Why is it important to keep up with strategic intelligence?

There are certainly a thousand and one good reasons to incorporate strategic watch also known as business intelligence into your schedule. Here are three.

1- Boosting  your  creativity and that of your team

The advent of the Internet and information technology has accelerated the pace of innovation in organizations. Today, consumers are connected, have numerous experiences and share them with a multitude of people. It is no longer possible to continue doing things the way they have always been done, without question.

Boosting creativity within teams is an important issue for many organizations. Keeping you up to date with trends and best practices in your sector and competitors allows you to draw on a variety of ideas that will broaden your thinking and stimulate your imagination for your current projects. And since good ideas can arise from any level of the organization, strategic intelligence should not be a management-only activity.

2- Staying on the lookout for opportunities

It is important for any organization to listen to the preferences of its target customers and to identify any behavioural changes that could affect its business. Beyond consumer trends, strategic intelligence can also allow you to identify potential partners for your projects, grant and assistance programs to which you may be eligible, regulatory changes, etc.

3- Developing your skills and those of your team

The tourism industry is made up mainly of SMEs and the workforce in these organizations is usually required to combine several roles and tasks. In addition, tourism training is rather general. If this is your case, your team will benefit from deepening their knowledge and skills depending on the assignments you entrust them. In some areas such as marketing, tools and trends are evolving rapidly. It is therefore important to keep these skills up to date.

Our advices 

Here are our expert tips for putting in place an effective strategic watch. ‍

1- Make a list of sources to follow 

As you compile your list, look for sources that are relevant to your sector, your areas of expertise and your target markets. General sources on tourism news or trends are a good start. You will find a selection of topics that could impact you directly or indirectly. Some examples: 

• TourismExpress (Available in French only)
• Réseau de veille en tourisme (Available in French only)
• Etourisme.info (Available in French only)
• TouriScope's Insights page :) 

Industry-specific sources are more focused basis of inspiration for trends and best practices that are often directly applicable to your reality. Some examples: 

• HRI Mag 
• Hospitality Net 
• Museum Next 
• PAX News 

Specialized sources in a field of expertise will allow you to acquire or maintain your skills in certain areas. Some examples: 

• Marketing, Gonzo Marketing's blog (Available in French only)
• Human resources management, such as the CQRHT (Available in French only) 

Your tourism associations will provide information about their ongoing marketing campaigns, assistance programs you may be eligible for, tools and training that may be helpful to you, and much more. 

- Your destination management organizations (Destination Canada, the Quebec Tourism Industry Alliance, your RTA, etc.) 

- Your sectorial tourism association 

Local and regional mainstream media often talk about interesting local initiatives that are not covered by other sources. On the other hand, they are often drowned out by other current issues. 

*Pro Tip: Consider including local news sources, as well as others that will inform you about your main markets (French Canada, the U.S., France, etc.).

 2- Subscribe to RSS feeds when possible 

Many websites allow you to subscribe to their RSS feed, which means receiving new content continuously. To subscribe, you need an RSS aggregator, which will gather content from all your sources and present it to you on one page. The TouriScope team uses Feedly as an aggregator. Accessible by an Internet browser or as an app for tablets and mobile phones, its free features allow for an efficient watch. 

In particular, you can:

• Add new sources from Feedly, 
• Organize your sources by theme or topic,
• Access a preview of the articles,
• Save the articles you're interested in and organize them into boards.

3- Subscribe to newsletters 

Unfortunately, not all relevant sources offer the RSS feed option. Subscribe to newsletters from sources that you can't follow via RSS feeds. 

4- Keyword on search engines and social networks 

To complement your RSS and newsletters subscriptions, you can compile a short list of keywords to search on search engines such as Google or social networks. For example, you might want to follow more closely the subject of agritourism, cultural tourism, etc. For this, you can use your search engine's “News” feature. Google also allows you to set alerts for those keywords so that you receive the news right in your inbox. 

We recommend that you set aside a moment each day or week to consult your RSS aggregator and the newsletters received. This will give you the satisfying feeling of being in control of your time, as a task performed all at once is more efficient than an interrupted one. 

You can also delegate this task to someone in the organization who will then be in charge of circulating the most relevant articles to share knowledge and stimulate creativity in the whole team. 

Our business intelligence service

If, despite our advice, you still lack the time to complete a strategic watch, know that we offer this service. We can prepare weekly newsletters for example, consisting of regrouped articles or accompanied by parallel analysis linking them to your reality. We can also write exclusive analysis for your needs, based on trends observed during these watches.

To find out more, contact us and it will be our pleasure to help you.

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