3. Know your stakeholders: visitors, residents, businesses

How do visitors, residents, and businesses experience the destination? Are there any similarities or differences between their thoughts, feelings, or actions?

What are the problem areas when it comes to how people experience hospitality at our destination, who is affected by them, and how can we work with our stakeholders to improve these issues?

Know your facts and figures

• Visitor numbers, countries of origin, travel duration, spending habits, one-off vs. return visits

• Population size, profiles, demographic segments (eg. based on lifestyle)

• Companies, number of partners, industries, forms of cooperation and networking

Put yourself in your visitors’ shoes

• Who are the visitors and what draws them here?

• What do they do at the destination and what is their experience like?

• Create personas: step into your guests’ lives, see things from their perspective; how do they experience your destination here and now?

• Provide a clear view of the customer journey, from arrival to return home. How do visitors reflect on this journey as a whole: what ‘wowed’ them, and what needs improvement? What would that contribute to the overall experience? Who is involved in important touchpoints, and what do visitors ultimately see and experience?

Don’t forget residents and businesses

• Residents: open and maintain a dialogue, remain interested in residents’ priorities and what they are able and willing to contribute. Which improvements would add the most value for residents? How much contact do they wish to have with visitors, what are they proud of, what would they like to share and under what conditions? We were pleasantly surprised to find that residents participating in City Host projects were often proud of their cities and wished to actively share this pride with others.

• Businesses: since businesses are also a type of resident, empathy and dialogue remain important. How do business owners feel about their city, what are their wants and needs, and to what extent are they willing and able to participate and engage in co-creation? Are there any business owners who are interested in helping to shape residents’ and visitors’ experiences? Which authentic stories can be told?

• Which people are already playing a role in hospitality development in the area? Look for them in your partner network.