide source: Parker, Van Alstyne, Choudary 2016

13 ARE PLATFORMS

Based on presence of a developer or buyer/seller

ecosystem.

Data Source: Interbrand 2015; Slide source: Parker, Van Alstyne, Choudary 2016

Many ways at looking at country brands: Blooms

African Advances

Six out of ten fastest-growing nation brands this year are from Africa. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Ghana have all recorded outstanding growth between 28% and 38% year on year.

“Starting from a low economic base and still troubled by political instability, Africa is nonetheless beginning to demonstrate its true potential. Following in the footsteps of Asian tigers with remarkable advances in this year’s ranking, African lions are the future of global economic growth”• (Bloom’s consulting 2019).

Blooms consulting 2019

• Futurebrand 2018-2099

Futurebrand analysis

“Global trends such as mindfulness, conscious consumerism, experience as the new currency, the growth of the gig economy and remote working both aided by advances in technology, reflect a big change in the small decisions our survey participants are making in their everyday lives”.

(i.e. How closely does the destination reflect the travelers’ values?)• Futurebrand 2019

Top 75

Transparency and democracy

• One of the most important outcomes of the brand strategy process is employee clarity and understanding of the company's mission and purpose. The brand development process will allow to re-discover the purpose of the brand—the why behind the what—providing direction, increasing employee engagement and purpose

Possibilities for Kenya

• Regeneration through rebranding

• Move away from just beach and wildlife/safari

• Cultural attractions

• Diversity

• Sustainability

• Authenticity

• Community

• Not stage managed

• Could include sports/culture/heritage

A quick example..

• https://youtu.be/DFDqyhMyJOY

• Happens only in Minnesota” to reinforce the core values of the campaign.

“Despite the visitor boom, Japan is still an “undeveloped country” when it comes to tourism”.

(Akihiko Tamura, Head of the Japan Tourism Agency, quoted in 2016)

Which brand is more valuable for tourism?I am not asking which city you would prefer to visit!

• San Francisco tourism is worth $9.3 billion

• Greater Manchester’s tourism sector is worth £7.9bn ($9.98bn) and supports 94,000 jobs, while attracting 119 million visitors per year; 11 million that stay and 108 million day visitors

• Business tourism, specifically the conference and events sub-sector, is now worth £81m and supports 21,900 job.

• Lonely Planet - “In the 21st century, invention, discovery and progress remain the driving forces of this remarkable place, which responded to a terrible act of terrorism in 2017 by doubling down on the tolerant and inclusive attitudes toward all those who’ve made it home.”

• New York Times - “A visit becomes an exercise in peeling back layers of sooty, hard-working history to arrive at a shinier, bustling and hopeful present.”

‘seriously good events’ and top museums, libraries and improved bar and restaurant offering for helping Manchester to become a ‘genuine weekend break’ destination like Antwerp, Dusseldorf or Munich.

Re-branding for Industry trends

• “ Sharing economy”? - convergence

• Millennials are different!

• Branding for the Food service industry

Credits to: https://insights.ehotelier.com/insights/2016/04/05/millennials-shaping-future-hospitality-closer-look/Maria Sigala. 2017.Thomas Kohler, 2019

POWER OF PLATFORM

The world’s largest taxi firm owns no cars

The world’s most popular media company

creates no content

The world’s most valuable retailer carries no

stock

The world’s largest accommodation provider

owns no property

Source: Observation by Tom Goodwin

30% of Britons have taken a day trip just to take an Instagram photo

50% of respondents claimed they would give up such pleasures as coffee or sports and 10% would prefer to go without shoes rather than do without their smartphones

• Within the first 15 minutes of waking up, 4 out of 5 smartphone users are checking their phones.

The selfie gaze tourists are always connected and they demand personalized services at any time, any device, any place

Marriott wants to add 30,000 rooms this year. We will add

that in the next 2 weeks.

Brian Chesky, Co-founder Airbnb

Where

to stay

Airbnb

• The Millennial traveller, defined by age as being born between 1980 and 2000, already makes up over one third of the world’s hotel guests, with predictions that they will reach over 50 per cent by 2020.

• 30% of Millennials (18-34) have aimed to deceive their followers by posting social media vacation images that make trips look better than they are.

• As receiving “social return” for your trip is a major motivator to travel, it is not surprising that the most important thing millennials consider when they are choosing a holiday destination is how instagrammableit is.

Sigala, M, 2017, “The self-gaze tourist”

The new influencers

https://www.youtube.com/user/koldstudios

But also Millennials are altruistic

FOR TRAVELERS

Connect with locals

Have a meaningful experience

Have fun while doing good

FOR HOSTS

Reach travelers

Get support for your mission

Earn revenue

20112012-

20142015

CROWDSOURCING

MARKETPLACE

CONSUMERSCREATORS

COMPANY

CONSUMERS

TWO-SIDED

Simplify value unitfrom volunteering trip to fun & impacful activities

Impact

IMPACT

FUN

?

FUN

IMPACT

?

IMPACTFUN

SWEET SPOT

travel2change

activities invite travelers to

DO SOMETHING

RESTOREHIKE

FOOD

DRIVEYOGA

CLEAN

UPKAYAK

CREATORS

travel2change

CONSUMERS

Change core interaction

CREATORS

travel2change

CONSUMERSFrom

Integrator platform

to

Two-sided platform

OLD

NEW

BUSINESS MODEL

=CREATE + CAPTURE VALUE

• ‘True success in the future of travel comes down to personalisation.’ We now have so much data on our customers as they go through the various touch points of our website, booking process, rebooking and reviews. This data allows not only to whittle down our customer personas, but also reveals how to target them based on their personal requirements.

• Johannes Reck , CEO, GetYourGuide

Where will your guests stay?

Industry trends Convergence

• .

Where will your guests eat?

Final thoughts: fil rouge

• Role of technology and especially social media and Influencers in all that we do

• Need for increased professionalism, especially through education ad training

• Role of dynamic, responsive, professional organizations (TPA) and self- regulation wherever possible essential in industry development

There is established a tourism professionals and practitioners' body to be known as the Tourism Professional Associations

• The object and purpose for which the Association is established is to provide a framework for tourism professionals and practitioners for self regulation.

• Provides great opportunity to improve professionalism and training with industry.

• Provides a bridge between industry and academia

• Can be a repository of professional knowledge –compared to AH&LA

• Workers at the Louvre in Paris have gone on strike over unmanageable crowds,

• Dubrovnik has seen a 53% increase in tourist arrivals and Prague is being squished by visitors’ foot traffic.

• Japan there is growing concern with “kankō kōgai”, or “tourism pollution”,.

• In 2016, Machu Picchu in Peru took 5,000 visitors a day – double recommended by Unesco.

• The Taj Mahal in India is receiving eight million visitors a year,

. The precious ecosystem of the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador is threatened by habitat destruction from infrastructure built to accommodate tourists coming to view its, um, precious ecosystem.

And also…

Solution to overtourism is not rooted in how we do tourism, but in how communities can be invested in actively creating – or restoring –places of beauty. And not just to spread the crowds more evenly.

• Everest did not become a holy mountain at the whim of a marketing committee. Machu Picchu was not built as a theme park.

• Only when places become the realisation of a culture’s most profound collective values – beliefs in sanctuary, holiness, glory, reverence, knowledge – are they collectively empowered to suggest their own myths and inspire new fantasies.(Guardian, Van Badham, June 19th)