How to Develop Web Marketing for Tourism in Italy

Italian food

One of the most popular international destinations for tourists, Italy offers a huge variety of historical destinations. Visitors can combine a cultural visit with activities such as attending language school, cooking classes, wine tasting, and art and writing courses, or more energetic activities such as hiking, cycling, climbing, kayaking or skiing. With so much choice, the visitor naturally turns to the Internet to help plan a trip, so marketing via the web is a key activity for any business offering a service to tourists in Italy.

Instructions

1. Search the Internet using keywords relevant to your business; for example, if you organize culinary vacations, type "cooking classes Tuscany" or "learning to cook in Italy" into your favorite search engine. Clink on any of the resulting links and examine the advertisements that appear on the right-hand side of the page.These businesses are likely to be your competitors. Click on the link to a websites and study the content closely to see how that business sells its services. In particular, look for an angle you can offer that it does not, such as cooking classes in an Italian home versus cooking classes in a school environment.

2. Look for ways to add value to the service you offer, as this will help travelers plan their trips. For example, if you are offering cooking classes in an Italian home, draw up a list of nearby accommodations, transportation options and extra activities, such as a pre-class tour of the local market to buy the day’s ingredients. Becoming a trusted adviser will encourage a visitor to choose your service.

3. Use relevant keywords on your website so that search engines will find it when prospective customers search the Internet. Emphasize words such as Italy, Italian, cooking class, cookery school, food, market tour, Tuscany and so on, in headlines, body text and tags. Employ an expert to help you if you are not sure how best to do it yourself.

4. Write an e-book that reflects your area of expertise and offer it in exchange for an email address, which you can add to your email marketing list. The e-book need not be lengthy but should offer information not already available on your website, such as a list of Italian cooking terms and ingredients translated into English, or the types of food visitors are likely to find on sale in local markets and restaurants at particular times of the year.

5. Start a blog, a Facebook site and use Twitter to discuss aspects of the service you are offering. Use these social networking sites to promote your services through, for example, announcing new dates for your cooking course, guest chefs, menus or local food issues. The language barrier in Italy presents a problem for many visitors, so providing expert advice in a familiar language helps build relationships with potential customers.

6. Ask happy customers to leave comments on the Italian travel sections of sites such as Trip Advisor or Slow Travel, which are often a source of reference for prospective customers. Highlight the comments with a prominent link from your own website.

Tips & Warnings

• Provide information on the small local events that are largely ignored by the official tourism sites.

• Provide information on less well-known attractions in the area.

• Official Italian tourism websites are often out-of-date, incomplete, difficult to use and visually unappealing. They are often only available in Italian. Do not add links to them on your website without a warning.

• Be cautious when it comes to mobile marketing. Parts of Italy have no or poor reception for cell phones.

References

• Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism. 5th Edition. Philip Kotler, John T. Bowen, James C. Makens. 2009.