DIGITAL DESTINATIONS

Dr Philip Alford Bournemouth University

www.digitalhub.co.uk

www.pinterest.com/digitaldest www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub

ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk

@schooloftourism | @philipalford

#DDBU

Digital Destinations project is an ESRC funded research project, delivered by Bournemouth University,

with an overarching aim to:

‘capture change in the adoption and use of digital technologies and to develop a strong, competitive local tourism economy.

Through increased understanding and use of emerging digital technologies, visitor economy businesses will be in a position to increase their marketing and management effectiveness, and

develop new products and services that will provide an enhanced experience for visitors to their destinations’

The businesses benefited from 4 workshops which covered: Background to on line marketing

Individual Business objectives

Developing the strategy

Measuring impact

Reporting outcomes via case studies

All course material can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub All business outcomes and blogs can be found at http://www.budigitalhub.co.uk/

The following presentation is the case study provided by Discover Dorset Discover Dorset; one of our key objectives in committing to the Digital Destination project was to share real life experiences with other local tourism businesses and learn from Bournemouth University best practices from the wider tourism industry. These aims were accomplished through attending the Seminars and hosting one of the Action Learning Meetings. We also recognised a need to ensure that we were using the most effective on-going means of social media to engage with customers using any one of our four parallel services in order that we could cross refer and secure business for the future sustainability of our Company.

Discover Dorset Tours Digital Destination Project 2012/13 Case Study

www.discoverdorset.co.uk

Introduction

• Discover Dorset Tours is a Bournemouth based day tour operator. It has a

website, Facebook, Twitter and Trip Advisor presence. • Our student Harry Corr has conducted a thorough analysis of our current

digital marketing and developed a number of recommendations. • We are currently in the process of implementing these recommendations. • Aims and Objectives • Increase online customer engagement through Facebook • Create a video marketing campaign to target new and existing markets

Actions

1. Update Facebook page more often and run incentives to encourage ‘likes’ and tagging. • • Have been adding additional content, mostly images, especially news worthy like the recent landslide at

St Oswald’s Bay • • Updated follow up email, sent after tour with links to Facebook, Twitter and ‘add a review’ link on Trip

Advisor • • Have put signs up inside buses with QR code links to Facebook.

• ToDo. • • Photo competition email to be sent during day, instead going to do as an SMS on certain trips, firstly

Jurassic Coast.

• 2. Commission Video for the Jurassic Coast Experience • • Have built a new website for the Jurassic Coast Experience and rebranded. • • Worked with Bmth Uni students to produce video of Jurassic Coast, did not come to anything. • • Commissioned Tourist Network Ltd to produce video of Jurassic Coast Experience, including getting off the

train, ferry, stripy bus etc..

• ToDo • Video shoot on Friday 7th of June • • Edit, and publish on our website, YouTube, and Facebook/Twitter

Summary and Conclusion on Project

In keeping with many other businesses I do not feel that my expectations for this project have been met, they have in fact been far exceeded through the work and consideration given to this task by Harry. As a business faced with the cloud of opportunity and competitive threat Social Networking and digital marketing present, it is very hard to define where your efforts and money should be best spent. Being only one subject within a final year degree course, there is only a limited amount of time that an undergraduate can spend with a business. As business owners and managers, many of us think of little else apart from our businesses, there is therefore and inherent risk of conflict between what is expected and delivered. Harry’s biggest contribution has been the helicopter view that he has been able to bring to bear and teasing out the important factors for us as a business to focus on. Using some solid marketing concepts and tools Harry has revealed some useful new ideas and perspectives and reminded us of some things we have forgotten in the fug of day to day operations. Whilst the scope of the project was quite rightly narrow and precise, the report Harry prepared was useful for other parts of our business and act as a good reference document. A number of other people who work in the business or who are closely connected with it have also read the report and are impressed by its contents. The commitment shown to this project by all the participants clearly illustrates a rare and happy union of the academic and commercial world. I do think that this should be developed further and I would welcome the opportunity to work with another student in 2013/14 to take this project on to the next level.

For more information on DIGITAL DESTINATIONS contact:

Dr Philip Alford, Bournemouth University

ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk

@schooloftourism | @philipalford

#DDBU