In the digital age, the success of any destination, including the pristine Turks and Caicos Islands, hinges not just on the allure of its sandy shores and turquoise waters, but also on the strength and savvy of its digital strategy. As we dive into the digital transformation of this breathtaking archipelago, our journey begins not on the beaches, but within the boundless realms of data and digital analytics.
Today’s travellers research and book vacations online. Without a strong digital strategy, tourism marketing efforts miss this crucial audience. A well-crafted digital strategy allows targeted outreach, maximizes reach, and personalizes the travel experience for potential visitors.pen_sparktunesharemore_vert
This article outlines the meticulous process of shaping a digital strategy tailored for Turks and Caicos, where I combine global trends, deep demographic insights, and the pulse of potential visitors harvested from search engine data.
Here, I will demonstrate how transforming raw data into actionable insights can create a resonant narrative that not only attracts visitors but also fosters sustainable growth and engagement.
Now why is a digital strategy for Tourism so important? Your potential customers are all online, conducting their research and every island/country in the world, is competing against you for visitors. In a recent article, the Director of Jamaica Tourism, Mr. Donovan White spoke about how Jamaica has been able to improve its ability to convert demand searches online into actual bookings.
He was then able to break down the search volume numbers from 2017 come up and how they have been able to increase Search Demand and then convert through the power of doubling down on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you can check out the full article here —> Jamaica’s Tourism Rides The Digital Wave.
Join me as we explore the art and science of digital strategy, proving that even the most remote paradises can thrive in the digital landscape.
Where Do We Begin Building a Digital Strategy?
There are a million ways to approach crafting your digital strategy and usually, I would start with what the organization’s goals are and what type of conversions we are looking for. Are we selling a product? Getting signs up for an event? Raising awareness of our brand? You get the picture.
For this example of building a Digital Strategy for Turks and Caicos Islands, I will be starting with some broad research and then I will find something interesting and use that to drill down on for the rest of the strategy.
Let’s start with how people around the world search for the Turks and Caicos Islands since the exact use of the word is extremely important when getting data. There are 3 ways I’ve seen people refer to Turks and Caicos:
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- Turks and Caicos
- Turks & Caicos
Let’s check the search volumes for those 3 words and see what the data is telling us.
Now that we know the exact wording used by people around the world when searching for Turks and Caicos, we know how we can optimize our content but we also know where to begin our research.
Next up, let us take a look and see what countries are searching for Turks and Caicos.
We have learned that the Global Search Volume in the last 30 days for “Turks and Caicos” has been 582.3k and the bulk of that traffic is coming from the United States.
This is great news because now let’s say our goal was to start bringing in more visitors from the US, we can start to drill down on the US audience and get more insights into what exactly is happening with that audience and we will know how to approach our digital strategy.
Now we will find out, where in the country those people who are searching for the island are coming from.
Over the last 30 days, the top cities searching for the Turks and Caicos in the United States are Connecticut, New Jersey, Oklahoma, New York, and Massachusetts.
Much needed information because now we have an idea of where to run Paid Campaigns and also this will aid us in the copyrighting and the type of content we create for each city.
Pro Tip: I could also search for the top travel agencies in Connecticut, analyse their websites and social media content, see what is working for the best agencies and also run ads against their names so that when people are searching for those agencies in the targetted cities, we can show up in search results and on social media with targetted content!
Let’s also not forget about Bing. Bing is another Search Engine that people are using that can also help us gain some great insights and ideas for crafting our digital strategy.
Age Demographics of Those Searching For Turks and Caicos in The United States
Our research is starting to take shape. Now we have the Age Demographics of those in the US searching for Turks and Caicos, this will help with our ad targeting, the type of content we create and the platforms to reach people on with the content we create.
What Are The Top Questions People Are Asking Online?
This is a snippet of what people in the United States have been searching for online through Google. This information is critical because if we start creating content answering the things people are asking online, this is how we can start showing up in Search Engines and also begin creating aligned content on social media. Remember, we have a generation of people who are using social media as their 1st contact of search, so ensuring that you have the right content based on what they are asking and optimized for each social media platform, is critical if you want your content to be discovered on social media.
This image shows the top searches containing “Turks and Caicos” on Bing. When you are conducting your research, it’s good to have data from both Search Engines, it can foster new ideas that you may not have thought about or found in the other search engines data repository.
What’s Already Working For Turks and Caicos Tourism Authority?
