08/28/2015

Interview with Barbara Wold, Customer Experience Expert and Speaker at the Ohio Conference on Travel

Barbara Wold, CEO of Barbara Wold International, is known internationally for her exceptional speeches and topics related to the tourism and hospitality industry, specifically retail and consumer markets. With a background in retail experience and sales management, she is known for giving engaging, personal talks that connect to the audience. Barbara will be speaking on the topic, “Moving Tourists from Mere Satisfaction to Real Advocacy” at the upcoming Ohio Conference on Travel. Here’s a sneak peak of the subject she will be covering.

At the upcoming Ohio Conference on Travel, you will be talking about “Moving Tourists from Mere Satisfaction to Real Advocacy.” How do you personally differentiate satisfaction versus real advocacy?

I have always had an issue with the word satisfaction, as I do not believe this word is good enough. Tourists need to be excited about the state of Ohio, and the word satisfaction does not cut it. Much of marketing today is by word of mouth, and with social media, you can tell millions of people about an area in true advocate fashion. Pictures and written posts can explain the experience of an area through advocacy, and because of this, satisfaction is not good enough to market a tourist experience via the consumer market.

Can you give us an example of an organization or business that truly represent tourists with real advocacy? How do they move these tourists from just being satisfied?

Viking River Cruise is a business that truly represents real advocacy. In their television advertisements, you first see clips of the cruise line, but by the end of the commercial, you see the tourists interacting with the locals and laughing. This small but important clip offers a glimpse into the local experience rather than the destination. This type of experience marketing is also represented throughout their ads and website, and this really drives home the brand of the business.

What background or inspiration led to this interesting topic? Were there any personal experiences upon which you can glean that give listeners a good back story for the topic?

As a worldwide traveler and speaker, whenever I visit a city, I always ask the transportation worker what is going on in the area. I am often surprised at how disconnected some of the frontline workers are from the rest of the industry. It was this disconnection that inspired me to try to get the industry to better collaborate through strategic partnerships and share ideas with other industry members. With over 80% of travelers wanting recommendations when they visit an area, it is important that industry members share that information with others, especially in the form of facts and trivia.

What can people expect or get excited about when attending your session at the upcoming conference?

Unlike most people, I will not be presenting a PowerPoint presentation, and I will be speaking very personally to the audience. I like to work the room and get a sense for the audience before I dive into my topic, and this creates an approachable situation in which I can offer even more information following the presentation.