Home / English, North America, Tourism Marketing, Travel 2.0 / Is your CVB offering Virtual Concierge Services?
2009-11-25

Is your CVB offering Virtual Concierge Services?

By Todd

I saw this sign today at the Waterfront Fairmont Hotel. It was at the concierge desk to tell travelers the kind of help they could offer in helping plan local activities.
Most travelers wait until they are at their destination to plan many of the details around their stay.
A couple of important thoughts came to mind for helping the local traveler who is carrying a smartphone at your destination.

Use Twitter to help visitors plan their stay.

I received a reply to my short Twitter post on the subject from @SeattleMaven who as the official Twitterer for Seattle Tourism suggested:

“Most CVB’s have the right person somewhere in their employ already – they’re just afraid to jump in!”

and “I’ve found online engagement to be BETTER – as it’s so broad … begins a conversation that can go on for months! #Seattle #DMO”

I like the way Seattle Tourism is positioning their Twitter Bio: Follow me for Seattle expertise! Know-It-All & Concierge Extraordinaire. How may I enhance your Seattle stay?

Most local tourism associations trust their staff to answer queries on the phone and respond to walk-in requests for information, so why aren’t more CVB’s. DMO’s, Associations trusting team members to respond to smartphone toting visitor needs on Twitter? Publicizing services on Twitter and responding to traveler queries with Concierge-like services could help your association develop a strong visitor-focused reputation.

Is your association making a difference with Twitter? How? I’d love to share your story.

What about an App?

If out-of-towners could have your app on their phone and could access this type of information it could lead to a greater spend on activities, restaurants in your community.  Also having YOUR app on their phone would lead to greater visitor loyalty.  Develop an app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry.

Consider app qualities like:

  • links to all these services pictured above.
  • click to purchase
  • encouraging visitors to share their experiences with photos and stories.
  • being available by SMS or Twitter or most importantly – PHONE in your community.

Your app will definitely lead to more phone calls and greater engagement with visitors who will respond by spending more money in your community.  Wouldn’t your members appreciate that?

Get ‘er Done

Your travel association could probably be doing a better job supporting and assisting the smartphone traveler.  What kind of shift in job descriptions and resources would be needed to capitalize on this opportunity in your region?

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This post was originally posted by Todd @ Internet Marketing for Tourism.
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Written by Todd · Filed Under English, North America, Tourism Marketing, Travel 2.0 

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Comments

  • Excellent article Todd. The concept of virtual concierge opens up some interesting new opportunities for hotels to generate ancillary revenue and provides local suppliers with the ability to resell through a variety of different channels. Imagine an operator in a town that now has 20 hotels referring customers. Not to mention the cross linking from operators who market on-line and promote their local hotel partners.
  • I'm a fan of the Virtual Concierge concept (especially via mobile). My company has a solution that some notable CVBs are rolling out which is much more powerful than twitter as it bidirectional (e.g., you ask, it answers). It's called VisitMobile and it works on iPhones and SMS: http://www.visitmobile.com
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