tour and travel marketing strategy

The 8-Step Tourism Marketing Strategy (Free Template)

By Erick Tomaliwan

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You should never leave your marketing up to chance. 

Sure, it’s important to be nimble to changing conditions, such as tourism marketing trends , algorithm updates, employee churn, and evolving technology. But if you’re always throwing tactics at the wall to see what sticks, you’ll likely waste resources, fall behind your competitors, and miss out on future opportunities. 

Instead, it’s far better to have a well-thought-out marketing strategy in place.

Trial and error can come afterwards. 

What is a tourism marketing strategy?

A tourism marketing strategy is a structured document that outlines your current position in the marketplace, what you hope to achieve going forward, and how you’re going to make that happen.

In other words, it provides a framework, so you’re not floundering around, wondering what to do next. All while giving you a way to track your progress so that you can be confident you’re heading in the right direction. And if things change drastically, as we witnessed in 2020, you’ll always have a foundation to build off and make adjustments.    

So, are you ready to come up with a master plan? We’ll cover what goes into marketing strategies for travel and tourism, which includes a:

• SWOT Analysis
• Value Proposition
• Guest Personas
• Competitor Profiles
• Marketing Mix
• Budget & Resources
• Goals, Metrics & Activities
• Marketing Roadmap

Follow along by downloading our free 8-Step Marketing Strategy Workbook.

How to write a tourism marketing plan, 1. run a swot analysis.

A SWOT analysis is a fun exercise that identifies your company’s S trengths, W eaknesses, O pportunities, and T hreats. 

Strengths and Weaknesses are internal factors that you can control, like your team, resources, and location. In contrast, Opportunities and Threats are external factors that come and go randomly, leaving you with no other choice but to react and adapt — such as travel trends, economic downturns, and your competitor landscape.

To help you with this step, it’s a good idea to round up key members of your team across departments. Why? Because each representative will bring a unique perspective, allowing you to get outside of your business owner bubble. For instance, your tour guides know your guests the best and can offer insight into what they’re thinking and feeling. 

Once you have everyone together — in the same room or Zoom meeting — you can start the process. First, answer a few questions that relate to each element.  

Like for Strengths, you can ask, “what does our tour company do well?” and “what do guests like about our experiences?” Weaknesses, “what areas of the business need improvement?” and “what do our competitors do better?” As for Opportunities, “is there an underserved market we can tap into?” and Threats, “ are there new regulations that impact our business?”

Try to answer at least five questions each, and then summarize what you come up with in a 2×2 SWOT grid for a visual overview. 

2. Identify your value proposition

After doing your SWOT Analysis, you should have a general idea of your value proposition — which is a simple statement that answers why someone should book with you instead of your competitors. Essentially, it’s what sets your travel business apart based on the desirable attributes you bring to the experience.

Your value prop is the most important piece in your marketing strategy, as it dictates your messaging and ultimately serves as the first thing guests look at when evaluating your brand with the “what’s in it for me?” mindset. That’s why it should be front and center on your homepage. 

But it can be difficult narrowing down all of your unique qualities into one or two sentences. So, your best bet is to compile a list of features and benefits, along with the emotional value for each, and see if there are any obvious patterns.

Looking at the example above, you can see there’s a trend towards a local experience, so the value proposition for this company could be something along the lines of: Experience Hanalei Bay the local way with a paddleboard that looks nothing like a rental.

3. Create a guest persona

If you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll wind up appealing to no one. That’s probably one of the biggest tourism branding mistakes. 

Instead, go after 20-35% of people most likely to enjoy your experiences. That way, you can be more effective with your targeting because you’ll understand what makes them tick, or better yet, what makes them book. 

How do you go about doing that? Create a guest persona!

What’s a guest persona?

A guest persona is a detailed description of a fictional character that represents your ideal guest. It answers who they are, where they’re from, what matters to them, and where they hang out online. 

Thinking of them as a real person before check-in will make it so much easier to craft personalized marketing messages they won’t be able to resist. Plus, you’ll know the best way to reach them. No more unanswered ads!

To create a guest persona:

• Start by combing through your booking data for common demographics like age, gender, geolocation, and language
• Refer to Facebook Audience Insights for psychographics, such as interests and hobbies, lifestyle, and online spending behaviour
• Send out a guest survey to get more details

Then, compile all of your information into a guest persona template with a stock image to put a face to the data. As well as a fun and fictional name — like Solo Travel Sarah , Corporate Catrina , or Vacation Dad Victor . 

Now, you might only require one guest persona, but if you offer multiple experiences that appeal to different types of people, like tourism products for senior citizens , it’s best to segment your guests into a few personas seeing as your marketing tactics will change accordingly.

4. Create a competitor profile

The travel industry is tight-knit, so much so that you can even turn your competitors into partners. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still keep tabs on them.

Knowing what your rivals are doing is the best way to gain a competitive edge. Not only does it give you valuable insight into their strengths and weaknesses so that you can see how you stack up, but it also helps you stay one step ahead since you can spot potential threats and opportunities before they happen.

Similar to a guest persona, you can create a profile for your top three competitors, which should include the following marketing information:

• Their value proposition
• The experiences they offer and what they charge
• Who their target audience appears to be
• Unique features and benefits they highlight
• Overall rating on review sites, along with what their guests say about them
• The social media channels they dominate and the type of content they post
• What distribution channels they rely on
• Their domain authority score and top ranking keywords (use a tool like Moz Keyword Explorer to get this information)

It doesn’t stop there. After you’ve built your competitor profiles, you can monitor what they get up to in real-time by:

• Setting up Google Alerts to track mentions of them online
• Following their social media accounts
• And subscribing to their newsletter if they have one

You can always use a fake email address or Instagram account (AKA a Finsta) if you don’t want them to know you’re spying.

5. Develop a tourism marketing mix

A tourism marketing mix is a combination of factors you can control to influence a guest’s decision to book with you. Think of it as a broad guideline for how to market travel and tours so that everything works together seamlessly. 

Historically, there are 7ps of tourism marketing, but since tourism operators are unique in the products and services they provide, we’ve stretched it to include eight. 

What is a tourism marketing mix?

The experiences you offer and what’s included. Take note of everything that would go into the product description, such as duration, itinerary, special features, and other important details. 

Where people can book your experiences. Traditionally, that would be your ticket office or travel agents, but there are now countless ways people can book — OTAs, email, chatbots, Facebook, your website. Figure out the number one place you want to direct prospects. 

The price guests will pay based on the perceived value. Factor in what your competitors charge, how much it costs you to provide the experience, your revenue target, and where the market is heading.  

4. Promotion

How you’re going to get the word out. Look at what has worked well in the past, where you already have some traction, new social media opportunities, and the best content format for your target audience. 

The people who facilitate the experience. What are the standout qualities your staff has that align with your brand? What skills do your guides have that make the experience memorable, entertaining, and informative?

6. Planning

The measures you take to keep guests in the loop. How do you ensure they show up prepared? How do you tell them about your flexible cancellation policy? Are there any tactics you use to prevent refunds? What if you have to make unwanted changes?

7. Processes

The processes you have in place to guarantee guests get the experience they expect. Everything should run smoothly from the get-go. Consider ways to shorten check-in, stay on schedule, and make them feel valued.

The physical evidence that proves your guests had the best time. This could be in the form of professional photos or merchandise. But it can also be online reviews you encourage them to write on popular platforms. 

6. Factor in budget and resources

Everyone wishes they could have marketing clout like the big-name online travel agencies. But the reality is you might never have the same budget and resources to run global campaigns. And that’s okay.

You don’t need deep pockets to make an impact. Thanks to the internet, you can use plenty of cheap marketing ideas to generate buzz around your brand. You just have to channel your creativity. 

That said, be sensible with what you take on. For example, if you want to start a blog but don’t have time to commit to a regular publishing schedule, see whether someone on your team has the skills and bandwidth. If not, it isn’t in the cards for you right now. 

So, check in with your budget for how much you can reasonably put towards various marketing activities while keeping in mind the software tools and staff you’ll need to execute successfully. 

7. Pinpoint goals, metrics, and activities

Now that you know all that you know, give yourself something to work towards by determining what you want to achieve this year and how you’re going to make it happen. We suggest starting with the arbitrary number of four goals and key activities. Why?

Because if you chase too many rabbits at once, you won’t get the results you want. Instead, it’s better to prioritize goals that make sense for your business right now. That way, you can focus on doing a few things well, rather than lots of things badly that’ll only hurt your brand in the long run, which you’ll end up having to fix later anyway.

When it comes to setting marketing goals , it’s important to be SMART . Don’t just put your finger to the wind and say, “I think we should go this way.” Your goals should be:

• S pecific: clearly explains what you want to achieve
• M easurable: has a metric you can objectively measure
• A ttainable: something you have to stretch for, but still within your reach
• R ealistic: relevant to your business and where you want to go
• T ime-bound: when you want to accomplish the goal by

Here’s an example using the SMART method: 

Increase organic website traffic 40% by the end of 2021 from getting 1000 visitors per month from Google.  

How are you going to track your progress? As you can see in the above example, the number of website visitors is the primary metric. Now, many people will tell you to steer clear of vanity metrics — like traffic, followers, and shares — because they don’t directly impact your bottom line. 

We couldn’t agree less. Marketing is about the long-game. While those metrics don’t always translate into transactions, they do strengthen brand equity, which in turn drives bookings over time because guests gravitate towards operators with extra oomph online.

The Content Marketing Institute puts it best : think of vanity metrics as optimization metrics. Instead of tying them to ROI, consider their overall value for better understanding your audience on specific channels.

For instance, if a particular social media post generates way more likes than average, it indicates something about that content resonates with your audience. You can pinpoint what that may be and replicate it in future posts or use it as a blueprint for creating effective Facebook ads . 

For each goal you set, figure out one key activity that’ll help you hit it. Don’t be afraid to think big here. By that, I mean, come up with a significant marketing project that you and your team can chip away at — more on that in the next step.

8. Plan your marketing roadmap

After you’ve assigned an activity per goal, break each one down into smaller, manageable tasks to complete from quarter to quarter. Using the example above, let’s say you decide to start a blog as your key activity.

In Q1, you’d get the ball rolling with a few foundation tasks. So, for building a blog, you might start with the following:

• Set up the blog on your website 
• Develop a content strategy
• Research topic and keyword opportunities
• Create an editorial calendar

Then, you’d build from there for Q2 and so on. 

