When tourists get to a new city, roughly 90% have not planned all of their activities and look to make their activity decisions once they are in town. Understanding how tourists make these decisions is critical for museum and attraction marketers to ensure they are prioritizing the right things.
Word of mouth, Internet searches, and online tourist sites/apps are the primary sources of information about attractions. The average tourist finds out about an activity through word of mouth, search or tourism sites like Trip Advisor, then looks up online reviews or tries to find discounts, and ultimately purchases the ticket at the attraction's box office or website. There are some notable differences in this path to purchase across international and US tourists which we will examine below.
Word of mouth drives most decisions for US tourists while Internet search is the biggest driver for international tourists. Travel websites or apps follow, peaking with international tourists at 41%. Although online search and travel websites are key to in-market research, there are other critical channels. 30% of tourists use local visitor magazines and their hotel concierge to find activities. Outside of search, international tourists are more reliant on all other resources to help them decide how to spend their time than their US counterparts.
International tourists use general internet search; US tourists conduct searches by specific attraction. Looking at search we find that international tourists are more likely to conduct a general search for things to do in a city (71%) while US tourists are as likely to search specifically for an attraction as they are to conduct a general search at roughly 50% each.
Online reviews and discounts are important influencers. The most common first step for both tourism segments is looking up online reviews, followed by researching online to find discounted tickets at 30%. It's important to note that US tourists are more likely to use Google than Trip Advisor at 70% vs. 55% for reviews, while international tourists are almost exclusively using Trip Advisor. US tourists are more prone to look for discounts than international tourists at 33% vs. 26%, while international tourists are more likely to go directly to the attraction website at 32% vs. US tourists at 23%.
The majority of tourists buy their tickets at the attraction website or box office (56%), consistent across both international and US tourists. Domestic US tourists are much more likely to buy tickets from a third party at 29% compared to international travelers at 18%, while international tourists are much more likely to purchase a tourist pass at 25% compared to US tourists at 13%.
Understanding how each tourist segment makes purchase decisions is critical for museum and attraction marketers to ensure they are prioritizing the right sales and marketing tactics. It’s no surprise that search is critical to tourist decision making, but understanding that international tourists are making general searches at twice the rate that they are searching for specific attractions should inform your bidding strategy for that segment.
Knowing that reviews are critical to both segments is also no shock, but knowing US tourists look to Google more than Trip Advisor for reviews should inform how you weight Google reviews. Understanding the key factors in the purchase process and acting on them will fine tune your media strategy. The first step is to know your customers and identify opportunities and room for improvement. Ultimately this will refine targeting and spending, decrease waste, and increase sales. Without a solid research plan, that is not possible.
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