One of the key benefits of using elearning in destination marketing is that it allows you to reach a wide audience. Unlike traditional marketing methods, which are often limited to a specific geographic area, elearning can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection, regardless of where they are located. This means that you can use elearning to promote your destination to potential buyers all over the world, and to reach people who may not have been aware of your destination before.

Unique Ways to use Elearning in Destination Marketing

Another benefit of using elearning in destination marketing is that it allows you to provide potential buyers with a more immersive and engaging experience. Traditional marketing methods, such as brochures or posters, can only provide a limited amount of information about a destination. With elearning, you can use interactive elements, such as virtual tours, quizzes, or games, to provide potential buyers with a more in-depth look at your destination, and to make the learning experience more enjoyable.

To use elearning effectively in destination marketing, it is important to focus on creating high-quality content that will be of value to potential buyers. This can include information about the history and culture of the area, as well as details about specific attractions, events, or experiences. You can also use elearning to showcase the natural beauty of the area, by providing virtual tours of popular hiking trails, or by sharing photos or videos of the local landscape.

The Power of the Media for Engaging Content

To create engaging elearning content, it is also important to use a variety of media, such as videos, photos, audio, or text. By combining these different media, you can create a more dynamic and interactive learning experience, which will be more likely to capture the attention of potential buyers.

One way to use elearning in destination marketing is to create an online course or series of videos that provide an overview of the destination and its attractions. This could include information about the history and culture of the area, as well as details about specific places to visit, such as museums, parks, or restaurants. The course could also include interactive elements, such as quizzes or virtual tours, to make the learning experience more engaging and immersive.

Another way to use elearning in destination marketing is to create a series of short, engaging videos that showcase the destination’s attractions and experiences. These videos could be shared on social media or other online platforms to attract the attention of potential visitors and encourage them to learn more about the destination.

Overall, using elearning in destination marketing can be an effective way to promote your destination to potential buyers, and to showcase its unique features and attractions in an engaging and interactive way. By providing high-quality, informative, and engaging elearning content, you can attract more buyers to your destination, and generate economic benefits for your area.

Go beyond the pdfs and websites! Tell your story to B2B buyers in new ways and become more known. Contact us now.

First and foremost, digital learning offers a convenient and flexible way for tourism professionals to learn. With e-learning, employees can access educational content anytime and anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection. This is especially useful for workers in the tourism industry, who may not have the time or resources to attend traditional in-person classes. Digital learning also allows employees to learn at their own pace, which can be beneficial for those who have busy schedules or who learn best at different speeds.

Another key advantage of digital learning in the tourism industry is that it can be highly personalized. E-learning platforms often allow users to tailor their learning experiences to their individual needs and preferences. For example, employees can choose the specific topics they want to learn about, and can even select the learning format that works best for them (e.g. videos, interactive quizzes, etc.). This personalized approach to learning can help tourism professionals stay engaged and motivated, and can ultimately lead to better learning outcomes.

Benefits of Digital Learning Comparing to Traditional Learning

Digital learning also offers a cost-effective way for tourism companies to provide training and professional development to their employees. E-learning courses are often less expensive than traditional in-person classes, and can be accessed by a large number of employees simultaneously. This can help tourism businesses save money on training costs, while still providing their employees with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.

In addition to the practical benefits, digital learning can also help tourism companies stay competitive in today’s fast-paced and rapidly-changing industry. With e-learning, employees can easily access the latest information and trends in the tourism field, and can stay up-to-date on new technologies and best practices. This can help tourism businesses stay ahead of the curve and provide high-quality services to their customers.

Furthermore, digital learning can help tourism companies foster a culture of continuous learning and professional development. By providing employees with access to e-learning courses, tourism businesses can encourage their workers to take ownership of their own learning and career growth. This can help employees feel more invested in their work and the success of the company, and can ultimately lead to increased job satisfaction and retention.

