Tech, Travel, and Twang!
Come for the thoughts, stay for the tea. The co-founders of Destination Innovate, Jennifer Barbee and Kristen Cruz brew up the latest industry tea every Tuesday - diving into simmering issues, hot trends, and special guests. Grab a cup and let’s spill the tea!
Tech, Travel, and Twang!
Monday Momentum Ep. #5 | WTAF: What's the Actual Future
Embark on a journey through the vibrant intersection of travel, technology, and innovation as we uncover the secrets to thriving in the constantly evolving landscape of hospitality. I draw from a wealth of experience to guide you in harnessing the distinct magic of your locale. We'll dissect the pivotal role of artificial intelligence in destination development, and how AI serves as a springboard for creativity, using examples like Myrtle Beach's AI-driven success to illuminate the path forward. Additionally, we unravel the personalized travel revolution, emphasizing technology's ability to craft custom travel adventures that keep globetrotters returning for more.
This week's discussion takes a deep dive into the transformative potential of the metaverse and its implications for city planning and virtual tourism. Imagine a world where virtual visitor centers and augmented reality elevate the tourist experience, making every adventure accessible to all. We also confront the challenges in destination marketing, from the necessity of safe, affordable housing for the industry's workers to the importance of fostering a positive work environment to fuel success. These insights aim to arm destination marketing organizations with the strategies needed to navigate the industry’s complexities and emerge as leaders in a competitive market.
Wrapping up, we delve into the art of building brand partnerships and the immense potential they hold for growth and resilience. By drawing inspiration from pioneering initiatives and encouraging a mindset that favors bold actions over comfort zones, we spotlight the significance of collaboration and innovation. Tune in to join the discussion, be inspired, and start crafting the future of your destination with audacity and vision. Let's not just dream about the future of travel and hospitality—let's actively shape it together.
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The Tech, Travel, and Twang Podcast is hosted by Co-Founders, Kristen Cruz and Jenn Barbee with Destination Innovate. Learn More! https://destinationinnovate.com/about/
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🎙️Subscribe on Spotify Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/show/2WxEA6ZONc1PhNbJMHP8mV
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Well, hell, welcome back to Tech Traveling Twang. Good morning and happy Friday to everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today on a Desticon pop-up what's the actual future in destinations and hospitality? Give it just a second and we'll get started. Just let a few more people in and those who are watching on repeat welcome as well. Awesome, and if you've got any questions, we won't go the whole hour and a half. I won't hold you up that long, but if you've got any questions, feel free to pop them in the chat and once I'm done with the presentation, we can socialize those. All right, great, let's get going. Let me switch over to my presentation here. So again, we're going to talk about what's the actual future in destinations and hospitality. What's the actual future in destinations and hospitality?
Speaker 1:Coming off several conferences and just looking at the patterns and the chatter and what other destinations and hospitality companies are doing, I wanted to kind of succinctly round up some of that for you and just have a discussion about that today. So let's start with a little mindset challenge here. The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else, and I really like's start with a little mindset challenge here. The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else. And I really like to start with this slide, especially with destinations, because sometimes we're risk averse and we don't really want to take that tech leap or that new thing to happen unless other destinations are doing it. And I really want to challenge you to think today and in the future about how unique your destination is. Not just you know, your properties, your stakeholders, those sort of things, but your residence, your vibe, everything is very, very unique. So I want you to think about that and also apply new technologies, new thinking, in a way that fits you, not just if your neighbor does it. Thinking in a way that fits you, not just if your neighbor does it. Now, if your neighbors are doing lots of things that you haven't caught up with yet, then definitely you know, catch up to that point. But as far as leaping ahead, if someone else hasn't done it yet, who's to say you won't be the best poster child for that. So let's keep our uniqueness in mind as we go forward.
Speaker 1:And for those of you who don't know me, I'll give you a little background on who I am and how I got started in destination and technology and marketing Started in the tech world very early, honestly. First computer in the 80s and I grew up in an area in rural East Texas which I like to call behind the pine curtain, very conservative, and I wanted to see the world. I want to know what else was out there besides the football games and the cheerleaders and normal small town stuff. So with that computer once the internet came out I was rushing to that. I was exploring destinations and places and thoughts and theories that were far away. And then as that accelerated, I became pretty good at programming in the early days and not a lot of women did that. So when I started in destination tech and developing websites and working on the marketing piece of it, you know I was usually the only girl in the room so it allowed me to strengthen and look at things from a pattern standpoint and kind of see those pieces. So I was really happy to be one of the first women in technology and hospitality, you know, to start that journey. And now since that journey you know, a good 30 years later, I've really enjoyed working with destinations and hospitality businesses on how they can get a little further down the line.
Speaker 1:So let's get into some meat. Let's first kind of go back I won't bore you too long with the history piece or a history lesson on this but really the history of tech and destinations. Just a few little things to discuss here. When you think about it, all destinations were built with technology. We can go way back to the wheel right. Transportation started with a certain kind of archaic tech Business. Travel actually started around 4000 BC with the Sumerians. So you know, travel has been part of that technology piece again, with the ability of that tech and cities being built. That was a big move forward. And then one of the other big pieces was inventions of taverns, and I thought this was an interesting piece when I researched. Actually, public eating was not popular until the 1900s, so restaurants didn't really pop up as a destination asset until much later. But taverns the bar started super, super early. No surprise there, probably.
