Brad Rowe’s Post

There were two big reasons that we booked a tourism experience in Rwanda 2 years in advance. These same reasons can be used by any tourism business looking to increase direct bookings and bookings in advance. 1. Scarcity - Limited availability means that if the guest doesn't book now they might miss out. 2. Unique - There are very few places in the world where this experience is available (this is difficult). Scarcity + unique = powerful combination With enough creative thought this same formula can be applied to many different tourism businesses. However it does involve being much more specific about what you offer and who it's for. Gorilla trekking is not for everyone - it was hard mountain trekking, bush bashing and involved a lot of beige. It also involves targeting smaller markets which can be daunting. So, how can a more standard tourism product execute this? Some ideas: - look deeply into what can make your experience unique (follow the 11 star framework to get outside the box ideas https://buff.ly/3vyo05R). - don't be afraid of being niche and targeting small markets. - collaborate with local community or other tourism/hospitality/experience providers to create unique experiences. - exclusivity: look outside of tourism for new ideas to introduce activities or experiences that can't be found elsewhere. None of this is easy but in the long run it can help create a more unique, authentic and difficult-to-copy experience. This is better than going in the other direction of a more commoditised and generic product which can be copied and ends up in a pricing war. What other examples are there of tourism experiences who have this scarcity + unique combination locked in?