On unknown paths. In the zone of turbulence

Vitaliy Karpinchik, Slonim resident, host of weddings and corporate events, professional traveler and accompanying tourist groups

In the "Three ideas for Slonim" section, our compatriots share their thoughts on how to make our city more attractive for tourists. Today, Vitaly Karpinchik, a Slonim resident, offers his ideas.

There is no effective recipe for making Slonim, like any other place, a tourist destination. Not a single idea that seems very successful or even implemented will guarantee that tourists will pour into the city in droves. First of all, the residents of Slonim themselves should want and be interested in seeing more tourists come to the city, and not only want, but also advertise their city and invite guests themselves. And for this, Slonim residents need to know and love their city, its sights, history. Because the increase in the interest of tourists to our city can only be achieved thanks to the love we ourselves have for our city. Only our love and care, our hospitality, coupled with event tourism could give quick results.

Vitaly Karpinchik

1. Hold an official Guest Day
Tourism and hospitality are concepts that are very closely interconnected. Therefore, I would suggest holding an official Day of Guests in Slonim. Slonim would become the only city in the Republic of Belarus, where such a holiday would be held.

Discounts in cafes and restaurants on this day, free admission to museums, half the fare on buses - all this would testify to our respect for guests and our hospitality. Slonim residents could have a day off that day.

This idea might work. People would understand that this is a great day to invite friends from other cities to their place. In addition, we have many sister cities in different countries. Therefore, the Day of Guests could be an excellent occasion to invite delegations from these cities.

Gnomes - a symbol of Wroclaw

2. Come up with a symbol-brand of Slonim
The topic of city branding has been trendy lately. For example, a few years ago, a Belarusian designer made symbols of Belarusian cities as a graduation project, using the historical aspect as the basis for the visual images of cities. So, a crystal became a symbol of Soligorsk, Smorgon - a bear.

Polish Wroclaw, for example, is considered not only a city of bridges and students, but also a city of gnomes. Gnomes have become a full-fledged symbol of Wroclaw and are loved not only by the inhabitants of the city, but also by tourists. People believe that they bring good luck and prosperity to the city.

The first figurine of a bronze dwarf appeared in Wroclaw in 2001. Now the sculptures of fabulous gnomes, and there are about 400 of them, are scattered throughout the city center. The search by tourists for the little inhabitants of the city turns into an exciting quest: after all, inconspicuous figures are in the most unexpected places, even on a lamppost. Moreover, each gnome has its own meaning and profession. For example, a traveler gnome with suitcases will meet you at the station, and a friendly gnome will invite you to have lunch at the entrance to the cafe.

A similar symbol-brand could be invented by Slonim residents, based on some local legend or historical fact. To do this, you just need to invite people who are not indifferent and really love their city to a round table.

The production and installation of such a symbol of the city could be timed to coincide with the aforementioned Day of Guests, and over time, there would be more distinctive signs-symbols in the city.

3. One of the business cards of the city to make the shortest street
In the center of Slonim there is a very short street that leads from the square to the synagogue - Pereskok Lane, which has been recently noticed. This lane could become one of the smallest and narrowest streets in Belarus, if, of course, it is played correctly.

In Amsterdam, for example, there is a narrow street where it is difficult even for two people to pass each other. Nevertheless, this is the most visited place in this city.

And in conclusion, I note that no one will go to our city to see the sights or celebrate unique holidays, if its inhabitants themselves do not do this and do not attend these very holidays.

READ

Think about what makes your city unique? To do this, make a list of all the activities and attractions that are in your city. Tourists are more interested in things they can do and see in a city than where it is located. First of all, tourists will find out what entertainment is available in the city, and only then - where is it located. Examples: watching white nights in St. Petersburg or rock climbing in Krasnoyarsk.

• Focus on activities and attractions that are unique to the city. Even a small or odd landmark can draw visitors and attention to a city (from the world's largest paper clip to artificial waves on a river). Ask yourself: “Why is this city worth visiting? What is there that tourists cannot get or see elsewhere?”
• Work with the tourism development committee and focus on the top three things your city has to offer. The more facts you provide, the more interesting the city will become for tourists.