Another part of my research phase, is analysing the web traffic from the companies website, if I was working with the company, I would be combing through their Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools Data for this information but we can also use third-party tools to get that data.
The Turks and Caicos Tourism Authority’s website is doing a great job of getting traffic to the website. Once again, we see the United States on their radar. First, it was the United States at the top for Searches on both Google and Bing Search Engines and now we see that they are the number 1 country visiting the Tourism Authorities website.
Now, we can see the people who are visiting the Tourism Authorities website, and what is their intentions when they are visiting the site. Understanding their intention will help us create and refine the content that is on the website, in order to boost traffic and create better leads coming to your Email Lists and CRMs.
44.8% of the traffic that comes to the website is seeking information, now let us take a look and see what kind of information they are looking for.
The Image above shows us 2 key things. What is the search term bringing traffic to their website and which URL/Page is responsible for bringing that traffic.
Whilst this is good to know, the pages that are bringing in the traffic are some of their static pages that don’t change much. It’s important to keep those pages up to date with the latest info but MOST IMPORTANTLY, look at the search terms bringing the traffic and start looking at all of the additional questions that people are asking around those words and create content that matches what people are searching for. That content should be housed in your ever-evolving blog.
The last time the Tourism Authority created a blog was back in 2022. The Search Engines favor websites and boost rankings when you are creating daily content. Failure to do this will get your website and content pushed to page 2 and beyond. When this happens, you start losing out on traffic coming to your website because you aren’t showing up on Page 1 of Search, you aren’t showing in Voice Search, Featured Snippets, People Also Ask or even the AI tools when people are trying to get info.
Competitor Analysis
Naturally, it’s the Caribbean and there are 33 Countries in the Caribbean that a tourist could choose from to get that Sun, Sand and Sea. 1 critical element of understanding our audience is to look at what is working for some of the other islands that you may be in direct competition with to ensure tourists decide to pick your destination over the next. Even though it’s all Caribbean love, we are still competing for tourists to land in our Country and spend their hard-earned dollars with us :).
We can start with Search Volumes and see who is top of mind from the audience in the United States. These are the Search Volumes on Google in the last 30 days.
Analysing each of the Tourism Board’s websites, we get a clear idea of our audience. What they are searching online and where they are going after they are conducting their searches.
This information helps us:
- See who is showing up more for our potential customers
- We can see what search terms/content is driving traffic to other destinations
- We can use that data to now create campaigns to target particular keywords driving traffic to other destinations, so we can show up in our customer’s research phases
This data is an analysis conducted on everybody who is visiting all of the Tourism Board’s websites that are in our landscapes. We have a solid understanding of the people in our audience and additional data to be used for ad targeting and content creation.
Knowing the age demographics of everybody who is visiting the Tourism board’s websites, helps us plan better and create the right type of content/information to appeal to each demographic.
Since Jamaica’s website is leading the landscape, it is great to analyse and see what their traffic-driving strategies are like, so that we can see what’s working for them and tweak our own strategies. Direct Traffic shows that Jamaica has a very strong brand and people think of Jamaica, top of mind when planning a vacation, they either visit the Tourism Board website directly or jump in Google, type in Jamaica and find the website through Search.
Let’s take a look and see what are the top Pages and Keywords driving traffic to Jamaica’s Tourism Board’s Website
Here are the top Keywords:
Since these are the top keywords driving traffic to the #1 website in our landscape, we have a number of Keywords that we can use to target with content that would relate to people in the US, who are searching to go to Jamaica. Keep in mind, we could pull this data from any website and target accordingly.
So for example, let’s say Turks and Caicos has a place very similar to Ocho Rios or Montego Bay, I would create an article or video drawing comparisons or an article that bigs up Ocho Rios but let people know, instead of visiting extremely popular destinations like Ocho Rios, here is a hidden treasure in Turks and Caicos to check out instead.
That could be an article or a video, then in your Google and Social Media Ads, you target people within your age demographics and those searching for Ocho Rios on Google and on Social Media, so that the relevant content is displayed to them.
Let’s Start To Plan Our Attack
Remember in the beginning I said there are multiple ways to plan your attack and that starts with what the Organization’s goals are for the Campaign.
So for this to make sense, I will pick a goal.
Marketing Campaign Goal Example:
Campaign Goals (US Audience: 35-44, Turks & Caicos All-Inclusive)
- Increase Organic Search Traffic:
- Achieve a 20% increase in impressions for the keyword “Turks and Caicos all inclusive” within 3 months.
