Whilst I agree this is a helpful narrative in terms of motivating and supporting businesses in difficult times, it is also backward facing rather than future focused.

Undoubtedly, there will be pent-up demand for travel and experiences, however this will run in parallel with a prolonged vaccination roll-out. There will also be a continued requirement for social distancing and capacity management, and a consumer wariness about enclosed spaces and crowds.

Businesses need to think NOW about how they will address concerns and develop products that will keep them relevant in this new landscape.

coffee.jpg Making changes now for the future could reap great rewards

This is particularly applicable for indoor city centre experiences, where the historical resilience of the weekender, big gig related economy will take much longer to rebuild.

Innovation needn’t be a whole-scale rethink. I spoke in an earlier article about the importance of mapping your customer journey and interactions and using this analysis to inform improvements required.

Look also to what your brand or experience is best known for (if you don’t know what this is – start with some market research!).

Take these unique elements and get creative about how you can engage a more diverse customer base and attract different types of visitors.

It is also critical, that as part of any rebuilding of the tourism market, destination stewardship is front and centre.

It seems like another lifetime ago that “over-tourism” was a key discussion point for popular cities and experiences. A successful future for Ireland Inc. is not about over-burdening, but instead re-imagining the Tourism Business Model.

So also get curious about how and where your visitors could “pay” for extra value or engage in a longer-term affiliation with your brand.

Look at how you can increase your routes to market, your up-selling opportunities and ultimately increase your overall revenues, without having to exponentially increase the volume of visitors.