Try starting with four tasks per activity. Unless you have a marketing team, it’s best not to bog yourself down with a marketing plan that will either a) pull your team away from other responsibilities or b) feel so overwhelming that you abandon it altogether. 

With a list of tasks, you can then organize everything onto a visual roadmap however you see fit — just so long as it includes a way to assign staff and track work progress. For instance, you can create a makeshift roadmap if you’re savvy with Google Sheets or use a project management tool like Trello and set-up a kanban board workflow. 

Where to go from here?

It’s time to go after it, of course! Just remember that your marketing strategy isn’t set in stone since anything can happen to derail your plans — as we learned the hard way in 2020. So check in with your marketing strategy workbook from time to time to make any necessary adjustments.

Ready to write down your marketing strategy and make it real?

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The ultimate travel marketing strategy guide

Discover the ultimate travel marketing tactics to succeed and stay ahead.

The importance of getting your marketing right in the travel sector is at an all-time high. Social media and influencers have helped make the world more visible than ever before. Consumers are turning to social channels as a source of inspiration. They’re hunting for the next trending destination and best travel deals.

On top of this, there has been a much-needed post-COVID travel boom. So-called ‘revenge holidays’ are in full swing and worldwide tourist arrivals are expected to reach up to  95% of pre-pandemic levels . It finally looks like things are getting back to normal and opportunities are everywhere.

But competition is growing. Standing out from the crowd is becoming increasingly difficult and keeping travelers engaged enough to complete the checkout process is a challenge.

At the same time, there are question marks over how long this travel boom will last. Staffing issues, the cost of fuel and energy, and uncertainty around the cost of living are causing concern for travelers and travel marketers alike.

In this ultimate guide, we will have a look at the current state of the travel marketing landscape and break down all the channels and tactics you need to utilize to succeed in the highly competitive sectorwere

• Travel marketing strategy
• Email marketing for travel marketers  
• Segmentation strategies
• SMS marketing for travel brands
• Marketing automation programs

6. Web personalization for travel brands 7. Push notification marketing 8. Reporting and analytics  9. AI for travel marketing 10. Integrations for travel marketers

What is travel marketing and why is it important?

People are always dreaming of their next vacation, surely that means travel brands basically sell themselves, right?

Unfortunately, not. How brands market themselves is what makes travelers choose one resort and airline over another. Travel brands must promote and sell their products, services, and experiences to customers. You need to showcase the distinctive features of your destination, accommodation, leisure activities, and travel packages to spark interest and motivate bookings.

The travel industry is vast and continuously evolving. Some of the primary types of businesses that make up the industry include:

• Train operators
• Cruise liners
• Bus companies
• Car rental agencies
• Hotels and resorts
• Bed & breakfasts (B&B)
• Vacation rentals (e.g. Airbnb, VRBO)
• Camping and glamping sites
• Travel agencies (online and offline)
• Tour operators
• Online travel agencies (OTAs)
• Travel management companies (TMCs)
• Travel insurance providers
• Guided tours and sightseeing excursions
• Adventure activities and sports (e.g. skiing, scuba diving)
• Museums, galleries, and cultural centers
• Theme parks and amusement parks
• Restaurants, bars, and cafes
• National tourism boards
• Regional and state tourism offices
• City visitor bureaus
• Travel booking and comparison sites
• Mobile applications for travel planning and navigation
• Travel review and recommendation sites (e.g. TripAdvisor)
• Metasearch engines for flights, hotels, and car rentals (e.g. Kayak, Skyscanner)

Why is marketing in the travel industry important?

Marketing is an indispensable tool for travel brands. Without it, you would struggle to achieve your business goals. Effective marketing can help you attract more customers, increase your revenue, and establish a strong brand.

What are the benefits of travel marketing?

• Increased visibility: Marketing helps significantly to increase your brand’s exposure. This ensures that potential customers are aware of the travel services and experiences you offer and boosts overall visibility in the crowded marketplace.
• Customer acquisition: A well-executed marketing campaign attracts new customers by showcasing the value and unique aspects of your travel business, ultimately driving revenue growth.
• Improved customer retention: Marketing enables your travel brand to maintain long-term relationships with your existing customers by offering personalized and contextually relevant content and engaging with them consistently across channels.
• Enhanced customer loyalty: Including loyalty programs, exclusive offers, and personalized promotions in your marketing can build customer loyalty, leading to repeat business and higher customer lifetime value (CLV).
• Competitive advantage: Innovative and targeted marketing strategies can help your travel brand stand out from the competition, positioning you as a leader and providing an advantage in a highly competitive market.
• Increased revenue: Marketing can be used to generate upselling and cross-selling opportunities, increasing the average transaction value and ultimately resulting in higher revenue.
• Improved brand reputation: Using marketing, you can manage your online presence, customer reviews, and social media engagement. This positively influences your brand reputation, driving more business from potential customers who trust and value your brand.
• Informed decision-making: Leveraging data collected through your marketing activities for analysis and insights can help your business make informed decisions about product and service offerings, and marketing strategies, allowing you to optimize your efforts and boost performance.
• Expansion into new markets: Marketing can play a critical role in identifying new potential markets, demographics, and customer segments to target, enabling you to expand your reach and tap into new growth opportunities.
• Adaptability and resilience: Marketing enables you to react quickly to unpredictable events, market trends, and competitive moves, adapting your strategies to maintain customer engagement and drive bookings while ensuring resilience in the face of challenges.

Need to know marketing statistics for the travel industry

In today’s complicated and dynamic digital world, you must do all you can to understand the intricacies of the travel industry. Using these statistics, you will be able to get a bird’s eye view of global trends, customer behavior trends, and forces that are set to drive the multibillion-dollar industry forward in the years to come.

What are the challenges of travel marketing?

Despite economic uncertainty and the lasting impact of the pandemic, the travel industry is returning to pre-pandemic levels and enjoying steady growth.

Still, airlines, hotels, travel agencies, and other travel brands across the world are facing unique challenges that set you apart from typical marketing teams. In the ever-changing world of travel marketing, you have your hands full keeping up with the latest trends and technological advancements. Below are just a few of the top challenges you’re facing on an almost daily basis and how to overcome them.

With inflation in flux and travel expenses rising, travelers now consider price to be their top priority. To connect with your audience, you should emphasize low rates and demonstrate high value. Promoting discounts, bundles, and loyalty programs will appeal to budget-conscious consumers.

As remote work, digital engagement, and eco-consciousness continue to impact customer behaviors, you need to stay on top of trends to cater to emerging segments like bleisure (business and leisure) travelers. Data-centric platforms like Dotdigital plug into CRM systems and use machine learning can help brands understand these new customer groups.

With 86% of travelers seeking personalized experiences , you need to create tailored campaigns that resonate with your audience. Data collection and integration with CRM platforms are essential for delivering enjoyable, relevant, and personalized marketing experiences.

By understanding and following emerging travel trends, you can engage with audiences throughout the whole customer journey. You need to approach the journey holistically and create a cohesive experience across channels. Tools like single customer view (SCV) and eRFM will help you get a clearer view of travelers’ behavior.

To maintain your competitive edge, you must offer a seamless, efficient experience for customers, from booking to post-break feedback. You should tap into technology to adapt to market changes. Ensuring data quality and consolidation will help you reap the full benefits of new tech advancements.

To cater to your more environmentally-conscious travelers, you need to demonstrate a genuine commitment to sustainable practices. Avoiding greenwashing and adopting eco-friendly practices help you align your campaigns with customer values and support a greener future.

How to build a successful travel marketing strategy

Building a successful travel marketing strategy involves careful planning, targeting the right audience, and effectively leveraging your various marketing channels. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a winning travel marketing strategy:

Step 1: Define your target audience

Start by clearly defining your target audience. Conduct market research to determine their demographics, preferences, and behaviors. This will help you tailor your marketing materials to resonate with this specific group and achieve better results.

Step 2: Develop a strong brand identity

Create a memorable and eye-catching brand identity that encapsulates your company’s ethos and values. This includes your company name, logo, tagline, color scheme, and visual style. Consistency across all marketing channels reinforces brand recognition and establishes trust.

Step 3: Optimize your online presence

Create a user-friendly website that provides relevant information, showcases your offerings, and guides visitors to conversions (i.e. bookings or inquiries). Ensure your website has strong SEO to improve search engine ranking. Utilize social media platforms to engage with your audience and share valuable content.

Step 4: Leverage content marketing

Produce high-quality, informative, and engaging content that inspires travelers and provides value. This could include blog articles, videos, or destination guides. Diversifying your content not only keeps your audience interested but also addresses different stages of their customer journey.

Step 5: Monitor, analyze, and adapt 

Implement analytics tools to track your marketing efforts and identify what works best. Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjust your strategy accordingly to optimize results. By continually learning from your data, you can make informed decisions and enhance your marketing effectiveness.

Boost growth with cutting-edge marketing technology

To enhance your visibility, captivate travelers, and boost bookings and inquiries, it’s essential to tap into the technology you have available. For peak success in the travel sector, you need technology that collaborates seamlessly with your existing tech solutions. 

Dotdigital’s customer experience and data platform (CXDP) delivers an array of travel marketing tools and channels through a unified, all-encompassing platform. By maximizing your technology usage, you can elevate traveler engagement, increase bookings, and optimize your travel marketing initiatives.

Email marketing for travel marketers

Email marketing is a powerful tool for the travel industry, as it enables you to reach your target audience, build lasting relationships, and drive conversions.

In this section, we’ll explore the benefits of email marketing and the essential elements of successful email marketing for travel businesses, including creating targeted campaigns, utilizing data to send personalized content, and ensuring that emails are engaging and mobile-friendly.

The benefits of email marketing for travel brands 

Email marketing is an essential tool for marketers in the travel industry for several reasons:

1. Direct communication channel

Email marketing is a direct line of communication with your target audience, allowing you to share news, updates, offers, and content straight to subscribers’ inboxes, enhancing engagement and nurturing long-term relationships.

2. Strong ROI

Compared to other forms of marketing in the travel sector, email marketing is relatively inexpensive while maintaining a high return on investment (ROI). This makes it one of the best options for travel brands looking to reach large audiences or target specific segments without breaking the bank.

3. Personalization capabilities

Email marketing enables you to create perfectly personalized content and offers based on your subscriber’s demographics, preferences, and travel or engagement history. Ultimately, personalization leads to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as your audience feels catered to and valued by your brand.

