Tourism is one of the sectors hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in countries where it is a

crucial economic pillar. Digital technologies play a valuable role in helping countries like the Philippines
bounce back and restart tourism activities in the new normal.

The Philippine tourism department has embarked on a digital tourism campaign to promote its tourist
attractions and encourage foreign visitor arrivals once pandemic-related travel restrictions are lifted.
They are also enforcing tourism establishments to adopt strict health safety protocols by encouraging
contactless and cashless transactions. 

DIRECT PROVIDERS:
Includes businesses that are associated with travel such as airlines, hotels, restaurant, ground
transportation, travel agencies and retails shops. These businesses provide services, activities and
products, that are consumed and, or purchased directly travelers. They represent the sector of the
industry that are visible to the travelers.

STRATEGIES:

#1 Apply storytelling on your social media posts

 Every time they want to know something they ask Google and they can compare prices instantly in
three clicks. It’s not that everyone wants to ignore your marketing messages, but given a large amount
of information they are exposed to, it’s inevitable that your efforts can get lost in the shuffle.
Therefore, it’s necessary to find new ways to communicate to get their attention and get them to
interact with your brand.

When designing your marketing messages on social media it’s not effective to only describe the
characteristics of the products or services you offer.

To effectively capture the attention of your target audience and generate more engagement, tell them
why your service is made for them while also explaining what they will experience if they decide to buy
your product or use your service.

In this sense, stories have enormous power. They generate empathy, transmit confidence, are easy to
remember and, most importantly, are easy to share. Storytelling is a technique that allows you to link
your product or service with a concrete, symbolic and emotional experience through a story and take
advantage of its full potential.

When coming up with stories about your business, try to link them to your product or to the daily
activities of your business in subtle ways and put them in your company’s social media posts.

Here are some examples of tourist establishments that use this technique in their Instagram, Facebook
and Twitter posts:
In this way, they manage to promote their trips in an entertaining way that captures the attention of the
users, generates engagement and manages to create a community of fans around their character and,
therefore, around their brand.

#2 Use augmented reality to offer memorable experiences

Within the tourism sector, offering an incredible experience is essential to get customers to remember
you, recommend your brand or use your service again. Using new technologies such as augmented
reality in your marketing strategy can help you create innovative and memorable experiences for your
visitors and, at the same time, differentiate yourself from your competitors.

If you’re not familiar with the term augmented reality, TechTerms provides a very simple definition:

Augmented reality, commonly abbreviated as “AR,” is computer-generated content overlaid on a real-

world environment.

Surely, you’ve heard of Pokémon Go, a mobile augmented reality game whose launch in 2016 was a
massive success. This game uses the GPS of your mobile to locate, capture and engage in battles with
virtual creatures (Pokémon). By activating the camera, players can see these creatures through the
screen as if they were in a real location. This is augmented reality.

The potential of this technology in the tourism industry is enormous and many tourist establishments
are already using it to offer different experiences to tourists.  
Augmented reality also offers great possibilities for the transportation industry. With a travel app with
augmented reality, you could point the camera to a transport vehicle and discover your route, the next
stop and places of interest you pass through, something very useful if you are a foreigner.

For example, the transport company, Tunnel Vision, created an app that transforms the New York
subway map into an interactive guide in different languages.

WHOLESALE AND TOUR OPERATOR – “THE PRESENTATION BAR CODE” WILL HAVE A LARGE ONE -TIME
PROMOTION IN THE BROCHURE WHICH CONTAINS ALL ITINERARIES, HOLIDAY PACKAGES, PRODUCTS
AND STORES. WITH EACH IMAGE OF THE BROCHURE, YOU CAN SCAN TO AVAIL THEIR DISCOUNT AND IN
THE SCAN BAR, YOU CAN ALSO VIEW THAT STORE BECAUSE IT ALSO HAS A VIDEO PRESENTATION. SINCE
PANDEMIC TODAY, THEY HAVE A GREAT POTENTIAL THAT THEY WILL BE MORE ATTRACTIVE BECAUSE
OF THE EXCITEMENT AND DESIRE TO GO AND TRY THAT ONE PLACE.

Virtual Reality (VR) Tours

The pandemic has forced businesses to make more intelligent use of tourism technology and virtual
reality is one of the most promising areas to explore. This can allow potential customers to experience a
hotel, airport lounge, restaurant, local attraction or even certain tourist activities from afar, with no risk.

Today, virtual reality tours can usually be enjoyed through any of the major web browsers and viewed
on a computer, mobile or tablet. The enjoyment can be further enhanced if users have access to a VR
headset.

Virtual reality tours can be especially effective as a tourism marketing component, because they allow
users to get a sense for what they can expect when they arrive. This can be an especially powerful tool
during the booking process, when customers may start to have second thoughts, and when a little extra
persuasion can make all the difference.

SUPPORT SERVICES:
It lends to support the direct providers. Support services includes specialized services such as tour
organizers, travel and trade publications, hotel management firms, and travel research firms.

It also includes basic supplies and services such as contract laundry and contract food services. Support
services provide goods and services for both the traveler and for organizations that sell goods and
services directly but not exclusively to tourist – A good example are tour wholesalers who prepare fours
and instead of selling them directly to the public sell the tours through a travel agency. Thus, the
traveler receives the service indirectly through these support services.
STRATEGIES:

Advertisement-the short advertisement should be displayed and let them know everything that
travelers should expect. Everything that is needed and must be done must be included.

Brochures with the discount code: Contains all the enticing photos and destinations in the area to go
and hotels, beaches, and more. With each photo you can scan to get a discount if you want to go to it.
This includes reservations and tickets for lodging and flights while traveling, as well as arranging
packaged tours and cruises.

TOURISM DEVELOPMENTAL ORGANIZATION

This includes planners, government agencies, financial institutions, real estate developers and
educational and vocational training institutions.

These organizations deal with tourism development tends to be more complex and broader in scope
than the production of daily travel services. The decisions and results of tourism development are more
long-term in nature than the first two categories which deal operations.

STRATEGIES:

SMART CITY - A smart city uses digital technology to connect, protect, and enhance the lives of
citizens. For example, smart parking can help drivers find a parking space and also allow for digital
payment. Another example would be smart traffic management to monitor traffic flows and optimise
traffic lights to reduce congestion, while ride-sharing services can also be managed by a smart city
infrastructure.

BENEFITS:
The core infrastructure elements in a Smart City would include - adequate water supply, assured
electricity supply, sanitation, including solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public
transport, affordable housing, especially for the poor, robust IT connectivity and digitalization, and good
governance.

It has three components. One is the data collection tool. Every time our contact tracers go out, all they
have to do is use their mobile devices and their tablets to put in and encode the information that they
were able to gather and it goes to the cloud. Second is the GIS platform, which we use for geospatial
analysis to determine the extent of potential infection in one particular area. Finally, the link analysis. It
establishes patterns, trends and relationships and networks.