Webinar: New marketing and revenue strategies for family attractions
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Effectively marketing your family attraction and destination is critical to your success. Great marketing goes well beyond knowing your audience and emailing them special offers. In this 55-minute webinar, you'll learn how children influence family travel and purchasing decisions; proven revenue management strategies that drive growth; what motivates families to visit attractions like yours; and what guests expect about their experience and how you can deliver new value. Presenter: Chris Cavanaugh, president and founder of Magellan Strategy Group, is known as the Swiss Army knife of strategy and marketing skills for family attractions and destination management organizations. Prior to founding Magellan Strategy Group, Cavanaugh served as vice president of marketing for The Biltmore Company in Asheville, North Carolina, the owner of Biltmore Estate. During his tenure, Biltmore doubled its annual revenue and became the most visited historic house attraction in the U.S. The governor of North Carolina appointed Cavanaugh to the state's travel and tourism board in 2003, and he was reappointed in 2010. He is past chairman of that board, and also past chairman of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority and Blue Ridge Mountain Host. He has been a presenter at numerous conferences across the U.S.
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Webinar: New marketing and revenue strategies for family attractions
- 1. New Marketing and Revenue Strategies for Family Attractions
- 2. Presenters Chris Cavanaugh President and Founder Magellan Strategy Group Sarah Gilbert Family Attractions Market Manager Picture.com
- 4. Empowerment
- 7. Children Play a Significant Role in Trip Decision Making, by Gender and Age 37.6% 50.4% 56.5% 61.7% 56.5% 36.6% 55.9% 56.6% 63.6% 60.9% 62.6% 39.5% 56.3% 39.0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Boys < 4yrs Boys 4-7 yrs Boys 8- 11 yrs Boys 12- 14 yrs Boys 15- 17 yrs Girls < 4yrs Girls 4-7 yrs Girls 8- 11 yrs Girls 12- 14 yrs Girls 15- 17 yrs WEST MIDWST SOUTH EAST Children play an increasing role in travel decision-making as they age. Children in the West and South are more likely to play a role than in the Midwest or East. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 8. Role of Children in the Attraction Decision Process Very little. I decide what is the best family activity. 25% Some. I discussed it with the kids. 22% Quite a bit. My kids asked to go. 37% A lot. Would not have visited otherwise. 13% Other 3% About half of parents say their children play a large role in the decision to visit an attraction. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 9. Children’s Participation in Planning Attraction Visits by Sex and Age of Child 53.0% 74.1% 84.3% 86.1% 87.0% 53.5% 69.6% 83.3% 85.5% 84.3% 81.3% 58.8% 68.0% 73.3% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Boys < 4yrs Boys 4-7 yrs Boys 8- 11 yrs Boys 12- 14 yrs Boys 15- 17 yrs Girls < 4yrs Girls 4-7 yrs Girls 8- 11 yrs Girls 12- 14 yrs Girls 15- 17 yrs WEST MIDWST SOUTH EAST Older children are more likely to play a role in planning an attraction visit. Kids in the West and East are more likely to participate in planning than those who live in the Midwest or South. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 10. Ways That Children Participate in Planning 10.0% 13.1% 20.3% 25.1% 25.7% 27.1% 32.9% 56.9% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Blogs Other Discuss on Facebook Search out Brochures Point out Billboads Search Engines Friends Recommendations Visit Attraction's Website Parents say their children are most likely to visit an attraction’s website, listen to friends’ recommendations, and use search engines. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 11. Ways Families Motivate Their Children to Visit Educational Attractions I make my kids visit things that are "good for them" 23% My children generally want to visit on their own 64% We generally do not visit these types of attractions 13% Nearly 2/3 of parents say their children are motivated to visit educational attractions on their own, while 23% say they have to make their children visit and 13% don’t visit educational attractions at all. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 12. Actions Families Take to “Encourage” Their Children to Visit Educational Attractions We don't visit if the kids are not interested 24% We negotiate, trade something they want for it 39% I/we simply require they visit with us as a family 37% However, nearly 4 in 10 of those who visit educational attractions (whether their children want to or not) say they tend to negotiate with their children in order to encourage them to visit. