15 Ways to Evolve Your Destination Visitor Guide in 2021
By Rebecca White
Published on November 23, 2020
A destination visitor guide is an important marketing and visitor servicing tactic for many of the destinations we work with.
When done right, it will both inspire and encourage visitors to stay longer, spend more and disperse around a region more widely.
With the upheaval of 2020, there are a number of visitor and wider society trends impacting our visitors which need to be considered in your next destination visitor guide update.
Following are 15 tips you can use audit and then evolve your destination visitor guide to ensure it's aligned to your destination visitor economy strategy and it's adding real value to your visitors, local businesses and wider community.
1. Know your Region’s High Yield Visitors + Niche Interest Segments
The first thing to start with when reviewing your Visitor Guide is to ensure you’re clear on who your Destination’s high yield visitor and niche segments and what experiences your destination has that are of interest to them.
Based on our work with destinations over recent years, most Australian destinations will have will have High Yield Leisure Visitors who fall into the following segments:
- Families – With both younger preschool + lower primary aged kids and older more independent and active kids/tweens/teens.
- Older couples - exploring for soft adventure, nature, outdoors, cycling, walking, history, heritage, art, culture, food, wine,
- Younger Couples, often with other couples – great food, wine, selfie spots, active adventure
From a visitor guide, make sure you can answer the questions such as
- Who are they travelling with? Kids/Couples/Their Pet?
- What’s their motivation for travel? Holiday? Work? Event?
- Are there any accessibility needs? Wheelchair bound, walker, prams, mobility considerations?
- What experiences in your destination are they most interested in?
From there, you have a solid base to audit your Visitor Guide from.
2. Inspire and Motivate First
Show and tell your readers early in your Guide about the hero experiences of your destination.
Research tells us that 85% of leisure travellers wait until they are in a destination before finalising their itinerary planning.
Don't assume visitors who are already in your destination know about the things to see and do.
Therefore, have sections early in your Visitor Guide covering your destination experience strengths, which are likely to fall in the following categories
- Outdoor, Adventure, Nature, Wildlife
- Food, Wine, Beverages
- Art, Culture, History, Heritage
Keep these sections editorial only, with great storytelling type copywriting and stunning images. Leave the advertising for later in the Visitor Guide.
Refer back to your strategic planning documents to clarify your destination’s key experience strengths to help guide you in this space.
Example: Adelaide Hills Visitor Guide inspires visitors around their Food Experiences
Example: Port Lincoln Visitor Guide inspires visitors around their Seafood strength early in the visitor guide.
3. Elevate your Outdoor, Nature and Adventure Experiences
Building on the previous section, thanks to Covid, people are looking for experiences and activities that are by nature away from people and socially distanced.
Every Region in Australia has mix of walks, cycle trails, lookouts and other natural attractions through natural landscapes, national parks/reserves and recreational spaces.
Whist they may not have a paid tourism offering for visitors, or be run by a private tourism operator (who can pay for a visitor guide advert), it’s a missed opportunity to not talk about them.
Share very specific and detailed information about best walks, cycle trails, natural attractions, national parks.
Example: Mudgee Visitor Guide - Specific Walking, Cycling and Family Outdoor Adventures
4. Touring Routes, Itineraries and Scenic Drives
Domestic road trips are booming and will continue until international borders re-open and airline capacity lifts.
Therefore ensure your visitor guide has relevant self drive traveller information based on where your High Yield and Niche Interest Visitor needs when it comes to drive touring.
Sharing these suggestions are also brilliant ways to help your vistiors better understand your region and how to pull a driving holiday together.
Ideas on how to support your self drive visitors through your Visitor Guide includes
Suggested Itineraries to your Region
- Provide suggested touring routes to/from/around your Region from key source destinations.
Scenic drives
- You could also potentially direct people to your desitnatoin website for this information due to it’s seasonal nature (refer point x)
Day Trip or Scenic Drives
- Many destinations have a larger visitor centres, so encourage day trips out to your smaller communities.
Top Instagram Spots
- People love to see the most pictures spots in your region, consider a suggested Instagram Trail. Include the most instagramable spots such as Public Art, Historic Buildings, Lookouts, Stunning Vistas and other Natural Phenomena in your Destination.
Themed itineraries
- Based on your High Yield Visitors + Niche Interst Visitor, share themed itineraries, such as
- Family Friendly
- Art, Culture, History + Heritage Itineraries
- Foodie + Wine Itineraries
- Outdoor, Nature + Wildlife Spotting Itineraries.