4. Behavioral targeting

With email marketing campaigns, you can track various metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, allowing a better understanding of travelers’ behaviors and preferences. This valuable information can be utilized to optimize future campaigns, ensuring better audience targeting and fostering long-term customer relationships.

5. Urgency and exclusivity

You can use email marketing to create a sense of urgency through time-sensitive offers, limited promotions, and exclusive deals, encouraging customers to book their travel or upgrade reservations.

6. Increased customer retention

By regularly sending informative content, helpful resources, and engaging promotions through email marketing campaigns, you will nurture customer loyalty and increase repeat bookings over time.

7. Relevance and timeliness

Email campaigns can be triggered based on specific events or customer actions, ensuring that the content is relevant and timely as per each individual’s needs. This could include sending reminder emails about upcoming trips or limited-time promotions resulting in better engagements and more conversions. 

Email marketing best practice for travel marketers 

Travel marketers can employ these best practices to create effective and engaging email campaigns:

Write catchy and enticing subject lines to increase open rates. Make your subject line relevant to the email’s content, and ensure it resonates with your target audience. Tap into the power of generative AI to really save time and improve results. 

Personalize your email campaigns by using the recipient’s first name and providing recommendations, content, or offers based on their preferences, travel history, or demographics.

Divide your subscribers into targeted segments based on factors such as geographical location, interests, booking history, or language, and send tailored content that appeals to each segment’s unique attributes.

Embed high-quality images and videos of destinations, accommodations, or activities to inspire and evoke emotions, leading to higher engagement levels.

Make your CTAs clear, concise, and visually emphasized, directing subscribers toward the desired action, such as visiting a web page, booking a travel package, or redeeming special offers.

Ensure that your email template is mobile-friendly, with easy-to-read text and a clean layout, as a large portion of your audience will likely read your emails on mobile devices.

Aim to provide valuable, informative, and engaging content that relates to the interests and needs of your subscribers, building trust and fostering lasting customer relationships.

A/B test various elements of your emails, such as subject lines, send times, layout, or content, to determine what generates higher engagement and conversions. Continuously optimize your campaigns based on the insights gained from these tests.

Keep track of key email marketing metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and identify areas for improvement.

Regularly review and clean your email list, removing inactive subscribers or outdated addresses to improve deliverability and maintain a high-quality mailing list.

Segmentation strategies for travel marketers

Segmentation is a crucial tactic for all marketers, but none more so than marketers in the travel sector. It involves dividing your target audience into distinct groups based on their preferences, demographics, or behaviors.

Implementing a segmentation strategy allows you to create highly targeted marketing campaigns that resonate better with each group, ultimately driving higher customer engagement and conversions.

Top five benefits of segmentation

1. targeted marketing messages.

Segmentation allows you to tailor your marketing messages and content to specific segments, resulting in greater relevance, customer engagement, and conversion rates.

2. Improved customer experience

Offering personalized content, recommendations, and offers based on segmentation fosters a better customer experience, deepening brand loyalty, and strengthening long-term relationships.

3. Resource allocation

By focusing marketing resources on specific customer segments, you can effectively allocate your budget, time, and efforts, ensuring maximum impact for your marketing activities. eRFM customer modeling will help you identify highly engaged, high-value customers to prioritize.

4. Increased ROI

Using segmentation, you can build tailored campaigns designed to appeal to different groups, resulting in higher response rates and, ultimately, an increased return on marketing investment.

5. Market insights

Segmentation provides insights into your customer preferences and behaviors, helping you identify new market opportunities, improvement areas, or trends that can inform marketing strategy.

Top tips for implementing a segmentation strategy

Collect customer data from various sources, such as website behavior, booking history, survey responses, third-party travel partners, and CRM systems, and unify them to build a comprehensive understanding of your audience.

Utilize Dotdigital’s advanced segmentation tools, including eRFM (engagement, recency, frequency, monetary) modeling and single customer view (SCV) data. These features allow you to achieve more precise targeting and improved insights into customer behavior.

Develop content and promotional offers that resonate with the specific needs, desires, and pain points of each segment. Personalized marketing messages have a higher chance of engaging and converting customers. Use the data collected from Dotdigital’s eRFM and SCV features to inform these strategies.

Ensure that appropriate marketing channels are used for each segment. Different customer groups may prefer email, SMS, or other channels, so align your strategy accordingly. Dotdigital’s customer insights will help you build a seamless cross-channel marketing plan.

Continuously test and analyze the performance of segmented campaigns. Monitor key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and CLV to identify areas for improvement. Adjust your segmentation approach and marketing strategies based on these data-driven insights.

Customer preferences and behaviors change over time. Periodically reassess your segments, refresh your data, and leverage updated customer insights to ensure your marketing efforts remain relevant and effective.

Successful customer re-targeting

Discover how the holiday comparison site, Icelolly boosted conversion rates and enhanced its email marketing performance with personalized re-targeted marketing.

SMS marketing in the travel industry

SMS marketing is a powerful and often underutilized marketing channel that can boost engagement and provide exceptional value for travel businesses like yours. As a direct and immediate form of communication, SMS marketing can help you reach customers in ways other channels might not.

Benefits of SMS marketing for travel marketers

1. high open rates.

SMS messages have an exceptional open rate, with most recipients reading the message within minutes of receiving it. This ensures that promotional offers, updates, or reminders are seen by the vast majority of your target audience.

2. Real-time communication

SMS provides real-time, immediate communication that allows you to send time-sensitive offers, last-minute deals, or critical travel updates to your customers.

3. Mobile accessibility

With the vast majority of the population carrying mobile devices, SMS marketing provides an efficient way to reach your customers regardless of their location or internet access.

4. Cost-effective

SMS marketing campaigns are easy to set up and cheaper than most other marketing channels. This means you can effectively reach your target audience, even on a budget.

5. Personalized experiences

SMS campaigns can be tailored to individual users based on their preferences, interests, or travel history, creating a more personalized and engaging experience for your customers.

6. Easy integration with other marketing channels

SMS marketing can be easily combined with other channels such as email, app, or social media, to create a comprehensive and cohesive marketing campaign for your travel brand.

How to integrate SMS into your travel marketing

By adopting SMS marketing, your travel business can unlock new avenues of customer engagement and diversify your overall marketing efforts, ultimately boosting bookings and customer satisfaction. Here are some campaign ideas that can be implemented through SMS marketing:

Send helpful reminders for upcoming trips, pre-travel checklists, departure times, locations, or travel document requirements.

Share essential real-time updates like flight delays, gate changes, or itinerary adjustments, ensuring customers are well-informed and prepared. Ultimately, this will lead to higher satisfaction and experience overall. 

Send exclusive deals, discounts, limited-time offers, or last-minute specials to encourage customers to book travel or secure a service through your business.

Remind customers about travel packages, accommodation options, or services they were considering but have not completed the booking process.

Suggest relevant add-ons or upgrades to customers based on their travel plans, such as excursions, activity bookings, premium seating, or transportation options.

Request post-trip feedback, ratings, or reviews through an SMS message, using the insights to improve your services and customer satisfaction. SMS is a great channel for this because it requires little lift from your team and has a high completion rate. 

Notify customers of their rewards or loyalty points balance and inform them of any opportunities to earn additional points or redeem special offers.

Share useful destination-based information, such as local attractions, events, dining options, or safety tips, to enhance your customers’ travel experiences.

Top tips for successfully incorporating SMS into your travel marketing campaigns

• Combine SMS with email marketing Integrate SMS marketing into your existing email marketing strategy, sending important alerts, reminders, or limited-time offers through SMS to complement your email marketing activity.
• Segment your audience Create targeted SMS campaigns based on demographics, geographic location, or travel preferences, ensuring that your messages resonate with subscribers and are relevant to their needs in the moment.
• Personalize messages Deliver tailored content and offers based on customers’ booking history, travel destinations, or preferences, creating a sense of exclusivity and personal connection.
• Use automation Use customer actions to trigger SMS marketing campaigns, such as booking confirmation, travel reminders, or payment due notices. This will ensure your text messages are landing at the best time to drive customer conversions.
• Keep messages concise Deliver the key message or the call-to-action within the constraints of the character limit. Stay concise, and focused, and ensure your message is easy to understand. Tap into AI tools to help.

Using SMS for two-way communications

Discover how British Airways used Dotdigital’s two-way SMS functionality to encourage travelers to complete monthly customer satisfaction surveys. 

MMS for travel marketing campaigns

MMS (multimedia messaging service) is a branch of SMS marketing that allows the sending of multimedia content, such as images, videos, and audio files, alongside text messages. It presents new and exciting opportunities to engage customers in a more dynamic and visually appealing way.

MMS allows you to send rich visual content, including high-quality images and videos that showcase destinations, accommodations, or activities. This allows customers to get a better sense of the travel experience being offered and will inspire them to book.

Multimedia messages, including images and videos, have higher engagement rates compared to simple text messages. By leveraging MMS, you can evoke stronger emotional responses and drive customer interest, resulting in increased conversions and bookings.

MMS helps you to create immersive narratives by sharing pictures, videos, or audio clips of real travel experiences. This storytelling approach can help build a connection with potential travelers, increasing the likelihood of them engaging with your brand.

MMS can be customized based on individual preferences, interests, or travel history. By sending personalized multimedia content to customers, you can create a more relevant and memorable connection, ultimately fostering brand loyalty.

Although MMS adoption is growing, many businesses still primarily rely on text-based marketing. By being an early adopter of MMS, you can differentiate yourself from competitors and establish a unique brand identity in the minds of consumers.

MMS works well in conjunction with SMS, email, and social media campaigns. Integrating MMS into your overall marketing strategy can help create a comprehensive and cohesive approach that covers different stages of the customer journey.

Marketing automation for travel marketers

Marketing automation streamlines and optimizes repetitive marketing tasks, leading to enhanced efficiency, reduced manual efforts, and improved results. Intelligent marketing automation tools like Dotdigital create conversion-driving, loyalty-inspiring experiences by tapping into customer data and turning it into real-time marketing campaigns.

Benefits of marketing automation for travel brands

1. time-saving and cost-efficiency.

Marketing automation significantly reduces manual tasks associated with campaign management and customer segmentation, freeing up time for you and your teams to focus on strategic tasks, such as content creation and performance analysis.

2. Seamless communication

Marketing automation ensures regularly scheduled and consistent communication with customers across different channels. This is essential for maintaining customer engagement and building long-term brand loyalty.

3. Personalization

By tracking customers’ actions, preferences, and booking history, marketing automation tools help you deliver personalized and relevant content that resonates with your target audience. This moments-based approach to marketing enhances the overall customer experience, improving ROI, average order value (AOV), and customer lifetime value (CLV).

