Various trends have emerged in the industry, with some just being enhanced from the rapid changes. With the profound decrease in inbound travel, domestic travel was one of the trends that have emerged this year, and this means that more people will want to travel in their own country and be more involved in the culture; however, this does not only applies to local travellers.
Various trends have emerged in the industry, with some just being enhanced from the rapid changes. With the profound decrease in inbound travel, domestic travel was one of the trends that have emerged this year, and this means that more people will want to travel in their own country and be more involved in the culture; however, this does not only applies to local travellers.
With the opening of travel borders and the creation of travel bubbles, inbound travel is set to increase. Still, the trend continues to be the same; people desire to be more involved in the country's culture and interact with the local community and lifestyle. Essentially, they want a more authentic travel experience, which has been growing in popularity for years.
Considering this factor, one of the best ways for tourists to know how to travel like a local is by using neighbourhood maps. When people are planning a trip and want to know more about the destination, they'll visit the official tourism website, and here is where they will find the neighbourhood maps. These maps give potential travellers an inside scoop of the different experiences they can have in various areas of the city or town, including famous landmarks, hidden gems, off-the-beaten-track routes, or where locals eat.
Local guides are also another tool that travellers can use when wanting to have this type of experience. Airbnb and Google are both leading travel brands that have for some time focused on providing local guides, delivering authentic information and recommendations, highlighting what destinations have to offer, especially focusing on personalisation.
There is a high demand for local information when getting inspired about a destination, planning and searching for unique and authentic experiences. Although the DMO is the authority on all things related to the destination, the fact that Airbnb and Google are both expanding more and more into the local experiences and neighbourhoods space indicates that this is and will remain a huge trend in travel.
Here at the DTTT, we have identified four different approaches when working with neighbourhood guides and experiences.
For each, we have a collection of past best practice cases by travel brands and destinations but now we are going to take a look at new examples of DMOs that have invested in this type of content.
1. Local guides and content
Consumers are looking for authentic and more local experiences when they search for accommodation on Airbnb. The platform is matching homes to users based on neighbourhoods and the kind of experience a user is looking for. By clustering property options by neighbourhoods, consumers can get a better feel for what their stay will look like. Airbnb is providing expert destination information directly on their website, compiling millions of host tips on what destinations have to offer. Listing the top three recommendations for each location, Airbnb is delivering digestible guidebooks to inspire visitors and help with the planning of trips.
Google's Local Guides is another great example of a brand that helps consumers to explore destinations through a collection of discoveries on Google Maps. Consumers themselves can become a Google Local Guide, exploring the destination they live in or travel to by taking pictures and leaving ratings, tips and recommendations that others can then access through Google Maps.
Local Guides helps Google to receive valuable information and at the same time for consumers, local information is a real added value for planning trips and understanding the best places to visit in a destination. In return for delivering local updates, every Google's Local Guide receives rewards by unlocking five different levels, earning points for uploading photos, sharing reviews, adding new places, fixing information and answering questions. Having the most up to date information is a win-win situation for Google, needing information and content to deliver as part of its products.
2. Video Guides
There are quite a few examples of destinations featuring neighbourhoods as part of their marketing efforts to showcase local content and experiences. DMOs remain the destination authority, understanding which themes match which neighbourhoods in the destination. The concept of 'living like a local' is a trend that applies to all destinations featured below.
Visit Copenhagen's neighbourhood page starts with an interactive map of the city that visitors can use by using the slides or clicking directly on the neighbourhoods' pinpoints.
The guide is divided into four categories:
The tourism board also has a series on their YouTube channel of short Neighbourhood videos presented by digital professionals based on those neighbourhoods. These videos travel by Vesterbro, characterised by being vibrant space for art and nightlife; Frederiksberg, the ideal area for those who like shopping and tranquil parks; Nørrebro, Copenhagen's melting pot with diverse culture and rich gastronomy; and Østerbro, a family-friendly place, with classic Copenhagen architecture and fluvial access.
While some neighbours like the ones mentioned above have a little video introduction, some have 30-sec clips showing a landmark. For example, Amager has a video on the artificial ski slope.
Just like Tel Avid, Visit Copenhagen had partnered with Vice to produce some of the neighbourhood guides, but instead of being presented by different people, these have a host following the lives of locals that best represent their neighbourhood. For example, we have the Nordhavn neighbourhood guide that follows the life of Thomas Dambo, an artist and designer that makes sculptures out of recycled materials and the Refshaleøen neighbourhood following a young entrepreneur and bar owner.
