Six months on from launching a trip-planning tool on its website, the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau is seeing ‘phenomenal’ results

When Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) selected a new trip planning tool for its website last year, the aim was to let visitors build customised itineraries for one of the largest cities in Texas. Though there are many others (Momondo, Rome2Rio, TripWolf), the Texan destination marketer chose a new white-label solution from Utrip, a Seattle-based firm, which began life as a consumer focused trip planning tool.  

According to Frank J Librio, Vice President of Communications at the Dallas CVB, “the results have been phenomenal”.

In general terms:

• Usage of visitdallas.com has risen by 227%
• Page views by 1,295%
• Time on page by 173%

When comparing the behaviour of visitors who used the trip planning tool versus those that didn’t, the key performance indicators were:

• Time on page - increased by 29%
• Page views - rose by 141%
• Bounce rates - fell by 46%
• Planned trip length - increased by 71%

In short, says Librio, the research shows that travellers who engage with the Utrip planner spend more time on the site and ultimately book longer trips to the Texan city.

According a DMAI Destination Next study released last summer, three major trends in destination marketing are that:

• Customers are increasingly seeking a personalised travel experience and
• Travellers demand more information, control, interaction and personalisation
• Travellers want to experience a local's way of life

These trends mirror those witnessed by Dallas CVB. Indeed Dallas is seeing that visitor’s to the site are interested in finding out about: ‘must see’ sites, cuisine and culture.

More specific to Dallas, however, is that they have also discovered that visitors to the city like a fast pace, and rate ‘rest and relaxation’ very low in terms of planning their trips. This highlights the importance of knowing who your customer is.

Personalise by harnessing local power

The previous trip planner at Dallas CVB was not personalised.

“You simply had to sort through a long list of items and select activities based on your research and reviews, which is similar to Tripadvisor,” says Gilad Berenstein, CEO and founder of Utrip.

However, companies like Netflix and Amazon have taught us to expect personalisation and this, he adds, is the key to success.

In essence then, destination marketers who want to engage prospective travellers need to work out how to curate their content and present the information in the most relevant and meaningful way.

A feature of the Utrip tool is that it asks users to input preferences – such as ‘enjoy history and culture’, ‘not interested in sports’ - and then uses artificial intelligence to develop an itinerary. Once a traveller indicates their interests and budget, the algorithm sorts through millions of combinations of must-see sites, activities and restaurant recommendations to deliver personalised itineraries – allegedly done in minutes.

Travellers may then book lodging and share their itineraries with friends. The predictive technology works on a vast travel database that has been curated by local experts in a wide range of fields.

Judging by the phenomenal success of Airbnb, travel with a truly local flavour is only expected to become more relevant to how travel brands develop content. Going forward then, Dallas CVB will continue its successful BIG campaign by working closely with local experts to help promote the city.