A Guide To Boost Bookings and Revenue Outside Peak Season
I often hear from tourism business owners that they wish they could sell more low and shoulder season trips. They lament about the bad perception of their low season, the difficulty of filling rooms and tours, and the desire to become a year-round business. Summer businesses want to expand into winter operations and ski resorts want to put their empty lodges to good use in the summer months. But where to begin?
So, if you’re running a seasonal business, and need more bookings outside of your peak months, here are some strategies I’ve seen work over the years.
Off Season vs Low Season
Just so we’re clear, for the purposes of this article, ‘off-season’ means selling a different product at a different time of the year. For example, a ski lodge offering retreats or weddings in the summertime. ‘Low season’ is selling the same product outside of peak travel season, i.e. spring skiing, when peak ski season is late January to early March. For most tourism businesses, it makes sense to have a plan for both off-season and low-season tours.
Benefits of Selling Low and Off-season trips
Earn more Money
As with any business, selling more means earning more money. Whether that’s extending your regular season or creating new tours when you can’t offer your regular packages, more bookings means more money.
Attract Better Staff
The number one complaint I often hear from seasonal businesses is the challenge of staffing; finding and training new people every year is inefficient and often results in inconsistent service levels. If you’re in the high-end, luxury tourism space, it’s even more critical, making sure those new hires reflect the high quality of your tourism brand that your guests expect.
Extending your season, or even better, offering year-round employment, means you can attract and retain better staff, thus improving your overall guest experience.
Reach New Guests
What could your company do in the off-season that might be a good fit? This is where you get to be creative. Brainstorm with staff and take a close look at what your competitors are doing or try something totally different. Experiment and see what works and what doesn’t. You may discover a totally new untapped market.
Forge New Partnerships
Those new ideas might mean reaching out to other tourism partners in your area that offer complementary services. If you have a lodge, but don’t have the guides for that new sport you want to offer, like fishing, mountain biking or wildlife viewing, partner with those outfitters, and contract out their tours. Refer them and ask them to refer you. Reach out to your local DMO or tourism board, and tell them what you are planning. I find those organizations can be extremely valuable for connections, but are often under-utilized. Build a community around your new offering. Synergies like that might even wind up helping your core business.
Selling Your Core Tourism Product in Low Season
If you’re only selling out in your peak season, chances are you’re not profitable or not as profitable as you could be.
Don’t Lie
The number one problem I see with many tourism businesses is they try to sell their low and shoulder season trips just like their peak season. If the weather is not as good, conditions or terrain not as reliable, or the wildlife is less abundant, tell it like it is. Focus on the positives, like less crowds, more intimate experiences and lower cost. If you knowingly sell your low season as being as good as peak season, and it’s not, you’ll set yourself up for bad reviews and do more harm than good.
There are a lot of guests who prefer to take some risk and travel in the low season. As a former travel journalist I always preferred (and still do) low and shoulder season travel.
Create the Right Messaging and Content
Ok, so no BS. Be truthful with what your guests can expect and get cracking on creating supporting content. At Northern Escape Heli Skiing, selling low and shoulder season was always a struggle. Even discounting low season trips didn’t work, since many people thought that the discount was because the skiing was so bad if it wasn’t February. And that was true at many of their competitors that were further south. Northern Escape’s more northern and coastal location meant they generally had better early and late season conditions, so we created content to that effect.
In Botswana, most people prefer to do wildlife safaris in the dry season, which corresponds to the summer months for European and North American guests. The ‘rainy season’ which goes from November to April, has always been hard to sell. Most guests expected to be sitting in the rain all day and not see anything. However, that is not true. So several years ago the safari operators there got together and rebranded the ‘rainy season’ as the ‘green season’ to highlight the lush vegetation present during that time of year. “There are more watering holes that time of year, so we don’t see as many animals congregated together, but it’s an absolutely lovely time to do a safari,” says Marc Germiquet, co-owner of Botswana-based, Bush Ways Safaris.
Creating Brand New Off-Season Tourism Products
Whistler Cornucopia
Whistler had already successfully created a summer product to balance out its core winter ski business. However, it was not truly a four-season resort as most locals could attest. From late September to the start of the ski season in late November, the place was dead, and hospitality businesses there struggled. Seeking to create a totally new experience, but also wanting to stay within the boundaries of its luxury-adventure brand, Whistler created a food and wine festival that takes place in late autumn each year. The Cornucopia Festival brings in BC’s top chefs, and award-winning wines, and focuses on attracting local guests.
Storm Watching
Among the most creative off-season tourism product I’ve seen is Tofino’s Wickanninnish Inn’s winter ‘storm watching’ package. The very reason most people did not book in the winter became the reason to visit. Now that’s marketing genius! Guests are supplied with rain gear and spend time out in the elements watching Pacific storms roll in. The sound of the wind and crashing waves is even pumped into the dining room with speakers. Before this, the resort was closed in the winter months. Now it is open and the package has been a successful revenue booster.
Marketing Low and Off-season Tours
Whether it’s a totally new tourism product or the same product in your low season, there are several key things you can do to promote them.
Start with Your Past Guests
If you’ve already got a good email list of past guests that’s the best place to start. Introduce the new offering in your regular newsletter and blast it out on your social channels. Create a compelling offer that’s exclusive to past guests. They already know and trust your great service, so need way less convincing than new audiences.
Work Your Agents
For off-peak, or low-season trips, you should be getting help from your agents. In fact, if you can easily sell your peak season trips directly to your guests, why should you be paying agents 20% to sell them? Make those agents work to earn their commission by selling your low season tours.
Get some Press
There’s no better way to launch a new product than with some travel press. A combination of traditional press, and new media influencers can be a great way to grow awareness, and build some buzz. If you’ve worked with press in the past for your core business, start there. If it’s a niche offering, try finding some writers who would be a good fit and invite them on a tour. Here’s another area your DMO might be able to help with. If it’s something new and is promoting the destination, they might even be interested in supporting a press trip.
Putting it All Together
I hope this post has sparked some ideas for how to grow your tourism business beyond the peak season. Creating a new low and off-season marketing plan might be one of the best things you’ve done for your operation in a while.
A Results Driven Marketing Agency
We have helped successfully launch several offseason tourism products and strengthened low and shoulder season sales for our clients. Our consulting services are industry-leading. Aventur Marketing is a full-service marketing and tourism PR agency. Contact us for a free consultation.