{"id":5287,"date":"2013-10-22T01:44:36","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T06:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=5287"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:52:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:52:02","slug":"changing-travel-motivations-favor-small-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2013\/10\/changing-travel-motivations-favor-small-towns.html","title":{"rendered":"Changing travel motivations favor small towns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5288\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5288\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5288\" alt=\"When friends visit me, they don't want to see the museum. They want to meet my cows. \" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Lauri-and-Nikki-at-the-farm.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Lauri-and-Nikki-at-the-farm.jpg 500w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Lauri-and-Nikki-at-the-farm-300x179.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5288\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>When friends visit me, they don&#8217;t want to see the museum. They want to meet my cows. Nikki and Lauri Rottmayer meet Bubby and friends.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Is your small town ready for the explorers?<\/h2>\n<p>Travel expert <a href=\"http:\/\/wendyperrin.com\/\">Wendy Perrin<\/a>\u00a0presented these changing travel motivations from the Cond\u00e9\u00a0Nast Traveler Research Center at an event in Australia. I had to share them with you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>THEN: Planned &#8220;cultural experiences&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>NOW: Local immersion<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In small towns, visitors can dive into local events and experiences. Help them with calendars and explanations of local experiences. Find out who has immersive and interesting hands-on activities. Promote them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>THEN: Checking sights off a list<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>NOW: Finding new sights off the beaten path<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hey, we small town specialize in off the beaten path! Play up your discoveries, your little-known assets, and the things you&#8217;d take a friend to.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>THEN: Visit museums and monuments<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>NOW: Visit local artists and artisans<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Oh, we have local artists! In small towns, our local artists are more accessible and friendly. Add more artist visit options to your tourism.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>THEN: Eat typical tourist fare<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>NOW: Find residents&#8217; favorite hidden gems<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All our eateries are hidden gems! Talk about your local eateries and give the local view of what tastes good. Forget about your chains.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>THEN: Going by guidebooks<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>NOW: Listening to friends and fellow travelers<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That&#8217;s good advice: start thinking of your tourism info as talking to friends and fellow travelers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>THEN: 80% of travelers cited culture as top motivator in 2009. (It dropped to 69% in 2013.)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>NOW: 85% are driven by the &#8220;need to know, explore and experiment.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now we&#8217;re talking! Small towns are the perfect place to learn, explore and experiment! Add lots more exploration and discovery to your tourism.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? How else can small towns adjust their tourism to tap into the changing motivations of travelers?<\/p>\n<p><em>New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/guided-tour.html\">Guided Tour<\/a>. Like what you see? <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/get-updates.html\">Get our updates<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is your small town ready for the explorers? Travel expert Wendy Perrin\u00a0presented these changing travel motivations from the Cond\u00e9\u00a0Nast Traveler Research Center at an event in Australia. I had to share them with you. THEN: Planned &#8220;cultural experiences&#8221; NOW: Local immersion In small towns, visitors can dive into local events and experiences. Help them with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Lauri-and-Nikki-at-the-farm.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5312,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions\/5312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}