Example: Port Lincoln Visitor Guide Day Drives
Example: Bathurst Destination Planner Suggested Themed Itineraries
Example: 24 Hours in the Barossa
Example: Bathurst Instagram Trail
5. Accessibility Travel Tips
With 1 in 5 Australians having a disability or long-term health condition, combined with our aging population, this means some of your high yield visitors and niche interest visitors will be looking for specific destination accessibility advice.
Whilst your destination website is the best spot to have the most detailed accessibility travel advice, your visitor guide can still provide some accessible travel advice, particularly in the area of mobility issues, as 55% of these travellers identify as travelling with a mobility issues.
This could be older family members who may not be able to navigate stairs or long walks, families travelling with young kids in prams or wheelchair bound travellers looking for fully accessibly experiences.
Therefore highlight in your visitor guide mobility friendly experiences across your experience strength areas (refer back to Tip 2 and 3).
Example: I haven't found a good one, so if you have one in your Visitor Guide, let me know and I'll add it in!
6. Local or Insider Tips
People love in-person tips from locals on what to see and do in your destination.
Therefore why not extend that idea into your Visitor Guide?
Consider asking local residents or local icons to share tips for their favourite hidden gems in your local town or region.
Allow them to mentioned specific business names - this is what visitors are looking for.
Example: Bathurst Destination Planner has local residents sharing specific tips throughout the Visitor Guide.
7. Touring Map
Maps are king in a for a Visitor Guide. They are a fantastic way to communicate a lot of information to visitors in a succinct and visual way.
If your Region has the budget, a separate, full-colour fold out Touring Map that complements your Visitor Guide is a highly recommended.
The small screens of digital devices are no match for the ability to have a fold out map of a destination, which shows key experiences and attractions. Two of our favourites include the Barossa Touring Map and the Margaret River Region Map.
However, if this isn’t possible due to budget limitations or the size/layout of your Region, a clear and easy to follow Touring Map in your Visitor Guide is a must have.
Considerations for what to include on this map include
- Able to use to navigate by driving (eg a stylised map wont do)
- Key attractions, such as Cellar Doors
- Key experiences
- Suggested itineraries
- Walking + Cycling Trails
- Town Maps
Other maps you can also include in your Guide include Town Maps and specific experience maps such as Wine Regions or Walking Tour Maps.
Touring Map Example: Adelaide Hills Visitor Guide, which features as a double page centre spread.
Town Map Example: Tenterfield Visitor Guide
Walking Map Example: Mudgee CBD Walk
Cellar Door Map: Mudgee Region Magazine
8. Events
Publishing dates for specific events is going to be a challenge whilst we live with Covid , as we know how swiftly the Covid situation can change, causing event cancellations or date changes.
A good way to get around this in your Visitor Guide is to list key events by month only, combined with a great photo, and then direct them back to your Regional Website for specific, up to date event information.
Example: Adelaide Hills Visitor Guide
Examples: Mudgee Region Magazine
9. Elevate Smaller Towns
With the boom in road trips, it’s a great opportunity to help your visitors disperse around your region and explore your lesser-known towns and communities.
Don't just rely on the smaller towns or Visitor Centres to advertise to get a feature or showcase. If they offer something of value to your visitors and they fall in your marketing remit, then make sure you tell your visitors about them.
To encourage this, we need to give our visitors a reason to visit those towns, so start by auditing all your smaller towns and communities.
What visitor facilities do they offer visitors?
- Accommodation
- RV Camping
- Dining Options
- Historial Experiences/Buildings
- Public Art
Then using a mix of maps, great copy, symbols and great visuals to help showcase these towns for your regions.
Example: Dubbo Visitor Guide does a great job sharing what to see and do in it's smaller villages
Example: Bathurst Destination Planner also does a great job highlighting what to see and do in their smaller towns.
10. Acknowledgement of Country
Again, if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s the expectation of visitors that there is acknowledgement of your destination's First Nations history and heritage.
A visitor guide that talks of history and heritage only from post European point of view is not respectful or ok with growing numbers of the Australian community.
Therefore a thoughtful and respectful Acknowledgement of Country at the start of your Visitor Guide is a small gesture of reconciliation.
Example: Tenterfield Visitor Guide
11. Connect Offline with Online
Many destinations we work with have suite of offline brochures that provide detailed, hopeful and specific for a niche experience in a destination.
Examples include
- Bird Watching Maps
- Caravan and Camping Maps
- 4WD Trails.