Conduct a survey among residents of the city. The survey is an important tool in assessing tourist attractiveness. With it, you can collect information about the city and make sure that the public agrees with the tourist vision of the city. Talk to people face-to-face or conduct a telephone survey. Ask the following questions:

• What do you think attracts visitors to the city?
• What kind of visitors might be interested in the city?
• What can be done to make the time spent by tourists in the city brighter?

Conduct a survey among tourists. You can talk with tourists face to face at a local supermarket. Tourists can also be asked to sign up for a newsletter and send them an email survey. Ask the following questions:

• Where are you from?
• What interested you in our city?
• How did you hear about this attraction?
• What institutions have you been to?
• What facilities or services does the city need?
• The words of previous tourists or current visitors to the city will help to understand how to improve the stay of tourists in the future.

Make a marketing plan. To do this, you need to define target marketing segments. Define target places that will attract largest number tourists. It can be a well-known hiking trail, an important cultural and historical monument or a museum. Then categorize those places by trip length and identify the customer base that the city might be interested in. Draw a diagram and break it down into the following categories:

• Geographic locations with a section for day trips, night trips and long visits.
• Recreation in the bosom of nature, such as camping, hiking, fishing and picnicking.
• Entertainment - historical monuments, fairs and festivals, shopping and local food.
• Other travel purposes such as business trips and family travel.

If you want the world to change, become that change.

Mahatma Gandhi

Any obstacle is overcome by perseverance.

Leonardo da Vinci

Foreword

How can we attract tourists? How not to get lost in the background of thousands of proposals from other cities and countries? How to convince the Russians that it is possible to relax comfortably in Russia, and that a small town far from the Russian capitals is not necessarily a "hole"?

As the practice of recent years shows, these questions can be heard at all conferences, round tables and forums dedicated to the development of tourism in Russia. They also sound during our conversations with representatives of local and regional administrations from different parts of the country. And these questions are of concern not only to officials, but also to the heads of travel agencies, owners of hotels and restaurants, directors of museums, sanatoriums, and even local residents who rent out their living space to vacationers ...

So what to do? “Take an example from Myshkin!” - this dangerous advice is repeated like a broken record, all sorts of "gurus". Myshkin is a wonderful city, but, firstly, its strategy is far from suitable for everyone (there are about 6 thousand inhabitants in Myshkino), and secondly, it is pointless to copy the tip of the iceberg without seeing and understanding everything that is hidden from the eyes in thicker than water.

Three or four years ago, participants in tourist exhibitions representing Russian cities and regions said: “We just need money for advertising, and people will come to us!” Money was allocated, tourists did not go ... Today, a more professional understanding is coming that attracting tourists is not so much advertising as a whole task system, that need to be addressed at the regional level. And this book is a story about who and how should solve these problems, what mistakes and “pitfalls” can be here, what resources can be used in the work and how to place accents. And of course, examples of success.

The book “How to Attract Tourists and Become a Tourism Brand in Russia” is based on an analysis of the experience accumulated in Russia and the CIS, both successful and unsuccessful, as well as the experience of some foreign countries in the development of tourism and the promotion of the territory in tourism market. In addition, some observations and conclusions made while working on the projects of the consulting company "Konkretika" served as material for the book.

This book is methodical, sometimes unpleasant and even offensive, because it tells not only about the possibilities and hidden potential Russian cities and regions, but also about their typical mistakes and shortcomings. But the main value of the book, in my opinion, is concrete practical recommendations explaining WHAT need to do and HOW to do, as well as 420 real-life examples that provide a rich platform for your own ideas and solutions.

I hope this book will help you in your work. Have a productive reading!

Nadezhda Makatrova,

Director of the consulting company "Konkretika"

Chapter 1
Travel brand: to be or not to be?

Fate leads the one who wants to go, drags the one who does not want to go.