Using video content in these guides are useful because it's easier for people to have a better perception of the experiences and connect with the destination.
Overall, the page is clean and easy to navigate, people can choose to see in a list or map format, and every page is designed differently, so it's always exciting for the visitor to explore these neighbours and get inspired for their trips.
The Vienna Tourist Board have made investments into producing a series of city guide content that they can use on their social media channels and enhance the overall city marketing efforts. 'Vienna Now' is a series of 30 video guides in English that feature in-depth city guides on topics such as coffee, nights out in Vienna or culinary highlights. Each video is about 7 minutes long and showcases different attractions, restaurants or cafés in Vienna and highlights what is special in various parts of the city. The video guide shows off the city in a different way, highlighting some of the hidden gems and things that locals like to do in the city. To make the videos more interesting for the audience, the narrator meets different business owners and people to add personal perspectives, tips and recommendations to the overall story.
Vienna's approach is a nice way for them to work on city branding and image, moving away from being considered a relatively traditional city to being perceived as a more quirky and exciting place to visit where tradition meets the modern city life.
Cape Town Tourism is a great example, actually highlighting what different neighbourhoods have to offer in the destination, exploring them through a series of local stories. Each of the six stories is told by a local, delivering the inside scoop on the hidden gems in the city. Cape Town Tourism's Insider's Guide to Cape Town is an entertaining and immersive way of getting to know the destination, covering the neighbourhoods inside-out.
In each of the neighbourhood guides, locals and businesses share personal stories and highlight what makes each neighbourhood so special. The neighbourhood guides can be watched through YouTube and Cape Town Tourism is featuring them on the website and social media channels.
Zurich is another interesting example and can indeed be considered as a 'dark horse' among European cities. The newly designed website of the Swiss city features a range of interesting content. With a focus on telling the different stories about the city, Zurich is also tapping into the power of emotional and people-oriented content. Letting others tell the story of the city is a powerful way of presenting the city to potential visitors. Zurich is 'The City of the Locals', showcasing local stories, each providing a different perspective.
The seamlessly integrated video content enables website visitors to learn more about different people, lifestyles and aspects of the city and ultimately learn all about the city from its locals who can share experiences and their unique perspectives. For each local story, Visit Zürich is including some local picks presented on a map, including some tips and recommendations on where to go in the city.
Visit Scotland have recently relaunched their website and are now focusing highly on content, showcasing the width of experiences that visitors can have in the destination. Scotland is well known for its warm welcome, beautiful landscapes, vibrant culture, heritage, and legends. As part of their #ScotSpirit campaign, Visit Scotland is seeking ambassadors to help inspire visitors to come and visit. Visit Scotland have identified seven spirits such as soul, guts, humour, fun, spark, determination, and warmth, looking to find ScotSpirit stories and people that embody these spirits to help promote the destination.
An example of these personal and #ScotSpirit stories is told as part of the following video, featuring Ben, a scallop diver from the Isle of Skye. Together with his father, Ben is fishing in an environmentally sustainable way and for viewers, the story is both immersive and compelling to watch. Visit Scotland are now working on collecting more #ScotSpirit content and stories to use that as part of their digital marketing strategy.
3. Neighbourhood maps
Discover Hong Kong's neighbourhood section is easy to access, being right on the top of the 'Explore' page. Once in this section, visitors are welcomed by an interactive map that brands their attention straight away. Before exploring one of these locations and their neighbourhoods, visitors can look at their featured neighbourhoods that promote three places that people can see, all for different experiences. These include Old Town Central - ideal for the typical quintessential trip, Sham Shui Po - for an even more authentic experience with the best things to see, eat, and do; and Sai Kung - a natural gateway from the city centre.
Finally, you have the rest of the neighbourhoods in the 'Explore more' part, there is a picture representing each of these neighbourhoods and the experiences that they can provide, either in the city or in nature.
The page is very easy to navigate through, and the design is simple and uniform; all the pages have an in-depth description of the places, the highlights and a slideshow of the different areas travellers can visit in the neighbourhood.
Overall, Discover Hong Kong portrays well its neighbourhoods, and by using a variety of images with vibrant colours depicting the landscapes, different experiences and including locals in their day-to-day lives, visitors can feel the authenticity, and the tourism board can leverage that.