4. Cross-channel campaign management

Marketing automation platforms help you manage and coordinate campaigns across various channels, such as email, SMS, social media, and web push notifications, ensuring a seamless and cohesive marketing strategy.

5. Data-driven insights

With the help of detailed analytics provided by Dotdigital, you can make data-driven decisions, monitor campaign performance, and optimize your strategies for maximum results.

Essential automation programs for travel brands 

Set up automated welcome emails or messages for new subscribers, providing an initial introduction to your brand, exclusive offers, and personalized travel recommendations based on their preferences.

Automate booking confirmations, reservation details, and pre-travel reminders, ensuring all necessary information reaches the customer on time. This can include flight check-in reminders, pre-trip preparation tips, and travel documentation requirements.

Implement automated messages for customers who added travel packages or services to their cart but didn’t complete the booking process. These messages can include personalized incentives or offers to encourage conversion, AI-powered recommendations, or exclusive discounts for high-value customers.

Build automated re-engagement or nurture campaigns to connect with inactive or lapsed customers, offering relevant travel deals or content that sparks renewed interest in your brand. Use eRFM to identify these customers and SCV to gain insight into the channels and content that will drive them toward conversions.

Loyalty programs are a big motivating factor in the decision-making process of modern travelers. Automate loyalty program updates, notifications, or special offers to reward repeat customers and enhance long-term brand loyalty.

Automate post-trip feedback requests, analyze customer experiences, and collect valuable insights to inform improvements in your offerings and services. Positive reviews also make great marketing collateral so the importance of this program must not be underestimated. 

Schedule automated campaigns centered around holidays, seasonal offers, or special events, targeting customers with relevant deals and packages. Use customer insights to see when customers are most engaged or typically looking at your website to identify essential times to launch annual offers.

By understanding the benefits of marketing automation and implementing these recommended automation programs, you can streamline your marketing efforts, engage customers across multiple touchpoints, and enhance the overall customer experience while driving revenue and brand loyalty.

Marketing automation in action

Discover how international flight operator, Copa Airlines used Dotdigital to streamline its automated marketing communications to deliver a significant increase in revenue.

Web personalization for travel marketing teams

Web personalization involves tailoring website content to individual visitors based on their preferences, behavior, and demographic data.

In the travel industry, web personalization offers significant benefits and opportunities for enhancing customer engagement and boosting conversion rates. In this section, we’ll discuss the advantages of web personalization for travel marketers and provide strategies to create personalized online experiences.

Benefits of web personalization for travel marketers

1. enhanced customer engagement.

Personalized content and offers on your website can capture users’ attention and create a positive, engaging experience, increasing the likelihood of bookings and purchases.

2. Improved relevance

By addressing customers’ preferences and needs, web personalization ensures that your website’s content remains relevant and tailored to each user, making your brand more appealing to potential customers.

3. Increased conversion rates

Personalized content, offers, and recommendations can lead to an increase in customers taking action, whether booking a trip, subscribing to newsletters, or requesting more information.

4. Reduced bounce rates

An engaging and personalized website encourages visitors to spend more time exploring your offerings, reducing bounce rates and increasing the chances of customer conversions.

5. Improved ROI

By delivering personalized content and experiences to specific segments, web personalization can result in better use of marketing resources and a higher return on investment.

Strategies for personalizing web experiences

Show customers recommended travel destinations, offers, or services based on their current location, accounting for local events or geographic preferences.

Leverage customer behavior, such as browsing habits, pages visited, or previous booking history, to deliver personalized content, deals, or recommendations.

Divide your website visitors into specific segments based on demographics, interests, or travel preferences, and tailor website content to cater to these segments.

Implement exit intent pop-overs with tailored, last-minute offers or incentives that persuade visitors to book, subscribe, or engage further with your brand before leaving the website.

Use dynamic content that adapts based on user interactions, website behavior, or previous travel bookings, recommending related destinations, accommodations, or activities.

Employ remarketing campaigns that display personalized ads to users who have previously visited your website, featuring customized offers, messages, or promotions.

Integrate AI-driven recommendations into your website, providing visitors with personalized travel options across your homepage, product, and service pages.

Create dedicated, personalized landing pages for various promotions or travel offers based on customer segments, increasing the chances of conversions and bookings.

Push notification marketing for travel brands

Push notification marketing is a powerful tool for brands operating in the travel industry. It allows you to engage with customers directly through real-time, targeted, moments-based messages delivered directly to users’ mobile devices or web browsers.

Benefits of using push notifications in your travel marketing

1. increased engagement.

Push notifications give you new opportunities to re-engage customers by sending personalized promotions, announcements, and reminders. Ultimately, this enhances customer interactions and brand connection.

Timely and relevant notifications help you to communicate instantly with users, facilitating real-time updates on special deals, flight status, itinerary changes, or exclusive offers.

3. Higher conversion rates

By delivering tailored offers and targeted content, push notifications can increase conversion rates, driving bookings and encouraging customers to take action.

4. Improved user experience

Push notifications can enhance the user experience by offering personalized recommendations, location-based offers, and immediate assistance, fostering a stronger bond between customers and your brand.

5. Trackable performance metrics

Push notifications offer valuable performance insights, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, helping you optimize campaigns and improve future marketing efforts.

Reporting and analytics for travel marketers

For marketers in the travel industry, maximizing efficiency and leveraging your budget and resources effectively is crucial. Utilizing advanced reporting and analytic tools can streamline and optimize your digital marketing efforts.

Advanced analytics and reporting tools 

Email reporting and analytics.

Email reporting and analytics provide insights into the performance of your email marketing campaigns. This information helps you to:

• Identify trends in your email marketing campaigns
• Ensure your campaigns are meeting their objectives
• Pinpoint areas that need optimization to enhance campaign performance

Email dashboards

Email dashboards provide you with an overview of all your email marketing campaigns, while email reports focus on a single campaign, outlining key performance metrics. By getting a bird’s eye look at your email marketing campaigns, you can discover:

• Statistics about your delivered, bounced, and skipped emails.
• Data about opens, unique opens, non-opens, and social shares.
• A heat map showing the areas of the world where your email campaign was most opened.
• The most popular links in your campaign, clicks, unique clicks, and click-to-open rates.
• Details about your winning and losing split tests.

SMS reporting

SMS campaign reports monitor channel performance, enabling you to continuously improve your marketing results. These reports showcase:

Helps track the frequency of SMS campaigns and analyze performance metrics over time.

Measures the effectiveness of your campaign, comparing the number of clicks to successfully delivered messages, which can inform improvements in content or targeting.

Indicates the percentage of recipients who completed a desired action, such as booking a trip or signing up for a newsletter, helping to evaluate the success of promotional efforts.

Evaluates the total revenue generated by a specific SMS campaign, determining ROI and guiding budgeting decisions.

Provides insight into the revenue generated from bookings or purchases influenced by an SMS campaign, even if completed through different channels.

Informs segmentation strategy by showing the number of segment groups targeted in the campaign, helping you assess the depth and breadth of your reach.

Indicates engagement with SMS content by revealing the number of clicks on embedded links, allowing you to better analyze which messages resonate best with your target audience.

Measures the reach of an SMS campaign by tallying messages successfully received, helping to gauge overall marketing effectiveness.

Provides an overview of SMS campaign volume, enabling evaluation of the relationship between quantity and campaign success.

Program analytics

Dotdigital’s program analytics tools offer several benefits to travel marketers, especially by helping you optimize your marketing automation programs and maximize campaign impact. Key benefits include:

Program analytics provide a comprehensive and data-driven overview of your marketing automation programs, allowing you to make informed decisions about marketing strategies and tactics.

The visual representation of the different nodes in your marketing automation workflow enables you to gain a deeper understanding of your programs and quickly identify areas that require optimization.

Dotdigital’s program analytics tools allow you to monitor the performance of your marketing automation programs in real-time, enabling you to quickly adapt to changing trends and make necessary adjustments.

The detailed view feature allows you to choose between different chart views (trend and cumulative) to get a granular analysis of key program metrics, providing insights tailored to your specific needs.

By evaluating the performance of start nodes, decision nodes, and action nodes, you can better understand customer interactions and optimize your marketing automation programs to increase effectiveness.

Program analytics tools can help you identify the success of different segments and decision paths in your automation workflows. This allows you to refine your targeting strategies and drive better results.

The ability to analyze the detailed data and insights provided by program analytics tools enables you to streamline your efforts, eliminate inefficiencies, and allocate resources more effectively. 

By providing in-depth data and insights on marketing automation programs’ performance, program analytics tools can help you optimize campaigns to maximize ROI. Through continuous improvement, marketers can generate better results and higher revenue, ultimately improving the overall ROI of their marketing efforts.

Advanced revenue attribution

Advanced revenue attribution is a method used to calculate the revenue generated by email and SMS marketing campaigns, based on clicks that lead to a purchase within a specified conversion window. Unlike direct tracking, which attributes revenue to clicks within a single window, advanced revenue attribution provides a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of how a campaign may have influenced the customer’s purchasing decision.

The benefits of using advanced revenue attribution include:

By tracing revenue to specific email and SMS campaigns, you can better assess the true influence of your marketing efforts on customers’ purchases, even if the purchase occurs outside the one-hour window of direct tracking.

Advanced revenue attribution offers a more complete picture of how different touchpoints contribute to your customer’s decision-making process, enabling you to optimize your campaigns for higher engagement and conversion rates.

Visibility into campaign performance through revenue attribution helps you to allocate budget and resources more effectively, focusing on campaigns that deliver the most significant ROI.

You can analyze the performance of email and SMS campaigns side by side, determining which channel is more effective at driving revenue and adjusting your marketing strategies accordingly.

By understanding which campaigns generate higher revenue, you can refine your targeting and segmentation strategies to engage the right audience with relevant and persuasive messaging, resulting in higher conversion rates.

Advanced revenue attribution can reveal patterns in customers’ behavior over extended periods, helping you identify crucial touchpoints for nurturing long-term relationships and customer loyalty.

WinstonAI™️ marketing intelligence engine

Designing a successful marketing campaign is far from easy. Especially in the ever-evolving travel sector, you must stay ahead of your competition. Embracing artificial intelligence (AI) at this early stage and leveraging it in your day-to-day marketing will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Benefits of early AI adoption

1. perfect personalization.