Speaker 1:And then our roadways, our infrastructure, you know, fast forward a couple of millennia here and we get to the global distribution system. The web certainly popped that off. And then OTAs, and that's something when I talk about missed opportunities and destinations taking risks they're not really always comfortable with. Really, when destinations started building their websites in the very early days, they didn't want to do online booking because it was a scary thing, right? Oh, don't put your credit card on the internet. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs put together these OTAs Expedia, entrepreneurs put together these OTAs Expedia, travelocity, priceline, all of that jazz and really took that area which, rightfully, should have belonged to the destination. So I don't want you to make a blockbuster Netflix mistake again. But also, I think OTAs and the booking environment is really coming back around to how destinations are thinking about that. And then, of course, now we have, in the last few years, had developed smart cities and how that runs infrastructure-wise, but also from a marketing and a leisure experience standpoint.
Speaker 1:But with all of these, of course, what we don't want to do is be these guys. You know there's always some new things and every time you invest in new technology, new ideas, new marketing, you're investing in the industry. Yes, there's always risk involved, but sometimes that may turn out really well or it turns out to a lesson, to pivot to something else. So we don't want to be, you know, completely cutting out ideas just because we're really busy Destinations, hotels, short-term rentals, restaurants, all of those layers of destination and marketing stakeholders. We have so much layered on over and over and over and there's, you know, these kinds of social media that's popping off. Do we get on TikTok? Do we jump off TikTok Right now, by the way, with the announcement, tiktok is the strongest it's ever been and they're coming out with an Instagram clapback, so that's going to be interesting to watch and think about.
Speaker 1:Where you put your resources. We are so stretched that it seems like another new thought or another new idea. It's just one more thing we can't handle. But again, let's open ourselves up to that and let's see in this, in the rest of this, what really applies to you. And I always say you know, guy Kawasaki does this at the beginning of his speeches. Love him. He always says when you listen to a talk or listen to somebody else, you're going to eat like a bird and then go back to your team poop like an elephant, if you know what I mean. So we're going to take only what I say, or only what resonates with you, is what I want you to take back and start to really think about. Not necessarily implement, just let's have a think on all this.
Speaker 1:So, the reality of today, looking at the history and now going forward. The reality of today is our world is changing every single week. I was watching some pieces about everybody asked me, right, how to go viral. Should we go viral? That's not necessarily always a good thing anymore, because when things pop off and become very, very trendy unless it's like a rooted pop culture, like TVs and movies, those last a lot longer the professional productions. But when things pop off virally, they're almost forgotten in about two weeks. So from a marketing standpoint, you know you've got to think about the long game, the consistency game and what it is that you're providing value to your travelers, to your visitors and to those who consume your brand online. Even our views in society is changing literally every week. Our laws move back and forth. You know somebody pops up doesn't love this. We have cancel culture, we have all these things. So we have to be nimble and flexible and it's very, very hard to look very far down the road and make really close decisions. So also with your marketing plans, you have to have a lot of pivot, a lot of space in there for what's really going on and how the world is changing.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about seven future trends that you should really be thinking about today, if you aren't already. Let's start with a fully developed economics for DMOs Now. Traditionally, destinations get funded by bed tax, and sometimes not all of that bed tax. A lot of destinations, though, the cities and municipalities are collecting bed tax on, say, short-term rentals. That tax may not make it all the way to the marketing budget for the DMO. So one thing to think about is that part of the development of economics in terms of your funding, what you can fund for future tech, what you can do for big projects, but also how you fully develop those economics for your city, for your destination and for all of the people in your destination, because we're moving from just a destination marketing organization where we're either marketing only our members or only those that we deem to be travel-related stakeholders, but that's really developing into the fact that we are also responsible for our residents and their sentiment and their health and their economic health, especially with people moving and living wherever they want to and working remotely, but I want to dial into that a little bit. So I feel like this will future-proof.
Speaker 1:Also downturns and crisis. Of course, we don't want to like to think about those things and it's only been four short years since we went through the COVID and now some of us are fully recovered, some of us are partially recovered, but what if something like that happens to happen again? That's the economic piece of it, but also the fully developed piece of it where we want to talk about, you know, developing and supporting our travelers. Developing and supporting our travelers, developing and supporting our residents is one is makers without storefronts. Now, during COVID, we did a lot of work with shop locals and trails and those sort of things to get people out again.
Speaker 1:One thing I noticed, though, excuse me, one thing I noticed is the makers. They can be, you know, artists or you know home bakers, those sort of things. They were completely excluded from any of those campaigns so that, economically, that economic advantage was not available to them. But I really like the idea of thinking about your makers without storefronts. That makes your destination unique as well. Those residents, those artists, those people make it unique. So, those without storefronts I feel like now we need to start thinking about promoting them, having a place for them, having a spot where they can create, where they can create, and also that also improves our brand in terms of you know this great, I got this great piece, or this great mug you know from so-and-so who's in Allen, texas, and that now closes my affinity a little bit more to that actual destination. So, makers Without Storefronts, it's not just about the tax situation, it's also about the experience and it also is about supporting our residents and what they put out in the world.