Destination Toronto must have one of the most impressive page designs for their neighbourhoods section. The page starts with the question "What is the six?" with the letter 'S' substituted by the number 6, and as you scroll down, you see the number moving down and fitting into different words and phrases that state the possible origin of the city's nickname. In the end, you can see the map with the various neighbourhoods.
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When you click on each neighbourhood, you will be surprised to see that the information about the place is quite limited; stating the neighbourhood's boundaries, the public transit, and a simple bullet-point list of landmarks to visit.
Compared with the visitor's fun and creative experience on the main page, the following pages feel very generic and uninspiring, which would possibly dissuade people to visit the destination because of the poor perception given by the page. We would highly recommend a web design update, continuing with the same theme but expanding more to include more information about each of the recommended places to visit and have captivating videos and pictures that illustrate the essence of these neighbourhoods. In this way, visitors will feel inspired and are more likely to see the destination.
DMOs should place their website design in high regard because it's the first impression that potential travellers will get from the brand, so investing in high-quality imagery and content that can tell the story of the destination whilst following the brand's image is essential. These elements should also apply to the DMO's social media platforms.
The Dallas Tourist Board is following a slightly different approach, featuring an interactive neighbourhood map on their website, highlighting the various areas in the city. The map uses the actual neighbourhood names as well as icons illustrating what the different neighbourhoods are famous for. Users of the interactive map can select a neighbourhood they are interested in and dive deeper into relevant content, highlighting everything a visitor needs to know. For Visit Dallas, this is a great tool to get visitors to visit not only the city centre but also the surrounding neighbourhoods, exploring the different 'layers' of the destination.
Visit Dallas have managed to structure the neighbourhood content clearly, giving visitors a good understanding of where they can find different places. The deep level content is giving an overview of what each neighbourhood has to offer, providing additional links to draw visitors further into other content. As an addition to the interactive maps, it would be great to see video content and local testimonials and recommendations as part of the content. Visit Dallas might make such investments in the future.
IAmsterdam is the most recent destination to jump onto the neighbourhood bandwagon. The city of Amsterdam is always an interesting case, as it is one of the few DMOs that are not marketing the city to attract more visitors but are trying to disperse visitors to the surrounding areas of the city. Neighbourhoods in Amsterdam are, therefore, used to highlight some of the hidden gems outside the city centre. IAmsterdam has included neighbourhood information on their website and has also created a downloadable guide that visitors can take with them when they visit the city. The guide provides in-depth information and recommendations on what to see and do in each neighbourhood.
Although the neighbourhood page is not very visual, IAmsterdam is providing interesting content that visitors can use to plan their neighbourhood excursions in detail. For visitors, this trusted information is very helpful and something that visitors want to have when they travel to the destination.
4. Neighbourhood Content and Storytelling
My Helsinki took a different approach to the other tourism boards, and instead of having their neighbourhood guides on their website, visitors can find these guides on Instagram.
There are 12 guides on the Stories Highlights, with each of them consisting of a walking tour in the neighbourhood; it also includes how many kilometres, how long it lasts, a colourful map with the main attractions, and a short description of each of the stops in the itinerary. Viewers will notice this Guides content is branded, which allows people to associate the brand image with the destination, and at the end of each Highlight, there's a Story with a sticker question asking viewers where would they like to see a walking tour of, and this is a great way to keep people engaged and get to know what your target audience wants and the type of content they like.
By using Instagram to share their neighbourhood guides, My Helsinki can reach a wider audience and get more insights and analytics on their audience, which is essential if a destination wants to attract more visitors. Social media platforms also allow the audience to interact with the brand, which may be more challenging through the tourism board's website.
Of course, if travellers want to find more information about the neighbourhoods besides a suggested walking tour, they can head to their website. My Helsinki's guides page starts with a wordy but fun introduction of how their neighbourhood areas are arranged in districts, going from eight districts to 34 subdistricts to 60 areas and settling for 13 neighbourhoods.
What seems to be confusing is very simple; each neighbourhood has a bold introduction followed by regions that travellers can explore in the neighbourhood, and here is where they will find more in-depth information, including a bit of the area's history, what to visit, where to eat and a map indicating the cafes and restaurants of the list. Visitors have the option to share the map on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which is great to increase awareness and website traffic.
The visuals and imagery, and page layout and design are consistent with the tourism board's branding. Having good branding is essential for DMOs because it helps potential visitors to distinguish them from other destinations and creates a memorable impression, especially when creating content for social media.
