Memorable Tourism Experiences
Memorable Tourism Experiences are a better indicator of brand loyalty and revisit intention than visitor satisfaction. Research has found that travel marketing should focus on emotional rewards (thrill, relaxation, fun, inspiration, knowledge, socialization and so on.) as much as the attributes of the travel destination – if not more so.
Galileo Tech Media Understands How Memorable Tourism Experiences can Make Better Content for Marketing
Galileo Tech Media has explored the realm of memorable tourism experiences to identify ways to enhance SEO with expanded keyword research tactics, better conversions, increased CTRs and content that boosts brand loyalty. Our results have been tremendous. As an example, a small resort in North Carolina saw its direct bookings increase by 300% and its revenue more than double. What is are these MTEs and why are they Magic?
MTEs Can Influence Brand Loyalty
A decade of academic research has found that Meaningful Tourism Experiences (MTEs) influence future behavioral intentions both directly and indirectly. From a digital marketing perspective, this points toward exciting opportunities to increase brand loyalty by influencing a traveler’s journey before the experience occurs.
Understanding MTEs
In essence, MTEs are flashbulb memories that are exceptionally vivid and long-lasting. Studies indicate that MTEs are far more likely to determine future traveling behaviors when compared to general satisfaction with a trip. This same research has led to the development of an MDE scale which provides seven key components of MDEs, along with indicators associated with each component:
- Hedonism: Travelers are thrilled with the experience and indulge in excitement, participation, fun, amusement, fantasy, arousal, sensory stimulation and enjoyment.
- Novelty: The vacation offers unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences which include different and distinctive sights, customs and cultures.
- Local culture: Travelers are able to closely experience the local culture in positive ways that lead to better recollections of the experiences.
- Refreshment: Everyday work and lifestyle structures are exchanged for journeys, tours, events and other structures that feel liberating and empowering.
- Meaningfulness: The feeling of doing something important enhances tourists’ well-being, allowing them to assert self-identity and discover new things about themselves.
- Involvement: Anticipations are realized in a way that makes tourists feel wholly involved with the vacation they wanted—in a place they longed to visit.
- Knowledge: The tourist is able to participate in a variety of activities that allow them to explore their talents and expand what they know.
MTE Content Makes Better SEO
In addition to promoting the development of an MDE scale, research has shown that the anticipation of an upcoming experience intensifies the experience and makes it more memorable. This provides an excellent opportunity for digital marketers to leverage SEO to boost brand loyalty by increasing the likelihood of MDEs before a traveler’s journey begins.
Using MTEs for SEO
When you consider the implications of MTEs on brand loyalty, it’s clear that marketing’s role can be expanded from simply getting someone to take a desired action. By helping to increase the depth of experiential engagement, marketers can set travelers up for more positive experiences that increase the chances of repeat business down the line.
This means creating experience hubs as precursors to content hubs. It all starts with referencing the MTE Scale for ideation and then moving on to keyword research to find out where traffic and opportunities lie. Whether it’s local performers, festivals, farmer’s markets, scenic lookouts, local traditions, popular gathering spots or distinctive dining spots; every destination has its share of experiential opportunities. Once we identify these niches, it’s not that hard to find underutilized keywords that aren’t especially difficult to penetrate. We can then use this information to thoughtfully plan out the experience hub and create content that will better engage travelers and help them build more MTEs.
Writing for Experience
Just as keyword research informs the way we organize our experience hubs, it also plays a role in the way we craft content. By using experiential words and phrases (romantic, once in a lifetime) in titles, content and meta descriptions, we get better engagement. Once we identify the emotional experiences we want to target, we can look for synonyms and words related to the experience. We can then target these types of searches with optimized content and infuse emotion-evoking language throughout.
When writing for experience, we look to frame the traveler’s journey before the experience occurs to make it more memorable afterward. We can do this be talking about novelty, speaking to hedonistic aspects and focusing on local aspects. As we focus on all the possible micro moments, we want to use SEO wherever we can to engage travelers in the experiences they are going to have, thereby increasing the potential for MTEs and building brand loyalty.
Exciting Early Returns
When including MET language in subject lines for email marketing, Galileo discovered emotion-evoking calls-to-action generated 24 percent more opens. We also found that emotion-evoking calls to action resulted in 42 percent more conversions on lead generating campaigns.
By using words and phrases that evoke emotion and trigger MTEs, we can generate higher click through rates (CTR) that boost conversions and SEO. When we include rich and evocative content to tell the “story” of a destination, we are also able to enhance the anticipation of a travel experience and influence the way people feel about it afterward. This is an intriguing marketing opportunity we were excited to talk about during this recent NYC travel event and we look forward to more informative SEO events in the near future.