Communicating the benefits of responsible tourism can be hard.
It really shouldn’t be, because many of the people working for it have the best stories to share. Stories of places intimately connected to their surroundings; experiences that whisk you away from the humdrum of daily life or the same-same offer of much of tourism today. Stories of engaging with local communities, where the people really are delighted that you have come to visit. Stories of fresh, local food, hard to fine wines, music you will hear nowhere else.
The trouble is, most of the work of building a successful responsible tourism business is hard. It isn’t all sampling local beers and dancing to the best band in the village. It’s dealing with issues around waste management and energy supply, ensuring supplier accreditation and whether the wood for the new outbuilding is made of FSC-approved wood. And whether FSC-approved wood is still the way to go.
It takes up so much time and headspace that it can become all there is. It’s like talking to someone who has just had a child, has hardly slept, and can talk about nothing other than how food goes in and comes out.
Enough. In short, it’s not the stuff that most people think about – or search for – when they dream of their perfect holiday. And so people who have put their heart and soul into delivering the most wonderful holiday experiences around aren’t connecting with people who would simply love to discover what they provide.
This is where I come in.
Whether you want a new name for your bar, the entire copy written for your website, a press release to announce your latest special offer, or regular Facebook updates to connect with your customers – this is what I do.
If you want to know more about what I think about how tourism should be communicating, then you could read an article I wrote titled: “Why you should stop selling tourism products and start telling better travel stories‘.
Or better still, you could just get in touch.
And I’ll listen to you instead.