Speaker 1:Also, think about out of market experiences. Now, not just activations, where that's a marketing, performative piece, which I also think are on the rise and are really, really important to think about. Activations are important, really important to think about. Activations are important. But out-of-market experiences how can a traveler, a meeting planner, a group planner maybe, experience that market when they're in their own home, whether that's, you know, a virtual reality thing, whether that's going to the website, whether that's consuming some top 10 lists? Think about those out-of-market experiences and if those are economized for you.
Speaker 1:Also, pre and post-travel purchases. Before I go, I might want to gear up. I might want to, you know, connect my vibe. This goes back to the makers without and with storefronts but I might want to connect my vibe, my wardrobe, my drip, to what the destination is going to be like Now, after I get back. I might not have just loaded up on all my souvenirs when I was there. But what are those post-travel purchases, you know, even when you think about attractions, and they take your picture and then you can buy that picture later, like think down those terms, but how that becomes, maybe an economic engine and that may be your own swag store. Again, the economy piece of that like moving towards more of an e-commerce thought process is really, really important when it comes to the web, when it comes to technology and when it comes to the future of how we develop our destinations.
Speaker 1:Now, everybody, all these conferences, everyone obviously is talking about AI and they're giving such good advice on this tool or that tool or another tool. But one thing I want to root this in is AI is not our enemy. Robots aren't going to take over Anytime soon, probably, but it really is going to shape the value and nature of human expertise. There are things that we can continue to cultivate in ourselves, in our destinations, our stakeholders and our team members in valuing that human expertise and that creativity and those innovations, you know, and ideas that come from a place that AI can't provide. You know, and ideas that come from a place that AI can't provide.
Speaker 1:There's some great examples of AI in the marketplace right now. As a matter of fact, myrtle Beach just won an Etsy. When I was at eTourism last week, they won an Etsy for Materi Best, which was actually a campaign that took over their website, written wholly by AI, and it was not completely on destination brand. So again, that was a risk they took and that went viral from a marketing standpoint, which is the good kind of viral. But again, that comes from them and their agency thinking about the creativity of what if we did this? They did use some AI, but it was almost as if humans acted, as if AI was there, and it was a really, really good campaign. I want to show you another example of what's going on. Hopefully, the audio shares properly from AI point of view. This is Korea. This is how AI would see Seoul, so let me play this for you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, so I'll stop sharing that there, and there are several ai point of view videos out there on different destinations.
Speaker 1:They happen to have started in the east. I don't think it's made much to the west yet. But one thing that's interesting is this became vibrant. It's a, it's a beautiful view, obviously altered reality a little bit, but done in such a way that's kind of sexy and pulls it in. Sexy and pulls it in.
Speaker 1:So even doing something maybe not going as far as the mid-terry best that Myrtle Beach did, where it was a full website takeover, but even doing a little video on an AI point of view, can do a couple of things for you. First off, it can accelerate your production time because that's where you're leaning on the computer and AI to develop that for you. And secondly, it does stand out a little bit, especially if you're a small destination. You know you would see this in the souls the New York, the Los Angeles, the Miami's but what about a little boutique destination finding those hidden corners that maybe you haven't been able to get to in your overall marketing? So I really like the rise of these videos. And one thing you may have noticed you didn't see six or 10 fingers on a hand, which is funny. I'll give you a little insight here on why you see that. When you see AI and they never do hands or feet right. It's because AI can only source what has already been developed by humans. So if you go back and look at your pictures, look at your family pictures, you don't have many that show full, complete hands or full, complete feet. So there's not a lot of reference material for AI and they kind of fill that in. That's just not a destination, just a little extra little piece in there that I learned and I thought was very interesting. So it doesn't replace human capital, it expands it. So, again, there's lots of tools that we're talking about in conferences. There's, you know, intentful is doing a great tool in terms of helping destinations fill in a lot of their content, especially destinations who have very small staff. That is a great tool, happy places. But there's other things you can do to expand it and use AI in a way that is good for you to be quicker in what you need to get done. Some of those are, of course, social media, listening. You know there's lots of tools that do that, but AI does a good job and you can train it to actually engage and go back and forth there. Social media is a time consuming place to be, especially if you want to go all the way down and do it right.
Speaker 1:Real time interaction obviously that can be chatbots, that can be other things you know there in terms of real time interacting, and not just with the random, you know visitor FIT audience, but also with your meeting planners, your group planners. How can you help them from this next piece of this, planners, your group planners? How can you help them from this next piece of this? Maybe a virtual concierge standpoint? You know how does that become an individualized We'll talk about individualized experiences just in just a few minutes. But that real time interaction, you know people expect that now. They expect immediacy when they're talking or they're chatting or they're calling or any of that. They expect real-time interaction. Ai has some incredible tools to be able to answer that call.
