How interfacing can help tourism industry recover from coronavirus

It’s getting to a point where it’s almost impossible to imagine life pre-coronavirus, especially for food and drink, hospitality and tourism business which were hit the soonest, and hit hard.
Stromness village in the Orkney islandsStromness village in the Orkney islands
Stromness village in the Orkney islands

I thought back to attending my most recent tourism event, in late February, where we heard of our buoyant Scottish tourism industry and wondered if it could have any relevance now whatsoever.

Actually, I think it could. The excellent Food Tourism workshop in Inverness at the end of February, hosted by Scotland Food and Drink, Connect Local and supported by us in Interface covered great examples of companies that have grown their income by storytelling and building on peoples’ motivators to visit and their emotional drivers.

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Now we can’t visit anywhere. Yet these motivators and emotional drivers still exist and made even more acute by the fact they must be suppressed – for now.

Lorraine Thomson, Business Engagement Manager (Highlands and Islands), InterfaceLorraine Thomson, Business Engagement Manager (Highlands and Islands), Interface
Lorraine Thomson, Business Engagement Manager (Highlands and Islands), Interface

So, with the continued lockdown, and heartened by the motivation and emotional factors becoming even more pronounced as life is stifled, we can add much to the pre-holiday anticipation.

If visitors are already inclined to visit and frustrated that they must delay that holiday gratification for a few more months or even a year, we can feed that interest which will, because of the delay, become a bigger part of the overall experience. Some destination websites are doing that already, for example Orkney.com showcase pictures and videos of the destination, but individual businesses and organisations can also “tell” when they can’t “sell” their own story. In buoyant times, “tell not sell” was the subtlety of attracting visitors when visitors were aplenty, now telling is a more powerful tool when visitors exist in theory, not practice.

With the anticipation stage being abnormally lengthened, there is time to influence that in a positive way. More time planning by potential visitors will mean more investigation and commitment to the plans. More time to scrutinise where to go, what to see, what to do.

A number of tourism organisations that Interface has helped in the past, by matching them with a Scottish university to deliver new products and services, such as the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Development Trust, Carloway Community Association and The Highlanders’ Museum at Fort George, decided to undertake a project on Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) to make their experience come to life virtually when the visitors are on site or, to some extent, pre-sell on their website. Organisations now promoting their destinations virtually are able to give a tantalising taste of what’s on offer.

AR/VR, viewed as a largely added-value part of the visitor experience onsite, can now stand alone as an influential driver of visitors when promoted online. But we don’t have to have AR/VR to sell ahead of time. We can use photos, testimonials, virtual tours, scenic pictures and engaging stories. Social media has never been so well-used and never has there been more options to self-teach. Indeed, has the story been thought out yet? Is there groundwork to do just now while we may have the chance to think and reflect on what makes us stand out?

To help answer these questions Interface is working with VisitScotland, the Scottish Tourism Alliance and other partners to support the recovery of the tourism and hospitality industry. We are currently evolving campaigns to rapidly connect and deploy academics to support and deliver diversification action plans for businesses. In addition, webinars will showcase innovative and practical digital activities which businesses can adopt and take advantage of to support their online experience.

Post-coronavirus, with visitor inclination buoyed up by compelling stories, visitors may well commit to stay longer and spend more if their original timescales have been delayed or frustrated. The “Once in a Lifetime” trip will be more vital than ever having been delayed. We can be heartened that if we tell, many are listening, ready to commit to the sell, when they can.

Lorraine Thomson, business engagement manager (Highlands and Islands), Interface

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