Best Practices for Tours and Activities: Marketing Lists

In our GDPR series, we explore the impact that these new regulations will have on tour and activity operators.

Best Practices for Tours and Activities GDPR 2018 Series:

Part 1: GDPR and the Travel Industry

Part 2: Data Collection and Privacy

Part 3: Marketing Consent

Part 4: Marketing Lists

Part 5: Policies and Processes

Part 6: Data Retention

Part 7: Workforce Data

Part 8: Privacy by Website Design

Big data has meant big business for tour and activity operators, who rely on this data in order to grow their customer base and market to the audience that is most interested in their services. Now, GDPR is changing the data collection game for a lot of tour and activity operators. These new regulations went into effect on May 25, 2018, and they apply to any business within the European Union or to any business who completes transactions with European Union residents.

Marketing lists are one area in which the GDPR can have a significant impact, and our most recent installment in our GDPR series provides you with the information you need to know.

What are Marketing Lists?

Marketing lists are any lists that you have collected that include customer data and that are used for marketing purposes. The most common form of marketing lists are e-mail lists. For many tour and activity operators, their ever-growing list of customer e-mail addresses is one of their most valuable assets. These lists are used to stay in communication with past customers, with customers that showed interest via the website and potential customers who have interacted with the brand online. Not only do you have to remain in compliance with GDPR when collecting contact information, such as e-mail addresses, but you also have to make sure that any third party providers of marketing lists also are in compliance with the new regulations.

Tour and Activity Operator Best Practices for Marketing Lists

Begin evaluating your existing marketing lists. In addition to all new lists you create, all existing lists must be in compliance with the new regulations. Under GDPR, you may be required to prove when, where and how you collected the contact information that you have, and you must be able to prove that you have permission to distribute marketing materials to those individuals via their e-mail.
In order to verify that you are in compliance, send out an opt-in e-mail to your marketing lists in order to get their expressed written consent to continue distributing materials to them. You will need to remove anyone from your list who does not give you clear, affirmative consent.
Reach out to all third party providers to make sure that they are now in compliance with the new GDPR laws. If they are not, do not use any contact information that they provide you with. This puts you at risk of being penalized under the GDPR, which is going to be strictly enforced via a new agency.

In all likelihood, the size of your marketing lists will dwindle as you begin to comply with these regulations. However, you will likely maintain the most valuable contact information through those who provide you with expressed written consent.

For the most up-to-date information about the GDPR and how it will impact your tour and activity business, continue to follow the Rezdy blog. We are publishing a series of articles about the new regulations and providing tour and activity operators with the best practices for remaining in compliance.