As international borders remain closed tight and snap, statewide lockdowns once again rear their ugly head, destination marketing is more important than ever.

Economic recovery relies on making sure Aussies who can book domestic are spending big, and that means tourism bodies are having to front up millions of marketing dollars.

Even for international destinations and inbound, it is imperative to keep people dreaming so that when the time does come, the bookings will follow.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that we are living through the uncertainty of a global pandemic.

Each campaign needs to be worth its weight in gold, especially considering destination marketers’ money often comes from taxpayers.

Know your results, know your audience

The most impactful campaigns rely on knowing who you need to target and when.

The key here is deterministic data that provides accurate, real-time information on who is ready to book, where they want to go and when using in-market expenditure.

It’s the secret weapon to razor-sharp, targeted advertising.

By contrast, vanity metrics – such as clicks, site visits, reach and frequency – may help to increase the value of your target travellers’ spend, but if you’re not measuring whether they are actually laying down their credit card, you are most likely wasting precious marketing dollars.

Connecting the dots between creative exposure to the potential traveller and the point when they buy a travel product is the travel marketer’s holy grail. And, with the right data partnership, it’s easier to find.

When the true effectiveness of a campaign is measured by looking at the ‘heads in beds’ metric, it’s clear that deterministic data is the most effective data set for driving visitation and in-market revenue.

Ditch the vanity metrics for solid data

To give you an idea of the difference between vanity metrics and deterministic data, let’s look at an example involving a Tourism New Zealand campaign which used a variety of digital marketing creative.

They found that while creative centred around native animals received the most clicks, these clicks did not translate into visitation.

In fact, campaigns involving food and wine, the local culture and eco-based travel were more successful in increasing expenditure of travellers to New Zealand, in comparison to those who were exposed to the Kiwi fauna creative.

So, while pictures of iconic Kiwi critters got more engagement, they were not the most successful when it came to targeting the highest value travellers who genuinely want to visit New Zealand.

Good destination marketing has the power to boost Australia’s economic recovery

Encouraging Aussies to spend big on their domestic trips is key to Australia’s economic recovery, just as selling international trips is key to global tourism recovery.

That’s why it is crucial for destination marketers to find the right data partner.

Audience360 provides deterministic data from well-known Australian travel brands like Webjet.com.au to bring its partners accurate and up-to-date information on their target audience.

Get your message in front of a meticulously selected audience who already have their credit cards in hand.

To find out more, go HERE.

Image source: iStock/pixdeluxe