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Adventure Tourism Forum
2013
2 Years Ago in Westport • Tight marketing budgets
• Tough to find the right partners
• Need to access research, validate approaches and
consider next strategies
• Need improved operational quality, safety, risk
management
• Need more and better connections to new markets
• Need more brand awareness at consumer level
• Media market is upended, now what?
• Holistic Thinking – Entire supply chain
• Capacity planning
• Long term vision for region
The Recommended Path
Synergy in philosophy: sustainability – profit…people…planet
As an industry, we need to:
• Professionalize
• Establish industry best practices and ethical standards
across our operations, across continents
• Be generous, creative, collaborative, and diverse
• Be able to respond to changes quickly and efficiently
• Think of ourselves as a key part of a global community
of businesses proactively working to solve local
economic-development issues
“Your network keeps you safe” – “collaborate or perish”
Business as Unusual To build a stronger presence for Ireland and to create increased
growth and revenue, adventure travel providers and tourism board
representatives here will want to consider:
• Acting proactively and creatively to the challenges of
developing, maintaining and refreshing adventure travel
products and services within the broader context of overall
economic development strategy for the region
• Simultaneously increasing its ability to reach out directly to
consumers AND partnering with businesses (tour operators,
agents/agencies, distribution services, etc.) to sell its product
• Rethink the range of audiences you’re trying to reach
• Initiate and maintain conversations and develop loyalty with
existing as well as new adventure-travel consumers
• Combine activities (physical, cultural, environmental) for a
variety of ability levels and/or elements of adventure with five-
star amenities as well as trips
Business as Unusual
• Continuing to innovate, provide higher levels of services, and operate
businesses professionally to maintain competitive position
• Whether your company/organization is large or small, being present - one-
to-one relationship building with tourism boards, associations, trade shows,
etc., to continue to build the network, evolve concepts, etc.
• When framing marketing campaigns and product positioning… connecting
adventure travel with “health and wellness” may provide some consumers
with a better reason to consider adventure tourism
• Social media, mobile technology and other means of customer outreach
and ongoing communication by starting with a specific profile/target
audience and then to determine what kind of relationship you want to build
with those targeted individuals, based on what they are ready for and how
and when they wish to receive it
• Ireland offers unique product…get laser focused on its distinguishing
characteristics and one-of-a-kind experiences
ATTA QuickPoll ~ Ireland
August 2013 • Challenges
• Not a top-of-mind adventure destination (polled “average”)
• Lack of adventure awareness
• Weather
• Consumer demand
• The Good News
• Love of Ireland
• Quality – polled about 4 on 5 point scale
• 43% plan to offer tours to Ireland in the future
Values Statement
Tourism Ethics
Protection of Children
Responsibility
Community Principles
GSTC
TheCode.org (ECPAT)
UNWTO
Adventure Tourism
Development Index
Shores of Ireland, Courtesy Random Letters
The 10 Pillars of the ATDI
ATDI 2011 Adventure Tourism Development Index
• Assists in providing the best
adventure travel experience
• The only UNWTO-backed training
program specifically dedicated to
improving the adventure tourism
sector
• Courses Focus on Five Subject
Areas 1. Adventure Definition and Concepts
2. Product Development and Marketing
3. Operational Excellence
4. Operator Safety and Risk Management
5. Legal Matters
What's New with the
ATTA
Awareness Readiness • Who is today’s adventure traveler
• What recent changes in the adventure industry mean for
your business and destination
• How to improve the quality and safety of your adventure
travel experiences
• How to assess your resources and construct distinctive
adventure travel experiences
• How to manage adventure tourism business risk
• How to bring public and private partners together to foster a
thriving market
• How to create the best online and offline marketing
strategies for adventure businesses
The Power of Digital Communications
Trending Activities in 2013/2014
What are Ireland’s top
adventure activities?
What makes these activities
UNIQUE to Ireland?
What makes you
unique?
Live your brand “ In a world of ‘personal brand’
and ‘leadership brand’ and
‘personal reinvention’ and so
forth, we should not forget: the
real signal is the work itself,
and the social signaling is just
its echo.”
~Nilofer Merchant, “Your Brand is Just the Exhaust,” HBR
Tell Your Story
It’s Your Turn!
How to tell it…
Torres del Paine
Courtesy Turismo Chile
• Photography
• Video
• Blogs
• Social Media
• Podcasts
Wilderness Safaris
It’s Your Turn!
Pugent Sound Express
It’s Your Turn!
Converged Media
Earned
Media
Owned
Media
Paid
Media
Converged Media
Earned
Media
• Editorial in print and
online outlets
• Social Media
• Consumer Generated
Content (blogs,
reviews, testimonials,
photos, videos)
Earned Media
Earned Media Vagabond Tours of Ireland
Converged Media
Owned
Media • Website: itineraries,
company description of
services
• Videos, photos
• Company blog
• Social media channels
• Organic search
Converged Media
Paid
Media • Pay Per Click (PPC)
and sponsored search
• Display Advertising
• Sponsored Ads
(Facebook / LinkedIn)
Going deeper
Next Steps &
Recommendations If you don’t know what makes you unique, figure it out.
If you do know, make sure you are “storydoing”
Capture quality but authentic video and photos and then share
and incorporate into all your marketing.
Makes it easy for your clients to share photos, videos,
testimonials
Partner with other business to support media and buyer FAM
trips
Social media sites – remind people where they are, continue
relationships there, listen to their stories and tell your story.
Thank you!
Presented by Chris Doyle
Executive Director —
Europe
Editor,
AdventureTravelNews
Presented by Casey Hanisko
Vice President, Marketing &
Communications
Adventure Travel Trade
Association