- Fishing Guides
- Short Walks Guides
- Food and Wine Guides/Maps
Instead of putting all this information your Visitor Guide or relying on people to find them by chance in a Visitor Centre, reference them in the Visitor Guide and let visitors know where they can get a copy. Ideally online, and also at the local visitor centres.
QR codes can now be read by most smartphone cameras without the need to install app, and their widespread use for Covid check-ins and contact tracing, means people are quite comfortable using them.
Therefore consider using them also to connect people easily with digital information from your Visitor Guide. With their use during Covid, most people are pretty comfortable using them.
Example: Visit Shoalhaven reference their niche interest visitor guides in their Main Visitor Guide.
12. Visitor Centre Connection
If you have Visitor Centre/s in your destination, tell people about them early in your Visitor Guide. Don't leave it to the very end of your Guide.
Encourage your visitors to connect with them in person or online for local, personalised advice for your destination.
It’s a key visitor call to action, and you don't want it hidden away as an afterthought in your Visitor Guide.
Also tell people about the experiences they can also have at the Visitor Centre (in addition to picking up Guides) as many Visitor Centres are evolving their experiences to remain relevant to both visitors and local through offerings such as
- Virtual Reality Experiences
- Local Retail, Food, Wine and Art
- Interpretive Exhibitions
- Tour or Hire Offerings.
Example: Both Tenterfield Visitor Guide and Mudgee Regional Magazine feature their Visitor Centres at the start of their visitor guides.
13. Shop Local
Covid, bushfires and drought has supercharged Australians positive sentiment towards shopping local and supporting smaller, local, family owned businesses.
Help foster this connection in your Visitor Guide by showcasing local businesses that are relevant to your High Yield and Niche Interest Visitors, but who may not consider themselves part of the visitor economy.
To do this, start with an audit of your local towns, and their shops. Think along the lines of...
- Food, Wine and Produce Suppliers – eg Local Butcher, Fishmonger, Wine Cellars, Gourmet Foods, Supermarket
- Art + Craft Galleries
- Clothing – Ladies, Mens, Kids, Sportsware, Surfware etc
- Homewares
- Plant Nurseries
- Niche Interest – eg Fishing, 4WD, Golf
- Book Stores – New and Second Hand (Our family has a trend of searching out second hand book stories when we travel, and always come away with a few gems!).
If your Visitor Guide is part of your membership offering, consider a category for local retail, and give them a cost effective option for membership and for inclusion in the Visitor Guide.
If paid advertising is required in your Visitor Guide before a specific retailer is mentioned, then work with the Local Progress Association or Council to see if there is a way to provide some funding for a retail stories in a town to be mentioned, even if they don't take out an advert.
Example: Mudgee Region Magazine has a Shop Like a Local Section, including a Shopping Trail.
14. Accommodation
Pages of accommodation listings dont always add value to visitors, as they often aren’t listed in a way that’s relevant to visitor specific interests or needs.
A way to elevate the accommodation section in your Visitor Guide is to consider adding editorial around experiential or themed accommodation relevant to your High Yield and Niche Interest accommodation needs
- Families – Holiday Parks, Self Contained Homes, Farm/Station Stays
- Couples – Quirky, unique self contained cottages
- Extended Groups who want to stay together – Eg hotels, motels, holiday parks.
- Business Travellers – Hotel
- Pet Friendly Accommodation
- Accessibly Accommodation
Example Shoalhaven Visitor Guide get specific with Pet Friendly Accommodation information in their guide.
15. Encourage Visitor Advocacy on Social Media
Social Media is a key storytelling tactic for destinations, and also the foundation of storytelling content for your destination’s social media channels.
Therefore don't hide your destination social media channels and hashtags away in small print in your Visitor Guide.
Make it front and centre so visitors know what hashtag to use and what accounts to tag on Instagram or Facebook, and encourage them to share their photos and videos in these ways.
Example Tenterfield Visitor Guide
Our Current Favourite Visitor Guides
Whilst we’ve shared specific examples above of these tips, here are the links to the Visitor Guides we've showcased in this blog article.
- Adelaide Hills Visitor Guide Port Lincoln Visitor Guide
- Barossa Visitor Guide
- Bathurst Region Destination Planner
- Margaret River Region Magazine
- Mudgee Regional Magazine
- Shoalhaven Visitor Guide
- Visit Tenterfield
Over to you
We'd love to hear from you in the comments if your destination has evolved your visitor guide to include many of our above suggestions? If so let us know and we'll add it to the above list.
Or if you have any other tips we've missed, we'd also love to hear your ideas below.
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