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 13. Parents Who “Negotiate” with Kids to Visit Educational Attractions by Sex and Age of Child 32.1% 45.2% 40.7% 32.3% 31.3% 37.5% 25.0% 21.7% 41.2% 36.8% 31.6% 35.7% 46.7% 34.8% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% Boys < 4yrs Boys 4-7 yrs Boys 8- 11 yrs Boys 12- 14 yrs Boys 15- 17 yrs Girls < 4yrs Girls 4-7 yrs Girls 8- 11 yrs Girls 12- 14 yrs Girls 15- 17 yrs WEST MIDWST SOUTH EAST Those who “negotiate” or trade something to encourage them to visit educational attractions tend to be parents of boys 4-11 and girls over 12, and/or those who live in the South. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 14. 1. Checks and Balances 2. Consensus 3. Democracy 4. Meritocracy 5. Apprenticeship 6. Arbitration The Six Roles Kids Play as Planners From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 15. If they want to capture the family traveler, attractions now have to sell to Mom AND her children. Is your website kid-empowered? For different ages of kids? Does your social media speak to both parents and kids? Can you leverage being negotiated? Selling to the Empowered Child
- 17. The Advent of Big Data and Attractions Increased revenue AND guest satisfaction
- 18. Have a plan for all that data. If data is the answer, what’s the question? What’s the human cost of managing huge amounts of data? Outsource analysis if necessary. The Advent of Big Data and Attractions
- 19. Prioritize data needs by… • “Actionability” • Cost of acquisition • Imposition upon guest experience Balance business opportunities with providing excellent guest service and hospitality, even after the visit. The Advent of Big Data and Attractions
- 20. Empowering Attractions Through Revenue Management
- 21. • Fluctuations in Business Levels • Capacity Constraints • Perishable Inventory (and Opportunities) • High Fixed Costs • Low Variable Costs • Ability to Segment and Forecast Demand • Flexible Pricing Environment Attraction Business Situations Suited to Revenue Management
- 22. 1. Focus on price rather than cost when balancing supply and demand 2. Use market-based pricing 3. Sell to segmented micro-markets, not to mass markets 4. Save your products for your most valuable customers 5. Make decisions based on knowledge, not supposition 6. Exploit each product’s value cycle 7. Continually reevaluate your revenue opportunities “(Dynamic pricing) has to be based on rules that reward certain types of behavior and something guests can understand.“ --Jim Heaney, SeaWorld CFO 7 Core Concepts of Revenue Management Robert Cross – Revenue Management; Orlando Sentinel, 7/9/2013
- 23. • Guest segmentation and targeting • Premium tour experiences • Dynamic pricing by season, week of month, or day of week • Make big days bigger revenue days • Daypart pricing • Higher prices as new products are introduced • Leveraging children’s pricing Test, measure and evaluate! Pricing is simply another part of the strategic marketing mix. Empowering Attractions Through Revenue Management
- 24. Advance online sales represent a large percentage of attractions’ total revenue Test platform for ticket pricing strategies • Secures guest commitment • Encourages thorough visit planning • Provides a forecasting tool • Opportunity for upsell during the anticipation phase of visit planning Empowering Attractions Through Revenue Management and Technology
- 26. Biggest Motivators for Visiting Attractions 3.0% 5.2% 6.4% 7.0% 14.7% 15.5% 20.9% 21.3% 23.9% 24.9% 36.3% 37.8% 66.1% 19.7% 19.3% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% Be the first to see/do Entertain guests See/watch people Specific festival/event Had coupon/discount Never been before See new rides/exhibits See animals Learn something new Unqiue experience Share something with kids Experience thrills Variety for young/old Get out of the house Spend time as family Circumstances most likely to motivate families to visit an attraction are the opportunity to spend time together, to get out of the house, variety for young & old and to experience thrills. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 27. Families’ Most Important Factors for Visiting Educational Attractions 2.88 3.10 3.50 3.56 3.67 3.68 3.93 4.09 4.17 4.20 3.26 3.24 3.43 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 Home school curriculum Gift shop variety Film/intro orientation Quality of food/beverage Tour guides to explain Topic kids studied in school Use of technology to bring to life Awareness of historic event New exhibit/gallery Immersive environment Interactive, hands-on Educational value Value for the dollar When visiting educational attractions, value for the dollar, educational value, and interactive & immersive experiences are their most important considerations. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 28. Most Important Factors for Visiting Entertainment Attractions 3.37 3.63 3.70 3.77 3.77 3.86 3.94 4.04 4.41 4.55 4.60 4.66 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 Gift shops' variety New ride/attraction Educational value Quality of food/beverage Immersive environment Use of technology to bring to life Thrilling rides Interactive, Hands-on Friendliness Value for the dollar Variety of rides/shows Family rides Families say that when visiting entertainment attractions that family rides, variety, value for the dollar and friendliness of employees are their most important considerations. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 29. Guests Now Expect to be Up Close and Personal “World’s Most Dangerous Zoo” Lujan Zoo, Argentina