Speaker 1:And again, virtual concierge this is a way not only to help serve the audience but also to help serve more layers of your first-party data and I know a lot of us have been talking about you know when it goes cookie list and what happens when we can't track this and track that. The best data is data, that's permission data. So when you have any of these tools, you're asking them to give you permission to get some of their data from them. So that, virtual concierge, imagine what you can learn individualized. Instead of our four big buckets, let's put people in a box kind of scenario. You might have layers and layers of nuances, and so it may. You know, break out your thought process of geos and demos. You know I'm not a big fan of demographics in terms of the age piece of it, because everybody does something different. You know, I don't want to cut out the 85-year-old woman who's on the adventure part of her life and she wants to take adventure travel and she wants to do skydiving. But if I'm preconceiving this or I'm thinking about it, then I'm probably not going to have her in my demos. I'm probably going to cap that out somewhere around 45 or 50. So, again, that virtual concierge can pull back your data as well and give you some nuances to the kind of people who may be attracted to your destination, your hotel, your short-term rental, your restaurant. And for those of you who are listening who are not destinations, let me just say this Everything is a destination. Every place you go, that is the place that you have this full-on experience. So you've got to think about yourself as a destination, maybe not a DMO, but definitely a destination. So virtual concierge great, great thing to think about.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to become almost critical for everybody to get that individualized experience going forward. And then, of course, there's augmented destination experiences. Maybe you don't have everything you want or everything your neighbor has for that experience in your destination. There's augmented destination experiences you can also offer and that may be in the way of you know, you may have some local tours. To me, that's an augmented destination experience, creating those in terms of an AI or in terms of a VR. That's where you can go back and say, okay, maybe we want to through their phone lens not necessarily through always you know the glasses or the Quest, but through the phone lens.
Speaker 1:If I'm in this area, what kind of over-layered augmented destination experience can I have while I'm in destination, moving right along as I teased about individualized experiences, again, with the expansion and the blow-up of technology and social media, you know everybody expects a very specific experience for themselves. Some people do that now in the way of having elevated experiences and concierge in terms of price and that's more of a luxury travel thing. But again, I think that is now filtering through to everybody expects and personalization and not just hey, kristen, I know who you are, welcome back. Like not the creepy piece, the other piece of it. So let's talk about that just a little bit. So we're talking beyond personalized and itineraries and quizzes, which are still very, very hot, and quizzes which are still very, very hot. So if you don't have some quizzes or personalized itineraries on your website, that's also a miss from that first party data standpoint. So definitely check that box off.
Speaker 1:And then let's go a little bit deeper in terms of individualized travel. So that personal concierge in your pocket. So that goes a little bit further than pre-destination planning. And again, our typical goal as a destination has been get them in market and then our job is done. I don't think that's a luxury we can think about anymore. That whole experience from the time they think about it. Discover you, come to the destination, experience the destination, do things in the destination, improve the economy for you. Experience the destination, do things in the destination, improve the economy for you. Go back home, tell their friends, share their information about the trip on their favorite social media platform. It's a full circle flywheel, if you will. So that personal concierge in your pocket, you know, maybe something again opt in first party data, but might be something where I'm opting into your destination app, I put in my preferences or kind of things I like, and I would suggest that you do that in a visual format instead of this long text survey. But do that, get their information and then, using geolocation, you can say you know, hey, kate, I've noticed you went to this museum and this attraction and this sounds like you need an ice cream break. There's so and so shop just two blocks from you. So again, that's a personal concierge. It's serving them in a way that doesn't feel as creepy but opt in and gives them an enhanced experience.
Speaker 1:Dynamic bookable packages are another way. Individualized experiences are coming about and Google has already made a huge move to this with their AI booking help. So the dynamic bookable packages, again using different kinds of tech, will be able to pull like AJAX tech, will be able to pull from thousands of websites at once and bring together something bookable for that person, and the packages are also really starting to gain traction again. They were very popular in the mid-2000s and then kind of went away. But people want convenience. Obviously. We see that with our DoorDashes and our Ubers. Convenience is also very, very important for our tech, our destinations and our stakeholders and our travelers.
Speaker 1:So dynamic bookable packages and you can think about these from a first standpoint. Again, you can do it from a personalized itinerary standpoint, but think about the booking engine or the connection that can bring a dynamic bookable piece to you and think about how you start to bring your stakeholders together to participate in that. And that could be again, that could be transportation, that can be the stays, but that can even be, let's say, you know, staying in a short term rental. Here are the things that I would like. I travel, I have a family of six, four girls, myself and my husband and when we traveled all together, short-term rentals were our choice, obviously. So we had the room we spread out. But one of the things we first had to do when we get to the destinations we've got to go to the grocery store, we've got to stock up on everything that it is that we like and we prefer for that week, those few days. Dynamic bookable packages would also allow them to have the opportunity to have that pre-stocked. Again, that increases the economy and also creates an ability for those who may need side jobs to do those types of task, rabbit things in terms of inside short-term rentals and geographic guidance I kind of hit this in the last one based on neuro happiness indicators. So that again comes down to you know that personalized concierge and being able to tell neuro happiness indicators, leaning back which probably means I'm binge watching or if I'm walking, and we know what type of guidance to deliver based on what's going on with their gyroscope and happiness indicators.
