Two Years of Wonder—and Lessons Learned

I believe in the wonder of two. If one is the power of self, then two represents the wonder that is created with others—two people joining together to create a family, two people coming together to start a new business, even the terrible twos which are filled with learning, trying to understand life, needing guidance and requiring patience. Most of all, two is so unimaginably fantastic. 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the first two years as co-founder of Zartico. It’s been a remarkable journey watching the world make dramatic shifts in cultural attitudes and weather the uncertainties, including the loss and grief brought about by a global pandemic. Travel bans, stay-at-home orders and the need to socially distance from others outside one’s immediate family have led to massive job losses in the travel industry and a reset in travel worldwide that is finally beginning to rebound.

What has impressed me the most through this time is the resilience, the adaptability and leadership of our DMO partners. 

Two years has taught me three valuable lessons while creating the Zartico Operating System. It was built to provide insights and outcomes to improve the destination visitor experience, the lives of our fellow residents and transform destination marketing organization. I keep reminding myself that the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do. 

Lesson One—Destinations are not like companies

Many of the measurement practices which DMOs currently use were adopted from the private sector. While they are successful at measuring industries like ecommerce, retail and manufacturing, they are not the most effective at addressing the unique needs of DMOs. For example, the way we track marketing effectiveness using marketing ROI ignores the very real considerations that DMOs need to balance in promoting a destination.

Should attracting another visitor during the peak season when the destination is already at capacity be valued the same as one during the shoulder season to fill unused rooms? How about a visitor who patronizes locally-owned small businesses as opposed to chain retail or restaurants? Following marketing ROI numbers too closely can optimize for the wrong outcomes and increase the volume of visitors during peak season because marketing during peak season is easier—lazier—than marketing during off-season, and perhaps less valuable in the grand scheme.

DMO leaders are now operating based on a different set of guiding principles in determining how they prioritize their investments. From the sustainability of outdoor recreation destinations to the health of small businesses and the distribution of visitors throughout the year, we’re seeing DMO leaders expand their view to be more nuanced in their goals.

Specifically, this translates into measuring the growth of specific markets or visitor segments measured by observing travel behavior through location data and credit card spending. Internal alignment is created by ensuring that all departments are measuring their contribution toward the overall health of the DMO by creating KPIs with greater specificity. External alignment is generated by helping the board, elected officials and the community see how the DMO’s alignment is in line with the community’s long-term vision and better articulation of the ways the DMO supports the community’s shared success.

Lesson Two—Better data leads to better questions and more of them

We observed a phenomenon which we dubbed “data hoarding.” Every scrap of data, every report, every item published by a marketing vendor has to be kept just in case it might be useful. In these cases, the research strategy is a bit like piecing together a beautiful tile mosaic, trying to fit everything together piece by piece.

The backbone of these strategies are reports, aggregated summaries of data brought together to answer a specific question. These are easy to digest and work with, because the summary data is small, easy to read and look at in Excel.

However, for our partners using data most effectively, they’ve largely abandoned reports for day-to-day decision making in favor of faster moving data streams, data in a raw form that is daily in cadence and adaptable to the myriad questions a savvy researcher wants to explore. Our location data is a prime example of this. We began with simply showing the total number of visitors and visits to individual POIs. Through our partner feedback, we have learned that they wanted a more flexible approach to track visitation to travel regions across the state or neighborhoods within their community. Additionally, they wanted the ability to see different facets of the visitor economy (restaurants, hotels, retail, transportation) and through a rapid evolution of our location data strategy, our partners are able to answer sophisticated questions with depth and specificity. Questions surfaced like, “What other destinations did visitors to the Super Bowl include in their trip?” “Who is using our State Parks, visitors or residents?” Or “Did an event attract visitors to my restaurants last weekend?”

This has been one of the most rewarding parts of our company’s growth, seeing the creativity, imagination and deep destination knowledge our partners are bringing to their work, and watching our company innovate to help answer these questions and allow DMOs to operate with greater sophistication, precision, efficiency and alignment in their efforts.

Lesson Three—Stay agile and nimble, and anchor your vision on a clear North Star

Uncertainty has been a dominant emotion over the last 18 months. As I write this, the Southwest US, including my home in Utah, is in an extreme drought with a heat wave baking the region and wildfire season starting early. It certainly feels like uncertainty and the need for adaptability are the new normal.

At the same time, the reset of the travel economy gave residents the opportunity to reconnect to their communities without having to compete with tourists for parking spots, restaurant tables or waves at the beach. And for some communities, they don’t want to go back to the way things were before COVID and are rethinking the role tourism has in their economies.

We’re also seeing tourism surging at some traditional hotpots like national parks that were among the first to bounce back as travelers looked to the great outdoors as a perceived safer alternative to traveling in urban areas. How these destinations manage this rapid rebound while still maintaining a sense of community character and cohesiveness will require new levels of community engagement, creativity and adaptability.

Our team worked with DMOs to identify several key changes in their top origin markets, travel patterns and length of stay. For example, some destinations saw a shift from weekend travel to long-term stays at short-term rental properties driven by new remote work rules. Other communities saw a complete shift in their top origin markets driven by a shift from air travel to road trips. How durable these shifts will be remains to be seen, but they present interesting opportunities on which DMOs should capitalize.

How DMOs choose to orient their activities around these opportunities should be driven by a strategy around supporting the long-term community vision. I believe tourism can be a positive force for economic development and community enhancement. In my prior work at Utah Office of Tourism, I remember working with a county commissioner from a rural community who would always stress the need for tourism to bring “full-time, family sustaining jobs.” Other partners we’ve spoken with are looking to use tourism to bring business to neighborhoods with an abundance of independent restaurants owned by immigrants who’ve brought the flavors of their home countries to create a culinary hotbed for exploration. Others have asked us how to make their visitor economies more just, equitable and diverse. A through-line within each of these requests is a clear sense of community values and an understanding of how the visitor economy can align with and support this shared community success.

As I look to the next two years and reflect on the lessons we’ve learned and plan the product roadmap for what’s to come, I am extraordinarily optimistic about what we as an industry can accomplish. I continue to be challenged and inspired by the great questions from our partners and the creativity, innovative thinking and community focus they bring to their DMOs every day.

By then Zartico will be a four-year-old starting Pre-K, but for now I’m relishing in the simple joys of Zartico with a two-year-olds’ sense of wonder. My biggest lesson learned? Wonder is the beginning of wisdom and today I can see the road ahead clearly and am excited about where it is taking us.