#30 Your visitors are not looking for a destination. They are looking to accomplish something.

When we talk about tourism, we often think of places, landscapes, and monuments. Yet, what your visitors are really looking for isn't just a destination. They want to accomplish something. They want to have an experience that meets their deepest needs, whether functional, emotional, or social. This is where Alexander Osterwalder's Value Proposition Canvas, adapted to the local area, reveals valuable insights that traditional marketing never captures.

In this article, I invite you to discover how this approach can transform your tourism strategy, using Chamonix as a concrete example. You will see how understanding your visitors' "jobs-to-be-done" allows you to identify their real expectations, their pain points, and how to address them effectively.

Panoramic view of Chamonix with snow-capped mountains

Understand the real needs of your visitors with the Value Proposition Canvas

The Value Proposition Canvas is a simple yet powerful tool. It allows you to focus on what customers, or in our case, visitors to a region, truly want. Rather than selling a place, you sell a solution to a need.

For a tourist destination, this means understanding:

• Jobs-to-be-done : what visitors are looking to accomplish.

• Pain : what hinders or frustrates them.

• The gains : what satisfies or delights them.

  
  

This method goes far beyond traditional criteria such as scenic beauty or infrastructure quality. It explores the deep, often invisible motivations that drive visitors to choose a destination.

The jobs-to-be-done of Chamonix visitors

Let's take the example of Chamonix, an iconic Alpine destination. By applying the Value Proposition Canvas, we can identify four main jobs that visitors seek to accomplish:

• To experience a high-level (functional) sporting event

Chamonix is a destination for mountain sports enthusiasts. They want to push their limits, practice mountaineering, skiing, and trail running in an exceptional setting.

• Disconnecting from daily urban life (emotional)

The city, the stress, the routine: visitors seek to escape, to breathe, to regain mental balance.

• Share your adventure on social media

Today, the tourist experience also involves sharing. Showing one's exploits, discoveries, and emotions on Instagram or Facebook is an integral part of travel.

• Passing on values to one's children (deep emotional connection)

Many come with their families to pass on a love of nature, values of respect for the environment, and to create strong shared memories.

These jobs are all levers for building a tourism offer that truly speaks to visitors.

The main problem: traffic congestion

Despite these advantages, Chamonix suffers from a major problem: traffic congestion. This congestion creates an immediate dissonance with the promise of alpine freedom. Imagine: you come seeking fresh air, nature, and tranquility, and you find yourself stuck in a traffic jam.

This frustration spoils the experience and is a major obstacle to visitor satisfaction. It's a crucial point to consider in the attraction strategy.

Aerial view of the traffic congestion at the entrance to Chamonix

Chamonix Fit Score: 74/100

By combining tasks to be completed and pain levels, a Fit Score is obtained. For Chamonix, it is 74 out of 100. This means that the destination generally lives up to its promises. It meets functional, emotional, and social expectations well.

But it loses points at the finish line, due to congestion and other irritants related to accessibility and flow management.

This score is not a fatal flaw. It's a starting point for building a strategy that improves the overall experience.

How can these insights be transformed into a strategy?

This is precisely where the strategy begins. Understanding what your visitors truly want allows you to:

• Prioritize the actions that will have the most impact.

• Create tailored offers that meet real needs.

• Communicate effectively by speaking the language of the visitors.

  
  

For example, reducing traffic congestion is a priority for Chamonix. But services that facilitate active transportation, or that enrich the sporting and family experience, can also be promoted.

Concrete examples of services adapted to these needs

To illustrate, here are two services that fit perfectly into this logic:

• Electric and shared shuttle service

This type of service reduces congestion, facilitates access to sports venues, and improves the quality of life for visitors. It directly addresses the primary pain point while reinforcing the promise of freedom.

• Mobile apps for sports and family support

These apps offer tailored routes, advice, and challenges to take on with family or friends. They support the goal of having a sporting experience and passing on values.

These services are not gimmicks. They are concrete responses to the deep expectations of visitors.

Close-up view of an electric shuttle in the mountains

Why is this approach essential for your territory?

Because it allows you to break free from the traditional framework of tourism marketing. You're no longer selling a place, but a complete experience. You're no longer simply showing images, you're responding to needs.

This creates a stronger relationship with your visitors. They feel understood and listened to, which increases their satisfaction and loyalty.

In summary

Your visitors aren't looking for a destination. They're looking to accomplish something. The Value Proposition Canvas helps you understand these deep-seated needs, identify the pain points that ruin the experience, and build an offer that delivers on its promises.

For Chamonix, this means promoting the sporting experience, disconnection, social sharing and family transmission, while solving car congestion.

It is from this understanding that you can build a solid, innovative and sustainable attractiveness strategy.

If you wish to take this approach further, feel free to explore solutions such as electric shuttles or sports coaching apps. They perfectly embody this new way of thinking about tourism.

I encourage you to think about what your visitors are truly trying to achieve. And to build your offering around those needs. This is the key to standing out in an increasingly competitive tourism world.

To learn more about how to adopt these strategies and integrate artificial intelligence into your territorial marketing, contact L'Agence Alps, your reference partner.