Speaker 1:And then there's also the ability from an individualized standpoint, is a long tail remarketing to kids. So let's say, today you know you're pushing family packages, you're pushing family travel. They go. How long are you going to keep them in your system to be able to bring them back as well, those nostalgic triggers? And, as I mentioned before, that's personally important to me for a couple of reasons. I have the ability to travel the world in rural East Texas to travel the world in rural East Texas, so also the window to the world was good. But wherever I did get to go like that would have been a long tail opportunity in terms of remarketing to me and bringing that experience back into an economized fashion. So just some stats to back that up here from the US Chamber 57% of B2C and 75% of B2B customers reported that personalized experience would make them much more likely, or significantly more likely, to remain loyal. That's, according to Forrester, 67% of travel and hospitality decision makers.
Speaker 1:Consider personalization program to be critical to their business. Decision makers consider personalization program to be critical to their business. Personalization at scale and travel and hospitality is a really good read which I'll be happy to share with everybody who attended today. But hospitality businesses are leaning into the personalization strategies to drive business. Hilton catering to the needs of SMBs with its new Hilton for Business program. United Airlines engaging travelers with a game-based loyalty program that customized offers based on members' travel history. Again, that first party data points is where the hotel group and typically the hoteliers, the flags, move a little faster in tech than destinations and cities. So it's always good to look at the transportation market and the accommodations market to see what they're doing and again, that's a way to look out and not inward, to maybe take some of those learnings and be a little more innovative in your own destination.
Speaker 1:Really, leaders need to think about what that metaverse. Let's move from AI and all of that to metaverse and that's it becomes really confusing to a lot of people, like what is the metaverse. Where is the metaverse? All that kind of good stuff but for cities are planning for years and decades ahead in terms of infrastructure. So really, the metaverse is something you should also already be thinking about. I can tell you, maybe your destination might already be in the metaverse because people are buying a metaverse real estate with NFTs. But as we talk about that, the National League of Cities just in a recent report because the metaverse is still being defined and I love wet clay, that's where I a recent report, because the metaverse is still being defined and I love wet clay, that's where I think you play in. The metaverse. It's still being defined.
Speaker 1:There's endless possibilities on how it can benefit cities. As the technology evolves, city leaders have a really good opportunity to play a part in how the metaverse comes to be for themselves and for everything else. If anybody in here has children, or maybe you do yourself in terms of gaming Roblox, fortnite, little Big Planet there's a callback. All of those allow them to create their own worlds. So if destinations have the opportunity, with partners, to create their own metaverse world which I know sounds scary in a lot of ways because we rely on that in real life experience. But again going back to potential crisis or potential downturns. What happens if they can't? Is there an economized way you can provide something outside of an in real life experience in the metaverse? So here's how it might impact destinations in the short term, and I say short term one to five years.
Speaker 1:I mentioned virtual real estate. There's a lot of this going on with NFTs so you can again build it and have certain different. It all works on apps. It comes down to. It all works on different kinds of apps. It's kind of like the web right. So that works on Chrome, it works on Bing, it works on other places, but it's all through that individualized app, if you will. So virtual real estate is something to think about.
Speaker 1:A fully virtual economic city makes a lot of sense too. So there are places in the metaverse that you can go, and usually it's buying tokens or buying outfits. There's a lot of that, especially with the youth market, of that. But how you want to experience that city could have some economic possibilities to it. Maybe you do visit a shop that's not gamified looking or not Sims looking, but is reality looking virtual and 360 type of things, and maybe that's a boutique where you do see some things that you want to buy or take home. You could buy them in the metaverse and be drop shipped from your current stakeholders and storefronts. A virtual visitor center only having that being able to look in, and maybe again maybe not all Sims way, because when you think about the metaverse a lot of people think you know pixelated, old school kind of look and that's really in the design format of it. You can be as realistic as you want to. It can be real photography, it can be real 360s. So having a virtual visitor center is a really good way to think about the metaverse as maybe a first step.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm going to mention augmented reality here. So what? If you want to see historical events, you could do that in the metaverse and you can do that with augmented reality. Where you're visiting, let's say, new York City in the 1920s or Paris in the 1920s, and you want to hang out with Hemingway and some other you know big name people that you've looked up to. That's an experience you can provide in a metaverse format versus a reality format.
Speaker 1:Gaming partnership is another way to really think about getting into the metaverse without committing yourself, and that happens in lots of different formats. I'm sure you guys all know what Grand Theft Auto is in GTA and that probably doesn't do the best job, obviously, of looking at Los Angeles, but a lot of these game designers are putting real cities into their games. So getting in front of that and maybe suggesting one or coming up with a partnership where it's gamified and people are playing other types of games in your city is a real opportunity. You can also do paid tours, like specific tours, haunted tours, ghost tours, some sort of experience within the metaverse. It can be a paid piece or it can be an overall city ticket kind of city pass thing. So again, the metaverse it can be a paid piece or it could be an overall city ticket kind of city pass thing. So, again, the metaverse is going to have these things really start to shorten up and accelerate in the next one to five years. And I want you to think about the metaverse is just the next logical step in owned media, or shared media if you want to, because you won't ever own that metaverse, but you'll own your assets and your business process and your strategy there. So it really is that next place of owned media. We already have websites, we're already doing social media, we have apps, we have those things, but the metaverse is that next real logical step in owned media.
