This episode of Destination on the Left is coming from the 2022 eTourism Summit in Orlando, Florida, held from June 6-8. I was honored to have the chance to interview five notable attendees who are all experts in the field of digital marketing for travel and tourism. I asked each of my guests to give me one word to describe the conference, and awesome, inspiring, energizing, compelling, and the future are perfect descriptions of this unique event.

We discuss tearing up the page and starting afresh, the value of podcasts in promoting the story behind a destination, and the importance of remaining agile and ready to learn.

I’m so excited to share my guests’ insight into the world of digital marketing with you in this week’s special podcast episode. In this episode of Destination On The Left, I know you’ll find value in the words of these five talented digital marketing experts:

Ana Reyna Arzate from Visit Laredo
James Flint from Visit Durango
Melea Hames of Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourists Association
Patrick Harrison of Visit Tampa Bay
Vivian Mur of AKI Technologies

Staying Alert to Digital Marketing Trends

The eTourism Summit Roadshow focuses on giving everyone in the travel and tourism industry space to discuss the future of digital marketing and explore some of the creative strategies in use today. In today’s episode, we’re talking about how podcasts can help tell the unique story of your destination, how to boost your organic social media marketing success with sweepstakes and vacation giveaways, and how to leverage short-term, mid-term, and long-term digital marketing strategies.

Ana Reyna Arzate from Visit Florida

Ana Reyna describes how the eTourism Summit is helping her in her role as Marketing Coordinator for Visit Laredo. She shares how the resources she has been able to access as a summit attendee have helped her in her efforts to engage both the US and Mexican markets that are important to her destination. Ana Reyna also describes why the COVID-19 pandemic offered her destination the perfect opportunity to start a podcast that would tell the authentic story of what Florida offers guests.

James Flint from Visit Durango

James explores some of the most significant changes that Visit Durango has made recently in their digital strategy. Including a wildly impactful organic social media marketing strategy of running sweepstakes and competitions that they decided to use over paid social media advertising. He describes how to tie your digital marketing to a destination and experience, such as riding the historic train in Durango or skiing in Purgatory, and how marketers can pull from different pieces of their organization’s priorities and weave it into marketing campaigns to make them meaningful.

Melea Hames of Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourists Association

I discuss with Melea some of the biggest changes in their marketing strategy that are having an impact and leading to impressive results. She discusses Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourists Association’s amazing trails, including their waterfall trail, craft beer trail, and new agriculture adventures trail, and why they are aggressively promoting them in digital ads. Melea also shares more about her podcast and how they’re leveraging audio to get their message out there.

Patrick Harrison of Visit Tampa Bay

According to Patrick, almost every technology or service we were using five years ago is no longer relevant. He remarks on the speed of the transition to new digital marketing methods and highlights the need to be agile in our thinking about how we spread the word about our destinations. Patrick also talks about finding a harmonic convergence and fitting in seamlessly into potential visitors’ lives with something they may not have known they needed before we shared it.

Vivian Mur of AKI Technologies

Vivian explores why the eTourism Summit is a wonderful opportunity in an intimate setting, not only to learn from one another and talk and engage with other marketers to find out what’s new, what isn’t working, and what isn’t. She shares the values of connecting with others in the travel and tourism industry about recent trends and the value of getting an alternative perspective from destinations and suppliers of all sizes and scopes.

Creative Ways of Sharing a Unique Story

I hope you enjoyed this episode coming live from the eTourism Summit Roadshow; as all these talented marketers shared, a key thread woven through the travel and tourism destination marketing industry is that it is critical to be open to new ways of attracting visitors to enjoy what they have to offer. So many of these organizations are at the Summit to connect with others, share insights and learning, and open themselves up to all the possibilities digital marketing channels offer to share a destination’s authentic story and flavor.

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