Destinations shouldn't need to lean in on what the visitor wants
Destinations need to lean in on their best experiences.
When you tap into the high-quality and authentic experiences within a place, you also find the passionate communities behind them.
Working to understand these groups is essential to developing and delivering better experiences.
It's way more valuable than reading some strategy or report.
I've been able to be part of 3 passionate communities:
1) Mountain biking: While I was at Skyline Queenstown, I went to Whistler to learn from the world leaders in mountain bike parks and leverage their 10 years of experience. But the best thing we ever did was engage the mountain bike club to codesign goals and develop the whole destination (not just the Skyline experience).
2) Snow: Building chairlifts for ski areas meant understanding the skiiers/snowboarders and the different skill levels within them. The way a beginner experiences a ski area is completely different to an expert. It's so difficult to cater to both with a new lift. But understanding the way they each want to enjoy a day on a mountain (for learners it can be just as much about culture as it is about getting on a lift) and progress their skills makes it possible.
3) Surf and Beach: At Tourism Bay of Plenty, from a destination management point of view, we developed several passion groups and worked with them to identify areas for improvement. The first one was the surf and beach group - one of the first insights I got was learning what NOT to promote. This was a huge trust building exercise between these groups and the DMO, which lead to the development of much bigger opportunities.
Passionate communities can form around almost any activity or interest and can vary in size and type.
It takes getting to know the people who are deep within the community to understand these variables.
And the best insights a DMO can get come from the raw info of sitting round a table with these people within the niche who don't even know what a DMO is.