Visit Tel Aviv is one of the few destinations working openly in collaboration with Airbnb. In 2015, the city tourist board produced a series of local neighbourhood guides with Airbnb which meant global reach for the city and an increase in visitors to their DMO website. Visit Tel Aviv identified relevant neighbourhood content and Airbnb selected great photographers to support the guides with visual content. Visit Tel Aviv considered the partnership with Airbnb as a mutually beneficial partnership, nicely tying the brand together.
For Visit Tel Aviv, the partnership with Airbnb is mutually beneficial, nicely tying the brand together and delivering content that visitors want. Ten neighbourhoods in Tel Aviv were highlighted as part of the local guide series. Visit Tel Aviv's selection of must-see's for each neighbourhood is combined with a range of tips and recommendations from local hosts. For the destination, it was important to select relevant content and through Airbnb's network, it is great added value content when looking for homes in the city.
Visit Singapore is best in class for including local guides and neighbourhood tips throughout the website, offering a wealth of editorial content on the website. For a visitor to the website, the browsing experience is similar to browsing through a magazine, including editorial, influencer content, recommendations, user-generated content and even publisher content as part of the content experience.
The range and quality of content are outstanding, enabling website users to choose which content to dive into, from selecting and exploring different neighbourhoods through a map, to reading specific itineraries. Visit Singapore's deep level community content is also nicely structured and for each neighbourhood, essential experiences are highlighted. For visitors, the depth and quality of deep level content ensure that their experience on the website is not falling flat. Other DMOs can certainly look at Visit Singapore's approach to see what content visitors want and need to explore within a destination.
Here at the #DTTT, we understand that it can be a challenge for destinations to deliver content that visitors need and expect. Local guides and additional information about what visitors can experience besides the main destination attractions can deliver great results for DMOs. Neighbourhood and local guides can deliver authentic destination perspectives, featuring real people sharing their top tips and recommendations. Especially video content is delivering an immersive experience for viewers, which sells the destination.
For destinations that are working on new content, focusing on neighbourhoods or an insider guide to different regions and areas of the destination can work well. It is important though for DMOs to consider how they can innovate and provide authentic experiences and content from the perspective of locals.
Local tips and recommendations and user-generated content from social networks could be a great starting point to feature more authentic and local experience-based content on the website.
Various trends have emerged in the industry, with some just being enhanced from the rapid changes. With the profound decrease in inbound travel, domestic travel was one of the trends that have emerged this year, and this means that more people will want to travel in their own country and be more involved in the culture; however, this does not only applies to local travellers.
With the opening of travel borders and the creation of travel bubbles, inbound travel is set to increase. Still, the trend continues to be the same; people desire to be more involved in the country's culture and interact with the local community and lifestyle. Essentially, they want a more authentic travel experience, which has been growing in popularity for years.
Considering this factor, one of the best ways for tourists to know how to travel like a local is by using neighbourhood maps. When people are planning a trip and want to know more about the destination, they'll visit the official tourism website, and here is where they will find the neighbourhood maps. These maps give potential travellers an inside scoop of the different experiences they can have in various areas of the city or town, including famous landmarks, hidden gems, off-the-beaten-track routes, or where locals eat.
Local guides are also another tool that travellers can use when wanting to have this type of experience. Airbnb and Google are both leading travel brands that have for some time focused on providing local guides, delivering authentic information and recommendations, highlighting what destinations have to offer, especially focusing on personalisation.
There is a high demand for local information when getting inspired about a destination, planning and searching for unique and authentic experiences. Although the DMO is the authority on all things related to the destination, the fact that Airbnb and Google are both expanding more and more into the local experiences and neighbourhoods space indicates that this is and will remain a huge trend in travel.
Here at the DTTT, we have identified four different approaches when working with neighbourhood guides and experiences.
For each, we have a collection of past best practice cases by travel brands and destinations but now we are going to take a look at new examples of DMOs that have invested in this type of content.
1. Local guides and content
Consumers are looking for authentic and more local experiences when they search for accommodation on Airbnb. The platform is matching homes to users based on neighbourhoods and the kind of experience a user is looking for. By clustering property options by neighbourhoods, consumers can get a better feel for what their stay will look like. Airbnb is providing expert destination information directly on their website, compiling millions of host tips on what destinations have to offer. Listing the top three recommendations for each location, Airbnb is delivering digestible guidebooks to inspire visitors and help with the planning of trips.
