Tourism Marketing Agency Wins Prestigious Skift IDEA Award for Best Creative Partner to the Tour and Activity Sector.
Skift has just announced its 2022 winners for the prestigious IDEA Awards and Scottish-based agency, The Tourism Marketing Agency (TMA), has won Best Creative Partner for our work supporting the tour, activity, and experience sector during the pandemic.
The pandemic hit the tourism sector hard. Director Chris Torres and his team at TMA saw the need to offer free help and guidance to the many tour operators worried about the future of their own businesses and livelihoods.
When lockdowns began, TMA itself lost over 20 clients within the space of a week; Torres recognised the extent of the emergency and saw the need for the tour sector to come together to support each other.
During the early stages of the pandemic, Chris and his team provided over a hundred hours of free consultations to any tour operator who required assistance — most of these businesses were not paying clients. Off the back of these consultations, TMA then created a free book called ‘The Coronavirus Battle Plan: Marketing Through the Crisis’ to offer guidance to the industry on how to keep their businesses alive.
Following this, TMA then produced a free 200+ page in-depth market research report called, ‘The Tours & Activities Marketing Battle Plan 2021’ which surveyed over 2000 consumers, asking them how they planned to travel in a post-covid world. Both of these books and the consultations proved invaluable to many of the tour and activity providers who read them.
“When the pandemic hit, we were all worried. We did not know how long it would last or if there would still be a sector to go back to. I heard from so many operators who were frightened of surviving during one of the worst times in my lifetime, so I only saw fit to create something that would bring us all together and support each other as much as possible.” – Chris Torres
This support included weekly online gatherings to provide support for one another as well as telling inspiring stories through Torres’ podcast, The Digital Tourism Show.
On winning the award Torres said, “I have to admit, I find awards nothing more than something to rub your ego with, but the nature of this award, and coming from Skift, really does mean a lot to me and my team at TMA who worked tirelessly to help support the sector we love.”
