International marketing
International marketing – San Diego’s connection to the world
In the near future, some San Diego hotels, tour and tourism related businesses will survive and thrive almost entirely on Asian tourism
I can say that because I’ve seen how big Asia’s market demand really is.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Jeremiah Magone and I am San Diego’s only copywriter specializing in Asian tourism.
I’ve lived all over the States; Montana, Colorado, Seattle, Connecticut, San Francisco and, of course, San Diego, graduating from Coronado high in ’94.
And all over the world, Germany, Spain, Mexico… and my personal travels have taken me even farther… but it wasn’t until I lived in Tokyo for 8 years that I realized what a massive market demand really looks like.
Here’s what I mean by that.
Imagine a population 5 times bigger than LA living in a City the size of New York. That’s the demand that Tokyo represents.
And now that we have a direct connection to that demand, we have the chance to grow our businesses like never before.
Just look at the potential out there
Last June, alone, there were nearly 125,000 Japanese travelers who visited the US.
Also, now that Obama is opening up an extra 5M travel visas to Chinese tourists each year, leading up to 100M by the year 2020, it’s clear – Asian tourism is here to stay.
How would you like to capture a portion of that? There’s not much competition right now…
And if you do establish yourself, here’s what that could mean to you in economic terms.
Japanese visitors spent $1.2 Billion in California in 2012, which is 2nd only to spending from China. This is at an average of $7,000 per person, per visit, according to the US state department of commerce.
Wouldn’t it feel good if you could consistently funnel that economic power directly through your front door?
That’s what I’m here to help you do
I’m going to tell you how to reach these tourists before Expedia or Booking.com does.
I’ll show you how to maximize your restaurant revenues.
I’ll give you the key to establishing a steady stream of Asian tourists through-out the year.
And I’m going to show you why this is easier than you think.
But first, let’s see the scope of this opportunity
in San Diego, specifically
Japan Airlines is now bringing in an average of 5,850 visitors to San Diego per month X $259 per day and at conservative average stay of 3.8 days = $5.8M – per month or over $69M per year.
Why is that a conservative estimate? Because the average stay isn’t 3.8 days, it’s a little over a week.
Most visitors will stay twice as long and spend twice as much.
That could mean over $11M – a month – during peak seasons.
Do you think you could survive on a piece of that?
Probably, right?
I’d say you might even thrive. Even at 1% that’s $110,000, per month.
Now let me show you why these numbers
are going to continue to grow
1. When Japan Airlines and ANA lost over $175 Million with the Dreamliner’s 6 month delay – you’d better believe they were making plans on how to get their money back.
How are they doing this? By spending over $18M on advertising, just last year, to highlight San Diego as the next big thing.
This marketing push has already resulted in an increase in Japanese visitors by 8.2% last July, 3.4% in August and 4.7% in September, according to VisitCalifornia.
2. But the marketing blitz is happening in China as well. In fact, right now, they’re in the process of filming a Chinese reality TV show along route 66. Pretty cool, huh?
All of this media exposure is your advantage. People are already being marketing to. They’re already interested and they’re online finding out what America is all about. Now you just have to make sure they find you first. Which I’ll show you how to do that in just a minute.
First, let’s look at how fast this market is growing
This chart represents the percentage of growth between national and international visitors to California.
Remember, Japan is San Diego’s #1 inbound market and China is the world’s #1 business and leisure travel segment.
International visitation and spending is double that of national visitors
I’m sure you can see the potential here.
How would you like a guaranteed 10% increase in YoY occupancy, or 15% revenue growth?
This is what Asian tourism has to offer.
Now like I mentioned earlier, let’s talk about why it’s easier to get in touch with Asian travelers than the typical American tourist
79% of Japanese travelers use the internet to book their hotel reservations.
– Google’s “Constantly Connected Traveler”
2/3 of China’s 1.3 Billion population use the internet as the main channel to get tourism information.
– Data Center of China Internet.
This is compared to only 58% of Americans.
Why is there such a big difference?
It’s because Asians love to plan ahead. It’s in their culture. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked into an empty restaurant in Tokyo and been turned away because 100% of the tables were reserved.
And so in this day and age everyone is online. Every day. Every time they need to get information or plan something important. And nowhere is this truer than in Asia.
Which is why it’s never been easier to do international marketing than it is today. You just have to cut through the noise with relevant, useful information.
What content should I use, exactly?
