Enhancing Compet i t iveness and Attractiveness of Rural Sustainable tourism through Digital Storytelling Final Conference December 2011Trentino Italy

Photo by CoolBieRe ™

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Rural and sustainable: A type of tourism that’s on the “long tale” which means it’s not receiving the mainstream tourist like mass destinations do. Initiatives in this sector are often less: equipped, organized, online wired, little advanced and capital powerful, their their urban/commercial/larger scale counterparts. And than to take into account sustainable tourism is still only 7% of the global tourism market.

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How can storytelling be relevant in strengthening the position of smaller scaled rural tourism? And bring more capital in to stimulate development of the sector.

Listen to the voice of villages

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The project has a powerful name: listen to the voice of villages. But in order to hear them, you need to speak. And when you speak.. how are your going to make sure people are listening?

Shout out loud?

By Jerry Ting

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Imagine your an agriturismo. You could invest in your marketing. But your resources are limited.

By Jerry Ting

Shout different?

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You have a fantastic story, but it remains the best kept secret of the region.

By Damian Davalos

Let others shout?

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you can stimulate affiliates to promote you, but how?

Shout together?

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You combine powers: create an group, cooperation or association.

By Nikographer [Jon]

But who will hear you?

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But there is so much noise these days. And less attention. Who will hear you?

How to stand out?

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How to stand out the crowd? How to distinguish yourself?

Caspar Diederik

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My name is Caspar Diederik. I’m the co-founder of StoryTravelers. I’m specialized in finding stories, translate them into visual digital stories that travel throughout the internet to attract travelers.

38% of total travel sales occur online, compared with 6% for retail

90% of the major travel brands report that social media was a top destination site

The average online consumer visits 20 sites before making a travel purchaseSource:

Travolution Oct 2011

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I’ll start with the DIGITAL of Digital Storytelling.

Just a quick overview of the latest numbers of significance in the land of online travel, derived from a global research of the global online travelmarket conducted by Travolution. No news, but maybe a wake upcall urging the online strong presence of whoever wants get a slice of the online travel pie.

38% of total travel sales occur online, compared with 6% for retail. Make yourself easy traceable and bookable online. Sounds superfluous, but still many rural destinations leave their to wish for and are not even easy to book. Connect to partners, bookingsites, touroperators and other affiliates, THAT ALREADY HAVE ESTABLISHED NETWORKS.

90% of the major travel brands report that social media was a top destination site after visiting their site. So you might have a great site, but without being part of the conversation online your nowhere.

The average online consumer visits 20 sites before making a travel purchase. Suppose you’re lucky to be on one of these 20 sites. Then still little chance this person chooses you? What makes them choose for you?

Get connected

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Get your infrastructure sorted. People search, get inpired, recommend and book online, more and more. This trend is expected to continue increasing dramatically in the next few years. Connecting to networks that are already established is a must to connect with the outer world.

WHY SHOULD PEOPLE COME AND VISIT YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE?

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Suppose you’ve done all that. You’re now have a great site, you’re wired, active on social and connected to affiliates. You’ve developed your infrastructure. But now the content! So the big question remains: “WHY SHOULD PEOPLE COME AND VISIT YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE?”Did you know that most places don’t even have a decent answer on that? Try and ask it yourself.

NO! Not because people are intrigued by your ads, cheap offers, photos of empty rooms, the idea of just another place.

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Have you noticed that 9 out of 10 hotels, do NOT share interesting stories? No? just a little test. Go to google: type in “Hotel” combined with the place you were born: then take the last digit of you age (I’m 32 so I take 2) and go to the corresponding googlepage and take the last link of the page. Find the site of the first hotel mentioned. Is there a story that inspres you. I bet not. But it shouldn’t be that difficult, should it?

YES! Because people are intrigued by your WOW story, that triggers the wish to come and live that unique experience themselves.

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Stories RULE

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A good story might be the most powerful potential that you have. Now it only needs to be told.

66% are influenced by user reviews

72% of social media users access social networking sites while they are travelling,

52% of Facebook users said their friends’ photos inspired their holiday Source:

Travolution Oct 2011

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66% are influenced by user reviews. Though, reviews are often not stories, but mentions about the clean bathroom or the dog that barked annoyingly at night. These details are not making your place unique, but get mentioned because there might be nothing else worthwhile telling. So MAKE SURE guest writes about their story, because there’s is no other thing top of mind!