Cleanthes, ancient Greek philosopher (IV-111 centuries BC)

Brands were not heard about in the Soviet Union. But at the same time, all citizens of our vast and multinational country firmly knew that:

If you want to go to the sea, then you have to go to Black Sea coast Caucasus or Crimea. With small children - to Anapa or Evpatoria;

If there are no vouchers for the Black Sea, then - to the Azov Sea, to Yeysk;

The intelligentsia preferred the Baltics;

If you need to heal, a direct road to the sanatorium of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody;

For lovers of excursions and cultural and historical values ​​- Moscow, Leningrad, the cities of the Golden Ring and, perhaps, Pskov and Novgorod;

Military-patriotic education - Volgograd with its famous Mamaev Kurgan.

All Soviet people also knew about Baikal and Kamchatka, but they didn’t even dream of getting there - the flight is too expensive, a simple Soviet family can’t afford. Here they are - the real tourist brands, created, by the way, with the powerful support of the state ...

Of course, there were many others in the USSR interesting places and routes - "hits" of the district and regional scale, where excursion groups from schools, universities, enterprises and institutions were continuously sent, but they could not compete with the all-Union "grands".

25 years have passed since perestroika…

Today, looking at the exhibition MITT or "Intourmarket" in Moscow, you can see on the stands hundreds, if not thousands, of new tourist sites and routes throughout the country. One is better than the other, with an intriguing description and amazing photographs. It would seem that new times - new names.

No matter how!

Ask an ordinary Russian what cities or resorts in our country he considers the most popular among tourists, and you will most likely get the same list. True, Crimea and the Baltic states (as foreign countries) will have to be deleted from it, and St. Petersburg will take the place of Leningrad. Let the interlocutor include foreign resorts in the list, and Turkey and Egypt are guaranteed to fall into the first line. I'm talking about mass routes. Skiers habitually call Elbrus, fishermen - Astrakhan.

"How so? Why? The tourist potential of Russia is not limited 10–15 popular routes?! We have two orders of magnitude more!” - one of the readers will be indignant. The potential may not be limited, but the perception of a tourist, according to the laws of marketing, alas, is not rubber. The law says: the number of bright, memorable images on the market is limited. I recommend that you reread the highlighted phrase two more times.

It only at first glance seems that it is enough to come up with “something original” and you will be noticed. You can think of anything you want, but here's the question:

- Will they remember this (against the background of competitors' proposals)?

– Will they buy it (comparing different offers)? And buy not one season, but at least ten years in a row.

For clarity, I will give two useful analogies.

1. Each class has its own "excellent", "losers", "clown", "athlete", its own "beauty". And sometimes - your "outcast" (remember the movie "Scarecrow"). It is very problematic to characterize all the other children in terms of their role in the class.

2. In the 90s, many different shops and shops opened in Russian cities, and today most of them have “died”, giving way to network players. By the way, in Europe, about 80% of goods are sold through chain stores.

What is the implication of this for tourism?

In five years, a new pool of tourist brands of all-Russian significance will be formed in Russia. It is clear that Moscow and St. Petersburg will automatically retain their leading positions due to their exceptional starting opportunities (just as there are three main TV channels in the country and ... all the others). In a privileged position will be the resorts on our warm seas(unless there is a sudden change in climate). And who else will be included in the list of the strongest is still in question ...

If the heads of the city and regions mentioned at the beginning had been actively developing over the course of 25 perestroika years, and did not rely on the tourist resources accumulated over the previous decades, then all the rest would not have been destined to catch up with them in the foreseeable future. However, development was remembered only 5–7 years ago, thus giving a chance to their neighbors.

The importance of getting into the leader pool is illustrated by the Zipf (Zipf) curve

Picture 1

Zipf distribution (Zipf)

Those cities and regions that end up at the tail of this curve may not count on anything serious ... Perhaps they don’t need this, and tourism for them is like birch sap in an ordinary grocery store: they almost don’t take it, but there is an assortment .