- Improve ranking for related keywords like “luxury all-inclusive Turks and Caicos” or “family all-inclusive Turks and Caicos” to the top 3 positions within 6 months.
- Improve Conversion Rate:
- Increase website conversion rate (bookings or leads) from targeted all-inclusive landing pages by 5% within 2 months.
- Enhance Brand Awareness and User Engagement:
- Achieve a 10% increase in website time spent per user for all-inclusive related content within 4 months.
- Increase social media mentions of your brand (e.g., Instagram, Facebook) related to Turks and Caicos all-inclusives by 15% within 3 months.
- Optimize Marketing ROI:
- Maintain a Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA) for all-inclusive bookings below $100 within the campaign timeframe.
- Achieve a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 3:1 for all-inclusive marketing campaigns within 6 months (meaning for every $1 spent on advertising, generate $3 in revenue).
Let’s Look at the Top Questions People Are Asking About T&C All-Inclusives in the US
Based on the Search Questions that people have asked above, here is a sample of content you could create and distribute across multiple digital channels.
| Content-Type | Title/Topic | Distribution Channel |
| Video | Top All-Inclusive Resorts in Turks and Caicos | YouTube/Blog |
| Video | Adult Only Escapes | YouTube/Blog/Google Webstory |
| Blog Post | Family-Friendly All-Inclusives in Turks and Caicos | Blog/Pinterest/IG Highlights |
| Blog Post | The Ultimate Guide to All-Inclusive Vacations in Turks and Caicos | Blog |
| Blog/Video | Choose Turks and Caicos For Your Next Company Retreat | Blog/Linkedin |
| Infographic | Comparing Turks and Caicos All-Inclusive Packages | Social Media |
| Influencer | Experience Luxury: A Week at a Turks and Caicos All-Inclusive Resort | YouTube/Social Media |
| Influencer | A Family Adventure in Turks and Caicos All-Inclusive Style | YouTube/Social Media |
| Video/Podcast | Behind the Scenes: Running a Turks and Caicos All-Inclusive Resort | YouTube/Podcast Directories |
| Video/Podcast | All-Inclusive Q&A | Live YouTube/Repurposed as Podcast Episode |
After all of your content is created and then distributed across your targetted channels. You can look to see which content is performing the best and then start to run ads against them.
This is a great way to go about building your Content Plans, starting with the research first so you know exactly what people want and then delivering that content across multiple digital channels.
Each piece of content could be adapted to Videos/Blogs/Podcasts/Infographics, you name it and then distributed throughout the interwebs.
This is how you can create a robust digital strategy that doesn’t rely on just 1 channel more than the next.
Traditional Media Tip
Traditional Media like the Newspapers, Radio and TV still play a major role in your marketing mix and reaching everybody both online and offline.
One tip I would recommend is leveraging the Newspapers, since there are both an online and offline benefit.
- Take your best-performing content and turn it into a written article
- Find news outlets in targetted destinations and reach out to them to get your articles in their publications. There may be a cost to sponsor the article or it may be really compelling that they are willing to run the story at no cost
- Make sure you get a digital link to the published article. This is another piece of content you can distribute online, it helps with social proof, leveraging existing audiences that you don’t have access to and helps with Off-Page SEO since the Search Engines are tracking whether or not you are being featured in media and authoritative platforms
- Written articles in the Media also get Published in Apple News, Google News and Google Discover. Increasing your reach and tapping into audiences and platforms that you don’t have access to without involving traditional media houses
Alright, folks, we’ve unpacked the digital toolbox and built a strategy that’s as sharp as a conch shell. Forget throwing spaghetti at the wall – this was an example at how we can be targeted in finding our ideal audience and speaking to them directly with the things they actually want!
Here’s the beauty of it all: This isn’t a one-shot deal. We can track our progress, see what’s working, and keep tweaking the strategy to make it even more awesome. More organic traffic? Absolutely! Higher conversion rates? You bet! We’re talking a digital strategy that’s as dynamic and exciting as the turquoise waters themselves!
So let us continue to weave the digital threads that guide the savvy traveller to the Turks and Caicos shores.
For in every successful click-through and in every fulfilled dream of a tropical escape, we find the true measure of our success.
Our digital strategy is more than a plan; it’s a bridge to paradise, a journey that we have the honor to guide, one click at a time.
Do you want to have conversation about building a digital strategy for your business or organization? Feel free to reach out here —> Contact me.