AI ensures you offer highly tailored experiences to your customers. By analyzing a vast amount of customer data, AI can identify patterns and preferences that are crucial for the creation of personalized marketing campaigns. As a result, your customers are more likely to be engaged and satisfied with their overall experience.

2. Data-driven decision making

AI-driven analytics provides you with actionable insights and data that help you make informed decisions. Early AI adopters can use powerful tools that analyze customer behavior, identify trends, and provide valuable recommendations. This ensures that your marketing resources are optimally allocated and drives higher ROI.

3. Time and cost efficiency

Adopting AI early on helps to streamline and automate your routine tasks. As AI can process a vast amount of data quickly, it saves time, increases productivity, and greatly reduces human errors. This frees up your time to focus on higher-value strategic and creative tasks.

4. Real-time optimization

AI provides real-time performance tracking and optimization opportunities for your marketing campaigns. By continually monitoring and adjusting, you can optimize your outreach methods, ultimately enhancing customer engagement, conversions, and revenue.

5. Competitive edge

Early AI adopters in the travel marketing sector will stay ahead of the competition by leveraging technologies that many competitors may not even be aware of. This provides a unique opportunity to gain market share and establish a brand reputation as a forward-thinking, innovative business.

WinstonAI capabilities

WinstonAI is Dotdigital’s industry-leading marketing intelligence engine, designed to simplify your daily marketing activity. Its ever-growing capabilities help you save time, money, and effort, further streamlining your market teams’ outputs.

Effortlessly create compelling content with WinstonAI’s innovative features, which include:

• Subject line assistant: WinstonAI helps elevate your subject lines by analyzing past engagement rates and generating inspiring suggestions for your next travel campaign.
• Email campaign assistant: WinstonAI not only offers alternative subject lines but also provides valuable feedback to refine your content. Get insights on tone evaluation and creative suggestions for your upcoming email campaigns.
• Grammar and spell check assistant: Eliminate time-consuming manual proofreading by using WinstonAI’s grammar check for emails, SMS, landing pages, and forms.
• One-click email to SMS generator: Save time by repurposing valuable email content into SMS messages for subscribers who prefer text messages. WinstonAI achieves this with just one click.

Transform your data into insightful actions with WinstonAI’s powerful analytics capabilities:

• Predictive analytics: Anticipate your customers’ behavior and adapt your marketing strategies accordingly, ensuring continuous engagement throughout their journey.
• eRFM segments and opportunities: Develop a deeper understanding of your customer base by integrating engagement scores with RFM (recency, frequency, monetary) ratings to create distinct personas.
• SCV and lookalike segments: Engage deeply with individual customer profiles using single customer view and generate segments with similar traits to your ideal customers.

Maximize your outreach potential and ensure your messages land at just the right moment with WinstonAI:

• Send time optimization: Enhance engagement levels by utilizing AI-driven send time optimization (STO) to deliver emails at the most opportune moment for the recipients.
• Automated reputation manager: Improve campaign performance and sender reputation by employing top-quality data that WinstonAI continuously monitors and evaluates.
• Watchdog data importer: WinstonAI’s data watchdog acts as a vigilant guardian of your sender reputation by safeguarding your delivery rates and thoroughly analyzing incoming email addresses.
• Non-human interaction (NHI) filtering: WinstonAI filters out activity from security tools or bots that can skew marketing results, providing you with a more accurate assessment of your campaigns’ performance.

Integrations and data management for travel marketers

From your booking systems and CRM to ticketing and customer service software, tech stacks for travel brands are vast and spiraling. The only solution is to have a customer experience and data platform that connects and unifies all your systems into a single source of truth. This will help you provide seamless and personalized customer experiences, streamline operations, and enable relevant and timely marketing activity.

Key integration and agency partners 

CRM systems allow you to manage and analyze interactions with potential and existing customers. This helps to maintain and improve customer retention, satisfaction, and revenue generation. Integrating your CRM and marketing channel providers ensures you have all the data you need to provide data-driven marketing campaigns. 

Integrations with booking platforms and reservation systems are crucial for streamlining traveler information management, allowing you to personalize offers and communications based on booking history and preferences.

Ticketing systems are vital for travel brands as they help manage and streamline customer support inquiries, leading to enhanced customer experiences. Integrating these into your marketing platform empowers cross-team collaboration, ensures timely communication, and improves customer retention as every interaction is accessible for marketers and customer service teams alike. 

Loyalty programs play a significant role in retaining customers and enhancing brand loyalty for travel brands. Integrating these systems into your marketing platform helps you tailor rewards and offers to customers based on their preferences, purchase history, loyalty points, and other relevant data. Personalized rewards lead to higher customer satisfaction and engagement, strengthening brand loyalty.

Integrations with review platforms such as TripAdvisor, Feefo, and Trustpilot enable you to monitor customer feedback, identify areas for improvement, and showcase highlighted reviews to increase credibility and trust.

Integrations that deliver results

Discover how the Australian tourism board, Visit Victoria used Dotdigital’s Zapier integration to segment, personalize, and automate tailored cross-channel re-targeting campaigns.

Travel businesses need to understand the different types of marketing channels and tactics available to them to effectively promote their products, services, and experiences. By utilizing innovative strategies, personalized promotions, and data-driven insights, travel businesses can stand out from the competition, attract new customers, and retain existing ones.

The travel industry is constantly evolving, and you need to keep up with the latest trends and technologies to succeed in the highly competitive market. With the right marketing strategy in place, travel businesses can capitalize on the current post-COVID travel boom and take advantage of the many opportunities available in the industry.

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Travel & Tourism Marketing Strategy

Creating a marketing strategy for your travel and tourism company can help set you apart from the competition! If you need some guidance on how to begin and where to reach new customers, continue reading!

The COVID-19 pandemic placed an extreme burden on the travel and tourism industry. Between government-mandated shelter-in-place orders and individuals’ reluctance to venture far from home, Forbes estimates that travel and hospitality businesses worldwide lost an estimated $935 billion in 2020. The OECD estimates that international travel revenue decreased 80% . Shoring up travel and tourism is going to take a multi-pronged approach of restoring travelers’ confidence, offering clear information to domestic and international travelers, and building more resilience into your business through diverse offerings and quality services. Another way your hospitality business can build back is through thoughtful marketing.

Preparing to meet the pent-up demand for travel and tourism means being ready with an updated travel and tourism marketing strategy. Why have one? Marketers with a documented marketing strategy are 313% more likely to achieve their business goals. Just as keeping a planner helps individuals stay organized, having a marketing plan maps out the inputs your travel business will need to achieve its goals and how to put them in motion to enjoy the success you dream about.  

A marketing plan can also help you remain competitive. It will assist you with identifying target markets and understanding their wants. Marketing plans help you set measurable goals for sales and finances, and map out how you’ll reach customers and prospects with information about your offerings. In short, a travel and tourism marketing plan shows how you’ll tell the world how awesome your properties and services are. 

In this guide, we offer a basic flow for developing a marketing plan as well as strategies and tactics to consider. With a little planning and creativity, you can market your travel business like a pro!

Step 1: Conduct Market Research Among Key Stakeholders

Before you can begin creating a marketing strategy, you need to understand the why behind your need for one. You also need to understand where your brand has been… where it currently is… and where you want to take it. To do this, you need to sit with key stakeholders and identify:

• What is your unique value proposition - the thing that truly separates you from your competitors. 
• Who are your top competitors?
• If your brand were a person, what five words would you use to describe them?
• What are the top challenges you face when it comes to growing your business? 
• Who are the dream clients you aspire to work with?
• Who are your advocates? 
• What social media channels do your audiences hang out on? Are you on them?
• What is your goal for a marketing strategy? To grow brand recognition, gain clients, establish thought leadership opportunities for your executive team? All of the above?

You could find answers to these questions through focus groups, phone or online surveys, one-on-one interviews, or a combination of all. It’s best to employ a mix of quantitative and qualitative research when setting a marketing strategy for travel. Quantitative travel research will give you the “what” of your strategy while qualitative travel research will tell you the “why.”

Step 2: Establish Your 4 ‘Ps’ of Marketing

Having a marketing strategy means having plans in place to deal with both expected and unexpected situations. A marketing strategy helps you position your product to the right audience, at the right time for the right price. You should build your marketing strategy around the “Four Ps” of marketing:

• Product: The goods or services you offer.
• Price: The amount of money you charge for your product.
• Placement: Where or how your product is available for purchase.
• Promotion: What you do to communicate your product’s features and benefits to your target audiences.

Many variables affect your business success in the travel and tourism industry: competition, climate, current events. But you can control the four Ps.

Once you have decided on the four Ps for your product, one very important part of a marketing strategy that every business should establish early on are goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). What do you hope to achieve through your offerings? Increased sales? Higher volume? More frequent repeat business? And how will you know you’re getting there? KPIs are any metric that indicates success for your business. Ten businesses could designate 10 different KPIs for measuring their success and they would all be correct. 

Spend some time creating meaningful goals and KPIs that will define success for your travel business before you start working on tactics.

Step 3: Know Your Customers

It’s imperative to be close to your data when developing a marketing strategy. In order to do this, you need a customer relationship management system (CRM). A CRM will help you accurately track your company’s interactions with a current or potential customer. Every phone call, email, and website page visit gives you incredible insights into who your customers are and what they are interested in. And with 80% of consumers more likely to purchase from brands that provided personalized experiences, you’re leaving big money on the table by not using a CRM. 

What’s more, CRMs allow you to track the entire customer journey. There are five main stages in a typical travel customer’s lifecycle:

• Acquisition

At each stage, a CRM can help you serve the customer through:

• Generating brand awareness
• Acquiring leads
• Converting leads into customers
• Providing superior support
• Driving upsells and referrals

Successfully navigating leads and customers through these stages results in more business and profits for you, and a more customized experience for your customer. 

You’ll want to integrate your CRM with your other business tools. Connecting your CRM to your ticketing system helps you track orders and deliver promptly. Integrating your CRM with your content marketing platform helps you see what content is resonating best with your customer base and what knowledge gaps you still need to fill to encourage leads to convert. Joining your CRM with your phone system makes it easy for your call center agents or sales representatives to offer better customer support by having quick access to a customer’s purchase history or a potential customer’s journey through your sales funnel.