At the same time, our conversations with representatives of local and regional administrations show that in many parts of Russia tourism is taken seriously, hoping to use it to give a new impetus to the development of the territory and replenish the budget. For this purpose, short-term and long-term programs are developed everywhere, new tourist brands are announced, advertising catalogs are printed, exhibitions and presentations are held, journalists are invited, etc.

Why can't many cities and regions make a breakthrough and significantly increase the tourist flow? What needs to be changed at work? A detailed answer to these questions will be devoted to subsequent chapters of the book, but here I will only outline the key points.

1. Cities and regions, like people, have desires, but there are “heredity” and “natural inclinations”. When choosing a new image, the second is useful to consider. It is difficult for a tall teenager to become an outstanding Formula 1 pilot or a single figure skater - long legs get in the way. And in volleyball or basketball, high growth, on the contrary, will come in handy. The same principle applies to territories. It is possible to argue with nature, but it is expensive, and not everyone has the patience. (See Chapters 2 and 3 for more on the impact of location on brand building and promotion.)

2. A brand without reference to the target audience is doomed. The strength of a travel brand is not determined by the size of the advertising budget or the amount of promotional products and the big name of the PR agency that came up with the slogans and logos. A good brand is, first of all, a good idea, that is, an idea that makes this object interesting for a specific target audience. And this target audience should be clearly aware of why this object is better for them than others. In other words, a strong idea in itself generates a targeted tourist flow. (For more on positioning and targeting segments, see Chapters 4 and 5.)

3. We need not single solutions, but a system (!) of solutions.

Fact: in the face of fierce competition, single successful finds are copied “for the next season”. Therefore, a strong brand, in addition to the key idea, implies a system of related solutions - it works better to attract tourists, and it is more difficult to copy it.

Have you ever been to a well-organized wedding? And on badly organized? The difference between the first and second is that at a good wedding, the guests enjoy the process without thinking about anything. Everything has been thought of for them. At a poorly organized wedding, guests bicker with the toastmaster, either looking for something to do, or struggling with the consequences of their own or other people's activities. The region is, of course, not a wedding, but the principle of consistency is the same here: big things are made up of little things. (Learn more about creating tourist facilities and useful additional services for tourists, see chapters 6, 7, and 8.)

4. Interference - inertia of thinking and lack of feedback. Often residents, day by day contemplating their native city, a village or a village, cannot break out of the framework of established stereotypes and look at places dear to the heart through the eyes of a newcomer ... (No wonder there is a saying in American consulting: "The client is in the pan, and the consultant thinks more broadly - he is out of the pan.") If only managers of tourist facilities, as well as local and regional authorities, from time to time were interested in the opinion of tourists, travel agencies, investors, and consultants about the attractiveness or unattractiveness of their territory, many problems could have been avoided. And invented slogans and brand ideas would not cause sympathetic smiles. (You will learn more about the stereotypes of tourists and travel agencies regarding holidays in Russia in chapters 9 and 10.)

5. To promote a brand, you need not so much money as a working head. In a manner Russian cities and the regions are lucky: there is foreign experience in promoting tourist sites. There are marketing techniques that are successfully used in the most progressive industries, for example, in retail, telecommunications, etc., including in Russia. Therefore, channels and means of promotion must be chosen critically, and not rely on the advice of a "familiar" advertising agency that earns not on the real attraction of tourists, but only on advertising. Remember how in the monologue of the brilliant Mikhail Zhvanetsky:

“For five thousand rubles, he somehow managed to survive. I was already suffering for ten thousand rubles. But he felt real need when he began to receive sixty thousand rubles.

(More about effective ways to promote tourism potential, see Chapter 11.)

6. A brand is not created by one person or his team. It is a product of the entire territory as a whole. A brand idea or promotion concept can be developed by one or more professionals in the field of territory promotion. This is fine. But to turn ideas on paper into a working brand, the participation of both the authorities and the local business community, and the involvement of local residents, and not just the initiatives of travel agencies, museums, hotels and restaurants, is necessary. A tourist will not be delighted with brand new lanterns if they illuminate a garbage dump or a broken road; if homeless people sleep next to a modern hotel, and inquisitive local teenagers opened the car left in the parking lot, taking part of the contents of the salon as a keepsake. This is a complex work for years to come. (For more on the issues of interaction between the tourist industry, government and local residents, see chapters 12 and 13.)