- 30. Guests Now Expect to be Up Close and Personal
- 31. Find opportunities to let guests get (figuratively) in the cage, behind the glass, or under the velvet rope. Provide guests with social currency—what they really want is not to swim with dolphins, but to be able to show and tell others they swam with dolphins. Guests Now Expect to be Up Close and Personal
- 32. Challenges for Attractions • Need to provide social currency • Need to increase visits and drive revenue • Need to extend customer engagement post- visit as part of customer experience lifecycle • Need to compete with other attractions that have strong word-of-mouth promotion • Want to monetize existing assets
- 33. Picture.com for Your Attraction
- 35. VIP experiences include… Personal guides Premium parking Special transportation Expedited entry Meet and greets Reserved seating areas Special dining experiences Unique souvenirs Behind the scenes tours Families as the New VIPs
- 36. Exclusive, high-touch solutions for • Social currency • Time poverty • Information overload • Desire for status Not just guests jumping lines— demands intensive service, too Favoring the 1%? Families as the New VIPs
- 38. Adults’ Perception of Technology 14.1% 54.0% 17.2% 14.6% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% I'd prefer attractions limit the use of technology. There's too much of it in everyday life Some technology is fine if it helps make the visit more convenient Use of technology is good if used appropriate to help tell the story. Prefer attractions use modern technology whenever they can. Adults too prefer the use of technology, but prefer it be used to help better “tell the story” and not introduced gratuitously. From The Art of the Family Vacation, PGAV Destinations and H2R Market Research, 2012
- 39. 56% of families think technology makes road trips more fun. 61% will take 3-5 tech/media devices with them on their trips • 68% smartphones • 49% GPS navigation • 42% laptops • 37% tablets/iPads (even higher in some surveys) The Technologically Empowered Family Choice Hotels International and Family Fun magazine survey, May 2013
- 40. 48% 1% 2% 2% 2% 39% 39% None of the above Posted photos on flickr Shared experience on Twitter Shared experience on a blog Posted videos on YouTube Shared experience on Facebook Posted photos on Facebook During or after your visit, did you do any of the following? Please select all that apply. Source: Magellan Strategy Group family attraction client research, 2012
- 41. • Almost all leisure travelers (93%) take photos to ensure their experiences are remembered. • 55% of adults purchase souvenirs to remember their family vacations-- more prevalent among Millennials (60%) than those 55+ (49%) • A majority of kid travelers 8-18 years old (57%) like sharing souvenirs, photos, and videos in person. Turning Technology into Memories Source: U.S. Travel Association
- 42. Moms—the “passenger seat navigators”—dominate social media: • 49% of women visit social media sites at least a few times a day • 58% of moms follow brands on social media • 74% are influenced by social media promotion or brand mention Millennial Moms are particularly active on social media: • Spend 17 hours per week on social--4 hours more than other moms • Have an average of 3.4 social media accounts • Like or recommend products and services online 10.4 times a month The Technologically Empowered Family Source: Weber Shandwick/KRC Research Digital Women Influencers study, 6/16/2013
- 43. The Millennials Fastest growing segment of travelers • Educated • Ethnically diverse • Technologically savvy • Enjoy traveling with friends • Plan trips in far less time • Want immersive, entertaining experiences • Care about environmental issues and other causes • Fickle • Empowered
- 46. Learn More about Picture.com Picture.com/attractions Sarah Gilbert sgilbert@picture.com (919) 414-1291
- 47. Q&A Chris Cavanaugh Magellan Strategy Group Sarah Gilbert Picture.com
Editor's Notes
- Intro facilitators
- The overall theme of this presentation can be summed up as “Empowerment.” Empowerment for attraction guests, family travelers, and even attractions themselves. It’s a theme that will run throughout each finding presented today. And while empowered consumers are not necessarily a new trend, they are finding new ways to act upon that power, and attractions are now finding new ways to cater to them AND act upon their own new capabilities.
- I’d like to begin with a trend that’s become increasingly noticeable in recent years, what I’ll call The Empowered Child. And having just returned last night from a family vacation of my own, I have my own experience with this trend.
