Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
used Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews among households in the campaign distribution
areas in the other Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne. It involved a pre-distribution and
post-distribution survey that captured prompted and unprompted advertising recall, travel
intentions, destination image and perceptions of the direct marketing material but stopped short
of attempting any measurement of conversion. Trembath found that the campaign increased
advertising recall and stimulated interest in visiting the destination yet could not determine
whether the campaign actually drove consumers to the destination. Advertising tracking studies
are generally more expensive than other types of evaluation methods and their long-term impact
is diffi cult to separate out of other environmental impacts. This is problematic as it is diffi cult to
attribute tourist arrivals or tourist expenditure directly to a specifi c marketing campaign (Morgan
et al
. 2012). If the advertising tracking is conducted using face-to-face omnibus surveys, this can
be expensive. Advertising tracking studies are useful if the goal is to evaluate cognitive knowledge
about the destination and travel intent toward a destination (Siegel and Ziff-Levine 1990)
Historically, conversion studies have been the most common method of destination market-
ing campaign effectiveness, comparing relative performance of one campaign over another
(Woodside 1981). Conversion studies tend to be generally well-understood and relatively inex-
pensive to implement which may be a reason for their popularity (Silberman and Klock 1986;
Woodside 1990). USA State DMOs have used conversion studies quite extensively to evaluate
their campaigns. For example, conversion studies have been used to evaluate marketing cam-
paigns in Arkansas (McLemore and Mitchell 2001), Montana (TravelMontana 1998), Vermont
(Kuentzel 1993a; Kuentzel 1993b) and Virginia (VTC 2001). Conversion studies can also assess
the effectiveness of DMO marketing campaigns implemented via different channels and visitor
markets. Examples in the literature of assessing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns using
different media include magazine advertising (TravelMontana, 1998), telephone inquiries
(Messmer and Johnson 1993) and websites (McLemore and Mitchell 2001; Tierney 2000).
Conversion studies usually involve assessing whether recipients of destination marketing visit
the destination (become converted) as a result of being exposed to destination advertising or a
promotion (Pratt
et al
. 2009). These types of studies are usually implemented through questionnaire
surveys. The common metrics of conversion studies include gross and net conversion rates, costs
per inquiry, revenue per inquiry and return on investment generated in different media or target
markets. The conversion rates express the proportion of enquirers who visit the destination after
being exposed to the destination marketing campaign. The number of visitors and the amount
they spend in the destination is then used to estimate cost effi ciency indices, expenditure impacts
and return on investment fi gures (Burke and Lindblom 1989). Although used extensively,
conversion studies have some limitations. Early iterations of conversion studies failed to correct
for non-response bias, used incorrect sampling techniques (Butterfi eld
et al
. 1998; Silberman and
Klock 1986) or failed to take into account multiple trips (Perdue and Gustke 1992). Woodside
and Dubelaar (2003) also found that response rates for conversion studies vary depending on
whether the sponsor for the survey was identifi ed or not.
Pratt
et al
. (2009) seek to overcome some of the shortfalls of conversion studies. They do this
by adjusting downward the proportion of respondents estimated to visit the destination as a
result of the marketing campaign to calculate at a net conversion rate. This net conversion rate
weighs the proportion of visitors who visit the destination by the degree to which the marketing
campaign infl uenced their decision to visit (Ballman
et al
. 1984; Burke and Gitelson 1990).
Further, the researchers only attribute the incremental expenditure of those visitors who had
already booked or planned their trip to the destination and were motivated to stay as a result of
the marketing campaign. Lastly, previous research found that respondents differed in their travel
patterns and reaction to marketing stimuli compared to non-respondents (Ellerbrock 1981) so
