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TTRA Conference Presentations Contribute to the Future of Travel Experiences
By Julie Achilles
This past June, the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) held its 39th Annual Conference in Philadelphia. The 2008 conference chair, Rick Cain explained to attendees that, “In this program you’ll find real take-home value sessions crafted to provide you with invaluable insight, tools and ideas you can use to achieve your professional goals.” One such example of invaluable insight was presented by Daniel R. Fesenmaier, program director for Temple University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM), and director of the National Laboratory for Tourism & eCommerce (NLTeC). During the conference, Dr. Fesenmaier presented research papers (co-authored with his graduate students Florian Zach and Sang Wan Park) about travel personality and destination marketing, as well as, the importance of partnerships and tourism networks in the industry.
According to Dr. Fesenmaier, all travelers possess a travel personality. There are people who prefer to plan every detail of a trip, and others who simply book a flight and then enjoy the rest of their vacation spontaneously. While some travelers enjoy the outdoors, others prefer a more sophisticated, urban experience.With this knowledge in hand, the question then becomes, how can destination marketers reach all of these unique personalities and provide the information they need? The solution has evolved through research funded by Madden Media Inc., a company that develops innovative marketing strategies for the travel and tourism industry. NLTeC and Madden Media currently maintain an online database of 25,000 Americans and with surveys analyzes the combinations of travel personalities. Out of the possible 1,040 combinations of traveler personalities, 950 different personalities exist in the database.
“Travel personalities are really diverse. Most people have a very unique idea about travel,” explained Fesenmaier. Because there are so many travel personalities, and therefore a multitude of market segments, it becomes difficult to reach everyone. “So how do we design communication for these people? The Internet is perfect,” said Fesenmaier.
These studies now indicate that travel personalities can change or be activated in different settings. For example, a thrill-seeker may occasionally choose to visit a museum instead of partaking in a more adventurous activity. Because people have the potential to constantly change, the online surveys allow participants to self-select their answers according to how they feel in certain situations.
This dynamically designed system leads the participants through, and allows each person to be individualized,” said Fesenmaier. Madden Media’s simple slogan, “Connecting people to places,” demonstrates how their alternative approach to destination marketing has helped create a much more personal experience for consumers.
Fesenmaier’s second presentation described how a set of communication networks can be used to support the tourism industry in designing a total travel experience.
“The only difference between Paris and Disney World is that Paris is bigger and not 100 percent managed,” explained Dr. Fesenmaier.
In Disney, the hotels, restaurants and attractions are all part of one large management system; in Paris, there are many independent businesses that need to partner with one another to create this same atmosphere.
“But, every place is a theme park,” said Fesenmaier. “We can design communication networks to create a seamless experience.”
In America, 60-70 percent of all tourism businesses are micro level enterprises, and 80 percent have 50 employees or less. Partnerships help to organize and impose the structure that larger corporations have already.
In addition, Fesenmaier stressed how networks in destination marketing encourage innovation and results. “Learning from others can be a major driver of improvement and growth in the industry.” However, this creates a paradox. “Although a company can benefit most from partnership with others, sometimes they are not willing to because the cost is too high,” said Fesenmaier.
Currently, Fesenmaier and other Temple faculty and graduate students are working with communities throughout Indiana to move beyond these problems and to encourage forward thinking through industry partnerships.
“Innovation occurs at the fringe of networks, not at the core,” explained Fesenmaier.
The concepts of personalized destination marketing and tourism networks are a contribution to the future of a complete travel experience.
“When you find a really nice hotel and restaurant, it becomes you. It makes the experience authentic, special,” concluded Fesenmaier.