According to the WTM
Trends Report (2011), tourism gamification will be one of the most important
trends in the upcoming years. This new phenomenon deals with the uses of gaming
elements in a non-traditional gaming context.
Actually, this
marketing tool to engage with customers has already been implemented within others
industries for a couple of years, and is now spreading to touristic activities.
Tourism gamification:
According to
Gartner, a firm specialized in new technology, more than 70% of Forbes
Touristic 2000 companies are expected to have at least one gamed application by
2015. Further, the amount spent by US touristic organisations on games should equal
$2.5 billion by 2015. (emarketer.com,
2011)
The expanding use of
gaming elements meets the audience’s new habits. Indeed, in 2012, 26.7% of US
Internet users played social games on a regular basis – at least once a month.
Forecasts even expect the total number of users to increase in 2013,
representing a raise of 11.7 million and reaching 73.6 million Americans in
total. (emarketer.com, 2011)
The audience’s
commitment is also a significant indicator of gamification strategies’ development.
In fact, Internet users are dedicating greater amounts of their time on games.
For instance, the number of Internet users playing social games for more than 6
hours per week doubled between January 2010 and September 2011. (emarketer.com,
2011)
Hence, tourism
organisations have to embrace this trend and adapt to new consumers’
expectations. Moreover, developing gamed apps will also allow these companies
to be more attractive to young travellers (18 to 29 years). Indeed, the
audience for games is strongly shifting: the average age of social gamers has
decreased by 4 years between 2011 and 2011. (emarketer.com, 2011)
As we can see below,
in 2011, 18-29 year-old users represent the largest segment since they are
accounting for more than 30% of games participants.
Source : eMarketer, 2011
Further, 18-to-29
year-old users are a significant target for tourism organizations. Indeed, they
are more likely to spend money on this kind of apps.
Usage for DMOs:
This increasing
interest towards games is redefining the way organizations conduct their business.
This is why we can see some gamification campaigns launched by DMOs to promote
their destination. Indeed, after hotels, airlines and travel agencies, some DMOs
have also been embracing this new trend and delivering gamed services to
consumers.
By implementing such
marketing strategies, DMOs want to achieve higher inbound and outbound tourism
rates, as well as a higher visibility and destination’s awareness.
Actually,
gamification can help DMOs gain immediate feedbacks, create a viral buzz,
increase loyalty and awareness.
To respond to
consumers’ new expectations, these organizations couldn’t rely solely on
traditional marketing supports anymore – such as paper brochures and official
websites. Indeed, consumers look for unique experiences and entertainment.
Hence, gamed services seem to be an effective way to engage with customers and
to make them discover destinations in a funny way. But gamification provides a
much larger range of advantages to consumers: they can get rewards, they feel
valued by co-operating in products and services’ creation, they can express
their creativity, develop their skills while competing with other users etc.
Two examples of successful
gamification campaigns are provided by Tourism Australia and Tourism Ireland.
In 2011, Tourism
Ireland implemented gamed techniques in order to promote the island of Ireland
as a vacation destination; the related objectives were to create brand
awareness and increase loyalty. These gamed services allowed consumers to
create their own Irish town, to run their own pub and to virtually visit the
country. By spreading the games on several e-channels such as Facebook and
Twitter, Tourism Ireland succeeded to gather data on potential visitors, to
make them discover Ireland, and to get ideas and feedbacks about what could have
been implemented to attract more visitors.
Then, within a few
months, the DMO succeeded to engage with 214 000 players, to get 552 000 shares
and 71 million opportunities to be viewed.
Source :
AboutTourism, 2011
Another example of a
successful gamification buzz is Tourism Australia’s « Best Job in the
world » campaign. Its main objective was to strengthen its static young
traveller market. Since last March, when the competition has been launched,
Tourism Australia has already received more than 75 000 application forms. By
requiring a unique video of the country, as the only way to select the winners,
the Australian DMO succeeded to create a huge buzz around its campaign: all
videos are being shared, posted and re-posted on social medias. Young
travellers, especially the Brits, are now travelling to Australia to create
their video.
Other examples of
australian gamification campaigns can be found on the following link: http://busification.com/gamification-in-australia/
If you’re interested
in this topic and want to attend the next gamification summit, register on the
following link: http://gsummit.com/
Sources:
Written by: Hélène
Roudeix and Laura Rulens
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