Google's Local Guides is another great example of a brand that helps consumers to explore destinations through a collection of discoveries on Google Maps. Consumers themselves can become a Google Local Guide, exploring the destination they live in or travel to by taking pictures and leaving ratings, tips and recommendations that others can then access through Google Maps.
Local Guides helps Google to receive valuable information and at the same time for consumers, local information is a real added value for planning trips and understanding the best places to visit in a destination. In return for delivering local updates, every Google's Local Guide receives rewards by unlocking five different levels, earning points for uploading photos, sharing reviews, adding new places, fixing information and answering questions. Having the most up to date information is a win-win situation for Google, needing information and content to deliver as part of its products.
2. Video Guides
There are quite a few examples of destinations featuring neighbourhoods as part of their marketing efforts to showcase local content and experiences. DMOs remain the destination authority, understanding which themes match which neighbourhoods in the destination. The concept of 'living like a local' is a trend that applies to all destinations featured below.
Visit Copenhagen's neighbourhood page starts with an interactive map of the city that visitors can use by using the slides or clicking directly on the neighbourhoods' pinpoints.
The guide is divided into four categories:
The tourism board also has a series on their YouTube channel of short Neighbourhood videos presented by digital professionals based on those neighbourhoods. These videos travel by Vesterbro, characterised by being vibrant space for art and nightlife; Frederiksberg, the ideal area for those who like shopping and tranquil parks; Nørrebro, Copenhagen's melting pot with diverse culture and rich gastronomy; and Østerbro, a family-friendly place, with classic Copenhagen architecture and fluvial access.
While some neighbours like the ones mentioned above have a little video introduction, some have 30-sec clips showing a landmark. For example, Amager has a video on the artificial ski slope.
Just like Tel Avid, Visit Copenhagen had partnered with Vice to produce some of the neighbourhood guides, but instead of being presented by different people, these have a host following the lives of locals that best represent their neighbourhood. For example, we have the Nordhavn neighbourhood guide that follows the life of Thomas Dambo, an artist and designer that makes sculptures out of recycled materials and the Refshaleøen neighbourhood following a young entrepreneur and bar owner.
Using video content in these guides are useful because it's easier for people to have a better perception of the experiences and connect with the destination.
Overall, the page is clean and easy to navigate, people can choose to see in a list or map format, and every page is designed differently, so it's always exciting for the visitor to explore these neighbours and get inspired for their trips.
The Vienna Tourist Board have made investments into producing a series of city guide content that they can use on their social media channels and enhance the overall city marketing efforts. 'Vienna Now' is a series of 30 video guides in English that feature in-depth city guides on topics such as coffee, nights out in Vienna or culinary highlights. Each video is about 7 minutes long and showcases different attractions, restaurants or cafés in Vienna and highlights what is special in various parts of the city. The video guide shows off the city in a different way, highlighting some of the hidden gems and things that locals like to do in the city. To make the videos more interesting for the audience, the narrator meets different business owners and people to add personal perspectives, tips and recommendations to the overall story.
Vienna's approach is a nice way for them to work on city branding and image, moving away from being considered a relatively traditional city to being perceived as a more quirky and exciting place to visit where tradition meets the modern city life.
Cape Town Tourism is a great example, actually highlighting what different neighbourhoods have to offer in the destination, exploring them through a series of local stories. Each of the six stories is told by a local, delivering the inside scoop on the hidden gems in the city. Cape Town Tourism's Insider's Guide to Cape Town is an entertaining and immersive way of getting to know the destination, covering the neighbourhoods inside-out.
In each of the neighbourhood guides, locals and businesses share personal stories and highlight what makes each neighbourhood so special. The neighbourhood guides can be watched through YouTube and Cape Town Tourism is featuring them on the website and social media channels.
Zurich is another interesting example and can indeed be considered as a 'dark horse' among European cities. The newly designed website of the Swiss city features a range of interesting content. With a focus on telling the different stories about the city, Zurich is also tapping into the power of emotional and people-oriented content. Letting others tell the story of the city is a powerful way of presenting the city to potential visitors. Zurich is 'The City of the Locals', showcasing local stories, each providing a different perspective.
The seamlessly integrated video content enables website visitors to learn more about different people, lifestyles and aspects of the city and ultimately learn all about the city from its locals who can share experiences and their unique perspectives. For each local story, Visit Zürich is including some local picks presented on a map, including some tips and recommendations on where to go in the city.
