Tourisme Intelligence
THE Quebec source for information on global trends in tourism

Tags: best-practices, cruises, gastronomy, gay-and-lesbian, learning, urban, wildlife-observation

Boat tours/cruises are still considered a “new” tourist product. Although Quebec’s industry is based on the star attraction of whale?watching, short cruises now represent one of the world’s most diversified product lines. The following report is an overview of the major trends characterizing this sector, an important vector for regional economic development.
The popularity of theme [...]

Tags: Inns-and-B&Bs, partnerships, promotion, referencing, segmentation-strategies, sme, viral-marketing, Web-strategies

Marketing is never an easy undertaking, especially for small inns and hotels with limited time and budgets. While the following does not provide an exhaustive list of advice, options and how-tos, it does offer a checklist of various suggestions for improving visibility.
Turn an improvised strategy into an effective one
Starting with some general information (e.g. the [...]

Tags: customer-experience, good-practices, hospitality/reception, recruiting, region, technological-tools, United-States

The existence of the internet and the increased number of information tools available at destinations mean fewer queries are being addressed to VICs (visitor information centres) and tourist information desks. Many such information offices are becoming all‑purpose tourist service centres, just to survive. However, this may not be the solution for all. Perhaps some of [...]

Tags: DMO, indicators, segmentation-strategies, sociostyles, travel-behavior

“Tell me who visits your destination, and I’ll tell you whether it’s in decline!” This was the bet made by Stanley Plog when he developed his model of matching traveller profiles with phases in a destination life cycle. When a destination is visited by large numbers of tourists, it has reached a critical phase in [...]

Tags: best-practices, climate, Greenhouse-effect, responsible-travel, Transportation

In the face of growing concerns about climate change, businesspeople, rock stars, and increasingly ordinary travelers are going ‘carbon neutral’ to counterbalance their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. This trend is an important step towards improving the environmental performance of travel.
Tourism contributes to human-induced climate change, because it consumes non-renewable natural resources en-route and at [...]

Tags: Around the world, economy, europeans, loyalty, purchase-behavior

Spanish researchers have analyzed the expenditures of travellers in relation to how many times they have visited a destination. According to their findings, returning travellers spend less than first‑time visitors, primarily because of their increased knowledge of the destination. Destinations may want to consider the true economic benefits of new visitors versus loyal customers in [...]