Intro

Habits

Trends

Consumer

Destination

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTIONDMAI’s release of the DestinationNEXT report brought social media front and center as an opportunity and indeed a necessity for destination marketers. This is good timing considering that the upcoming generation of Millennials are not only the most prolific users of social media, but turn to it first for information.

74% of all women in the US and 62% of all men in the US are social media users. While 71% of US adults from 30-64 use social media, a whopping 90% of 18-29 year olds are social media users. Millennials don’t just use social media, they live in it. Social media has become their primary communications tool, storefront, scrap book, pin board and channel for expression.

In this e-book we will talk about how, not just Millennials, but all travelers are using social media for vacation inspiration, advice and shopping as well as inspiring and recommending vacation destinations to their friends and families. We will also look at how Smart Destinations are using social media to attract visitors, benchmarks for success and opportunities you should be taking advantage of.

Fig. 1: Future Map — Top 20 Trends

HIGHER LOWER

3.5 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 3.0 2.9

AVERAGE LEVEL OF IMPORTANCE•

© DMAI / Inter VISTAS

© DMAI / Inter VISTAS • ii

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYOn its 100th anniversary, Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) is taking a bold leadership step with the DestinationNEXT initiative. The vision is to provide Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) with practical, clear actions and strategies for sustainable success in a dramatically changing world. This road map will culminate with a number of co-created transformational strategies and DMO prototypes based on the speci�c characteristics of their communities and destinations.

This initiative was made possible through a generous grant from the Destination & Travel Foundation. After an extensive review process, a project team was selected, led by InterVISTAS Consulting Inc. (InterVISTAS), along with a number of experienced executives from the DMO community (GainingEdge, Bandwidth Management, and Global Meetings & Tourism Specialists).

The project team completed a detailed review of industry trends, supported by a futurist and industry panel. An extensive survey was sent to industry leaders in March 2014. The response was strong: 327 DMOs from 36 countries participated in the survey, one of the best response rates of any DMAI survey.

The top 20 trends were plotted on a grid that assessed each trend based on:

• Degree to which the trend will have a positive or negative impact on the DMO and destination

• Degree of control the DMO has to influence this trend

Rather than a conventional SWOT analysis, this approach helps organizations focus on trends and issues that they can impact or a�ect (e.g., the upper quadrants of the grid where a DMO can exploit opportunities and mitigate threats).

The analysis identified a number of opportunities to exploit (e.g., upper right quadrant of the grid). They revolved around the following areas:

• Playing an expanded role in the community on broader economic development issues

• Improving branding of a destination in leisure and meetings and conventions markets

• Capitalizing on social media and smart technology to engage and access residents, industry, and markets

This is good news for DMOs, who will have many opportunities to continue making a positive and significant impact on their communities in the future.

The detailed analysis of trends, strategies, and organization of the future concludes that DMOs have three transformational opportunities to e�ectively address the changing world. DMOs will have to move in each of these directions given that they are highly interrelated. Fig. 1: Future Map — Top 20 Trends

Hotel taxes vulnerable to alternative politically based projects

Brand impact on leisureMobile platforms & apps primary engagement

Brand impact for groups

Tourism integrated with economic developmentPersonalized travel experience

Technology enabling faster decision-makingBig Data

Short-stay trips

Smart technology opportunities

Social media prominence

More personalized information

Geotargeting & localization

Ordering products online

Highly volatile economic conditions

Governments facing budget pressure

More third-party information

Peer-to-peer

Customers going directly to suppliers

Experience locals’ way of life

HIGHER LOWER

3.5 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 3.0 2.9 MITIGATE CONTROLLABLE

OPPORTUNITYTHREAT

EXPLOIT

MONITORCONTINGENCIES UNCONTROLLABLE

AVERAGE LEVEL OF IMPORTANCE•

54

4

5

321

1

2

© DMAI / Inter VISTAS

Social & SEOAt the end of June Google announced a better integration of social media content into search engine results pages (SERPs). Now, when users search for something such as 4th of July decorations or where to eat in Miami on their mobile device, they’ll not only get more traditional websites, ecommerce sites, etc. but they will also get links from social media platforms such as Pinterest, Houzz. These results will be available in a sliding carousel at the top of SERPs.

This shows not only the importance of social media to SEO, but it shows how important visual content is to social media. Right now this service is focused on recipes and decorating, which take up a majority of the content on sites such as Pinterest, as more travel related brands jump into Pinterest we’ll see users finding vacations via SERPs, Pinterest and we expect Twitter and Instagram to be integrated in the future.