Yes, things are not as simple as we would like with travel brands…

Unlike sales of everyday products (tea, sausage, bread), here you need to build a strategy for years to come, and then achieve its step-by-step implementation. Is it possible otherwise? It is possible, but it will resemble Brownian motion... And your neighbors-competitors will learn from your mistakes.

It has its own rules of the game and its own methods of work, somewhat similar, but somewhat different from other areas of the economy, so you will have to master a new area of ​​​​knowledge - territory marketing.

And I want to end this introductory chapter with words from Holy Scripture, partly consonant with the ideas expressed above: “So the last will be first and the first last, for many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 20:16; 22:14).

So it's time to roll up your sleeves...

Chapter 2
About marketing tasks of tourism development

We rarely fully understand what we really want.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld, French thinker and politician of the 17th century.

It is believed that a well-posed problem is a half-solved problem. If we analyze the situation with attracting tourists and creating tourism brands in our country, we will find that the task of “develop tourism” with the same wording carries a different meaning for different cities and regions. There are, of course, subtasks common to all: in particular, increasing the awareness of specific tourist sites, positioning the territory in the tourist market, or setting it apart from competing neighbors. But there are also special tasks that depend on the level of tourism development in the region, on the image of the region in the eyes of Russians, and on the guidelines that the authorities of the territory have set for themselves in the field of tourism. If we take as a basis the experience of developing tourism in the territory and analyze the tasks that arise at different stages, then we can conditionally divide all territories into five groups:

Group 1. "Old Guard". These are the regions and municipalities that Russians strongly associate with certain types of tourism, where a steady tourist flow has formed over many decades. These include the cities of the Golden Ring, resorts Krasnodar Territory and Caucasian Mineralnye Vody, Dombai and Elbrusye, Karelia, Altai, Baikal, of course, Moscow and St. Petersburg and a number of other territories and natural objects. These territories have been actively promoted since Soviet times, but they also have an urgent need to develop new types of tourism, create new attractions, improve the level of service, etc. Why? To ensure that energetic competitors do not "steal away" their tourist flow, as well as to increase tourism revenue. Marketing tasks relevant for this group of territories are presented in Table 1.

Table No. 1

The solution of each of the listed tasks is not limited to advertising and PR, but implies a whole list of interrelated activities, including organizational and technical ones. The tasks mentioned above will also be useful for territories from other groups, but for them they are not top priorities.

Group 2. "Hidden reserve". This includes territories that really have significant objects of display, but did not have powerful advertising support in the past - "promotion" from the state - and for this reason are not very popular among Russians, and even more so among foreign tourists. Exceptions are residents of their region and immediate neighbors. This may include: Perm region, Krasnoyarsk region, Buryatia, Adygea, Southern Urals, Bashkortostan, the Arkhangelsk region, Khakassia, etc. Since the tourist flow from other regions is only being formed here, there are certain difficulties in creating a tourist infrastructure, in servicing tourists, in cooperation with travel agencies, etc. Overcoming them is a matter of time and the will of the territory's leadership. As for advertising and marketing tasks, first of all, you need to pay attention to the tasks presented in Table 2.

Table number 2

Group 3. "Adapters". These include cities and regions, the tourism industry of which was based on a certain topic, which has lost its popularity among Russians over the years. As a result, there are attractions, but few tourists. The most striking example here is Ulyanovsk.

This group also includes those territories, the flow of tourists to which has become noticeably smaller compared to the Soviet period due to fears, misconceptions, and misunderstandings that have appeared in society. This applies in particular to the regions North Caucasus, as well as to those regions where there were emergencies involving tourists. These seemingly different groups have the same task - to move from an already established niche in the mind Russian tourists into a new, more promising one. The key tasks for representatives of this group, as a rule, are the tasks presented in Table 3.

