Introduction
Nashville, recognized for the last eight years as a top international destination, attracted a record 16.1 million visitors in 2019.
To coincide with the reintroduction of the British Airways direct flight from London Heathrow to Nashville International Airport, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp (NCVC) engaged STR to undertake a U.K. visitor market study in 2018-19.
Developing a deeper understanding of travelers from the U.K.—the second largest inbound international market to Tennessee–offered unique advantages to inform and optimize the destination’s strategic planning and marketing in order to maximize the growth potential of this air route.
Challenge: Getting to know more about British travelers
To support the NCVC’s marketing and strategic activities, there was a need to identify and evaluate the attitudes and profiles of past and potential U.K. visitors to Nashville.
Segmentation approaches were also required to help define and categorize “warmer” and “cooler” audiences to assist with marketing and promotional efforts.
In addition, the brief required an innovative approach to gather comparative analysis to enable benchmarking against select competitor destinations in the U.S.
Solution: Deep and broad insights to inform decision making
A detailed and comprehensive online survey was created in collaboration with the NCVC.
Using STR’s Traveler Panel, STR canvassed the opinion of over 1,000 U.K. travelers representing a broad range of demographics and attributes.
Key topics that the survey evaluated were barriers to engagement, drivers and other factors influencing the decision to visit, and an assessment of attitudes and perceptions of Nashville.
Furthermore, the survey incorporated a creative approach to enable comparison of standards and associations against competitor destinations. Insights from this section helped Nashville understand its competitive positioning compared to other U.S. destinations.
Results: Comprehensive and insightful information to guide thinking
The research proved to be highly informative in reaffirming existing initiatives and strategies targeting U.K. travelers. Furthermore, our attractive and succinct summary report also provided new insights and direction to inform additional marketing and strategic aspects to help drive up U.K. traveler visits to Music City.
Client Testimonial
“STR delivered an innovative and comprehensive traveler survey for NCVC which helped us better understand U.K. travelers and provided new insights to guide our thinking and planning for attracting U.K. visitors to Nashville. The final report packaged a broad range of useful information and insights in a compelling and user-friendly format and has provided valuable intelligence for our organization.”
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