Effective and Productive

Elearning can also improve employee productivity and efficiency in the tourism industry. By providing employees with the skills and knowledge they need to perform their jobs effectively, elearning can help workers complete tasks more quickly and accurately. This can lead to increased productivity and efficiency, which can ultimately benefit the bottom line of tourism businesses.

Overall, digital learning offers a number of benefits for the tourism industry. It is convenient, flexible, personalized, cost-effective, and helps companies stay competitive and foster a culture of continuous learning. As the tourism industry continues to evolve and grow, digital learning will become increasingly important for providing training and professional development to employees.

So why would a hotel chain, which like so many other tourism businesses are battling in the post-pandemic environment; put such a high priority on education? In short they realise the critical value of developing skills in the business; positioning themselves as an employer of choice and hence becoming a magnet in attracting talent.

Yasmin Diamond,  Corporate Affairs EVP, commented, “With 6,000 IHG hotels in over 100 countries … Our IHG Academy programme has been invaluable in connecting our hotels with their communities, providing thousands of jobs … we’re committed to making a difference on an even larger scale … with the help of our incredible partners [and] a new digital format.”

New challenges require new solutions

The IHG Academy has been running since 2004. So what is new? The clue is in the word “digital.” They realise that new challenges, require new solutions and moving away from a legacy approach. Modern LMS (Learning Management Systems) or next-generation LXP (Learning Experience Platforms) use automation and personalization to make skills-building experiences engaging. Match the right course to the right person; allow the learner to take courses at a time that suits their lifestyle; and track progress with state-of-the-art data collection. Such platforms enable the creation of effective and valuable skills development programmes. Also, they do not cost nearly as much as you may fear, with prices having plummeted in recent years.

Why the emphasis on skills?

Recent years have shown a clear trend in skills-based learning becoming the future of talent development. Educational guru Donald Taylor, Chair at Learning Technologies Conference, runs an annual survey of priorities in the learning field. In the last two years “upskilling and reskilling”  have dominated the survey at #1, well ahead of all other elements. This correlates with a massive increase from 2019 in Google searches for “upskilling and reskilling.” LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Roslansky also states that his company has seen a 21% increase in companies asking for skills rather than qualifications and positions. This reveals that companies are increasingly unwilling to trust a CV, i.e. honing in on actual skills, rather than hoping that previous posts will act as a proxy for the skills they need.

Moreover, companies who have successfully created a culture of skills development are consistently outperforming their peers. Not only do they become better at recruitment, they also excel at developing existing staff. Your people understand your unique culture and how to work. Critically you already know key facts about them, both as to their technical and behavioural strengths. Such employers give themselves a massive head-start. Skills can be deployed cross-functionally, with staff satisfaction growing as they see their personal development optimised.

What about smaller businesses or SME’s who make up over 90% of travel’s ecosystem?

So should such initiatives be the preserve of giant enterprises, with matching resources? What about smaller businesses or SME’s who make up over 90% of travel’s ecosystem? How can they compete? After all, we are all fishing from the same talent pool. Won’t they lose out? The problem is worsened by the fact that even businesses considered “large” in travel sector terms have slimmed down over the pandemic. So, unfortunately, resources previously responsible for strategic forward planning of talent management, have likely been axed. In such circumstances, travel leaders risk weakness in one of the most critical battlegrounds in the future competitive environment. A reactive short-term approach likely will not cut the mustard for your business in the future. To make matters worse, stats show that post-covid, the over-50’s are the largest demographic dropping out of the workforce. So if your strategy is to rely on passing knowledge down informally from this grouping, you may well be further disadvantaged.    

In light of this, what can the vast majority of companies in the visitor economy do to compete?

