Tourism - Promoting to Tourists

Well, we were out of town for a little over a week and it struck me how little people advertise to tourists. Now I know this may seem a little weird, but we are ones to just “wing it” - not a whole lot of planning goes into our trips. How I wish I had easy access to all the things to do there.

There are may ways to go about this. First, you could make a deal with the local hotel/motel chains to have a promotional item left in each room for each guest. You could see about leaving your promotional items at the front desk. Whether you are a restaurant looking for new customers or a travel agency that has something “special” to offer those out of town guests - hotels are a great place to start. Now, if you’re not a restaurant, you may want to team up with a local restaurant for some “hot” give-a-ways!

Now you ask - what type of item should I give out? Well stop and think about your location, your type of business and who your target market is. If you are a children’s museum - custom bookmarks are a great start. You can get all sorts of information on the bookmark and kids will keep it around as a souvenir. If you’re a restaurant, you could give out imprinted can koozies or custom imprinted stadium cups.

Promotional items small in size and non-breakable are your better option. If you go with something big & bulky the consumer may not have room to take it home. Thereby leaving it behind and leaving you behind. Now, don’t be mistaken - for those that are near the water - custom beach towels, custom imprinted tote bags and custom imprinted t-shirts are always great promotional items and stay around for a long time. Got a little extra dough to play with? How about custom imprinted flip flops?

Working on a tight budget? Why not look into a co-op promotion? Team up with other local companies and create one great promotion instead of two just “ok” promotions. People will see both names imprinted and seek out the services of both companies. Don’t believe me? Ever seen a banner for a festival paired with a certain brand of  ”beer” advertising? That’s co-op! While banners may not be the best promotional item for tourists, tote bags are a great idea! With large imprint areas and the ability to print on both sides, custom imprinted tote bags are a great item for tourists. Not to mention how handy they’d be!

I have to say, how convenient it would have been to have some of these promotional items around to help guide me in my activities. Give tourists a reason to want to come back and recommend you to others. Who knows, they may come back in a year or two and if you’ve done your job - they’ll come back to YOU! Even better, they might have some friends with them too! (Think Vegas! - Everything you get in Las Vegas is a promotional item!)