Speaker 1:Here's some other needs and considerations that are evolving in our industry and how tech can possibly help some of these things. Sustainability is definitely a big one. What is disappointing to me in a lot of the sustainability messages from destinations is it's largely performative. So, as these considerations are evolving, in all of these we want to stay away from just marketing messages only. We really don't want to be performative in what we say. We want to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We want to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. So sustainability is a way that tech can come in and help, you know, provide that and make sure our visitors and our meeting planners and our groups know about that.
Speaker 1:Accessibility is a big consideration evolving, and I'm not just talking about physical accessibility, although there's a lot of great examples out there from like Will the World in terms of just small things like making curbs accessible, and that makes a lot of sense from the physical disabilities. But another trend that's really rising is cognitive disabilities. So we want everybody to be able to have their individualized experience in our destination, in our hotel, in our rental, on our tour, but we want them to have it in a way that is comfortable and right for them. So accessibility is big and that kind of doubles down and, again, diversity as well. So you know, there's a lot of those things about size, travel. There's a lot of things, again, about making sure diversity is properly talked about, not just performative. So if you're going to put out a specific campaign for a certain sect in terms of accessibility or even diversity, if it's an LGBTQ, make sure that experience you are performing or marketing is one they'll actually have when they're in market.
Speaker 1:Safety is a big concern for a lot of people now. Destination-wise, event-wise, those are things that are very important to talk about and also explore how tech can help you with those things. It's a scary world. A lot of people have, you know, expressed in terms of sentiment surveys, feeling less comfortable going to malls, feeling less comfortable going to crowded events. So safety is another thing to consider there. Housing is, and will continue to be, a top priority because, again, we're talking about it's not just our travelers, it's also our residents that we worry about. So, as frontline workers, as the economy gets tougher and tougher, and even prior to that, frontline workers can sometimes not even afford to live in the cities that they work in. So affordable housing is another big, big need and consideration to think about and how your role can play in that, even if you're a marketer. So a lot of times we go, oh well, we're just marketing, so we can't really do anything about that. I think there should be no real ceiling or veil to what it is you can affect in your city, in your destination or with your business.
Speaker 1:Also, over and under tourism are two big things. Over tourism there's you know we haven't done it quite here in the US yet, but overseas there are they are starting to charge surges and city tickets for over tourism to be able to, you know, mitigate some of that. And of course then there's the under tourism piece of it where maybe you aren't getting. Maybe you're a convention destination, so you're completely booked up Monday through Friday and crickets on the weekend. So under tourism and using some of these strategies and tactics I've talked about is a way to bolster that under tourism. And then maybe you go the other way, because everybody has their own kind of vibe and where they want to be A low or no tech destinations can also be something attractive to get to.
Speaker 1:You know people are looking when they're talking about their sentiment. Now, after these last few years, since COVID is, the number one reason people want to travel is relax and relaxation. So maybe there is an opportunity for a smaller destination or an area to talk about. You know, come to us where the Wi-Fi is weak, unplug, enjoy so you can go the other direction completely as well. Also, sorry, keeping caffeinated and then prioritizing employees. So we've really been talking a lot in our, in our agency to destination innovate, about team members, and not just our team members but the team members in the destinations, in the cities and how we're you know how we're looking at that and how we're embracing and helping them involve. So I think prioritizing employees could have come always actually first in these seven. I think prioritizing employees is critical for us to keep a trajectory on any of these strategies. Employee retention to us will be the biggest challenge for DMOs in the near future.
Speaker 1:A couple of reasons why Competitive salaries it's an amazing, amazing job to work with a DMO and to work inside of a DMO, but the salaries are not as competitive as their nonprofit or government often. So we are losing, and I've seen a lot of, even since, from e-tourism last year to e-tourism this year, some of the brightest minds weren't there this year because they got snatched by corporate America and it's hard to turn down a really, really better salary in this economy. So competitive salaries are one thing. Sometimes we can't fix that, so let's talk about some other things that we can do to increase and bolster our team members. But also one thing it's really important to say is moods really dictate success. So if you don't have a good vibe, you don't have a good cohesive environment. That's going to, that's going to come out in your work, that's going to come out in your marketing and that's eventually going to trickle down and come out in your. You know your average daily rates, your occupancy, it all, it all affects each other down there.
Speaker 1:Another, another challenge for DMOs is the remote workability. So of course, everybody went remote when we had to go remote, you know, during COVID. But a lot of that has been pulled back. One of the issues with remote workability especially when it comes to the economy, cities and destinations is a lot of businesses have realized they don't need an expensive office with all of this overhead, and employees do prefer to work remote in a lot of ways. Now, I know that can't always happen in a destination, because you need to have feet on the street and people out in the destination, but there may be some roles or some some flexibility there to work remotely, even if that's a couple of days a week, even if that's a certain kind of way to do things. But if you do that, you've got to think about how that comes together, what that experience is, and provide virtual office space as well for collaboration, because it is sometimes super, super lonely also to work remotely.