Table No. 3

Group 4. "Hermits". These are the territories that, for all their uniqueness, remain aloof from vigorous tourist activity due to remoteness and high cost. passenger traffic from major Russian cities. This group can include Kamchatka, Chukotka, Kola Peninsula, Yakutia, Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territory and others. Sometimes the situation is complicated by a special access regime. Along with attracting Russian tourists, such regions should immediately organize work on international market due to the greater solvency of foreign tourists and their increased interest in places untouched by civilization. Specific tasks for representatives of this group include the following (see table No. 4):

Group 5. "Clean sheets". These are cities, districts and regions that have embarked on the path of active tourism development quite recently, and in relation to which the bulk of Russian tourists have not yet developed any intelligible ideas. This includes the Republic of Komi, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Bryansk, Voronezh, Tambov, Kursk, Belgorod, Kirov, Omsk regions and a number of other republics, territories and regions. Of course, these regions also have something to be proud of and something to show to tourists. These are museums, temples, monasteries, reserves, ancient city buildings and estates, sanatoriums and boarding houses, etc. However, for a long time all these objects were focused mainly on the inhabitants of their region, and not on the flow of thousands of guests from all over the country - hence absence of stereotypes.

Unlike the others, this group of regions should start not so much from their own resources and ambitions as from what others do not have, that is, look for free niches and close them. It's difficult, but there is no other way.

It is possible that the idea to develop tourism in these regions is nothing more than a fashionable fad in connection with the next “party task”. If so, then there is no need to waste your efforts. It is better to invest the allocated funds in landscaping or social projects. If the leadership municipality or the region takes tourism seriously, it is necessary to start with the marketing tasks presented in table No. 5.

Table No. 5

The formulation of tasks is, of course, good, but how to solve them and what exactly to do? We will talk about this in the following chapters of this book. And summing up this chapter, I will mention three more tasks that all territories face to one degree or another:

1. Attract investors to create tourism infrastructure (this applies to both external investors and interaction with local businesses).

. This type of distribution was originally discovered in linguistics and reflected the relationship between the frequency of use of words and their popularity. But later it turned out that such a distribution is also characteristic of biology, economics, sociology, science of science, etc. More details: Vikentiev I.L. Living dictionary of a business coach: 300 terms, 190 examples. - St. Petersburg: TRIZ-CHANCE, 2007. P. 149.

The proposed classification was developed by the author and, like any classification, is a simplified model. However, it helps to better understand the differences in setting goals for territories with different “tourist heritage”.

The term "price justification" was proposed by S.V. Sychev, director of the company "Sychev and K" (Rostov-on-Don). Justifying the price implies a convincing answer to the question why the price of a given product or service is the way it is, and why the investment of these funds is justified.

During the tour, tourists get distracted, stop listening and look around, and not at all where you are pointing? This situation is not uncommon, so every guide needs to master the techniques of attracting attention.

1. Tailor your material to a specific audience

This advice is often perceived one-sidedly: only age differences are taken into account. Accordingly, they build a story for a child and an adult in different ways. However, it is also worth making adjustments to the narrative related to the professional activities or hobbies of clients. A site for meeting tourists and guides will help you find out this information: when negotiating an excursion, not only answer the traveler's questions, but ask him your own.

2. Use acting and public speaking

Nothing is more conducive to dissipating the attention of sightseers than the monotonous speech of the guide and the lack of gestures. Therefore, use various expressive means from the arsenal of speakers and artists:

• play with intonation and tempo of speech: switch from a peppy tongue twister to a sincere tone, emphasize important phrases with your voice, etc .;
• talk about sad and joyful events with appropriate emotions;
• make pauses between the semantic blocks of the narrative, otherwise the listeners will stop assimilating what was said;
• support speech with gestures: express emotions with them, point to interesting objects.

3. Do "lyrical digressions"

Allow yourself to periodically digress from the topic: tell us about some everyday details, love stories, exciting incidents. Of course, digressions should be related to your story in one way or another. Such "sketches" maintain interest in what is happening.

