The document discusses how rural tourism destinations can use digital storytelling to enhance their competitiveness and attractiveness. It emphasizes finding compelling stories that will intrigue potential visitors and sharing those stories online through visual digital content and social media engagement in order to stand out among competitors. Connecting stories across geographical levels and cooperating with other tourism entities are also recommended to attract visitors interested in immersive travel experiences.

1. Photo by CoolBieRe ™
Enhancing Competitiveness and
Attractiveness of Rural Sustainable
tourism through Digital Storytelling
Final Conference December 2011
Trentino Italy
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Rural and sustainable: A type of tourism that’s on the “long tale” which means it’s not receiving the mainstream tourist like
mass destinations do. Initiatives in this sector are often less: equipped, organized, online wired, little advanced and capital
powerful, their their urban/commercial/larger scale counterparts.
And than to take into account sustainable tourism is still only 7% of the global tourism market.

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How can storytelling be relevant in strengthening the position of smaller scaled rural tourism? And bring more capital in
to stimulate development of the sector.

3. Listen to the voice
of villages
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The project has a powerful name: listen to the voice of villages. But in order to hear them, you need to speak. And when
you speak.. how are your going to make sure people are listening?

4. Shout out loud?
By Jerry Ting
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Imagine your an agriturismo. You could invest in your marketing. But your resources are limited.

5. Shout different?
By Jerry Ting
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You have a fantastic story, but it remains the best kept secret of the region.

6. Let others shout?
By Damian Davalos
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you can stimulate affiliates to promote you, but how?

7. Shout together?
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You combine powers: create an group, cooperation or association.

8. But who
will hear you?
By Nikographer [Jon]
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But there is so much noise these days. And less attention. Who will hear you?

9. How to stand out?
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How to stand out the crowd? How to distinguish yourself?

10. Caspar Diederik
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My name is Caspar Diederik. I’m the co-founder of StoryTravelers. I’m specialized in finding stories, translate them into visual
digital stories that travel throughout the internet to attract travelers.

11. 38% of total travel
sales occur online,
compared with 6% for
retail
90% of the major
travel brands report
that social media was
a top destination site
The average online
consumer visits 20
sites before making a
Source: travel purchase
Travolution
Oct 2011
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I’ll start with the DIGITAL of Digital Storytelling.
Just a quick overview of the latest numbers of significance in the land of online travel, derived from a global research of
the global online travelmarket conducted by Travolution. No news, but maybe a wake upcall urging the online strong
presence of whoever wants get a slice of the online travel pie.
38% of total travel sales occur online, compared with 6% for retail. Make yourself easy traceable and bookable online.
Sounds superfluous, but still many rural destinations leave their to wish for and are not even easy to book. Connect to
partners, bookingsites, touroperators and other affiliates, THAT ALREADY HAVE ESTABLISHED NETWORKS.
90% of the major travel brands report that social media was a top destination site after visiting their site. So you might
have a great site, but without being part of the conversation online your nowhere.
The average online consumer visits 20 sites before making a travel purchase. Suppose you’re lucky to be on one of
these 20 sites. Then still little chance this person chooses you? What makes them choose for you?

12. Get connected
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Get your infrastructure sorted. People search, get inpired, recommend and book online, more and more. This trend is
expected to continue increasing dramatically in the next few years.
Connecting to networks that are already established is a must to connect with the outer world.

13. WHY SHOULD PEOPLE COME AND VISIT YOU
IN THE FIRST PLACE?
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Suppose you’ve done all that. You’re now have a great site, you’re wired, active on social and connected to affiliates.
You’ve developed your infrastructure. But now the content! So the big question remains: “WHY SHOULD PEOPLE
COME AND VISIT YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE?”
Did you know that most places don’t even have a decent answer on that? Try and ask it yourself.

14. NO! Not because people are intrigued by your ads, cheap
offers, photos of empty rooms, the idea of just another
place.
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Have you noticed that 9 out of 10 hotels, do NOT share interesting stories? No? just a little test. Go to google: type in
“Hotel” combined with the place you were born: then take the last digit of you age (I’m 32 so I take 2) and go to the
corresponding googlepage and take the last link of the page. Find the site of the first hotel mentioned. Is there a story
that inspres you. I bet not. But it shouldn’t be that difficult, should it?

15. YES! Because people are intrigued by your WOW story,
that triggers the wish to come and live that unique
experience themselves.
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16. Stories
RULE
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A good story might be the most powerful potential that you have. Now it only needs to be told.

