Geoff Dillon - Marketing, PR, Strategy Blog

The Tourist Trap Paradox

The only way to succeed as a merchant in a tourist destination is to have more and more people wanting to visit the destination. More foot traffic = more opportunities to make sales.

This is why most tourist destinations have tourism boards – to attract foot traffic.

Curious then, that individual merchants often treat tourists as targets to be gouged for maximum short term profit at the expense of longer term benefit.

Case in point - I visited Niagara Falls recently, and was struck by the very overpriced attractions that seemed intent on grabbing whatever money they can from the tourist crowd.

Although I pride myself on being immune to such things, I’ll admit to falling victim to a 15 minute “Spongebob 4-D movie” that cost me almost $60 for two adults and one child. My soon to be brother-in-law had the line of the night when he said "the 4^th D is for disappointment." It didn’t help that the lady selling tickets was dishonest about the quality and length of the show.

And that’s how it is in that town. Each attraction seems hell bent on emptying your wallet.

• - Most of the chain restaurants post menus without prices, knowing that once you’re seated and you see the higher-than-usual prices, it’s less likely you’ll get up and walk out.

- When you ride up the Skylon tower at a cost of about $10 a person, the first question they ask you before you get on the elevator is “how many for lunch” – the assumptive close here refers to making a reservation for you at the top of the tower for lunch, whether you wanted it or not.

The paradox: as a merchant, you spend money to be part of a tourism board to help draw people to town, and then treat them in a manner that encourages them to avoid repeat visits, and tell others about their negative experience, which of course reflects on the town.

You then spend more for your tourism board dues because tourism is down and your revenues are hurting. You charge more to recoup the higher tourism board fees. And so on.

How do you think this cycle ends? What if you and your fellow merchants realized that the person in front you could be a lifetime revenue stream if you all played your cards right?

Tourism a zero sum game. People will spend their money with you, or elsewhere, but they generally have a budget for the year. I’m not arguing for lower prices here. I’m suggesting that treating tourists as clients instead of disposable sources of short term profit would ultimately bring in higher and more sustainable revenues … (and lower tourism board fees).

Opt-in, eh?

Overstock.com is a great site -- with some mediocre email marketing – if you happen to be Canadian.

Having found a great suit on the site a few months ago at a steep discount (even with duty and taxes at the border), I decided to keep checking back regularly to see what else might become available.

I signed up for the “O-mail” service to keep on top of the latest sales and discounts through the site. Almost immediately I was besieged with daily emails from overstock offering further discounts on purchases. Great...but there's a catch.

Read the fine print and you get a let down – “Not applicable to international orders."

And yes, like our marginalized friends in Alaska and Hawaii, Canada isn’t part of the continental US, so the offers are not valid.

Why am I getting these emails? I had already made a purchase and clearly established that I live in Canada. I then signed up for the email service. So why bombard me with offers that you know from the start I can’t take advantage of?

It’s a small thing, but it’s an example of bad email marketing. Pay attention to the details. When someone opts-in, take a look at their preferences and target your content. The days of email blasting and one-size-fits-all communication are over.  

Lessons from Local Businesses

Larger companies spend an incredible amount of time and money on training for their frontline employees, in an attempt to standardize the customer service experience and maintain a consistent level of quality when it comes to customer interactions.

But sometimes the simplest, unexpected gesture seals the deal.

I went to a new dry cleaner the other day - it's owned by a family who's been running the business for quite a few years. The owner did the usual dry cleaner stuff - took down my name and number, told me when the stuff would be ready, etc. When he realized I wasn't in his computer system (since I'd never been there before) he did something suprising.

He shook my hand and introduced himself by name, and thanked me for coming in. He was sincere.

Now you tell me - how am I supposed to take my drycleaning anywhere else? That single, memorable, unexpected gesture gave him a chance to get all of my drycleaning business.

Don't you wish you could teach your customer facing employees how to do the unexpected? 

Paying Someone to Hurt your Brand

You can advertise all you want and send the craftiest press releases to help further your brand in the market, but the customer experience is where the rubber meets the road.

 

Recently my wife and I visited a local Lexus dealership to look at a pre owned Lexus SUV. Having not been to a Lexus dealer before, I expected a somewhat higher level of service – after all, even the pre-owned Lexus SUVs aren’t exactly cheap.

 

What I got was the stereotypical used car experience - a salesperson who pulled out all of the tricks from the 80s to try to sell me a car (think “Larry” from Three’s Company):

 

- he told us that we could have $1000 off the price of the car, but only if we bought by 5pm that day

- during the test drive, he invested considerable energy in putting down other cars and dealers

- when we arrived back from the test drive, he checked his pocket and conveniently found he was out of business cards, so we had to walk to his desk inside to get one

- once there, he naturally gets us to sit down and starts writing up an offer sheet (unsolicited, of course)

- on our way out, he diligently pursued us to get our name and phone number so he could call us later that day

 

 

I could go on, but you get the idea.

 

In about 15 minutes, this salesperson had managed to change my perception of Lexus from a favourable one to “just like everyone else” or maybe worse. And nobody pays a premium for that.

 

The irony here is that this guy is on the payroll. This Lexus dealer is paying him a small salary plus commission for delivering a customer experience that clearly doesn’t jive with their marketing message. He’s getting paid to hurt the brand.

 

So here’s the question:

 

If you’re the owner of the Lexus dealership, are you paying him to sell cars his way, or your way?

 

If you’re the head of Lexus corporate, same question.

 

If the answers are different, I’d say you’re wasting a LOT of marketing dollars.