Why having a locals' day is good for your business

I was just reading Destination Queenstown’s newsletter and see that several tourism businesses are having their annual locals’ day.
What a great community and marketing initiative! They offer their tourism activity at a heavily reduced rate, and often the money goes to a charity.

Why have a locals' day? Well, it's a great initiative that achieves the following:

• Locals experience the activities and are likely to recommend it to others (tourists to the town or visiting friends & relatives). Word of mouth & recommendation is still one of the biggest sources of information for people to book/buy your product.
• Locals will ‘brag’ about it in social media
• It is a good way to encourage Tripadvisor ratings
• Businesses that donate to charities or community projects create goodwill and are more likely to get chosen by customers over businesses that don’t
• It’s an opportunity to create some business over the quiet times
  
• It will increase awareness of your business
  
• Promoting your locals’ day will generate some free publicity!

So, what can you do to get locals to experience your product or service?

Till next week!

Marijke