17. 66% are influenced by
user reviews
72% of social media
users access social
networking sites while
they are travelling,
52% of Facebook
users said their
friends’ photos
Source: inspired their holiday
Travolution
Oct 2011
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66% are influenced by user reviews. Though, reviews are often not stories, but mentions about the clean bathroom or the
dog that barked annoyingly at night. These details are not making your place unique, but get mentioned because there might
be nothing else worthwhile telling. So MAKE SURE guest writes about their story, because there’s is no other thing top of
mind!
72% of social media users access social networking sites while they are travelling, according to Tripl, the social travel service
Remember many travelers don’t book their complete trip on advance but rely on information and inspiriation on the go.
Travelers acces their mobile, google and surf to find their next spot. You’d better be there.
52% of Facebook users said their friends’ photos inspired their holiday choice and travel plans, according to Tripl:
So the better stories your guests find the more interesting will their visual stories on Facebook will be.

18. Why Stories Work
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What is all this buzz about storytelling? Haven’t we been doing that for ages?
Yes! and that’s exactly why it’s so powerful. It’s in our system, we know it we love it. The only thing that has changed
dramatically is how a story reaches us and how us and how a story is told.

19. They engage people,
bring understanding
They can evolve
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Stories make people understand your place or idea because a story is like experiencing your own life. So a story enables
you to give meaning to what happens and how elements relates to one another.

20. ..trigger
emotion and
intrigue
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Because we humans are empatic (also a lot to say we’re NOT, but that’s another discussion.) Let’s say our ability to
empathize makes us able to identify with a story and experience our emotions getting triggered.

21. ..have a theme, plot, characters, action
..and when
meaningful,
they are memorable
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Try to memorize 5 random chosen objects and see if you remeber them next week. You’ll see that it way more difficult
than memorize the 5 places you visited on your last trip. Because every single object now has a connection and follows
the chronological story in which the trip unfolded.

22. When stories work?
Simple Idea
Unexpectedness
Concreteness
Credibility
Emotion
Story
Source:
Made to Stick
Chip and Dan Heath
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• Simple — find the core of any idea
• Unexpected — grab people's attention by surprising them
• Concrete — make sure an idea can be grasped and remembered later
• Credible — give an idea believability
• Emotional — help people see the importance of an idea
• Stories — empower people to use an idea through narrative

23. When stories work?
Simple Idea
Unexpectedness
Concreteness
Credibility
Emotion
Story
Source:
Made to Stick
Chip and Dan Heath
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From Made to Stick: Chip and Dan Heath: The book's outline follows the acronym "SUCCES"

24. An example of a surprising story: POMODORI a
Biological Tomatoes that grow on classical music.
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Here an example of a story that I made at an old sicilian defense castle turned into a pleasant oase of wine and dining. I
discovered the story by chance wandering oround the premises. They appeared togrow their pomodori tomatoes on
classical music. See for yourself if you can apply the S.U.C.C.E.S. factors.

25. Fattoria
La Vialla
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La vialla, a vivid example of rural storytelling. Succesful, fully booked and expanding their services throughout europe: their
webshop of typical products does magic. On their home page you immediately get a grasp of their world. By the simple use
of an overview picture. From here you can dive deeper into the experience. For instance they have a CO2 balance meter to
monitor their emission/ compensation balance of carbondioxide and the way they manage that.

26. They live
their story
and carry it out
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The Fattoria is a Meta story where you can dive into different experiences through videos. From the production of pecorino to
how they cultivate biological crops.

27. Talk value:
make others
share your story
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Although they carry out their story very well themselves, it remains to others having the conversation. They only provide for a
reason to conversate: talk value.

28. Practical tips
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Ok. But concretely. What can I do to start today?

29. Tips:
Staff, Visitors, Locals,
Local touroperators
are your storytellers: facilitate them
Give a reason
to talk about
Find &Offer
Stories to guests
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Staff, Visitors, Locals, Local touroperators are your storytellers: listen to them and facilitate them to carry it out!
Reckognize your stories. Ask different eyes to back you up, as you might have become blind for what’s actually so special
about your place.
Offer stories! Turn your stories into an experience. Maybe it’s your old neighbour that could do a workshop of how to
make beer of grassroot
Equip, Empower, help and reward people share their story. See what happens if you give someone a camera.

30. Connect
stories
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Last but not least:
Work together: Connect stories! Your story is not isolated, but connected with otherss. It is part of a meta story, a world
with a lot of entry points. A story of an significant other can lead to your story.
A platform or cooperation is a must. Don’t do it alone

31. Multi Region
Level
Valley
Village
Home
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People don’t travel 1000 k because you serve nice pasta or a great garden. People travel 1000 km to dive into a world of
stories. So connect to more geographical levels than the gate of your front door. The beautiful old pasta factory 50k’s away is
also part of your world.

32. Get wired now!
Find for WOW stories
Visualize and Digitalize them
Engage your storytellers
Link and Work together
Look further than your front gate
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Get wired now!
Find for WOW stories
Visualize and Digitalize them
Engage your storytellers
Link and Work together
Look further than your front gate

33. +39 3281 274 737
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