Step 6: Perfect Planning: How Destinations Can Woo Food-Loving Travelers
Welcome to my new 10 step series about what destination marketing organizations need to do to develop a strategy to woo food- and beverage-loving travelers. This is an excerpt from our full report which you can download here.
A strategy is like a roadmap. Sometimes, destinations will create a separate food tourism strategy. Otherwise, they fold it in to an annual business plan or a Tourism Master Plan. We’d like to make an argument that food and drink are much, much too important to be part of the bigger plan. They need their own plan or roadmap, and here’s why.
Literally 100% of visitors to your destination will eat and drink. However, not 100% will play golf, go motorbiking or hiking, go shopping or attend performing arts. In other words, food and drink are the only products that 100% of visitors to your destination will participate in. You can send your visitors home with memories of chain coffee and multinational hamburgers and sandwiches, or you can send them home with pristine, colorful memories that they have photographed and videoed, and shared across social media. Remember, you’re selling a memory, not a meal!
Because literally all of the visitors to your destination eat and drink, and you want to impress them with the best your destination has to offer, you need a food (and beverage) tourism strategy. A complete strategy will be at least 100 pages, more if custom research is included. You may have also seen the term “action plan” which is like a summary, or subset, of the main strategy. It contains all of the most important discoveries and recommendations, in a summary format that is more easily “digested” and circulated to external constituents. The process is to commission a food tourism strategy for your destination, and then decide whether you require an action plan as well. You should keep your full strategic plan confidential and for internal use only. And if the strategy is for your internal use only, then you may not need an action plan.
Once you have a strategy in place, how will you execute it? Do you have the staff? Budget? Even something like a workable project plan is essential. And if you are challenged in the project management area, please get in touch for some free advice.
Knowing which steps to take, and in what order, can be daunting. And even if you’ve done countless strategies, it’s always good to get an outsider’s opinion. We see things you don’t. We can say things you can’t.
What are your thoughts about food tourism planning, strategies and action plans? Write your comments below OR reach out to me via Twitter or email.