Social Networks byTotal Users

Facebook1,415mm

Instagram300mm YouTube

1,000mm

LinkedIn364mm Google+

343mm

Tumblr230mm SnapChat

200mm

Twitter288mm Pinterest

76mm

Google Plus, often called a ”ghost town”, has more users

than Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and SnapChat yet few travel brands use G+.

LinkedIn: 1049Pinterest: 229Instagram: 843

Facebook: 338

Twitter: 208 YouTube: 25Tumblr: 500

Social Networks byAverage Followers per

User

Instagram users have more reach than users of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

and YouTube combined.

HowSocial Media

Influences

TRAVELChoices

52% OF CONSUMERS USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR VACATION INSPIRATION

ALLIANZ GLOBAL

26%4%

6%

14%

52% OF CONSUMERS WHO USED SOCIAL MEDIA TO RESEARCH TRAVEL PLANS CHANGED THEIR ORIGINAL PLANS

33%

Switchedhotels

Switchedresorts

Switchedbooking

Switcheddestination

Switchedairlines

10% 10% 7% 5%

Houston Chronicle Mashable

121 Likes

110 Likes

52%

83% 74%

84%say they begin dreaming about a vacation even if they didn’t have one planned

are more confident about their travel destination when friends and family validate or recommend it

say they only book when friends and family are involved in the decision

are inspired by friends’ travel posts

Aoife Desmond, team lead for travel vertical at Facebook

say they can easily imagine going to a place if they see friends and family have been

70%

and travel planning

One in six visitors to travel sites are also users...

...and of Pinterest users perform a Pinterest-inspired activity every month

Things To Do Families Tips Memories Children Summer Activities Walt Disney Bucket Lists Baby

All Pins Your Pins Pinners Boards

from Living Well Spending Less®

The Best Family Road Trip Ever

The Best Family Road Trip Ever.(10 ways to truly enjoy the journey)Great tips and awesome insightfrom a mom who just finished a 29day, 4,000 mile road trip with herfamily. Don't even think aboutplanning a road trip withoutreading this post first!

1469 172 2

Terry WilderGood to Know

Best place to travel with kids inCalifornia? Travel to Columbia,California | This Is MyHappiness.com

100 16 1

Jenna of This Is My Happiness t…This Is My Happiness Travel Blog

Kids Love Travel.com - Discoverthe best places to visit with Kids

191 7

Nicole NashTravel

Awesome list. i would add MollysCupcakes. best ever and great"story". 76 Things to do in Chicagowith Kids

5933 509 6

Lisa AndreasTravel

from Mommy Poppins - Things to D…

Best Family Hotels in NYC: 10Great Places to Stay with Kidsin New York City

627 35 2

Stephanie Berry SklutPlaces To Go

Rise Gear makes bags andsuitcases that are like a portablecloset.

8494 1269 16

Promoted byThe Grommet

from It's Always Autumn

20 best ideas, activities, andresources for road trips withkids

have a #road #trip coming up?Check out this post for links to thevery best activities, snacks, andtips for road trips with #kids - findhundreds of ideas all in one place!

234 16

Alena STravel ~ Road Trip Activities for …

from The Typical Mom

Best Vacation Spots for Kids

Like many families we take at leastone big vacation a year, usuallyduring the Summer break. We loveexploring the United States withour kids and road trips are the bestways to really connect with yourkids, see the scenery, and findspots you never would haveknown about had you been on …

666 56 1

The Typical MomKid Blogger Network Activities …

9 Things to Do With Kids on MauiAWESOME pin! Done almost all ofthese. Baby Beach is the BEST.Checking out the Surfing GoatDairy this year. ;)

2878 190 3

Leona LaRueMAUI

The 16 Best Places to Go onVacation With a Baby or Toddler. Amust-read before you pick avacay. www.ivillage.com/...

1967 130 2

iVillageTravel

from The Dating Divas

101 Best Family Vacations

101 Best Family Vacations in theUSA. I've been to 16, but I'llhappily revisit any of them with thekids! ...or else head to new placesaltogether, there are plenty of neatplaces across the country!

