Over a year after its inception, Tourism Exchange USA is now in various stages of program launch and rollout with 18 different state tourism offices across the country. Each shares the same goal: to increase visibility and bookings for US tourism businesses in the global marketplace. Read on to learn about a few best practices for destinations on how to generate strong industry engagement that is essential to the long term success of the program.
1. Demonstrating partnership between state and local DMOs creates more industry impact.
As part of the enablement process, TXUSA hosts supplier webinars in order to better educate local tourism businesses about TXUSA, and the opportunity they have to expand product visibility both domestically and on a global scale by getting connected to the platform.
After hosting dozens of webinars across various states and regions, we’ve come to find that the destinations who see the most supplier engagement are those with state and local DMO representation participating in the supplier webinars. Their presence helps to welcome webinar participants and reinforce the importance of the Exchange to the state or local DMO’s efforts.
Active DMO participation goes beyond webinar attendance, too. Destinations that show their commitment and partnership to TXUSA through an aligned communication strategy also see more success with their respective suppliers.
2. Speaking of aligned communications… DMOs who consistently promote the TXUSA partnership in their communications strategy see wider industry engagement.
Once a destination has decided to partner with Tourism Exchange USA, part of its success in garnering supplier engagement stems from its communication strategy.
The most successful DMOs have announced their collaboration with TXUSA in various ways: through press releases from top leadership, adding the partnership to their industry website, including it in industry email newsletters, and directly communicating about the platform from state leadership to local/regional DMOs via direct emails, in-person presentations, and conversations.
3. Go Local: Webinars and in-market workshops dedicated to specific regions and cities within a state saw higher supplier engagement.
Another proven technique for destinations is focusing efforts on a hyper-local level. Destinations that expanded their webinar offerings to become more regionally focused saw more success when they hosted webinars for dedicated cities and smaller, local DMOs. These targeted webinars are a service provided through Tourism Exchange USA’s Local DMO Engagement Program.
Focusing on locality, DMOs should also consider bringing educational content to specific markets with an educational roadshow hosted by Tourism Exchange, or a series of in-market events with various touch points.
4. Destinations that have strong relationships with the tourism businesses in their area and understand which of them would best benefit from TXUSA generate more supplier interest.
In our work with destinations, we’ve found that those DMOs who maintain strong ties to their local partners, and therefore can identify a few tourism suppliers who they think would most benefit from getting connected to TXUSA, tend to be more successful in their launch of the TXUSA program.
When considering suppliers, it’s best to include those businesses that may not be the biggest and most well known in your area, but would benefit the most from a TXUSA connection: smaller mom and pop shops, those that have little to no online presence, and those that may be historically underrepresented, like LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC businesses, in the travel space. Think about the businesses and experiences you would really like to include in suggested itineraries for travel trade but can’t because they aren’t working with any receptive operators and aren’t bookable through global distribution channels.
5. Having a point of contact at your DMO who is dedicated to all things TXUSA ensures a more effective roll out of the program.
While we recommend having a dedicated staff member from your organization who works solely on the Tourism Exchange partnership, we understand that that’s not the reality for most DMOs. We have found, however, that those destinations with a designated point of contact who can act as a bridge and ally for businesses in the community, tend to fare better in supplier engagement.
Ensuring at least one staff member can be a champion for the program in the community ensures a more effective roll out of the program by maintaining clear lines of communication. Supportive messaging from top leadership is also essential to successful local adoption and engagement.
6. And last but not least… Consider educational opportunities to better benefit from the travel trade industry and TXUSA connection.
If your destination is interested in growing international market share but hasn’t worked in that space previously, your industry partners may not fully realize the opportunity that’s available. Is this a new type of initiative for your community? If so, your industry might need more context than you’d expect.
Tourism Exchange USA offers educational roadshows to help bring suppliers and destinations up to speed on all things travel trade, ensuring all audiences are well informed about the benefits of getting connected.
Interested in bringing a roadshow to your area? Please reach out to our DMO Success team at [email protected] to get started.