In recent tourism news, Alaska raised cruise tourism limits as residents’ concerns about over-tourism grew. Over-tourism is an increasing issue in trendy tourism destinations, and one solution that will keep revenue flowing is to focus more on bringing in visitors outside the regular busy season. Unless downtime is needed for maintenance or other recovery, selling year-round is a goal of most businesses that commonly experience seasonality. In this episode of Building Success Stories, Seth and I discuss How to Extend Your Selling Season.
Several clients, colleagues, and friends work in tourism and hospitality. During summer, the busy season here, I often hear many complaints about the number of hours they need to work, but they are thankful for the extreme business because that revenue has to carry them through the less busy months.
Common ways to extend your selling season:
- Work with your local, county, regional tourism, or business association to bring visitors into the area.
- Festivals, fairs.
- Institute restaurant weeks, cook-offs, etc.
- Craft beverage trail, winery trail, food trail, fiber trail, etc.
- Groups, Conferences, Meetings.
- Promote non-seasonal activities, such as music, arts, and certain sports.
- Partner with other regions or industries that have a different “season”. Click to read my article: The Power of Partnership.
- Create a new “season” that suits your region (e.g., apple season, farm tour season).
- Competitions.
- Develop a specific but aggressive group marketing strategy.
- Off-season special offers.
- Develop packages with other businesses in the area.
- Build business from locals – staycations, etc.
- Find new markets.
- Think niche – retirees, empty nesters, singles, remote workers – that aren’t dependent on school vacation times.
- Diversification – Check out how Northern Ireland sheep farmer Jamese McCloy grew his farm experience business.
- Work with travel agencies (online and offline), group tour operators, etc., to develop innovative ideas. (Irish B&B ladies that came together to bring US tour groups that would typically only stay together at larger hotels.)
- Alter offerings and your approach to marketing them – weekends vs extended stays, evening activities, smaller groups.
- “Entertain” influencers with ongoing campaigns, not one-offs.
- Use digital marketing:
- Use email marketing and social media to stay in touch with previous and potential new customers.
- Include content highlighting what to do and the benefits of coming off-season.
Keep in mind:
- While staffing may be an issue, ensure that your offerings align with the level of service you can provide.
- Increased visibility of visitors for tourism may also mean increased visibility to potential staff.
Ann’s Final Word:
They say for everything, there’s a season,
especially when you create a new season to grow your business!
Get more insights!!! Listen to this episode in the player above or search for “Building Success Stories with Ann Donnelly” on your favorite podcast platform. Click here for a list of podcast apps where you can listen to our podcast.
Take action!
📍From the list above and what’s discussed in the episode, select ONE strategy to extend your selling season and determine how to implement it in your business.
📍Email admin@anndonnelly.com with your findings and any questions, and get a quick evaluation from me!
📍If you have a friend or family member who does not use digital marketing for their businesses, send them a link to this article!
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