Step 4: Break Down Your Strategy Into Execution Channels

Marketing covers a huge span of online and offline channels. And studies show that having a strategy that covers multiple channels greatly impacts the bottom line. The numbers don’t lie: 

• Brands experience a 287% higher purchase rate when using three or more channels
• Average SMS ROI of approximately 2755%
• The average order is 13% more per order with an omnichannel approach vs. single channel
• Customer retention rates are 90% higher for omnichannel vs. single channel

A website is a critical component to your business success. It’s the central hub where your guests find information regarding travel packages and services, booking and reservations, travel details, and more. It’s one of the main places where your prospects are going to convert. 

Your website is a reflection of your brand, and you want to convey a friendly, no-hassle experience to your travelers in the form of aesthetically pleasing imagery, captivating copy, easy-to-navigate site setup, branding, and phone numbers to direct your customers’ questions to the right place. 

Your website’s user experience (UX) must offer information that answers all sorts of questions your guests may have about your services: pricing, amenities, loyalty programs, housekeeping, shuttle service, meeting rooms, excursions, and more. Displaying those details on your website and keeping lines of communication open helps your guests have a better experience with your brand. To make your website stand out and attract customers, you’ll want to consider adding these features to enhance your ability to communicate all this information. 

Crystal-Clear Navigation

Travelers don’t have time to dig through the weeds of a complicated website. If they can’t find what they’re looking for in 15 seconds, about half of your visitors have no problem leaving your site and looking on a competitor’s page. 

You can make it easy on visitors just by creating easy-navigation menus to create siloed information around specific topics of interest. Some of these topics in your menus might include: destinations, limited-time offers or specials, book or reserve, flight status, help or contact us, travel information, COVID-19, etc.  

Top navigation is to help travel brands create a natural flow of progression and a good customer experience. If this is your first experience with building out a custom menu, a good rule of thumb to follow is to stick with a menu no more than two steps deep. If you need more, your setup isn’t offering an ideal customer experience.

Real, Professional Photos

People want to see real, professional images of your product or service. It conveys authenticity and adds value. Your prospects can sniff out a stock photo from a mile away - don’t do it. Give your website visitors a real taste of what they’ll get if they book their stay or travel with you. Invest in a professional photographer to take photos that show off your hospitality and the beauty of your destinations in the best light possible. Update them for the seasons as your business grows. It will be money well spent. 

Phone Numbers in Prominent Places

Phone calls are still one of the fastest ways to get specific information. And, it remains the most preferred method of communication . When talking with a live staffer, Newcastle Web Design notes that callers have a better user experience. They’re able to get urgent answers and can ask probing questions in real-time. And, posting a phone number on your website builds trust between you and your prospect. 

Easily accessible phone numbers for guests to contact you about sales and support information is essential to a good experience. This is where virtual numbers add value, providing reliability, exceptional call quality, and little to no cost towards the consumer. 

• Toll Free Phone Numbers . Guests can dial into your call center from one country for free.
• Vanity Phone Numbers . Similar to a toll free number, vanity virtual numbers can be dialed from one country but use numbers that are easy to remember or spell out a brand name.
• UIFN . A UIFN (universal international freephone number) is a global toll free number that can be dialed from multiple countries. 
• Local DID + Caller ID . Establish a local presence and engage more with customers with two-way voice services plus caller ID. 

People love chatbots on websites because much like phone calls, chatbots offer instantaneous answers to very specific questions, resolution support issues, updates to existing itineraries, reservations and bookings, etc. IBM estimates that chatbots can answer up to 80% of common questions. 

Chatbots are great tools to integrate with your global phone system. They can save your business time and money by automatically handling queries to questions that would otherwise fill up your call queues and overwhelm the staff. 

Similar to instant gratification phone calls and chatbots offer, an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page is a perennial favorite among travelers because they house quick answers to, well, the most frequently asked questions. 

This common feature of websites saves visitors time by signaling where they can find digestible, short-form information on hot topics. FAQ sections also save your agents time by heeding off individual questions you hear all the time in the call queue - giving your staff more time for more taxing customer support and conversion activities. 

2. Content Marketing

Content marketing is strategically curating written articles, visuals, audio, and video to encourage conversions for your business. Essentially, it’s the process of providing your customers value in hopes that it will keep them informed and trusting of your brand so they will eventually buy, refer, and repeat. It means using a combination of the tactics below to promote your business across a variety of channels and touchpoints. Let’s look at the most common travel and tourism content marketing tactics. 

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the activities you can perform to ensure your targeted audience can find your website via search engines. This includes search engine marketing, improving your website’s content, using specially formatted text or coding to communicate directly with search engines, creating online business listings, and working with other websites to gain inbound links. 

SEO is important because search engines deliver a targeted audience to your site. People use search engines to find the information they need right then and there. The first page of search engine results gets 95% of all search engine traffic . Very few people click through to the second, third, or fourth pages. 

You want to optimize your travel and tourism website to be discoverable by search engines and ranked highly for the keywords of your choice. Unfortunately, there is no easy formula for getting your site on the first page of search results. Google, Bing, Yahoo! and other search engines constantly update and tweak their algorithms that respond to search queries and deliver search results. But there are a few things you can do to make your site more search engine- and user-friendly that will always count toward a better search engine ranking:

• Make your site relevant with engaging, thoughtful content . Sites that contain original, organized content centered around a well-defined topic (like your organization and its activities) will always outperform sites that are not well-organized or thoughtfully written. Take some time to review the text on your site, and ask yourself: Is it understandable? Is it grammatically correct? Is it non-repetitive? If the answer to any of these questions is no, revise it. 
• Use relevant images with alt text . Alt text is text that shows up in an image box when you hover your mouse over it or when the image does not load within your browser. This text tells search engines what the image is about, giving the engine a better idea of what your overall site is about.
• Make your site useful and current enough that other sites want to link to you . Although search engines no longer consider the number of outbound links you host when deciding how to rank you, they still consider inbound links – links on other sites that lead to your site. The best way to build your popularity is slowly, by encouraging related/similar sites to link back to you and by earning linkbacks through hosting updated, relevant content.
• Optimize your website for small screens .  79% of consumers used a mobile device in 2020 to make a purchase. Format your website to be more mobile responsive or risk discouraging visits. 
• Localize your content . Make sure your NAP is consistent across all your organic channels. NAP stands for name, address, and phone number, and it’s essential to ensure that every major search engine can verify your company’s existence. 
• 7-Day Italy Adventure > Book Now
• Atlanta Hotels > Check Rates
• Europe Cruise Fleets > Learn More
• Flight Details > Shop Now
• Travel Restrictions > Stay Updates 
• Track your website’s progress. Google Analytics helps brands track and report a myriad of website performance metrics. Coupled with call tracking software , companies can measure the reach and ROI of where their inbound calls are sourced from (direct website traffic or organic results) within Google Analytics or their VoIP provider dashboard. 

Once you’ve figured out what you want your travel and tourism website to be known for, support your SEO goals with rich content on a company blog. Use your keyword research to develop and execute an ongoing series of blog articles - with written word, images, video, and audio content - that feature those top-level keywords travelers use to find information about their next travel purchase. 

Getting content for your travel & tourism blog is easier than you might think when you view every marketing deliverable as potential content. Are you sending a promotional email to your contact database? Turn the email into a blog post. Have you created some print collateral recently? Pick content from those pieces to create several blog articles (and some even snappier social media posts). Everything and anything can be talked about from the right angle. 

Testimonial & Reviews

Word of mouth remains one of the most effective marketing tactics. In addition to friends and family sharing recommendations, we now have sites like Yelp, Google Reviews, TripAdvisor, and Travel + Leisure where travelers can share detailed experiences and recommendations for travel. Even short-term rental sites like Airbnb and VRBO act as de facto review sites because of the public reviews guests leave for each property. 

Be proactive about being visible on review sites. Ask your customers or guests to leave an online review about your business. Their testimonials will carry more weight than most, if not all, of your marketing. Place outstanding reviews in a prominent place on your website and within social media posts. Thank the people who offer a positive review and respond to any negative reviews with gratitude for their feedback and promise to do better going forward.

Video Creation

As tools like smartphones and video editing apps become more accessible, the popularity of video as a marketing tool is skyrocketing. Why use a still photo or words to describe your destination when you can show a viewer exactly what your destination looks and sounds like? As of last year, 86% of businesses used video as one of their marketing tools. Furthermore, among marketers promoting their business with video, 93% say it’s an important part of their strategy. 

If you’re not using video, what are you waiting for? Nowadays, brand loyalists and casual customers alike don’t always expect a company’s videos to be polished and slick. People value authenticity in marketing. They don’t necessarily care that a video was filmed on a smartphone as long as they perceive the story the video tells to be genuine. 

Some ideas for video marketing content:

• A tour of your property, cruise ship, leading travel destinations, etc.
• A walk-through of your services
• Interviews with internal advocates and customers

Remember to provide your viewers with a website domain and phone number at the end of your videos so they can reach out and engage with your brand. 

Social Media

Social media has become a ubiquitous part of travel planning because it’s so visual by nature - who can resist showing off photos of their latest dream vacation or swanky business trip? As part of your robust content marketing strategy, you’ll need to cultivate a social media presence on the platforms of your target audience’s choice. Items to consider:

• Where is your customer base gathering? Don’t bother spending time posting to LinkedIn if people are not talking about services or products related to your business there. You’ll probably want to focus on social media channels that are more visual, such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok. 
• What do your customers want to know more about? Post content that responds to their travel information needs that you identified during your stakeholder research. 
• How often do your customers want to hear from you? You don’t have to post multiple times a day or even every day to have a successful, engaging tourism social media strategy. You simply need to post shareable and digestible content consistently.
• What are your staff’s social content capabilities? Some platforms require specific types of content: videos for YouTube or TikTok, photos for Instagram. If you want to stand out on these platforms, not only will you need to know how to create videos or take compelling photos, but you’ll want to know the nuances of social media culture. TikTok has a very different vibe than Facebook, for example. Make sure someone on your staff understands how to culturally navigate platforms before you overextend your business or inadvertently commit a social media faux pas.

While we may sound like a broken record here, having consistent messaging is vital in content marketing. You want your brand presence to reflect that so your customers have a good experience engaging with your business. Make it a point to always ensure your brand description, website domain, name, address, and telephone numbers point back to the related location your customers are intending to visit. 

3. Email Marketing

Email is one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to reach your potential customer base. Even with an estimated 306.4 billion emails sent per day , people still prefer receiving news and other messages via email. 58% of people check their email before reading news or social media, and 60% want to receive promotional information via email rather than through other channels. 

