It may come as a shock, but for a lot of travelers, there’s more to winter than ski and snow sports. Even for non-winter destinations, as more and more travelers want to play during what some may consider the Off Season, winter vacation can come to mean something much more than what it typically has represented.
But even for winter meccas full of mountains and snow, celebrating other draws that may entice different visitors and enhance the experiential offerings as well is smart destination marketing.
Then, there are destinations where there isn’t any typical winter sport outlet but are winter getaways nonetheless. It’s this last group that writer Jen Murphy highlighted in her Bloomberg article, The Best Winter Destinations For People Who Want To Do Nothing, showcasing eight scintillating winter vacations where nary a ski abides.
For destinations, catering to visitors and inspiring locals who may not be always looking for the slope-most-skied is a great way to appeal to an even larger number of people, add a little diversity to the ski trip, or bolster the shoulder season.
Deanna Ting of Skift wrote the “Skift Take” prefacing that outlet’s resharing of Murphy’s piece, which read, “Most businesses need to figure out ways to expand their customer bases. Winter inns and resorts are adding more programming and services to appeal to travelers who want a wintry getaway, but don’t necessarily like getting on skis to descend mountains at breakneck speeds.”
Regardless, then, of which category you fall into—traditional winter destination, unique winter getaway, or winter-is-our-off-season location—with Bandwango, each destination can grow their audience and up their travel quotient during the coldest time of the year.
Bandwango allows destinations to empower visitors (and locals) to get the most out of a visit or vacation by customizing and curating things to do. Even for those who want to do, well, nothing at all.
Again, travel writer Jen Murphy: “It’s a request travel experts get more often than you think: What if a person wants to go somewhere wintry, and do … nothing?”
“For a certain set,” she added, “it’s other things they’re after: dog sled rides, solving puzzles, going to concert performances, racking up some serious hot tub time, and just parking one’s self in front of the fire.”
Of course, from the perspective of the relaxed traveler, that can seem like nothing, luxuriously so. But for destinations it’s anything but. From restaurants to museums, hot springs to concert halls, that can be a lot of “nothing” to facilitate.
The Bandwango destination can see an article like this and almost instantly mobilize to create a pass or a series of experiences that visitors can capitalize on next time they’re in town.
Speaking of next time, the marketer’s benefit through offering these passes is realized in the data collected via the experiences redeemed, which can inform the destination promoter for remarketing to those visitors, as well as attract similar audience types and bring new, fresh faces along with diverse perspectives to your destination.
Suddenly and with little effort, the Bandwango destination can offer events, admissions, and curated experiences; even free ones like self-guided winter strolls through historic districts, for example.
And sure, the priority may be to specialize and get the most bang for your marketing buck excelling at facilitating what most people come to experience or expect to experience with a visit to your destination. But if where you are is not particularly famous for one thing, or it is, but it’s just not the typical thing (like skiing), then there is a real opportunity here, too.
Destinations that view winter as their off season can find what makes their destination fantastic for shoulder season travelers, and find a way to boost travel during those times of the year it’s less expected.
The opportunity here for travel marketers is to take a different angle on their destination’s most popular attractions and draws, and to look for the “everyone else” angle. Cater to different interests. Grow your base with bandwango, put ideas out there for visitors and locals to engage with then prove and analyze what’s working, adjust, and do it again!
Deanna Ting is right, “Most businesses need to figure out ways to expand their customer bases.” Bandwango, we submit, is one particularly effective way to widen that base.