- So a few months ago, being someone who loves market research and family travel, I asked my only child, my 13-year old daughter, to weigh in on our summer family travel plans. I presented her with a list of 21 different travel features, activities, and attractions, and had her rank them from 1 to 21. No, I would not do that in the real world—21 choices is way too many. So after a few minutes she returned the survey to me. Of course, her top choices were a nice hotel to stay in, and a variety of good restaurants. Smart girl. But she is 13, after all, and so her open-ended answer to “Other” was “Awesomenessssss.” With 6 S’s. So I’m guilty of “empowering” my child to influence our travel planning.
- But as it turns out, so is much of the rest of America.This was clearly observed in research conducted last year by two strategic partners of mine, PGAV Destinations and H2R Marketing Research, in their study The Art of the Family Vacation. As many as 62% of families with teenagers at home report that their children play a “significant” role in travel decision making. This is highest amongst traveling families in the West and South, but still nearly as high as 4 out of 10 families reporting that their kids have a significant role in travel planning in the Midwest and East.
- This extends to the planning for visiting attractions and activities as well. Three-quarters of all parents report that their children played at least some role in the planning to visit attractions on their last trip, and half said they were substantially involved. And that influence extends to an active role in planning, with 7 out of 10 parents—70%--reporting their child actively assisted in the planning to visit an attraction.
- Naturally, older kids are more likely to be involved in planning an attraction visit, with more than 8 out of 10 children 8 and older being engaged. But what’s fascinating is that many parents report that their kids as young as 2 or 3 are involved in the planning to visit an attraction.
- Not surprisingly, and paralleling the experiences of their parents, attraction websites tend to be the favored medium for kids who are involved in planning visits to attractions on family trips. But direct word of mouth recommendations—the sharing of experiences—is still incredibly important as a medium for influencing attraction visit planning.
- There are differences in how we as parents motivate our children to visit certain attractions. Almost 2/3 say their kids generally want to visit EDUCATIONAL attractions on their own, with only a quarter saying they have to make their kids “eat their veggies” of the attraction world.
- But many of us as parents still have to negotiate with our kids when it comes to visiting educational attractions—nearly 4 in 10 parents report having to trade something for it. Oh, the shame.
- The attraction negotiation phase of parenting is most evident at different ages for the two genders. For boys, it is most prevalent at ages 4 to 11, but for girls, it’s early teens—like my own daughter. There are even some differences by region of the country, with those of us in the South most likely to negotiate a visit to an educational attraction.
- The Art of the Family Vacation research also showed that kids can play up to six roles as planners and participants in the trip planning process. They are…
- So selling to the family traveler in the age of the empowered child means recognizing that children will not only be potential visitors to your attraction, but they will likely be on your website, asking their friends about you, and checking out what you are saying on social media. And there may be ways for educational attractions to leverage being “negotiated” as part of a family trip itinerary. Can you partner with an entertainment attraction, for instance, to provide a ticket package or pass that makes negotiation easier for parents?
- Now we move next from the Empowered Child to the another trend, the Empowered Attraction. Attractions have more power in terms of generating incremental revenue these days than ever before. This reminds me of when I started my marketingcareer in consumer packaged goods. It used to be that manufacturers had all the power, because they could tell the retailer what was being sold in their stores. But scan data gave the power to the retailers, and giants like Wal Mart leveraged enormous amounts of data for their own good. The same thing is happening now in the attraction and activitiessector.
- As many of you know, Disney has been testing its Magicband this year, and they have reported both increased guest revenue and guest satisfaction during their test of an “all in one” payment system. But the real value to Disney lies in DATA—huge amounts of data being collected on every guest who uses the Magicband in their parks and resorts. I think it’s just the beginning of truly “Big Data” coming to the attraction world.
- Many attractions and activity suppliers have been collecting all sorts of data on guest behavior for years. But the attractions and activity world has generally been far behind other consumer segments in terms of data collection and data management in order to create useful insights. And many attractions should answer two basic questions first before embarking upon any program of data—what question are you trying to answer with that data, and what’s the human cost of managing and analyzing it? Outsourcing that analysis is an option.
- Furthermore, what are your priorities for that data? Will it interfere with the guest experience? How much will it cost to collect? And what ultimately do you hope to impact? Too many attractions don’t answer these questions, and data either isn’t acted upon, or the collection of it creates an imposition upon the guest experience (before, during and after the visit experience).
