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The travel industry is far-reaching and involves all aspects of tourist experiences, including airfare, resorts, experiences, and local businesses. Although it is difficult to define the economic impact of travel, it is estimated to contribute 5.8 billion dollars to the global GDP.
Travel is not just a lucrative business function but also a core component of countries’ economic playbooks. Needless to say, marketing for the travel industry is particularly important, as it leads to localized economic growth.
What Is Travel and Tourism Marketing?
Simply put, marketing in the travel and tourism industry is about motivating people to travel. Several sectors are involved in tourism, and each has its own way of marketing. Resorts, for example, have different marketing strategies than car rentals, and airlines have different marketing strategies than cruises. Each segment shares the common thread of empowering customers to have fulfilling experiences.
As travel is a traditional market, it is not limited to just online channels to reach potential customers — it is a mainstay in television commercials, radio advertisements, out-of-home banners, pop-up events, and local agencies.
Online, brands use a mixture of social media, email campaigns, and paid advertising to reach potential customers. No matter what channel you choose to market on, what’s important is to understand your target audience and what motivates them to travel.
Steps To Create A Travel Marketing Strategy
1. Define your target audience and goals.
Travel means something different for everyone, particularly across age demographics, and a one-size-fits-all approach is not practical. To create a successful travel marketing campaign, it's essential to start by defining your target audience and objectives. It would help if you considered demographics, interests, and behaviors — particularly which social channels they are most inclined to use. This allows you to tailor your messaging and content to reach them effectively.
2. Develop your content strategy.
The next step is to develop your content strategy. It should align with your goals and target audience and ultimately differentiate your brand from others, as many tourism staples are highly competitive — think hotels and resorts, where each has subtle differences in amenities. Visually appealing and engaging content can help you strike a chord with your audience, especially by using video, which will help them picture themselves in the moment.
3. Implement and measure your strategy.
The last step is to put your strategy into action. Measurement is important, and KPIs such as click-through rates, conversion, and engagement can help you determine how your advertisements work. Moving forward, you can make data-driven adjustments to optimize your strategies and improve your results.
Tips for Travel Marketing
Social media marketing in the travel industry has a lot of nuances, so here are some tips to help you get your strategy organized, particularly in the modern world of marketing where social media has uncapped reach, and quality content will allow your brand to be seen by significantly more people.
- Know your audience: Understanding your target audience is vital in developing effective marketing campaigns. Research generational trends, interests, and primary motivators for travel and use this information to create content that resonates with them.
- Use evocative visuals: Social media is a highly visual medium, so it's important to use high-quality, visually appealing images and videos to showcase your travel offerings and paint a portrait of your customer's experience.
- Use user-generated content to your advantage: Encourage your customers to share their experiences on social media. UGC acts as testimonials in this industry, which is a key stamp of approval for your brand and helps build credibility with casual viewers.
- Focus on storytelling: Travel is all about experiences, so use storytelling techniques to bring your brand to life on social media. Share stories from customers and fun anecdotes that resonate with your audience.
- Leverage influencer and creator marketing: Travel influencers are a brand staple, and many build careers around marketing experiences. Partnering with creators and the best travel accounts can boost your brand's visibility and reach new audiences.
- Use paid social media advertising: Social media advertising can be a highly effective way to target specific audiences and increase brand awareness. Use targeted ads to reach your desired demographic and drive traffic to your brand.
- Build community and engage with your followers: Social media is a two-way street, so be sure to engage with your followers by responding to comments and sharing quality UGC. Building a social media community can help grow connections with your followers which will ensure your brand is top-of-mind when making travel arrangements.
- Use Instagram Stories: On the topic of community engagement, Instagram Stories is a powerful tool for showcasing your travel offerings and engaging with your audience. Use features like Instagram polls, quizzes, and questions to encourage interaction with your followers and keep your brand at the top of their feeds.
- Share behind-the-scenes content: Sharing behind-the-scenes content can help to give your audience an inside look at your brand and show them what they can experience on their travels. A social channel like BeReal is perfect for sharing this type of authentic behind-the-scenes content.
- Analyze your results: Track your performance using social media data tools, and use this data to optimize your campaigns and improve your results over time.
The Future of Travel and Tourism Marketing
Social media’s convergence with the entertainment industry has completely shifted travel marketing, opening more opportunities than ever. Short-form video does a much better job of showcasing experiences than static images. Prospective travelers love to see point-of-view footage and candid experiences, which are more authentic than a picture of a person posing. The brands that will succeed in this sector moving forward will be the ones that understand the role entertainment plays in advertising, and use it to their advantage in forming deeper connections with their audience.
Travel Marketing With Dash Hudson
Dash Hudson has every tool marketers need for advertising on social, including Community Management, Campaign Reporting (including cross-channel metrics and comparisons), influencer relationships, content optimization, and of course, Scheduling. You can start a free trial immediately and see how you can take your travel marketing to the next level.
FAQs
Why is marketing important in the travel industry?
The travel industry is highly competitive, so marketing is particularly important because it is how brands can differentiate themselves and boldly proclaim their advantage. Ultimately, customers won’t book trips unless they know about your brand, so building awareness and market share are important.
What are the 7 P’s of tourism marketing?
- Product: the travel product or experience being offered.
- Price: the cost of the product or experience.
- Place: the destination or location.
- Promotion: the marketing and advertising used to promote the product or experience.
- People: the staff and customer service representatives involved.
- Process: the procedures and operations.
- Physical evidence: the tangible elements that contribute to the customer's experience, such as the accommodation, transportation, and amenities.
What are the 5 A’s of tourism?
- Attraction: the natural or constructed features that draw in tourists.
- Accommodation: the options for travelers to lodge with.
- Accessibility: the ease with which visitors can reach the destination, which is important to be upfront about.
- Activities: the things to do and see in the destination, including cultural offerings and entertainment.
- Amenities: the services and facilities that enhance the visitor experience, such as shops and restaurants.
