Tourism Marketing That Works: How to Launch a Holiday Rewards Campaign
- Andrew Applebaum
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
It’s that time of year again (and I don’t mean the holidays, I mean the budget panic). You know the feeling: you need to drive visitor spending and engagement for a busy season, but your old-school advertising is draining the budget faster than a leaky faucet (trust me, I’ve been there). Traditional print ads and radio spots just don’t give you the clear, trackable data you need to report back on tourism marketing ROI.
The constant challenge is proving that your investments result in measurable foot traffic and economic uplift for your destination. We need campaigns that are not only fun for the visitor but also deliver hard data for the stakeholders.
The most effective solution, especially for seasonal activations, is a digital rewards campaign. By gamifying a holiday experience, you transform a passive activity (like driving around to see lights) into an active, measurable treasure hunt that directly benefits local businesses. This high-impact, low-lift strategy is exactly what you need to revitalize your efforts. And it’s much easier than you think to get started.
Why is Digital Gamification Essential for Tourism Marketing?
The best way to increase your campaign ROI is to tie your marketing success directly to visitor action and verifiable data capture. A digital rewards campaign does this by requiring a measurable interaction (like a physical check-in or a scavenger hunt completion within a self-guided tour app) before a visitor can earn a prize.
This strategy shifts your spending from vague brand awareness to clear, action-based results. Look at the Town of Sussex, which combined their annual holiday lights walking tour with gamification and rewards. They saw over 3,500 participants in just 30 days—all driven by a simple, interactive incentive. This shows that people love participating when they can discover something new and have a chance to win a prize.
What’s the Best Way to Launch a Holiday Rewards Campaign?
A successful seasonal rewards campaign doesn't require extra staff or a massive budget. It just needs a clear focus, a flexible mobile platform, and an enticing reward structure. Follow this simple plan to get your program off the ground and support shop local initiatives.
1. Choose Your Theme and Your Action
A seasonal theme makes your campaign timely and relevant. For the holidays, this often means lights, local shopping, or winter-themed cultural tourism elements.
Holiday Lights Tour: Ask people to visit 5–10 publicly-viewable lighting displays and check in at a specific GPS location.
"Shop Local" Scavenger Hunt: Partner with 10–15 small businesses and place a hidden QR code or object in their window. Visitors must find and submit the codes to earn points toward a reward.
(Keep the action simple—you want everyone to be able to participate without friction.)
2. Select Your Prizes and Promotion
The prize is the fuel for your campaign. It needs to be enticing enough to motivate visitors to go out and engage.
Tiered Rewards: Use a mix of small and large rewards to keep engagement high. For example, a sticker or branded pin for the first check-in, and an entry into a draw for a $500 local gift card for a completed tour.
Local Gift Cards: Prioritize gift cards to local businesses. This directly funnels the prize money back into your community, boosting economic impact where it’s needed most.
Promotion: Use social media ads and posters at key hubs. Make sure the mechanics are immediately clear: "Download the App, Visit 5 Spots, Win X."
Pro Tip: The best rewards programs use a mobile platform that handles the check-in and tracking automatically, freeing up your team to focus only on promotion and prize fulfillment.
3. Measure and Report Your Success
This is the core value proposition for DMOs. We use the platform data to report on hard evidence that proves the campaign worked.
A dedicated digital tourism platform (like Driftscape) allows you to move away from guesswork. In Bruce County, their gamified rewards app drove 18,000+ visits and 1,300+ downloads with no extra staffing. If you want to dive deeper into that kind of measurable success, check out our guide on tour gamification strategy. That clear, measurable result is what makes this strategy the future of modern tourism marketing.
To see how other destinations are succeeding with these digital models, explore resources from organizations like Destination Canada.
The shift to experiential and measurable campaigns isn't just a trend; it's a strategic necessity. Why rely on expensive, untrackable advertising when you could be building an interactive, sticky experience that directly benefits your local economy?
If you’re ready to run a seasonal campaign that gives you the data you need and the engagement you crave, now is the time to start planning for your next big win in tourism marketing.
Book a demo, and explore the platform that makes these campaigns possible.
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