How to develop online relationships with local tourism businesses in order to increase your reach

Last Updated on April 26, 2016 by admin

When we discuss the tourism industry it can be easy to just think of the fantastic self-catering holiday home accommodation we have to provide our visitors. But as you’ll know, your guests will spend the majority of their time away from your holiday home enjoying the local sights and sounds.

People travel to a location in order to enjoy the destination; that rich tapestry that makes up their experience and forms their memories. Whether it’s a family attraction, a great selection of food and drink producers or local walks and beaches, your holiday home provides them with a hub from which they can take it all in.

So if all of these tourism trades are inextricably linked, how can you engage with others in the local area in order to boost your own online reach and presence?

We have some simple suggestions….

You need to engage!

From restaurants to theme parks, it’s realistic to believe that by now most tourism businesses will have a Twitter or Facebook account. So, are you following them on Twitter and have you liked their Facebook pages as your own business page?

If the answer is no then this should be your first port of call.

Social media works on engagement; if you’re not following and liking you won’t be having any.

Share your tourism partners content and promotions

We’ve already said that your visitors will spend their time enjoying what the local area has to offer, but what does this mean from a social media perspective?

Content makes the online world go round; we’re all creating it and we’re all sharing it. Those restaurants, family attractions and other tourism businesses in your locality are all creating content that is going to be relevant to your potential visitors; this could be offers, open hours, booking information or their latest menu, but no matter what it is it’s highly likely that your potential guest is interested in it.

So what do you need to do?

Share it with your own followers and on your own page. It’s going to add value to your own social media accounts as it’s interesting to followers, and it’s also going to promote these local businesses and the area in which your holiday home is situated.

You share theirs and they share yours

The beauty of doing the above is that more often than not, if you start sharing and re-tweeting their information, they’ll start doing the same as yours. This quickly builds your own presence, allowing your tweets and Facebook posts to travel further to potential guests.

By promoting each other you’re both leveraging the online reach you’re able to gain.

Encouraging them to follow back on Twitter

Most people on Twitter will simply follow someone and have no other engagement. Statistics show that on average when adopting this approach, only 2 – 4 people out of ten will follow you back.

This provides a problem. In step one we said you needed to follow all of those businesses in your local area that may be of interest to your potential guests. If only 2 – 4 follow you back only 20 – 40% of the businesses will actually end up seeing your tweets, meaning you’re not going to be extending your own reach.

When you follow a local business, be sure to engage with them. Hit that follow button, but also introduce yourselves as a local accommodation provider, like some of their tweets and share their great content.

You’ll increase the likelihood of other tourism businesses following back to 60 – 80%, increasing your own reach in the process!

Create Twitter lists to make sure you don’t miss a thing

An issue you might run in to when you start following all of these new accounts is there’s simply too much information going onto Twitter and if you’re not glued to the computer screen you’re going to miss something of interest.

Create Twitter lists and include all of the local businesses within specific lists. This will mean that the next time you login you’ll be able to see just their tweets by viewing a list; you’ll never miss anything important again!

Get re-tweeting!

(More information on Twitter lists is available here: article on twitter lists)

If you found this article on developing online relationships with local tourism businesses of interest, you may also enjoy these:

• How to promote your Holiday Let as a destination
• Managing the reputation of your holiday letting property online

When holiday letting your second home to paying guests it’s essential to take advice on suitable insurance. Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting owners across the UK. For more information on how a specialist insurer can help and support your holiday home business, please give us a call on 01237 429444.