- The real opportunity for actionable guest data lies in revenue management. Revenue management sounds complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple—using customer data to predict their actions, and then optimizing product availability and pricing. It’s been done for years in the airline business, of course—you pay a different fare depending upon the time of day, the day of the week, the seat on the airplane, the airport you leave from. But we’ve seen it extended into hotels, rental cars, and now even professional and college sports and groceries.
- The great thing about most attractions is that they offer a wide variety of business scenarios that are suited to the application of revenue management…One example of revenue management that many of you are probably familiar with has been around for years. Most visitors to New York know they can get cheap same-day Broadway show tickets at the ticket booth in Times Square. They may not be the best seats, and it may not even be a show that was your first choice, but Broadway knows that by putting seats for sale at that outlet they’ll hopefully fill the house that night.Later on Sarah will provide us with an example of a revenue management tool that can be used by attractions.
- There are seven core concepts of revenue management that attractions and activities are increasingly using to grow their revenue and their bottom lines…The key, though, is what Sea World’s CFO said just a couple of weeks ago—that dynamic pricing and other revenue management tactics and strategies have to be easy to understand and have to reward a desired type of behavior. Otherwise, we risk becoming the airlines, where it’s not clear what the reward is or if there is a reward to our customers.
- Some of the ways in which attractions are implementing revenue management include…The advantage we have in the attraction and activity world is the ability to test, measure and evaluate. We don’t have to wait to see how it does at Wal Mart or Walgreen’s. We have a real-world laboratory in our backyard.Picture.com's solutions provides incremental revenue for the attraction with every photo book that's delivered, but it also enables 1-to-1 word-of-mouth marketing, which is often very difficult to operationalize. This is certainly a key element in the "larger strategic picture"
- While online ticketing has been around for a while, I’m still surprised at the number of attractions and activities that aren’t taking full advantage of the channel as a revenue management, forecasting, and promotional tool. Since online sales now represent a large portion of many attractions’ transient ticket sales, the channel can be used for a variety of revenue management tactics and other marketing strategies. These include…
- Now empowerment isn’t limited to children and attractions. Family travelers as a whole are becoming more empowered to influence how they want their attraction experiences delivered.
- The Art of the Family Vacation research from PGAV Destinations and H2R Marketing Research confirmed that most family travelers have as their top motivation for visiting attractions the ability to spend time together. But even something as basic as getting out of the house ranks high as a motivator for visiting attractions.We all know that motivations are key to marketing, and so is extending the attractions brand by capturing the experience after the family has gone home. We’ll talk later about how Picture.com's photo books allow attractions to reclaim the revenue they're otherwise losing by empowering their guests to make their photo books on their websites and how that can provide a share of revenue.
- However, there are differences in what motivators are cited by family travelers when it comes to visiting educational and entertainment attractions. Families visiting educational attractions are more likely to be seeking value and interactive experiences in an immersive environment.
- Those families visiting entertainment attractions, however, are looking for rides that can accommodate the whole family, value for the dollar, and something as basic as friendliness. Interactive, hands-on experiences also rank high for families visiting entertainment attractions.
- Which leads us to our next trend in empowered family travelers—the desire to be up close and personal with their attraction experiences. No longer is it sufficient, for example, to look at animals behind the glass or through the iron bars. A zoo in Argentina has taken this trend to ridiculous lengths, allowing its guests to come face to face with bears and lions and other dangerous animals.
- That’s probably a bit much for us in the U.S., but we’ve seen animal-oriented attractions here increasingly develop visit experiences which allow guests to swim with dolphins, get up close with penguins, and even go diving without a single lesson or certification. These are examples from Discovery Cove in Orlando and the National Aviary in Pittsburgh.
- This trend isn’t limited to animal oriented attractions, either. For family attractions to compete, they increasingly have to provide opportunities for guests to have a one-of-a-kind visit that offers an up close and personal experience, like Biltmore’s rooftop tours and Kennedy Space Center’s Lunch with an Astronaut. The key here is to provide guests with social currency--what they really want is not to swim with dolphins, but to be able to show and tell others they swam with dolphins.Picture.com allows an attraction's guests to show and tell others that swam with the dolphins. Theyallow guests to do this within the context of the attraction's brand, consisting of imagery and stories that help establish word of mouth.