1146 100 1

❤My escape from reality...

from lilsugar.com

The 10 Best National Parks toVisit With Kids

1623 77 1

Erin WingAwesome to Zen

10 Best Places to Travel with KidsInternationally

163 5

Leanna @ Alldonemonkey.comTravel with Kids

63Michaelbest places to travel with kids

64%comScore

How Consumers Are Sharing Their Vacations

Instagram has 26 million images tagged #vacation

and hundreds of thousands tagged with variations such as #vacationmodeon

46%OF TRAVELERS CHECK INTO A LOCATION ON FACEBOOK & FOURSQUARE 76% OF TRAVELERS POST PHOTOS

OF THEIR VACATIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

Mashable

How Consumers Are Sharing Their Vacations

45%

1 in 3 1 in 4 1 in 5

50%share photos from their trip on Twitter

use Twitter to find local events

use Twitter for local restaurant/tourism recommendations

use Twitter to get flight updates

Despite warnings that talking about travel via social networks is a home security risk, people continue to share details of their travel experiences including check-ins, photos and video. With 80% of active users updating their Twitter status via mobile, the ease of Tweeting while on the road is obvious. More than half of vacationing Twitter users are posting daily, some posting multiple times per day. In fact 30% of social media users claim that they see at least one

friend posting vacation-related content in their feed per day.

Twitter has become a digital concierge of sorts for travelers; allowing them to not only share their agenda but to get information about their trip.

Tweet about their vacation status

Mashable

What Consumers Are Saying About Destinations

#1 Cleanliness#2 Location#3 Staff Friendliness

Travelers talk a lot about their travels. A recent study looked into exactly what they were saying about hotels. Over 7 million social media posts were analyzed and found the top 3 things travelers care about in regards to their accommodations:

The study found some interesting accommodations-related posts that were very specific to each destination:

In Nebraska the top concern for travelers was breakfast

In Mississippi travelers were seeking comfort

In Maryland size mattered, the most common topic was room size.

In Alaska the top theme for travelers was “quiet”

Netbase

Every day consumers share content on new tools & new social

networks

How

DMOsAre Leveraging

Social Media

How DMOs Are Rocking Twitter

At last year’s DMAI Annual Convention Fuseideas launched a new Twitter benchmarking tool called Potential Human Reach™. This website looks not just at followers but at the actual reach of the brand’s Twitter account as well as it’s engagement with it’s followers. Over 40 DMOs registered and today we have a leader-board of almost 200 travel brands. This allows us to look at the overall industry performance data to provide benchmarks on things like ReTweet rates, image sharing

percentages, follower counts, engagement per follower and of course, Potential Human Reach™.

The following represents the standings from the top for many of these measurements as of July 2015.

If you’d like to see your DMO represented, visit www.potentialhumanreach.com/dmai2015.

Twitter Followers: Top DMOs

@visitbritain 295,642

@I_LOVE_NY 282,375

@vegas 283,375

@nycgo 213,747

@VISITFLORIDA* 101,359

@washingtondc* 83,250

@Colorado 118,338

@visitmusiccity 114,317

@discoverLA 105,054

@VisitAustinTX 120,587

Top follower counts were obvious choices (even if NYC and New York State compete with each other). We’re seeing top follower rates for DMOs in the tens and hundreds of thousands of followers for top brands. However, this has become a less and less important metric as we are able to see more details on who is actually seeing brand content and which content is engaging and relevant enough for followers to share. Sharing content is extremely important so that your

content can extend beyond just your follower base but also to their followers. Shared content extends the visibility of a brand but can also attract additional users.

Take a close look at the rankings above and see how they change once we look at engagement and actual reach in the following pages.

* client or former client

Twitter Engagement: Top DMOs

@This_is_Hampton 276.47

@mplsnorthwest 210.20

@spainusa 253.89

@visitventure 164.24

@VisitOmaha 125.01

@visitgreecegr

@itsdccool*

116.74

113.15

@GoToBermuda* 134.73

@daytoncvb 128.88

@VisitNorfolk 143.84

The engagement rate shown above represents how many people you reach for every one person that follows you. This tells us how engaging your content is by how much it is shared.

Photos, videos, and website cards all impact engagement. In 2013 Twitter underwent a redesign allowing images to be shown in-stream. Previously all images were links that required users to click in order to view. With in-stream images Twitter changed from a gray stream of text to a colorful waterfall of moving and still visuals. In summer of 2012 Twitter created website cards, which allow brands to add code to their website so that the links from their website they post in Twitter get a more robust presentation that includes images, video, text and call to action buttons. Now imagine how easy it

is to miss plain text Tweets among Tweets full of images and video. Often engagement can be traced directly to how many images and videos a brand is sharing.

The list above shows the top 10 DMOs, not according to how many people follow and possibly ignore their Tweets, but by how high their engagement is by virtue of relevant and engaging content that is shared.

