The Local Vibe as the Destination

 

If you have ever lived in a popular small town destination, you will know that holiday season comes with some form of trepidation. Our beaches, cafes, pubs, parks, roads, walking trails and surf spots all get so busy it can seem a bit overwhelming to those that call a holiday place home.

With COVID-19 now in the mix and school holidays upon us, sharing our towns with visitors in big numbers again is a bit of an adjustment but our economy desperately needs people to come!. We need visitors to travel again and support regional communities hit by fire, drought, flood and that was before the COVID restrictions! For a long time the focus was very much on “locals supporting locals” to keep our regional towns alive. We ate out more, we did a guided experience or tour we had never done before and we visited our neighboring towns more than we had ever done before but we need that broader traveller for sustainability.

We are all expecting a regional travel boom with international (and some interstate) locations still off the table but the landscape has changed. How people travel, when people travel and what they want to experience is evolving.

Visitor Centres and targeted marketing campaigns can help to keep the flow of visitors moving around a region and go some way to alleviate bottle necks in popular spots. Shoalhaven Tourism’s award winning 100 Beach Challenge is an example. This campaign encouraged Visitors to “tick off” all the Shoalhaven Beaches stretching over approx. 160klms of coastline. The idea being to visit/stay in a variety of nearby towns and villages with the hope to share local spending across the region.

Visitors are looking to reconnect once again with their favourite places and the idea that they are looking for a more immersive experience is one that could allow a more positive relationship between visitors and the locals and help build more valuable operator experiences.

The team at Wonderful Copenhagen have reignited their “localhood” strategy for 2020. They are drawing on this to create a new way of looking at destination marketing and the way visitors interact when they travel. In a quote from Mikkel Aarø-Hansen CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen he says …

“We welcome the arrival of today’s traveller, the temporary local seeking not the perfect still picture to take home, but the emotional connection to an instantly shared experience based on interests, relations and authenticity…. We embark upon an era in which the advocacy of our locals is crucial to delivering the destination experience in demand, an era in which that advocacy, in turn, depends on the value added by our visitors”.

Wonderful Copenhagen have identified 8 key strategies as they move forward with their new vision. The first of which is:

“The experience of temporary localhood. Today, fewer and fewer want to be identified as tourists. Instead, new generations of travellers seek out experiences that not only provide a photo opportunity, but also get their hands ‘dirty’ and immerse them in the destination. The travellers seek out a sense of localhood, looking to experience the true and authentic destination – that which makes a destination unique. With the increasing number of providers and businesses that tap into the sharing and collaborative business potential, travellers gain increasing access to the local travel experience”.

I picture this “shared” experience and giving travellers the opportunity to get their “hands dirty” to be activities that revolve around community engagement. Having opportunities where visitors can engage with experiences like Aboriginal cultural tours that create a deeper connection and understanding of the history of a place or get involved with local fundraisers where they can be part of that community spirit. Outdoor activities that are immersive like a beautiful horse riding, hiking, kayaking or rock climbing tour create a very personalised interaction with a location, or a Dive company organising a “beach clean up” that provides a space for visitors to mix with locals to share mutual respect and care for the local environment.

The second strategy revolves around:

“Locals as the destination. Locals are not a nice little sideshow, but, rather, one of the major attractions of a destination. The delivery of an authentic destination experience depends upon the support of locals, whereas the liveability and appeal of our destination – and thereby the advocacy of locals – depends on our ability to ensure a harmonious interaction between visitors and locals.”

Local characters doing what they do best with an emphasis on building community

I’m sure in every community there are those local characters that have a certain presence. Their passion for what they do, and their enthusiasm to share it is powerful. These are the people that can provide that local message to create that authentic visitor connection.

To make this all work of course there needs to be purposeful infrastructure to support the visitor and local experience of a living/holidaying in a place better together. Well thought out and implemented facilities, roads, parking are vital to the overall livability and therefore sustainability of a destination.

I always take away a “sense of a place” better when I immerse myself in the local culture and try to see it from within. Have that more inquisitive conversation, sit a bit longer and look a bit deeper. Sure I try and take the perfect photo but usually when I look back at the shot my memory is filled with the local people I met, the random conversations I had and the experiences I shared. The smell, taste, touch and sound of a place is made that much richer by those connections. Traditionally I think we have been better at doing this as an international traveller so now it is the perfect time to focus that ethos when we travel locally.

If you would like to check out more detailed information on the “localhood” concept check out the link below:

http://localhood.wonderfulcopenhagen.dk/wonderful-copenhagen-strategy-2020.pdf

 

Feature image: Woebegone Freedive (a Local Jervis Bay operator) organising a community beach cleanup – All Welcome!