- Picture.com = premium quality, customized photo booksExtends customer engagementCombines customer’s content with your professional contentCreates brand champions and enable 1:1 marketingDrives revenue via photo books and new customer acquisitionBuilt for business and for your customersEnd-to-end account management and customer serviceControl your brand and participate in revenue stream Easy to use
- Some of these up close and personal visit experiences are examples of another trend in family attractions, the VIP experience. These are usually high dollar experiences that are limited in capacity, yet produce a higher dollar margin per guest. Some of the experiences, like Universal Studios’ $299 VIP experience, are nearly an all-inclusive visit. But many other attractions are providing them on a smaller scale. Some of these include…
- Again, these are examples of providing social currency for guests—experiences that are likely to be shared with friends and family for years to come. But they also address guests’ needs in an age of time starvation, streamline the information overload that occurs for many family travelers in planning, and create elite status for them. And any experience like this needs to be about more than just simply jumping lines in theme parks. Many of these are high-touch, service intensive experiences. Admittedly some attractions may resist offering these because they don’t want to be seen as catering to an elite 1%. But they can be profitable and there is a market for them.
- Obviously, there are numerous technologies available to families at each stage of the visit experience, from consideration to planning to the actual experience. Many attractions still wrestle with how “high tech” their visit experiences ought to be, and some managers and owners may resist offering technology-enhanced experiences because they believe parents want their kids to unplug.
- Many parents say their kids either don’t have an opinion or their children definitely want the attractions they visit to incorporate technology in their visit experiences. But what’s most interesting is that the parents themselves—those of us who are also addicted to our smartphones, laptops and tablets—really don’t want attractions to unplug. Only 14% prefer attractions limit technology entirely.
- Again, it’s us as parents who encourage this empowerment, by loading up the car on road trips with all sorts of technological devices. And why shouldn’t we? Many of us started out with the original iPad, the Etch a Sketch, on long car trips, and that technology evolved into 8 track tapes, Walkmans, and in-car DVRs. In fact, my high school graduation gift was a Walkman, which I used on a family trip to the Grand Canyon way back in the 80s.
- Of course, many family travelers are also using today’s technology in new ways beyond the family truckster. While I doubt Steve Jobs envisioned people taking their iPads with them to shoot photos of the Grand Canyon, that’s exactly what many travelers are doing. And our research at one family attraction shows that many of them are either immediately or soon afterwards posting the photos to social media. But there are also a large number who are not necessarily doing so.
- USTA research has shown that most travelers are indeed still taking photos, using those same technology empowering devices, and they are still buying souvenirs. In fact, the Millennial generation are more likely to purchase them than older Boomers, and a majority of those empowered children of ours are likely to share them in person—even given their strong propensity to share photos and experiences via social media like Snapchat, Vine and Instagram instead of Facebook.
- Of course, moms have always been incredibly important to family attractions in the planning process, and still are. As an agency I used to work with, Empower MediaMarketing, called them, they are the “passenger seat navigators” who determine much of how we as family travelers spend our time and money. And whilemoms are highly influential on social media, it’s the Millennial Mom generation that is especially active. They have more technological tools than ever before to affect attraction planning and decision making on a highly personal level.
- That takes us back nearly full circle to our empowered children. The Millennial generation is the most empowered generation that’s ever traveled, and many attractions are still trying to figure them out. As the fastest growing segment of travelers, Millennials are a segment that most attraction marketers are keenly aware they must begin to attract. There will be more competition for them than ever before, because they’re more likely to travel any place in the world. And I’ve heard some attraction managers, particularly at educational attractions. assume that Millennials aren’t or won’t be interested in what they have to offer. That’s too broad an assumption, though. We just have to empower them with many of the tools we’ve already discussed. They can be an important ally for many attractions, but the Millennial generation has a set of expectations that are different than any other generation.
- The fact is, many of them are indeed still traveling with their parents and grandparents on multigenerational trips and visits to attractions. It may be frustrating—and indeed, expensive—but many attractions recognize they have as many as three or even four generations in their theme parks, museums, and historic sites at any one time. That’s never happened before. They have different needs and wants, but there are similarities, too. I’ll close by sharing a personal experience that illustrates this. Last year my entire family went to France to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. What was fascinating to me is how each generation in my family shared that travel experience with other friends and family. The common theme is that all of us relied upon technology—we all had smartphones, iPads, and laptops, and we rented an old farmhouse equipped with WiFi. But we all chose to share our experience and remember our trip with images that captured the moment.
- My closing advice is straight from the mouth of my teenage daughter—find your awesomeness as an attraction, and use all of the tools at your disposal to empower your attraction and your family traveler guest to sell it and reap the rewards from your awesomeness. Thanks for listening!