Email is a great way to market your travel and tourism business because it allows you to send personalized messages. You can segment your customer list to send more relevant promotions and information to customer subgroups while allowing customers to segment themselves by signing up for certain types of emails they’re interested in. You can let customers control how frequently they hear from you by using automated email campaigns that run at designated frequencies. 

To be really effective at email marketing, you’ll want to first build an email list. You should start with existing customers. Collect new contacts everywhere you have a potential customer touchpoint: 

• Web-based subscription forms
• Gated online content and coupons
• Trade shows or expos
• Webinar registrations

What kinds of emails should you send? That depends on the exact nature of your travel business. In general, you’ll want to set up the following types of emails, many of which you can create in advance and tell your email marketing platform to automatically send when your CRM tells your email platform that a recipient has reached a certain milestone or completed a certain conversion:

• Welcome emails : when someone signs up to receive your emails.
• Follow-up emails : sent a few days to one week after someone signs up. These offer extended information about a topic or more detailed information about your offerings.
• Milestone emails : to recognize (sometimes with a discount) when someone has a birthday or reaches an anniversary of supporting your business. 
• Newsletters : to keep subscribers apprised of what’s new with your business, how to maximize their travel, and how to discover offerings they haven’t yet considered.
• Informational emails: including product explanations, trip updates, and responses to current events that affect your operations. 
• Confirmation emails : sent when someone makes a purchase or completes a conversion.
• Abandoned cart emails: sent when someone adds a trip to the online cart but then leaves your website without purchasing it. These emails should remind the recipient of the benefits of the service(s) they intended to purchase and offer customer service or tech support if needed.
• Thank you emails : sent when someone makes a purchase or converts.

There’s a lot to email marketing. Make sure that your email templates always point back to a relevant landing page to your website or customer support contact. For example, if you’re sending an informational email regarding new 2022 trips to Asia, be sure to include a CTA that links to a landing page where those newly-added itineraries live.

4. Advertising

Paid search ads.

When people are searching for specific information, one of the first places they go is an online search engine. Make sure your brand is included in their search results by bidding on paid search ad spaces. Paid search ads appear next to organic search results. They look similar to organic search links but are sold in instantaneous mini-auctions among companies vying for potential customers searching for related information. You only pay for the ad if someone clicks on it.

Your business can appear within search results about your niche of the travel and tourism industry when you run ad campaigns on search engine platforms like Google , Yahoo ! or Bing . With the free training those platforms provide, it’s easy to set up an ad campaign that targets people searching for a set of keywords you determine. You can also target client lookalike audiences based on their past searches and general demographics. Be sure to establish a reasonable budget for paid search campaigns and spend some time refining a tightly-focused keyword list that describes the core of your travel/tourism business. With millions of people using search engines each day, you could easily blow through hundreds or thousands of dollars every day in paid search ad clicks. At the same time, you want to bid competitively so your ads actually appear high up in search results and have the chance for potential customers to see them.

Programmatic Ads

Programmatic advertising is the use of technology and automation in the buying and selling of online media. Programmatic ad platforms track your site’s visitors as they surf the web, serving them ads in established display ad spaces relevant to what they’ve already viewed. These retargeted ads encourage the user to revisit past site pages and take action. 

So say you had visitors who viewed your website’s destination page but didn’t convert. Instead of relying on them to come back to that page, programmatic or retargeted ads pull through on their most visited third-party sites and social media platforms. This is a cost-effective way to advertise online and remind customers of your brand and the services you can provide. 

Metasearch Engines

These are price comparison websites that compare rates for major travel-related expenses like flights, hotels, rental cars, or cruises across several companies or brands. Several metasearch engines in the travel and tourism industry include Destinia, TripAdvisor, Trivago, Skyscanner, and Kayak. Travelers enjoy using metasearch engines because these sites save research time and money on their reservations. Consider purchasing display ads or digital retargeting ads on these sites to reinforce your brand when people search for related services or move on to other websites during their research. 

Direct Mail

Once the bane of homes everywhere, direct mail is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Consumers are more accepting of direct mailers for products and services, with open rates landing at 90% and 39% of consumers purchasing from a new business that sent a direct mailer. 

When creating a direct mailer, consider the shareability aspect. RetailWire has found that households collaboratively discuss 88% of key purchases, including travel. And it’s proven to be effective at generating sales: a study by Go Inspire Group found that people who received a direct mail piece spent five times as much on the advertised product as another group who only received emails about the same product. Even better, a third group who received emails and direct mail spent more than six times as much as the email-only group.

If you want to make direct mail a part of your marketing strategy, the U.S. Small Business Administration recommends these steps :

• Start with existing customers: Your customers remain loyal because they know the services you provide them. Two-thirds of people discard mail from companies they haven’t heard of. Don’t waste money on people who don’t care about you (yet).
• Target your direct mail: Beyond your customers, send promotional direct mail pieces to people potentially interested in your product. The USPS offers resident demographics through their Every Door Direct Mail program . You could also rent targeted mailing lists through a variety of list companies.
• Use thoughtful design: Mail pieces with interesting visuals, minimal, readable text, and a clear call-to-action perform the best.
• Extend a worthy offer: Speaking of calls-to-action, tell the recipient what you want them to do and make them a deal so sweet they can’t resist taking advantage of it. You’re already investing a fair amount of money in a direct mail campaign. If you want it to result in conversions, your offer must be great.

5. Public Relations

Public relations (PR) is the strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. It is about influencing, engaging, and building relationships with your key audiences across multiple platforms such as paid media (including advertising), earned media (media appearances), and owned media (like your website or social media pages). While PR has a reputation (and history) of being a bunch of spin, modern public relations is much more about telling your organization’s story in an honest way that responds to audience concerns so that your organization can succeed.

With that in mind, what stories about your travel or tourism company could you tell to respond to travelers’ concerns? What benefits of engaging with your company could you explain, and through which channels, to reach potential customers and get on their short list of travel-related companies to patronize?

To run a successful PR program, Aventur Marketing advises following a few key points:

Know Your Audience

Who are they? What are their demographics? What are their lifestyles like? What do they want from a travel or tourism company? Furthermore, where are they “hanging out” when it comes to the media? Do they watch television, or prefer to read newspapers and magazines? Do they frequent certain travel blogs? Do they congregate on Facebook, Twitter, or both? Meet your audiences where they are with your message.

Build Relationships With Key Travel Media Professionals

It’s not enough to distribute a press release about your new property or renovations and hope every publication you emailed will print it. Publishers receive hundreds of releases and media advisories weekly. They won’t pay attention to your press release unless it appeals directly to their readers, and they trust you to provide high-quality content.

Build relationships with travel writers and bloggers from a targeted list of travel and tourism publications you assemble that you know your audience consumes. Know what these writers enjoy writing about, and provide them with related, substantive content even if it doesn’t directly promote your business. They’ll come to trust you as a reliable source of information that makes their job easier. Then, when you do have an item to promote about your tourism company, they’ll be much more receptive to working with you to reach their audience.

Customize Your Pitches to Different Niches

You can’t pitch the same topic to every publication and expect them all to publish it. Customize your story pitch to the publication and medium. For example, your convention and visitors bureau’s (CVB) news about a new facility opening might easily win placement in your local newspaper because of the local business aspect. But to win placement in an out-of-state publication, you’ll have to explain why out-of-state visitors should stop at your shiny new facility.

Maybe it’s the free concierge services you offer for local attractions? Or maybe it’s the ticket discounts you can only get by visiting your new location? In addition, a travel-oriented Instagram account is going to want photos to accompany your written information. A travel sage YouTuber is going to want video B-roll, or the opportunity to visit and have your staff guide them around as they film for their YouTube channel. Customize the format in which you offer information to dramatically increase the chances different media will pick it up. 

Get to Know the Local DMOs & CVBs

Speaking of CVBs, make friends with these staff right away! Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and CVBs are groups whose job is to promote a local area to tourists, business visitors, and people thinking of relocating there. They know all the best information and movers/shakers related to travel and tourism in the area. If they come to know your business as an interesting, can’t-miss part of the local experience, they could provide very valuable paid or earned marketing for you that is backed by their authority in the local travel arena. They could also help boost your business by sending journalists assigned to cover your area to talk with you about your business. These connections can result in greater web visibility through increased SEO and exposure.

Again, travel publications receive hundreds, if not thousands, of pitches weekly. You have a few seconds to grab their attention with your email or phone call, so get to the point of your news quickly. One or two paragraphs is usually the maximum needed before a journalist or writer will decide to reach out to you for more information.

If you’re unsure about how to craft a winning PR pitch or how to start building relationships with journalists, check out Destination British Columbia’s excellent guide to travel media relations strategies and tactics.

Preparing for the New Travel Market

COVID-19 changed everything about the way travel and tourism brands need to market themselves to remain competitive as economies open back up.  It's more important now than ever for CMOs of travel and tourism brands to reevaluate their marketing strategies to accommodate growing customer expectations. And a “wait and see” approach won’t help you make up for lost dollars as people begin to travel again. 

We hope that this guide will help you to evaluate your current strategy and make the necessary changes that will help your organization thrive now and in the future. 

Deliver a 5-Star Guest Experience with Modern Cloud Communications

Stay connected to your guests with modern global communications software. Your marketing strategy brought them to you, now nurture and grow your relationship with excellent call quality, robust virtual number inventory spanning 170+ countries worldwide, and more - all on a reliable voice platform. 

Katharine Kellar

Katharine is the Director of Marketing Communications at AVOXI, bringing over 17 years of experience in nurturing B2B, e-commerce, SaaS, and global brands. Fueled by her relentless drive for growth and an unwavering optimism, she finds joy in every day's silver linings. Outside of her professional achievements, Katharine is a coffee aficionado, savoring the aroma and taste of a freshly brewed cup as she crafts compelling narratives that resonate across diverse markets.

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How to Market a Tour Company: 10 (Free & Paid) Strategies

The Bókun Team • September 19th, 2024

The average traveller books travel months in advance and typically spends ~five hours researching before booking a tour. (On average, they do about 35 separate searches before making their decision!) Most travellers are booking on OTAs, and the number of offline bookings tour operators receive is trending downwards.

That’s why most tour operators turn to digital marketing strategies to reach new travellers and max out their booking calendars. However, there are a plethora of strategies and online marketing channels to target potential customers — some free and some paid — and choosing the right strategies for your growth stage can be tough. This is especially true when everyone seems to repeat the same advice on the topic, like “use social media.”

We’re a tour operator software brand with 10+ years in the space, so we put together this guide to review the strategies we’ve found most effective for growing teams. We’ll discuss how to use free channels effectively and keep costs low as you grow.