Works well with the reception of a personal relationship. Your admiration, rejection or surprise about some historical character or event will be remembered by tourists for a long time. Just do not use this method in a story about modern realities, so as not to provoke a conflict.

4. Ask questions

Do not turn a tour into a lecture when only "teacher" speaks. In such a situation, listeners are distracted very quickly. Encourage clients to discuss, and to do this, ask questions about what they know about the events, buildings and characters from your story. This will make people get involved in what is happening, activate their memory, which means that no one will look around and ignore the guide.

5. Joke

Don't be too serious when walking with clients: please them with historical anecdotes, funny cases from practice, funny comparisons. Laughter allows you to relieve tension and listen to the guide with renewed vigor. And humor “on the topic” helps to remember information: tourists will soon forget dry facts, and a joke will remain in memory for a long time.

6. Use electronic technology

Modern gadgets will help you maintain interest: tablets, netbooks, smartphones. The most fruitful work with them is obtained on personal excursions, because in a group of 30-40 people it is unlikely that everyone will consider what is happening on the screen. And when communicating "tete-a-tete" this method is effective.

16683

Clients - how many in this sound, isn't it? And let your company is still young and take its first steps across the expanses tourism business, you and your employees have probably learned the most important lesson: the customer is everything!

I would like to immediately make an amendment and thereby remove rose-colored glasses from your eyes: not every client is useful to your company. And, the most important rule that you must learn as an axiom: the best client is a regular client!

That is why henceforth all your steps should be aimed not only at attracting a flow of customers to your travel agency, but also at competently filtering out really promising ones from the general mass, that is, those who will bring you income for many years.

How to attract clients to a young travel agency?

You need to think about this issue long before the grand opening - even when choosing a place for your office, because the location of your office has a very noticeable effect on the flow of customers, especially at the beginning: try to find out in advance what is the traffic near your office, what is the level of income of the population of nearby houses and does it fall into the category of “your” clients?

At first, customers are attracted either through street signs and banners, or through advertising on the Internet. It often happens that several travel agencies coexist in a relatively small area, especially if you are in a shopping or business center. And during this period it is very important that your office in all respects be the most convenient for the client than that of a competing company, because competitors should not receive your customers. Shift your schedule so that your work is in full swing and after the offices of competitors are closed, work on weekends, etc. You need to follow all the steps taken by your rivals and be head and shoulders above them.

The main ways to attract

In the process of attracting customers, it is important to learn how to identify promising ones and filter out those who will not become permanent. For example, there is a whole layer of travelers who are chasing only discounts - and such people should not be of interest to you, because, as soon as they see a big discount in another agency, they will immediately go over to your competitors. Hence the conclusion: there is not the slightest point in trying to keep the client with a discount. And even though many managers are afraid of losing customers without giving a discount, nevertheless, according to the data, such customers turn out only in 20-25% of cases, in the remaining 75% of the customers you will still remain, and those who left, by and large, do not represent no value.

Therefore, do not bet on discounts. Attract customers with professionalism and reliability. People want to hear advice and get help from someone who understands tourism issues. Show them that you are a pro, tell them about hotels, restaurants and resorts. If your advice is valuable to a potential client, he will become a regular for you.

Customer focus. Emphasize that you are not trying to sell the tour "more expensive" at all, but that you are making sure that your client's vacation is of high quality. Offer only the best. You must be sure that the tour you have chosen is the best for a particular client. Therefore, take the time to monitor - you must be 100% sure of what you offer - only then the client will believe you and turn into a regular customer.

A good way to attract customers are affiliate sales- look for nearby places where your target audience “lives” or points of sale, whose customers one way or another may be interested in your services, and cooperate: leave your discount coupons, flyers, certificates or even just booklets there - the effect will not force itself long wait!

And again, the best customer is a regular customer. Don't forget about it.

A person who made only one purchase and never returned to you is your defeat. Not only will he barely recoup the money you spent on attracting him, but statistics also tell us that the amount of the average check for regular customers is significantly higher than for those who make a purchase for the first time.