72% of social media users access social networking sites while they are travelling, according to Tripl, the social travel serviceRemember many travelers don’t book their complete trip on advance but rely on information and inspiriation on the go. Travelers acces their mobile, google and surf to find their next spot. You’d better be there.

52% of Facebook users said their friends’ photos inspired their holiday choice and travel plans, according to Tripl:So the better stories your guests find the more interesting will their visual stories on Facebook will be.

Why Stories Work

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What is all this buzz about storytelling? Haven’t we been doing that for ages?

Yes! and that’s exactly why it’s so powerful. It’s in our system, we know it we love it. The only thing that has changed dramatically is how a story reaches us and how us and how a story is told.

They engage people, bring understanding

They can evolve

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Stories make people understand your place or idea because a story is like experiencing your own life. So a story enables you to give meaning to what happens and how elements relates to one another.

..trigger emotion and intrigue

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Because we humans are empatic (also a lot to say we’re NOT, but that’s another discussion.) Let’s say our ability to empathize makes us able to identify with a story and experience our emotions getting triggered.

..have a theme, plot, characters, action

..and when meaningful, they are memorable

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Try to memorize 5 random chosen objects and see if you remeber them next week. You’ll see that it way more difficult than memorize the 5 places you visited on your last trip. Because every single object now has a connection and follows the chronological story in which the trip unfolded.

When stories work?

Simple IdeaUnexpectednessConcretenessCredibility EmotionStory

Source: Made to StickChip and Dan Heath

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• Simple — find the core of any idea• Unexpected — grab people's attention by surprising them• Concrete — make sure an idea can be grasped and remembered later• Credible — give an idea believability• Emotional — help people see the importance of an idea• Stories — empower people to use an idea through narrative

When stories work?

Simple IdeaUnexpectednessConcretenessCredibility EmotionStory

Source: Made to StickChip and Dan Heath

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From Made to Stick: Chip and Dan Heath: The book's outline follows the acronym "SUCCES"

An example of a surprising story: POMODORI aBiological Tomatoes that grow on classical music.

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Here an example of a story that I made at an old sicilian defense castle turned into a pleasant oase of wine and dining. I discovered the story by chance wandering oround the premises. They appeared togrow their pomodori tomatoes on classical music. See for yourself if you can apply the S.U.C.C.E.S. factors.

Fattoria La Vialla

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La vialla, a vivid example of rural storytelling. Succesful, fully booked and expanding their services throughout europe: their webshop of typical products does magic. On their home page you immediately get a grasp of their world. By the simple use of an overview picture. From here you can dive deeper into the experience. For instance they have a CO2 balance meter to monitor their emission/ compensation balance of carbondioxide and the way they manage that.

They live their story and carry it out

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The Fattoria is a Meta story where you can dive into different experiences through videos. From the production of pecorino to how they cultivate biological crops.

Talk value: make others share your story

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Although they carry out their story very well themselves, it remains to others having the conversation. They only provide for a reason to conversate: talk value.

Practical tips

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Ok. But concretely. What can I do to start today?

Tips:

Staff, Visitors, Locals, Local touroperatorsare your storytellers: facilitate them

Give a reason to talk about

Find &Offer Stories to guests

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Staff, Visitors, Locals, Local touroperators are your storytellers: listen to them and facilitate them to carry it out!

Reckognize your stories. Ask different eyes to back you up, as you might have become blind for what’s actually so special about your place.

Offer stories! Turn your stories into an experience. Maybe it’s your old neighbour that could do a workshop of how to make beer of grassroot

Equip, Empower, help and reward people share their story. See what happens if you give someone a camera.

Connect stories

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Last but not least:

Work together: Connect stories! Your story is not isolated, but connected with otherss. It is part of a meta story, a world with a lot of entry points. A story of an significant other can lead to your story.

A platform or cooperation is a must. Don’t do it alone

Home

         

Village

Valley

RegionMulti Level

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People don’t travel 1000 k because you serve nice pasta or a great garden. People travel 1000 km to dive into a world of stories. So connect to more geographical levels than the gate of your front door. The beautiful old pasta factory 50k’s away is also part of your world.

Get wired now!Find for WOW storiesVisualize and Digitalize themEngage your storytellersLink and Work together Look further than your front gate

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Get wired now! Find for WOW storiesVisualize and Digitalize themEngage your storytellersLink and Work together Look further than your front gate

+39 3281 274 737

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