3 Tips for Driving Off-Peak Demand

As a destination marketer, driving visitors to your destination during off-peak times can be challenging. However, with the right digital marketing strategies and destination marketing services, you can effectively promote your destination and attract visitors throughout the year. Here, we’ll discuss three effective marketing strategies that destination marketers can use to boost demand.

1. Video Gives the Vibe

Using TikTok and Instagram reels to show the vibe of a destination

People want to feel the vibe of a destination before they consider it. Is the destination a suit and tie or cut-offs? Martinis or Busch Light? All-night fun or geared toward families?

Using video with its combination of pictures, sounds, and storytelling means you can easily communicate your destination’s mojo. Showing the vibe with video is a must when targeting younger audiences who search by hashtag on Instagram reels and TikTok for videos to get the feeling of a place.

However, video can’t be created in one way to achieve maximum impact. A combination of aspirationally shot video content plus more authentic, raw pieces are needed to cover a range of distribution platforms. Create your content most efficiently by shooting different projects at once and editing as you need them.

2. Speak the Language of the Niches for Successful Destination Marketing

It’s easy to say that a destination should focus on new audiences that are available to travel at off-peak times: The question is, how do you speak with them? New South Creative uses machine-learning programs that parse the online discussion about your destination. You’ll be able to look at conversations from across the internet to see the reasons someone may choose one market over another. You can unearth audiences you may not have considered and keywords people use to describe your destination. For example, you can look at posts from women talking about girls’ weekends in Sedona and compare those to discussions about girls’ trips to Sante Fe. You can look at how couples describe their road trips to state parks versus large cities. After a review of how people talk about your destination, you can create content for your website, blog, and socials that uses these keywords and themes.

3. Extend Existing Behavior

Think through the reasons people come to your destination to see if you can extend travelers’ existing behavior into other times of the year. Visitors may be interested in coming to your destination during off-peak times for the same reasons that they come during peak times. A campaign for Myrtle Beach illustrates this idea. The tourist season for Myrtle Beach used to end on Labor Day. Stores and restaurants thought back to school meant time to shut their doors. However, the water temperature for Myrtle Beach stays in the high 70s through the end of October. Marketers, spearheaded by Scott Schult, former Vice President/CMO of the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce helped created the idea of, “60 More Days of Summer.” The long-running campaign included TV commercials, website messaging, and price specials.

“We needed to inspire new audiences to visit during September and October. Through visuals and testimonials, we showcased the warm ocean waters, sunny days, affordable lodging, and plenty of elbow room on the beach to entice visitors to extend the vacation season into fall. Myrtle Beach not only added visitors to its shoulder season but generated a financial windfall for their tourism economy, ” said Schult.

After consistent messaging over many years, now fall visitor numbers for Myrtle Beach stand on par with summer.

Destination Marketing Increases

With the right creative and digital marketing strategies, destination marketers can effectively drive visitors during off-peak times. It requires looking at destination marketing services such as expanded video marketing, using data to develop creative, and the core reasons people love your destination.