How not to lose a client

First, get his contact details. It is best to draw up a special questionnaire that the client would fill out while the manager prepares the documents, and then transfer all the data from the questionnaire to the client database.

Secondly, you should always be interested in how the client's vacation went on his return from the trip.

Thirdly, it is very useful to remind yourself at least once a month through mailing, SMS, phone calls or by mail (in the form of a discount certificate). There can be a huge number of reasons to remind yourself, often also called the “touch system”. Do not be afraid to seem intrusive sometimes: experience shows that there are many more lost customers due to an insufficient number of contacts than due to excessive ones.

How to attract the "right" customers?

Here, too, it is worth highlighting a few highlights. Pay attention to what keywords are in your contextual advertising and modify them a bit: instead of “cheap tours”, put “ individual tours” or “holiday on a yacht” or ... and so on (you choose), in a word, make your proposals more “expensive”.

Look at what phrases your banners and advertisements are full of: if these are offers of last-minute and cheap tours to Egypt and Turkey, then the corresponding people will come to you, that is, those who are looking exclusively for discounts.

Take your agency to the next level! In addition to Turkey, Egypt and Thailand, there is a vacation of a higher level: Bali, Maldives, Seychelles, etc. Don't forget about them! Let your managers not be afraid to sell more expensive types of recreation. Attract the “right” clients to your agency, not “freebie” lovers.

How to find clients online

The Internet is good because you have the opportunity to influence directly your target audience and not waste time on those who you do not need.

The whole point of promoting on the Internet should be to lure the visitor to the office. The site should not provide an abundance of information - it distracts attention, the site should generate applications and calls to the office, putting the user in a strict framework. In order for a client to turn from a virtual one into a real one, you need to be able to combine 3 components of success on your site: interest + time limit + indication to action. Don't give the person time to think. Send him directly to your office - the offer is hot! Validity is limited!

Secrets of working with regular customers

So that, once having bought a tour from you, customers would not safely forget about you, you need to make them more loyal to your company, turn them into regular customers. It has been proven that attracting a new person is 5-7 times more expensive than retaining an old one. In addition, in the second case, you significantly save your manager’s time, because the buyer agrees to make a purchase faster, because he has already used your services, he already trusts you.

Regular customers are also very useful because they create the so-called "word of mouth" effect - telling their friends about your travel agency, they, in fact, make you a good and quite effective, and, most importantly, free advertising.

Regular customers are those who react most actively to all kinds of promotions and participate in them with pleasure. They perceive your letters not as spam, but as advice from a good friend. It is not clear why so far in many travel agencies work with the client base is going so sluggishly.

Increasing the circle of regular customers

This is the first step to increase the income of your travel agency. Your potential buyers are all residents of the region who go on vacation at least once a year. All your advertising and marketing efforts should be aimed at attracting potential customers. In addition, you should strive in every possible way to ensure that your current customers literally “work” for you and expand the number of potential buyers: you can offer discounts and discounts not only to regular customers themselves, but also to their friends and acquaintances.

The main asset of the travel agency is the customer base

You need to work with clients, although for some reason many owners of travel agencies do not understand this. If clients are "abandoned", then most of them will sooner or later disperse to other travel agencies. Of course, if you work adequately, someone will remain - those who are simply too lazy to change something, but, unfortunately, there are only a small proportion of such people.

Most clients do not remember which company they bought their previous tour from, because they once came there, bought a ticket and safely forgot all the extra details. That is why it is important to develop and implement a clear outline of the steps that your managers must take to work with the client base. And, of course, in order to have enough information in your database, you need to enter all customer information into it in a timely and accurate manner.

What should the customer base look like?

First of all, of course, the base should not be in notebooks and not on separate sheets of managers, it should be in in electronic format. Neglect of this rule threatens you with the fact that sooner or later your base will “leave” after the quit employee. Although on this moment there are several special convenient programs for working with databases, let yours for a start be at least in a table in Excel.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of proper work to attract customers and competent database management. This is the very foundation on which a solid foundation for the further growth and development of your young company will be built.