Visit Scotland have recently relaunched their website and are now focusing highly on content, showcasing the width of experiences that visitors can have in the destination. Scotland is well known for its warm welcome, beautiful landscapes, vibrant culture, heritage, and legends. As part of their #ScotSpirit campaign, Visit Scotland is seeking ambassadors to help inspire visitors to come and visit. Visit Scotland have identified seven spirits such as soul, guts, humour, fun, spark, determination, and warmth, looking to find ScotSpirit stories and people that embody these spirits to help promote the destination.
An example of these personal and #ScotSpirit stories is told as part of the following video, featuring Ben, a scallop diver from the Isle of Skye. Together with his father, Ben is fishing in an environmentally sustainable way and for viewers, the story is both immersive and compelling to watch. Visit Scotland are now working on collecting more #ScotSpirit content and stories to use that as part of their digital marketing strategy.
3. Neighbourhood maps
Discover Hong Kong's neighbourhood section is easy to access, being right on the top of the 'Explore' page. Once in this section, visitors are welcomed by an interactive map that brands their attention straight away. Before exploring one of these locations and their neighbourhoods, visitors can look at their featured neighbourhoods that promote three places that people can see, all for different experiences. These include Old Town Central - ideal for the typical quintessential trip, Sham Shui Po - for an even more authentic experience with the best things to see, eat, and do; and Sai Kung - a natural gateway from the city centre.
Finally, you have the rest of the neighbourhoods in the 'Explore more' part, there is a picture representing each of these neighbourhoods and the experiences that they can provide, either in the city or in nature.
The page is very easy to navigate through, and the design is simple and uniform; all the pages have an in-depth description of the places, the highlights and a slideshow of the different areas travellers can visit in the neighbourhood.
Overall, Discover Hong Kong portrays well its neighbourhoods, and by using a variety of images with vibrant colours depicting the landscapes, different experiences and including locals in their day-to-day lives, visitors can feel the authenticity, and the tourism board can leverage that.
Destination Toronto must have one of the most impressive page designs for their neighbourhoods section. The page starts with the question "What is the six?" with the letter 'S' substituted by the number 6, and as you scroll down, you see the number moving down and fitting into different words and phrases that state the possible origin of the city's nickname. In the end, you can see the map with the various neighbourhoods.
When you click on each neighbourhood, you will be surprised to see that the information about the place is quite limited; stating the neighbourhood's boundaries, the public transit, and a simple bullet-point list of landmarks to visit.
Compared with the visitor's fun and creative experience on the main page, the following pages feel very generic and uninspiring, which would possibly dissuade people to visit the destination because of the poor perception given by the page. We would highly recommend a web design update, continuing with the same theme but expanding more to include more information about each of the recommended places to visit and have captivating videos and pictures that illustrate the essence of these neighbourhoods. In this way, visitors will feel inspired and are more likely to see the destination.
DMOs should place their website design in high regard because it's the first impression that potential travellers will get from the brand, so investing in high-quality imagery and content that can tell the story of the destination whilst following the brand's image is essential. These elements should also apply to the DMO's social media platforms.
The Dallas Tourist Board is following a slightly different approach, featuring an interactive neighbourhood map on their website, highlighting the various areas in the city. The map uses the actual neighbourhood names as well as icons illustrating what the different neighbourhoods are famous for. Users of the interactive map can select a neighbourhood they are interested in and dive deeper into relevant content, highlighting everything a visitor needs to know. For Visit Dallas, this is a great tool to get visitors to visit not only the city centre but also the surrounding neighbourhoods, exploring the different 'layers' of the destination.
Visit Dallas have managed to structure the neighbourhood content clearly, giving visitors a good understanding of where they can find different places. The deep level content is giving an overview of what each neighbourhood has to offer, providing additional links to draw visitors further into other content. As an addition to the interactive maps, it would be great to see video content and local testimonials and recommendations as part of the content. Visit Dallas might make such investments in the future.
IAmsterdam is the most recent destination to jump onto the neighbourhood bandwagon. The city of Amsterdam is always an interesting case, as it is one of the few DMOs that are not marketing the city to attract more visitors but are trying to disperse visitors to the surrounding areas of the city. Neighbourhoods in Amsterdam are, therefore, used to highlight some of the hidden gems outside the city centre. IAmsterdam has included neighbourhood information on their website and has also created a downloadable guide that visitors can take with them when they visit the city. The guide provides in-depth information and recommendations on what to see and do in each neighbourhood.