Speaker 1:So virtual offices are really important. We do that as well. We're a wholly virtual agency. I'm in Arizona, we have people in New Mexico, texas, florida, really all over the world. So we use an app called Kumo Space. Everybody has their own office. They can decorate it the way they want. We have different floors. We even have a virtual rooftop bar where people can hang out and even though we're not together physically, I can just take my little avatar, go down the hallway, pop in Elena Elena's office, have a coffee and a chat, and it feels a lot more, you know, a lot more collaborative and a lot less lonely in that piece, but also priorities on satisfaction and fulfillment. So we have to look and change our mindset about our team members in terms of, you know, I told you to do a, b and and C and this is your job do A, b and C. But prioritizing satisfaction and fulfillment goes back to what I talked about with how moods create success or failure. So prioritizing that satisfaction and fulfillment is another way to underscore employee retention.
Speaker 1:Making sure there's advancement in technologies for your team members, making sure your team members are on board with advancement in technology, you know, especially if they've been in the workplace a long time, we have our Picadillos, we have our certain apps and technology we like to use. But moving that forward like, for instance I'll give a very, very small example here Canva. I was so against Canva when it first came out because, also, you know, I had to learn Photoshop, I had to learn the Adobe suite, I had to do those things from the tech standpoint to be able to realize that artistic piece coming out in reality from a tech standpoint. So I thought Canva was a lazy tool. As you can see, the presentation I have right now is on Canva. It is an amazing tool and I'm glad I stuck with it. It saves so much time. It's nice and clean. But again, adopting that technology and making sure we as leaders and also our staff, has the ability to take time to learn and move to new tools. New AI tools Again, chat, gpt I know a lot of destination marketers won't touch it still because they think it's not authentic, but it can be used in so many different ways. So if you don't have that adopted, that's something you definitely need to look into. But again, using those tools, those AI tools, those tech tools in a way that helps our employees, helps our team members become efficient and feel more supportive.
Speaker 1:And then personal brand development and this is actually happening really well in the industry. I can give us all kudos for that. You know, putting our employees out to win awards or be top of the list and developing their own brand. You know, the old way of thinking is what if we put them out there, promote them and train them and then they leave us? What if they don't? You know, I think you have to think about the fact that if you have a supportive, good environment with a lot of satisfaction and a lot of opportunities, that personal brand development is going to stick with you and make your brand bigger in the industry and then I just included this because I find this very interesting in terms of thinking, feeling and sentiment.
Speaker 1:So this is just the trend over time of the top people looking for remote jobs. That is still going up. People are still looking for that because, also, again, future residents are something you should think about. If you can work from anywhere, where do you want to live? Those are the type of residents travelers to residents You're going to travel a place before you're actually going to be there. So if they want to live in your city but work remotely for a corporation out of New York, san Diego or so forth, that's an attractive piece you can layer in from a destination marketing standpoint. And again, that trend is going up, but virtual team building is going down. So we're supporting our virtual workforce much less, or we're less interested in supporting our virtual workforce.
Speaker 1:Another thing, in terms of talking about travelers turning into residents who may not work locally in your destination what types of things can you do from a tech and realistic standpoint to offer virtual remote workers different types of affinities? So that may be. You know, in your visitor center you may have, let's say, a podcast recording studio or some sort of maker's area, where people who work remote can come and use some of that space. Again, fleshing that out with your city planners and your economic development, you know there's going to be a lot, lot more of this happening. Regardless of how we feel about it, people do want to have that flexibility and work remote and be treated like adults. We don't have to be micromanaged or checked out in our cubicles all the time. So virtual team building, not just for your own staff but for your current and future residents who work remotely, might be other ways you can help attract those people and also keep that loyalty and that positivity up.
Speaker 1:Seeking partnerships Lord knows, we can't all do it alone sometimes. So how do we look for partnerships Now? Natural partnerships obviously are going to be, you know, already intricate with us. They'll be with our cities, with our EDCs, with our short term rental alliance, with other places like that. So those are natural inside partnerships, but sometimes we need a little help from friends. That's outside. So I want to dive into that a little bit. So, moving from a really a PR engine to an economic engine, brand partnerships and endorsements can become really paramount.
Speaker 1:So what kind of brands partnerships are we talking about? One is lifestyle brands. So lifestyle brands what brand most associates with your vibe? You know that could be a luxury brand, that could be an economy brand, that could be a brand that you know is just one that you know has started in your destination. Lifestyle brands are a great potential partnership. Using their following also, using their cachet, using what they've got behind them, can really again align and more closely define the types of visitors you're attracting, because that's important too. I talk about personalization a little bit as if it's a free-for-all, but it shouldn't be, because you're inviting these people into your home, so you want to closely align with the kind of guests you want to have as well. So, lifestyle brands, it's a great way to do that. Accelerate your reach, you know, and closer, pull that, that design together.
Speaker 1:Gaming, I mentioned already, is another one. That's another way you can, you know, engage in partnerships and brands. Gaming has exploded even more than in the past. Almost everybody is in some sort of gaming piece, whether it's them, whether it's their children, whether it's their brother. Gaming is absolutely. Gamification is absolutely on the rise, so gaming partnerships could be a really good one. Transportation is another. Now some of us already have alliances with airlines or maybe trains like Amtrak, but transportation is another opportunity for brand partnership and endorsement.