* client or former client

Fuseideascase study

Engagement: Agency of Record Length: 2 years

Results:1500% increase in Engagement on Facebook750% increase in Likes on Facebook

Potential Human Reach™: Top DMOs

@visitbritain 22,607,386

@I_LOVE_NY 14,334,647

@vegas 9,252,025

@nycgo 6,812,131

@VISITFLORIDA* 6,108,191

@visitgreecegr 6,023,696

@Colorado 5,163,586

@visitsandiego 3,858,661

@CityMinneapolis 3,622,767

@germanytourism* 3,232,149

Potential Human Reach™ is Fuseideas’ proprietary algorithm that allows us to see what a brand’s actual reach is beyond just their followers to their followers’ followers based on the level of engagement their followers have with their Twitter content. This one number combines both engagement and popularity to give us a single metric to benchmark.

Since it’s launch at the DMAI Annual Conference in Las Vegas last year almost 200 destination brands have submitted their Twitter accounts and discovered their Potential Human Reach™.

* client or former client

of Top DMOsReTweet rate is a good indicator of how engaging your followers find your content. When followers share your content they are adding your brand to their brand portfolio. By sharing, they are introducing your brand to their networks. This is how your level of engagement can increase your followers.

Over the last couple of years Twitter has changed from a text format to a visual format, with images and videos being shared inline. This means that it is imperative for brands to use images and video in tweets in order to get seen.

82%48%

Average ReTweet RateAverage Tweets with Images or Video

9x Average number of times the top engaging DMOs are Tweeting every day

Do you want to know your ReTweet rate or percentage of images and video? Visit www.potentialhumanreach.com/dmai2015

of the Average DMOThe top DMOs like NYC, Las Vegas, Great Britain, etc. are performing exceptionally well in social media. But we found DMOs that shared less than 1 image in 100 tweets or tweeted only once or twice per week. So we looked at the overall averages for almost 200 DMOs to share some information about their Twitter followers and engagement.

25,277 Average number of followers of a DMO Twitter account

5x Average number of times the aver-age DMOs are Tweeting every day

1,223,614 Average Potential Human Reach™

59 Average engagement rate (people reached per follower)

45%15%Average ReTweet RateAverage Tweets with

Images or Video

Emerging Paid Social Media Opportunities for

Promoting DMOs

Paid Social Media Ads

Website Cards

cinematic pins

Carousel Ads

promoted posts

dark posts

Pre-Rollsponsored snaps

Sponsored Tweets

3V ADSLead

GenerationCards

Promoted Pins

video ads

sponsoredupdates

Fuseideascase study

Engagement: Media Length: 6 months

Results:2.139% top Facebook Ad Click Through Rate1,115,372 total Facebook ad impressions

Brand Consistency

Very often social media is still an afterthought for brands; something to be plugged in once the campaign is underway or the web site is live. What this often means is that brands’ social media channels are inconsistently branded leading to confusion and poor brand perception as well as recognition. Of the almost 200 DMOs we reviewed almost one third were inconsistently branded; their social media channel logos, header graphics and content lacked current branding and

messaging were inconsistent with their website and branding collateral. This inconsistency goes beyond visual branding; DMO’s often neglect to include URLs or user names for the social media accounts in printed or broadcast branding. Just adding an icon requires consumers to search for your social media account name, which may ALSO be inconsistent with your website branding.

DMOs with consistent social media branding 145

DMOs with inconsistent social media branding 42

Thank You

Potential Human Reach™ is a proprietary algorithm Fuseideas uses to measure the 2 most important factors to social media marketers; reach and engagement. This tool provides insight into how well your Twitter account is performing, why it may be going unseen, how many real people your Tweets reach beyond just your followers but to their followers as well. Potential Human Reach™ was launched at the 2014 DMAI Annual Convention. Since then almost 200 DMOs have used the tool giving us a leader-board that allows us to benchmark the performance of the entire travel vertical. For more information and your free analysis visit: potentialhumanreach.com/dmai2015.

Fuseideas is an award-winning full service creative agency that specializes in developing innovative, integrated and measurable campaigns for Destinations seeking differentiation in an increasingly chaotic media environment. We break through this “chaos” with a strategic mix of traditional, digital, and social media built upon a rock-solid creative strategy designed to ensure that your Destination stands out among its competitors.

CONTACT

Dennis Franczak 8 Winchester PlaceSuite 303Winchester, MA01890P 617-776-5800www.fuseideas.com