Although the neighbourhood page is not very visual, IAmsterdam is providing interesting content that visitors can use to plan their neighbourhood excursions in detail. For visitors, this trusted information is very helpful and something that visitors want to have when they travel to the destination.
4. Neighbourhood Content and Storytelling
My Helsinki took a different approach to the other tourism boards, and instead of having their neighbourhood guides on their website, visitors can find these guides on Instagram.
There are 12 guides on the Stories Highlights, with each of them consisting of a walking tour in the neighbourhood; it also includes how many kilometres, how long it lasts, a colourful map with the main attractions, and a short description of each of the stops in the itinerary. Viewers will notice this Guides content is branded, which allows people to associate the brand image with the destination, and at the end of each Highlight, there's a Story with a sticker question asking viewers where would they like to see a walking tour of, and this is a great way to keep people engaged and get to know what your target audience wants and the type of content they like.
By using Instagram to share their neighbourhood guides, My Helsinki can reach a wider audience and get more insights and analytics on their audience, which is essential if a destination wants to attract more visitors. Social media platforms also allow the audience to interact with the brand, which may be more challenging through the tourism board's website.
Of course, if travellers want to find more information about the neighbourhoods besides a suggested walking tour, they can head to their website. My Helsinki's guides page starts with a wordy but fun introduction of how their neighbourhood areas are arranged in districts, going from eight districts to 34 subdistricts to 60 areas and settling for 13 neighbourhoods.
What seems to be confusing is very simple; each neighbourhood has a bold introduction followed by regions that travellers can explore in the neighbourhood, and here is where they will find more in-depth information, including a bit of the area's history, what to visit, where to eat and a map indicating the cafes and restaurants of the list. Visitors have the option to share the map on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which is great to increase awareness and website traffic.
The visuals and imagery, and page layout and design are consistent with the tourism board's branding. Having good branding is essential for DMOs because it helps potential visitors to distinguish them from other destinations and creates a memorable impression, especially when creating content for social media.
Visit Tel Aviv is one of the few destinations working openly in collaboration with Airbnb. In 2015, the city tourist board produced a series of local neighbourhood guides with Airbnb which meant global reach for the city and an increase in visitors to their DMO website. Visit Tel Aviv identified relevant neighbourhood content and Airbnb selected great photographers to support the guides with visual content. Visit Tel Aviv considered the partnership with Airbnb as a mutually beneficial partnership, nicely tying the brand together.
For Visit Tel Aviv, the partnership with Airbnb is mutually beneficial, nicely tying the brand together and delivering content that visitors want. Ten neighbourhoods in Tel Aviv were highlighted as part of the local guide series. Visit Tel Aviv's selection of must-see's for each neighbourhood is combined with a range of tips and recommendations from local hosts. For the destination, it was important to select relevant content and through Airbnb's network, it is great added value content when looking for homes in the city.
Visit Singapore is best in class for including local guides and neighbourhood tips throughout the website, offering a wealth of editorial content on the website. For a visitor to the website, the browsing experience is similar to browsing through a magazine, including editorial, influencer content, recommendations, user-generated content and even publisher content as part of the content experience.
The range and quality of content are outstanding, enabling website users to choose which content to dive into, from selecting and exploring different neighbourhoods through a map, to reading specific itineraries. Visit Singapore's deep level community content is also nicely structured and for each neighbourhood, essential experiences are highlighted. For visitors, the depth and quality of deep level content ensure that their experience on the website is not falling flat. Other DMOs can certainly look at Visit Singapore's approach to see what content visitors want and need to explore within a destination.
Here at the #DTTT, we understand that it can be a challenge for destinations to deliver content that visitors need and expect. Local guides and additional information about what visitors can experience besides the main destination attractions can deliver great results for DMOs. Neighbourhood and local guides can deliver authentic destination perspectives, featuring real people sharing their top tips and recommendations. Especially video content is delivering an immersive experience for viewers, which sells the destination.
For destinations that are working on new content, focusing on neighbourhoods or an insider guide to different regions and areas of the destination can work well. It is important though for DMOs to consider how they can innovate and provide authentic experiences and content from the perspective of locals.
Local tips and recommendations and user-generated content from social networks could be a great starting point to feature more authentic and local experience-based content on the website.
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