When I started in the tourism industry 10 years ago, at the first conference that I attended, I heard Bill Geist talk about music tourism. Throughout my years in the industry, I heard him talk about this topic numerous times. Music is a powerful means of connecting people. It bridges linguistic and cultural divides, and is a vehicle for identity and expression like no other. As a tourism marketer this seemed to resonate with me. I started to think about my own experiences with music and how it affected me when I work conferences. It really came to light when I attended a conference in Indianapolis and at night a lot of the attendees where at a dauling piano bar with a ton a locals on Thursday night, and the place was packed. It is widely known that music and travel go hand in hand with each other.
When you watch music videos and see different cities and towns featured in the video, there is an internal excitement that motivates you to visit that town. This is to see and experience what the city/town has to offer first hand. Music has been one of the great ways of promoting tourism all across the globe. This is mainly due to the fact that in most instances, music helps in displaying the beauty and elegance of a city at its best. A vibrant music economy drives value for cities in several important ways. A strong music community can attract young workers whom quality of life is important.
Key Strategies to Increase Your Destinations Music Tourism
Engage the Music Community
Engaging those most affected by music strategies is critical to the success of any music tourism promotion. You first want to engage with the businesses that provide opportunities for visitors to enjoy live music, whether it is small businesses like bars and pubs or large businesses like SummerFest in Milwaukee or Ravinia Festival. A close cooperation of all stakeholders significantly improves the chances of developing effective regulatory and business environments that allow the music economy to thrive in your destination. Second, you want to develop a relationship with the local musicians who are playing the local scene. When I worked at Visit Lake County and was handling our Song Search promotion, I reached out to all of the local musicians that I could find to try and get them to participate. If they did not want to participate, I still created a relationship so they could inform me of their upcoming shows. Your local musicians want to get their name out there and have their upcoming shows publicized. They are more than willing to send you any information that you need.
Dedicated Music Section on Your Website
You want to create a dedication section on your website that is your music hub and holds information, events, etc about your destinations music scene. This will be like a little micro-site inside your website. Having all your music events in one section of your website will make it easier for visitors to find the information that they are looking for. Plus, it makes it easier to promote and link to from other pages and on social media. When travelers come to your destination on business travel, they are looking for something to do at night. Which, usually tends to be something with live local music. By creating a dedicated music section for our song search, I was able to increase our organic traffic by over 20% just by having music events listed on our website in their own section.
Work With Artists
Every community has musicians that are known in your destination inside and out. Work with them to help sell your destination through music. A lot of brands / destinations have done this by creating a music video that is used throughout their marketing. With the song search I created, the music video was used as a prelude to our summer marketing campaign, we had an event where the winner was announced and played, booked the musician at area festivals, and used the song in our summer campaign television ads. The year prior, I worked with another local musician in our area who had a good following online to create a music video to the song, ‘Best Day of My Life“. Other destinations across the country have partnered with well known musicians to attract visitors to their destination. Visit Florida use ‘Mr. Worldwide”, Pit Bull, and Visit Myrtle Beach was instrumental in getting the Dan + Shay hit single, ’19 You + Me’ filmed in Myrtle Beach. They even orchestrated a live concert on the beach. You can see their final video here.
Establish A Music Tourism Program
Music tourism generates billions of dollars for cities every year. A destinations music tourism assets include the year-round live music scene, festivals, etc. Major music festivals draw large numbers of tourists. Some cities have comprehensive music tourism strategies that involve music-based branding, promotional campaigns, social media strategies, music infrastructure investment, signage and programming. When traveling, music can easily draw visitors to great adventure by giving them a feeling of nostalgia for home and making them feel welcome. Boosting a city’s music economy brings multiple dividends: it advances artistic and cultural growth, strengthens a community’s social fabric, creates jobs, and boosts economic activity and tourism spending.
Creating a vibrant music economy creates a “cool” factor and the quality of life that makes people want to live and work there, giving it an edge in attracting visitors and residents alike. Music is the call to action that directs to us to go and visit a specific place to experience world class fun. Tourism mainly revolves around providing elegant scenic features that are set to bring about great satisfaction. Music is one of my life bloods and combining that with my passion for tourism marketing is a great experience not only for me but for the community and visitors.
