When a destination “goes viral,” it usually means it is gaining critical mass in terms of visibility and popularity online, particularly on social media.
On the surface, this is a good thing: more views mean greater interest and the even greater possibility of welcoming more tourists into the vicinity.
However, the game of online popularity and virality is not something that tourism boards and those tasked with marketing destinations ought to take lightly.
On the contrary, virality is one of those marketing elements that could turn a destination into a smashing success or make it crash and burn into ignominious failure.
The good thing about virality
For starters, let us take a look at why virality matters in tourism marketing: as today’s generation is extremely visual when it comes to marketing, high-visibility user-generated content (UGC) tends to get more attention than traditional advertisements, and this applies not only to businesses, but for destinations, as well
According to experts at Digital Travel APAC: “User-generated content is one of the best ways to get people to engage with your business. Influencer marketing will help a lot to make your business visible among the others. After specifying your target location and audience, you can get in touch with tourism influencers and experts. You will not believe how fast your brand is reaching followers, thanks to influencers.”
At the same time, exposure via UGC spreads faster than any campaign devised by an ad agency as publication is instantaneous, and sharing is almost always allowed by whichever influencer posting online.
For this reason, new-generation ad agencies and public relations firms team up with influencers and those so-called key opinion leaders (KOLs), and their example has been followed by a number of tourism boards throughout the world.
One good example of the synergetic relationship between tourism boards and influencers can be found in Thailand where the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)’s TAT Connex initiative has leveraged influencer marketing into greater global appeal and exposure.
Such collaborations often result in targeted content that reaches and engages specific markets, thus adding credibility to destinations and those who manage them.
And now, the downside of virality
This, of course, does not mean that everything about viral marketing is beneficial in the context of global tourism.
Indeed, there are a number of recorded instances wherein an influencer’s or a celebrity’s irate rant on social media led to some serious backlash for airlines, hotels, destinations, and even global tourism campaigns.
Such incidents are proof that even the most carefully crafted and implemented tourism marketing campaigns can be torn down or scuttled completely by a single complaint that spreads like wildfire online.
Likewise, unlike professional campaigns wherein content is released within specific timeframes, viral content is almost always unpredictable by nature; that’s never a good thing in tourism where consistent messaging matters.
As Jeff Gapinski, co-founder and chief revenue officer of site development firm Huemor, puts it: “Virality is unpredictable; consistency is not. You don’t build long-term brand trust, steady leads, or qualified pipeline from one lucky post and a flood of likes. You do it by showing up with messaging that actually makes sense, content that speaks to your audience, and a website that converts when the traffic show up.”
At the same time, many travellers have pointed out that a great amount of UGC uploaded to the internet is either of questionable provenance (in that the creator cobbled or stole footage from someone else to create their content or, worse, relied on AI to make it appear that they’re in situ), or skews more to the personal preferences and even prejudices of individual influencers.
As a result, this lack of authenticity throws a wrench into the plans of tourism boards who are not exactly discriminating with regard to choosing KOLs to work with.
In the end, the real driver of tourism marketing is authenticity, the desire and passion to present the best of a destination and, to do so, show off what truly makes it stand out against other locations.
It may not always be pretty or Instagram-worthy, it may not even go viral: but authentic content and consistent messaging ensure that the right travellers come in to visit and appreciate what the destination has to offer.
With that, we leave you with some advice from Gapinski for everyone from marketing professionals and tourism boards to individual content creators and would-be influencers: “By all means, be clever. Be creative; but don’t confuse a moment of attention with a sustainable strategy.”
