Everyone agrees that mobile search is taking a dominant role in marketing, but recent studies now show that more people are using it to shop for activities, attractions and tours while in the destination. What this means is that soon, your search engine ranking for local will be more important than ever. You can try and tweak your search engine optimization for local, but it takes time to get switched up and you are still in the battle of local competition, or you can use an existing system to plug into your local community.
Simbiosis by Adventure Engine is the only system that allows local community members to create true online networking for sales. In some communities this can be set up by a visitor centre or your DMO, but it can also be set up between any collaborators in a community. Here’s how it can work.
Typically, people will book accommodation in advance. This has been amplified greatly by online booking agencies like booking.com and airbnb.com. But most people wait on booking other activities till they get to the destination. So, when they check in to the hotel or bnb is the perfect time to get them set up to book and buy the items that need some kind of reservation. These are typically tours, rentals, and things needing schedules or peak demand management.
The idea is that someone shopping for a hotel or a bnb can also see other attractions and tours in the area. This type of cross marketing does exist in a more simplisitic manner by showing links from the lead website. The big difference with Simbiosis is when the shopper goes to check to see when there are 4 spaces available tomorrow for that zipline ride, on Simbiosis the seats are live. The person can then proceed to checkout and pay. The credit card payment process on Simbiosis goes directly to the supplier, not a third party, and the system automatically sends a confirmation email to the buyer and vendor, and updates the vendor’s inventory.
This makes it very easy to offer packages that are transparent in pricing, which is a key factor in today’s online marketplace.
You can also set up different types of “agents” that can hugely increase the network of sellers, but there is another bonus to this type of selling: google likes good links, and Simbiosis provides great links so it can also be a strong SEO tactic.
We invented Simbiosis for communities, consortia and other collaborators to market and sell cooperatively.
If you’d like to learn more about Simbiosis, please contact us here.