- As I mentioned earlier, getting found online is easy. Let me show you why that is. It’s because there’s very little competition for Asian SEO. And once you realize this you can see that any hotel or tourism business can use this fact to place themselves on the top of Google Search. For example, the only hotel website you’ll find by searching for “La Jolla, hotel” in Japanese is the La Jolla Sheraton. Why is that? Because they are the only hotel that’s bothered to create a website for their hotel in Japanese. Do an image search for the word, “La Jolla” in Chinese and Marriott.com.com is the 5th picture. That’s a nice advantage! And it could be yours too.
- Because here is the big point. Don’t just talk about yourself and your business. If you want to make yourself stand out, give people helpful, easily understandable information in their own language that will make it easy for them to plan their entire vacation here in San Diego. That’s how you’ll get noticed. And, of course, that’s how you’ll be on the top of the vacation itinerary.
- For an example of this, I’m working on a project right now with The Sunset Marquis. And we’re finding that not only does this approach help us establish a relationship with people but we’re also positioning the Sunset Marquis as the perfect place to stay if someone what’s to see it all in West Hollywood. It’s a win – win.
- And don’t overlook another advantage, Travel sites like Expedia, Booking.com, etc… don’t have any video marketing. That means you can get a lot more traffic than they do because YouTube has 10x more searches than Google Search. Video can also help you over-come the language barrier and, often, leave a more emotional impression on your viewers. So imagine how your audience will l feel when you introduce your hotel and help them plan their trip by showing them everything they can do in the area – in their own language! That’s how you can make your marketing unforgettable.
When your guests arrive, here are some easy things
to understand about different nationalities
- Japan is a developed market. Higher hotel rates are fine. Visitors mostly come for golf, brewery tours, theme parks and sight-seeing.
- Chinese visitors look for the breakfast included option at hotels. Hotels should offer rice pudding, dumplings and oolong tea. They’re here to do a lot of shopping so they often cut back on their hotel expenses. But this is a great opportunity for the local commerce.
- South Koreans travelers are mostly FIT- doing overnight stays in SD as well as enjoying their honeymoons.
Other things will be difficult to understand
- Chinese travelers want hot water with their meals. Why is that? Bacteria. They’ve used this approach to protect themselves for thousands of years, why should they stop now?
- Asians, in general, don’t tip. The solution to increase your restaurant’s revenues? Offer Asian language menus with pictures of very simple side dishes. This way your guests can share and keep ordering for hours on end. After all, the typical dinner in Tokyo lasts about 3 hours and cost an average of $50 – 60 per person. That’s what they’re used to. So why not include these options in your restaurant?
- And last, if it seems that Chinese people are fighting with each other. Think, Italian culture. They’re excited to be on vacation and maybe it’s someone’s birthday so of course they’re boisterous.
The big picture
Asian tourism is here to stay
The fact that we have a new, direct connection to the #1 and #3 largest travel segments in the world is a huge opportunity.
There are challenges
Over-coming the language barrier and helping people book through your website, instead of always going through 3rd party websites, is a big one.
But there are also a lot of opportunities
Asia is leading the way in international travel market growth.
Japan Airlines is pushing Millions of dollars into marketing.
And a huge wave of Chinese tourist visas is on the way.
It’s also never been easier to get in touch with these tourists.
Record numbers use the internet to do their planning.
There’s hardly any competition for Japanese or Chinese key words in America.
And 3rd party sites like Expedia or booking.com don’t do any video marketing.
Also, let’s not forget the most important point – we are a brand new destination with some of the best weather in the US… and that’s an undeniable draw.
So here are your marching orders
- Assemble your online Asian marketing presence.
- Make sure your content is done well in the native language.
- Display language flags on your website and make it easy for visitors to use, download and complete the booking process through those pages.
- Create native language videos to inspire visitors before they come over.
- (And here’s the secret that’ll help you generate a series of tourism waves through-out the year) Market to each group leading up to their national holidays. That’s what big companies like Hilton and Caesars Entertainment are doing, with great results.
- When your guests arrive, spend time building your repeat and referral business channels by showing a commitment to, and understanding of, each nationality.
- And when they depart don’t forget – repeat business is the best business – so be sure to follow up with a postcard or email touch when your guests return home to make sure they tell their friends and family about you.
If you include these points in your international marketing mix, you’re business won’t just survive – you’ll thrive right along with the 1st and 3rd largest and fastest growing travel segments in the world.
If you have comments or questions please email The Marketing Connect directly at info@themarketingconnect.com