Here are some simple rules to follow:

• Take advantage of the digital (or hybrid) learning mega-trend. LMS/LXP’s no longer cost the earth and they can springboard your efforts by acting as a delivery mechanism. 
• Share resources: Build-your-own can be a long, slow and expensive process. Off-the-shelf solutions are available and provide a framework. The sector is burgeoning and you can always tweak over time to meet your specific needs. By joining a network you’ll meet many other businesses facing similar problems, many of whom can chip in with a speciality you can benefit from. N.B. even IHG rely on partners to deliver their strategic objectives.
• Bottle your super-power: get to the bottom both to the skills your business has, any gaps and what will be needed to thrive in the future. Don’t let your unique skills fritter away. If your business has a super-power, make sure you capture that “grey-hair” knowledge for future generations of your employees; whilst also evolving to meet future challenges. General Motors is a classic case, as they reskill their staff from a petrol past to the electric future.

Finally, you may be worried as to whether your staff will buy into a skills development programme?

Be assured that your teams won’t take much convincing of the merits of investing in them. The Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) MBA found that 92% of employees say that in work professional development is either important or very important to them. LinkedIn echoes this urging employers to, “Support new career paths for your employees.”

Finally, great customer service lies in the DNA of so many travel & tourism companies and simultaneously is one of the skills most in demand on LinkedIn. So you may be tapping into your own goldmine!

Patrick Richards is a Director of LVG Learning www.lvglearning.com. If the above is of interest please feel free to reach out to us at info@lvglearning.com

For many in the developed world, over the last few years, it feels like we’ve been couped up and now we want to get out and have an adventure. As the world emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic many more people are looking for immersive experiences looking for discovery and cultural immersion.

Making connections sits at the heart of experiential tourism. Having a chef-led tour of a hotel’s walled herb garden in England, visiting a family and joining them for an evening meal in Spain, or having a local citizen take you inside a Shinto temple in Japan for a vegetarian lunch- these are all attempts to “get to know” the destination and connect more deeply. People, especially repeat visitors, want this more personal experience; they want to be challenged, changed, affected, and even somehow improved.

One of the hidden benefits of experiential tourism is the way it can challenge a person’s stereotypes of other people and communities (consciously or subconsciously).

Meaningful interactions prompt us to question our own preconceptions and learn more about other places and people.

But is this experiential tourism trend universal and inevitable? What about those holidaying on a limited budget? What about the first-time Asian visitor looking to win as many European sightseeing trophies as possible? There are still big segments of travellers for whom experiential tourism is not yet on their agenda.

So what are the chief characteristics of experiential tourism:

1. Destinations and experiential travel companies state it’s about giving customers deep emotional connections with the places they visit.
2. People are looking to ‘do’ things on holiday, rather than spending time just switching off and relaxing. They want to be active and immerse themselves in the destination and gain new experiences. Films, TV and social media can prompt this behaviour.
3. Personalisation- getting away far from the maddening crowd and having an intimate experience sit at the core of experiential tourism. It’s about having a “conversation” with the destination that speaks to the values of the traveller.
4. It helps to be shareable- is the experience Instagrammable? Many DMOs seem to be prioritising their destination as great for posting stories and images to stand out from competitors.
5. It’s claimed this kind of travel supports a more sustainable and lower impact tourism. Smaller number of visitors spreading out across the seasons and across the destination have a lighter footprint than large numbers of people concentrating in a few peak months is a few honeypot locations.

In conclusion Covid-19 and the lockdowns and limitations of our freedoms of movement means many are thinking about how they travel and the impact they are having on the people and places visited. The opportunity for DMOs, travel and tourism businesses is to interpret these consumer inclinations and package and offer holidays as “experiential.”

Done well this generates a marketing advantage and differentiates one holiday offer from another. And we all might appreciate our world even more and not take so much for granted.

If you would like to know how LVG Learning can help you strengthen your experiential tourism efforts do contact us. We have training courses to help suppliers, employees or buyers.

Investing in people in today’s tough trading environment is a sure fire way to get ahead of the competition. We’re here to help, do give us a call.

• Keith Beecham