Adventure Tourism Forum

2013

2 Years Ago in Westport • Tight marketing budgets

• Tough to find the right partners

• Need to access research, validate approaches and

consider next strategies

• Need improved operational quality, safety, risk

management

• Need more and better connections to new markets

• Need more brand awareness at consumer level

• Media market is upended, now what?

• Holistic Thinking – Entire supply chain

• Capacity planning

• Long term vision for region

The Recommended Path

Synergy in philosophy: sustainability – profit…people…planet

As an industry, we need to:

• Professionalize

• Establish industry best practices and ethical standards

across our operations, across continents

• Be generous, creative, collaborative, and diverse

• Be able to respond to changes quickly and efficiently

• Think of ourselves as a key part of a global community

of businesses proactively working to solve local

economic-development issues

“Your network keeps you safe” – “collaborate or perish”

Business as Unusual To build a stronger presence for Ireland and to create increased

growth and revenue, adventure travel providers and tourism board

representatives here will want to consider:

• Acting proactively and creatively to the challenges of

developing, maintaining and refreshing adventure travel

products and services within the broader context of overall

economic development strategy for the region

• Simultaneously increasing its ability to reach out directly to

consumers AND partnering with businesses (tour operators,

agents/agencies, distribution services, etc.) to sell its product

• Rethink the range of audiences you’re trying to reach

• Initiate and maintain conversations and develop loyalty with

existing as well as new adventure-travel consumers

• Combine activities (physical, cultural, environmental) for a

variety of ability levels and/or elements of adventure with five-

star amenities as well as trips

Business as Unusual

• Continuing to innovate, provide higher levels of services, and operate

businesses professionally to maintain competitive position

• Whether your company/organization is large or small, being present - one-

to-one relationship building with tourism boards, associations, trade shows,

etc., to continue to build the network, evolve concepts, etc.

• When framing marketing campaigns and product positioning… connecting

adventure travel with “health and wellness” may provide some consumers

with a better reason to consider adventure tourism

• Social media, mobile technology and other means of customer outreach

and ongoing communication by starting with a specific profile/target

audience and then to determine what kind of relationship you want to build

with those targeted individuals, based on what they are ready for and how

and when they wish to receive it

• Ireland offers unique product…get laser focused on its distinguishing

characteristics and one-of-a-kind experiences

ATTA QuickPoll ~ Ireland

August 2013 • Challenges

• Not a top-of-mind adventure destination (polled “average”)

• Lack of adventure awareness

• Weather

• Consumer demand

• The Good News

• Love of Ireland

• Quality – polled about 4 on 5 point scale

• 43% plan to offer tours to Ireland in the future

Values Statement

Tourism Ethics

Protection of Children

Responsibility

Community Principles

GSTC

TheCode.org (ECPAT)

UNWTO

Adventure Tourism

Development Index

Shores of Ireland, Courtesy Random Letters

The 10 Pillars of the ATDI

ATDI 2011 Adventure Tourism Development Index

• Assists in providing the best

adventure travel experience

• The only UNWTO-backed training

program specifically dedicated to

improving the adventure tourism

sector

• Courses Focus on Five Subject

Areas 1. Adventure Definition and Concepts

2. Product Development and Marketing

3. Operational Excellence

4. Operator Safety and Risk Management

5. Legal Matters

What's New with the

ATTA

Awareness Readiness • Who is today’s adventure traveler

• What recent changes in the adventure industry mean for

your business and destination

• How to improve the quality and safety of your adventure

travel experiences

• How to assess your resources and construct distinctive

adventure travel experiences

• How to manage adventure tourism business risk

• How to bring public and private partners together to foster a

thriving market

• How to create the best online and offline marketing

strategies for adventure businesses

The Power of Digital Communications

Trending Activities in 2013/2014

What are Ireland’s top

adventure activities?

What makes these activities

UNIQUE to Ireland?

What makes you

unique?

Live your brand “ In a world of ‘personal brand’

and ‘leadership brand’ and

‘personal reinvention’ and so

forth, we should not forget: the

real signal is the work itself,

and the social signaling is just

its echo.”

~Nilofer Merchant, “Your Brand is Just the Exhaust,” HBR

Tell Your Story

It’s Your Turn!

How to tell it…

Torres del Paine

Courtesy Turismo Chile

• Photography

• Video

• Blogs

• Social Media

• Podcasts

O.A.R.S

It’s Your Turn!

Wilderness Safaris

It’s Your Turn!

Pugent Sound Express

It’s Your Turn!

Converged Media

Earned

Media

Owned

Media

Paid

Media

Converged Media

Earned

Media

• Editorial in print and

online outlets

• Social Media

• Consumer Generated

Content (blogs,

reviews, testimonials,

photos, videos)

Earned Media

Earned Media Vagabond Tours of Ireland

Converged Media

Owned

Media • Website: itineraries,

company description of

services

• Videos, photos

• Company blog

• Social media channels

• Organic search

Converged Media

Paid

Media • Pay Per Click (PPC)

and sponsored search

• Display Advertising

• Sponsored Ads

(Facebook / LinkedIn)

Going deeper

Next Steps &

Recommendations If you don’t know what makes you unique, figure it out.

If you do know, make sure you are “storydoing”

Capture quality but authentic video and photos and then share

and incorporate into all your marketing.

Makes it easy for your clients to share photos, videos,

testimonials

Partner with other business to support media and buyer FAM

trips

Social media sites – remind people where they are, continue

relationships there, listen to their stories and tell your story.

Thank you!

Presented by Chris Doyle

Executive Director —

Europe

Editor,

AdventureTravelNews

Presented by Casey Hanisko

Vice President, Marketing &

Communications

Adventure Travel Trade

Association