Speaker 1:Start looking on the national level. Don't worry about how small you are or how big you are. Look on the national level of what fits in these typical areas and then see if that can be something that makes sense for a brand partnership, a conversation. And, of course, collectives. So collectives might have already been kind of put together. They might be local, they might be regional, they might be statewide, they may be nationwide. So that could be something like an arts collective or a certain niche, because niches are also something that's going to get more and more important for us. The tighter you can go, the better. So that may be multiple collectives, that could be an arts council, it could be a music council, it could be a lot of those things. But again, using those partnerships takes us so much further than worrying about, you know, having to do it all on our own with our limited budgets, and so all this stuff is good.
Speaker 1:But what happens when something goes wrong with one of these things? What happens when the shift hits the fan and you have to make some pretty quick decisions, like we have in crisis before, or like we have. Maybe if something isn't going exactly right and we've invested and taken the risk and kind of pulled out of our fear and apathy, you know we've gone a little far and something doesn't go right, we'll go mindset. Now, first off, let's fail fast, and I say that is not a bad thing. Like fail actually is my favorite F word. And here's why because I'm learning and I'm taking from these pieces of it. If you micro test and you don't go all in and that's another thing with going forward, with choosing some tech and choosing some strategies is how do you crawl, walk, run? So if you're crawling and I fall, it's not going to be as damaging for me as if I'm running. So go quickly, learn that lesson, pivot, but don't come off of your core strategy. Believe in yourself in that way. Don't come off that core strategy. Just get those little road bumps out of the way as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1:And then courage over comfort is a really big one too. It is brave to do something new. As I mentioned before, doing something all your neighbors have done is just catching up. It's just keeping up with the Joneses. But going a little bit far, 10% further than somebody else has it takes courage and you're not going to be comfortable and you're going to question yourself and your team's going to question you and your stakeholders are going to question you and your board's going to think you're crazy. But have that courage and ask them to have that faith to the overall long-term strategy. And then I really love this slide.
Speaker 1:Don't put people in a box. You know you never know where the good ideas or the really good pieces are going to come from. Collaborative environment going back to employees as well a bigger collaborative environment. Open yourself up to that. So when things go sideways, you want to look at very unique ways to do this and you know, get out of the oh, somebody so-and-so did it, so I have to do it. That two pickles on a bun strategy that's not strategy. So definitely don't put anybody in a box when it comes from your agencies, your vendors, your partners, your stakeholders. Leave it open and bet on yourself. There's a lot more you can do yourself than you know spending time having somebody else tell you what you should do. Sometimes you need a good coach, you need somebody to be on your side.
Speaker 1:But bet on your own ideas and vet those out and see where that makes a lot of sense or where you need, you know, big, expensive partners from that standpoint, and innovation to me does not mean invention. So being innovative or destination innovate, as our name suggests, means we're looking for opportunities. We're not trying to invent a wheel for our clients or for ourselves. We really look at our disruptors, which are kind of our team destination disruptors, if you will as innovators. And those innovators are where audacity meets credibility. That's. We're brave, we're a little sassy, we're a little out there, but we have the data and the support and the background in terms of brave. We're a little sassy, we're a little out there, but we have the data and the support and the background in terms of credibility. So, as a disruptor, remember through all of this advice that it takes an attitude, it takes a little bravado to move things that have not been moved in a long time forward.
Speaker 1:And I love this ending. I always use this one the, the ones who take the road less traveled are the ones who discover the extraordinary. Imagine I talked about failing, because I do think there's always pivots, but imagine if the thing you envision today from a little bit of this advice can complete to, completely to and that was nationwide news, statewide news. It could be extraordinary things that you discover and develop through a process like this, and so we'll stop the chatting part at this part and thank you so much Again. Destination Innovate. We have developed out of this research to some new products. Love to talk to you guys about one of our new products, which is called Think Week.
Speaker 1:Not a big sales session here, but definitely want you guys to keep us in mind when you want to move forward in your strategy and your collaborative environment and your whole city piece. But I will look at some questions now. Oh gosh, chat was popping off and I couldn't see it. Oh, great comments. Josh, dave, karen, awesome, hi, nancy, well, wonderful. If you guys have any questions for me, I'll hang out a few more minutes with you. Well, great, well great. I hope you guys really enjoyed.
Speaker 1:Again, we will be following up with the decks. You can spend a little time with it, be in your own thinking, challenge yourself. I want you to really think about what is the craziest, best outcome I could think about for my company, my destination, and then start backing that up and thinking about what you can do. And again, I want you, once you get those I know we're all getting a lot of emails from tech vendors and those sort of things. Give them a talk, give them a think about, because when we invest in new technology and new ideas in our we are investing in our industry.
Speaker 1:So it's really important to say you know what are these beta products coming out? Because those beta products can really blow up. Look at Wander Maps and AJ Brow. She really, you know, kind of created her own thing because there wasn't a solution for her, and the industry has embraced and that has become an incredible, an incredible software too, awesome, awesome. Well, I'm going to let you guys enjoy the rest of your Friday. Thank you again so much. I'm Jen Barbie. Hope we can open for a chat anytime. I've got some even crazier ideas I don't always put out there, so love to chat with you guys about that. Have a great Friday.
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