If you are in ANY type of tourism business, read this article if you want to
learn the secrets used by this rafting tour operator that yielded them
huge increases in sales and profits in a SUPER competitive
marketplace.

It doesn't matter if you are a small B&B or promoting an entire country,
this case study we'll share in two parts will give you a road map of
success, lower your tourism marketing costs and help you avoid costly
mistakes.


------- Brief History of Adventure Travel Tour Company-----------

Whitewater Excitement, Inc. (WWE) was founded in 1978 providing river
rafting trips on the South Fork of the American River in Northern
California, 3 hours east of San Francisco. WWE was one of the early
rafting companies in this region without much competition. Over the past
25 years, the area has become very competitive with over forty rafting
companies on the same rivers. WWE business had gone up and down
over the years, trying to move ahead but with little success.

The following is an outline of the major tourism marketing, E-marketing
and communications changes and strategies Adventure Business
Consultants (ABC) planned and managed for the 2003 & 2004 season
and the specific rewards that have been harvested WWE’s efforts.


---- Tourism Marketing Communications Improvements ------

The first and most important step was to modify WWE’s marketing
message (words) to showcase their many years of experience, their
professionalism and thousands of guests they have had. The marketing
message (copy) and graphic changes were made to create higher
consumer confidence, sense of safety and to distinguish them from their
many competitors. WWE also enhanced an existing “5 Star - Satisfaction
Guarantee” program and with a new corresponding “Satisfaction
Guarantee” icon to showcase WWE’s commitment to quality, safety and
customer service.

All the new copy (copy = words) and graphic changes in WWE’s
marketing message were applied to their primary marketing materials:
color brochures and web site, www.WhitewaterExcitement.com. The
strategies outlined below to increase prospects, would have done little
to increase sales, if WWE had not also improved WWE’s marketing
message at the same time.

To help structure their new marketing communications, WWE used the
guide; Tourism Marketing Success.

If your marketing communications addresses the needs and
questions of your prospective visitor quicky and concisely, you'll get
more more calls and e-mail and you sell more trips.


------------------ E-marketing -------------------

Web Sites, Search Engine Optimization, E-newsletters & More

With the intention of earning more targeted and qualified traffic, ABC did
a detailed analysis of the key word phrases most frequently used in top
search engines and directories by prospective river rafters in California.
Seven key word phrases were integrated into the 2/03 launch of a new
river rafting themed web site, California-River-Rafting.net. In spite
of high competition, this site has yielded high ranking and tremendous
traffic. This strategy alone grossed a 24 to 1 return on investment of new
sales in 2003 and 2004.

WWE also created an opt-in (voluntary self-registration) E-mail
newsletter sign up form with automated E-mail address database
acquisition on the web sites. The goal has been to gather as many
qualified prospects as possible to send our HTML formatted E-mail
newsletter “California River Rafting News & Specials”. E-mail sign ups
more then tripled.

E-mail newsletters will allow you to consistently reach out consistently to
prospective clients at a lower cost - all contributing to increased sales. If
you don’t have a opt-in e-newsletter sign up conspicuously on your
website, start one immediately.

Read Part II, "How a 27 Year Old Rafting Co. Earned an Extra $390,000 with Easy Tourism Marketing Changes" for the other strategies successfully implemented by this
California rafting tour operator that has him smiling all the way to the
bank.