1. List your tours on online travel agencies (OTAs) like Viator

The first place to start is online travel agencies (OTAs) like Viator, GetYourGuide, Expedia, Tiqets, Klook, Booking.com, and more. These are the websites people visit to research destinations and book things to do — and each one receives millions of monthly website visitors.

This is where you want to be found to get in front of customers who are a) interested in tours and activities, and b) ready to shop and book. This is the fastest way to earn bookings without having to spend time learning Facebook or Google Ads or waiting for SEO changes to make impacts.

Don’t limit yourself to one OTA or another. It’s a common misconception that there’s one “best” site to be on — that Viator is better than GetYourGuide, or Expedia, or Booking.com. But each site serves the same purpose (to help travellers). So you should list your tours across multiple OTAs to give yourself more opportunities to get in front of potential customers.

Now, that’s not to say you should create accounts on every OTA at once, but you shouldn’t settle on one after you’re acclimated. Start with a major OTA like Viator and look for another tailored to your niche. Continue to grow your distribution network over time to stay booked and grow your business.

You can get started on these sites for free: Create a business profile and design engaging listings for each tour you offer. Then, customers can find your tours and availability, see your profile and reviews, and book with you online.

Read more : How to Sell Tours on Viator & Drive Bookings | Bókun Partners

That said, many of these platforms take a percentage of the sales when you earn bookings through their site (a.k.a., their commission). But the benefit of getting in front of new customers outweighs the booking fees.

Pro tip: Most tour providers “graduate” to booking software after they start selling on multiple OTAs and need a way to maintain a centralised calendar. Booking systems connect with OTAs so all reservations populate automatically in one calendar. You don’t have to check multiple sites to stay in the loop.

2. Create a booking website so customers can learn about your brand & experiences

Most customers like to verify businesses before making a purchase — check out their sites, look at pictures from past tours, and read customer testimonials.

It can be even more important for tour operators to have sites, as customers are visiting you from out of town and trusting your team to show them new experiences and navigate them through uncharted territory. (It’s a little different from booking a haircut or fitness class).

Creating a website should be one of the first things you do when establishing your business online and exploring digital marketing strategies. This way, anybody who finds you online can instantly and easily learn more about you — and even book tours on your site directly.

There are different ways to create branded sites; names like Wix or Squarespace may sound familiar as they’re general website builders. However, these solutions are not tailored for tour operators and lack features to manage (or even enable) online bookings.

Instead, you should look at tour operator software: These tailored booking management tools include solutions to create a branded, bookable website and manage reservations across OTAs, as mentioned in our tip above .

You can learn more about these solutions and how to create a branded website in our guide below.

Read more: How to Create a Booking Website for Tour Operators

3. Create business profiles on Tripadvisor, Yelp & Google

In addition to OTAs, we also suggest listing your business on online directories like Tripadvisor, Yelp, and Google (My Business). Like OTAs, customers often turn to these sites to research travel, read reviews about companies, and plan holidays — so listing your name here is another way to get in front of new customers, show them your past experience, and influence the buying decision as early as possible.

• Tripadvisor is the largest online travel directory, so many tour operators start here. (We suggest you do the same). But you shouldn’t overlook Yelp or Google.
• Yelp is often used by customers (usually millennials in the US market) to look up last-minute things to do — people typically use it while they’re travelling and in new places, so it’s a good way to target people currently in your area and looking to fill their calendars.
• Google doesn’t need much of an introduction. The Google My Business program allows you to appear as a verified business in search results and Google Maps. Google also offers the “Things to do” program — more on this in the next step.

You can create these profiles for free and add your basic business information (your website, phone number, hours of operation, pictures from your location and past tours, etc.). Then, customers can leave reviews on your profiles for other travellers.

4. Join Google Things to do

Google also offers its “Things to do” program for tour operators, attractions, and other activity-based businesses. This program makes it easy for people to find and book activities from Google’s search results page. We’ll show you how it works.

Let’s say we’re travelling to Philadelphia, PA and want to look up popular historical attractions, so we search “things to do in Philadelphia”.

Google immediately shows us “Tickets & tours” with a few suggestions from Viator and Tripadvisor (other OTAs often appear here too).

We see a “Best of Philly” food tour, historical walking tours, a “Phantoms of Philadelphia” tour, a movie and TV tour, and more. When we select one of the tours, we’re immediately routed to the OTA to view the full listing, see availability, and book.

In addition, Google also has a feature to compare tours and ticket prices when searchers look up a specific location, attraction, or point of interest. For example, say we’re interested in visiting the Betsy Ross house.

When we search that location, Google shows us ticket options:

We could book with the Betsy Ross House website, or we can explore tours from providers that could perhaps get us a discount or grant us access to other historical sites.

So we click on Trip.com because they have a few options:

Now we can see tours that get us into Betsy Ross house and give us access to Philly’s other historical sites.

When we click on a tour we’re interested in, we’re directed to the OTA to book.

We see how easy that just made our research. Imagine if you could appear in front of this potential customer. This is why it’s important to get on OTAs and spread your distribution network; so you can reach travellers regardless of how they’re researching.

You can join Google’s Things to do program for free ; it’s easy to connect your booking management tool to the site and verify your business. Or, if you’re not on a booking site, you can review the requirements and submit Google’s application.

5. Partner with other businesses in the travel industry, like hotels, attractions & other tour operators

Another strategy we suggest is partnering with other businesses in the travel industry to sell each others’ experiences and services.

You could partner with tour operators who offer complementary experiences and offer tour packages or bundle deals, or you could reach out to hotels in your area and ask them to promote your tours to their customers. There’s no limit to how you can get creative here.

However, the idea of sourcing these partners can be daunting. How do you make the contact to start the conversation?

Fortunately, many tour operator software offer partner networks so you can make these connections and manage partnerships on the platform.

Our tour operator software, Bókun, offers a Marketplace with over 27K businesses in the travel and leisure industry. You can connect with resorts and hotel chains, travel agents, attractions (like theme parks or museums), and other tour guides and activity operators to reach customers during different stages of their research.

You can join the Marketplace as a supplier (others resell your tours) and/or a reseller (you sell others’ tours for a commission). These partnerships can help fill up bookings or increase revenue when you’re already at max capacity — and are valuable to drive real business growth .

Our system automatically displays partners’ experiences on your site so customers can make those bookings (and set-up isn’t a hassle for you). You can establish and manage partner contracts through our system, and all communications are saved for easy organisation and reference.

Our average customer generated $42,000 worth of bookings via Marketplace resellers in 2023; if we include OTA’s, this figure jumps to $220,000.

6. Promote your brand on social media & partner with influencers

You’ve probably heard this tip time and time again, but there are so many social media platforms and “dos and don’ts” that it can be hard to keep up.

In our experience talking with tour operators, we’ve found many are hesitant to explore this realm because they’re “not tech savvy” or aren’t active on social media. This is understandable when you spend most days chartering boat tours and managing zip lines.

But you shouldn’t avoid these platforms just because they can be challenging to keep up with and learn about. Instead, dip your toes in and explore them at your own pace. You don’t need to produce a dozen reels a day to be relevant or start appearing on these platforms. It’s about building your presence and brand awareness.

On that note: These platforms offer unique ways for tour operators to shape their brand and create memorable customer experiences. It’s your way to show customers who you really are, share highlights from your tours, give them previews of experiences you plan to offer, and so on and so forth.

You can engage with customers on these platforms by actually commenting with them or by encouraging them to tag you in content or share your posts.

If you’re going to start anywhere, we suggest TikTok and Instagram.

TikTok is hugely popular with tour businesses and the tourism industry . Since 2021, the platform has seen a 410% increase in travel content views. Recent research shows that 83% of Spanish TikTok users, 76% of French users, and 71% of UK users discover new travel brands on the platform.

51% of Spanish TikTok users have also reported purchasing tours and travel-related activities on the platform.

Note: Now is the time to dive into TikTok, before it becomes overly saturated. We have several customers seeing success on the platform.

Instagram is also highly popular , with the hashtags #travel and #vacation used over 200 million times every month on the platform. (And there are ~70 million other travel-related hashtags.) Instagram lets you geotag locations and share engaging content to reach customers from around the world.

You can also explore Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter as you go down the line, but you may see less return for your marketing efforts here.

When starting out, remember the focus is to build your brand over time. Focus on one channel, try to post every day (or so), create different types of content, ask customers to follow your page, and link your socials on your website. The goal is to create watchable, shareable, and saveable content; you can begin to see what works and what doesn’t by testing different types of content.

Pro tip: For content ideas, think about the questions customers have about your community or experiences. For example, “How do I get to the airport from downtown London?” or “How to avoid pickpockets in Rome?”

It also helps to follow other people in your community, or that offer similar experiences, so you can reach people who share your same interests.

As you become more familiar with social strategies, you can explore partnering with travel influencers.

7. Encourage positive reviews & referrals from existing customers

This one is fairly straightforward (so we won’t belabour the obvious), but you should encourage customers to leave reviews after you create a website and get established on OTAs. This not only improves your credibility with other travellers, but can also improve your online visibility, as tours with high ratings are shown more often on OTAs and Google.

If you have trouble encouraging reviews, you could offer incentives like a discount or free merch.

Some tips here — focus on the memorable moments of your tour and reference those when asking for reviews. For example, you could ask customers to share their thoughts on the views they saw, places they visited, food they tried, etc.

It could also help to give freebies during the tour, like photos; then you could ask customers to share their thoughts and any free photos they received during their tour. This reminds customers of the freebie and encourages them to share pictures in reviews.

Note: Don’t forget about good old fashioned word of mouth — you should also ask customers to refer you to their friends and offer referral incentives.

Our platform makes this easy by auto-sending review emails after customers’ tours; we also provide email templates you can customise for different types of tours.

8. Leverage email marketing to stay top of mind

Email marketing is a great way to encourage reviews and referrals. You don’t have to ask customers face-to-face or post flyers around check-in locations; email marketing campaigns let you stay top of mind with customers, share special discounts, and encourage customers to promote your tours and experiences.

You can also earn repeat bookings and target potential new customers this way.

For example, you could create an email with a “returning customer discount,” encouraging customers who booked with you to visit again. You could also send shareable promo codes for customers to post on their socials or share with friends.

Some tour operator software offer email marketing features so you can communicate with customers through the platform, but you might also consider marketing tools like MailChimp or HubSpot.

Our system, Bókun, includes a native CRM, customisable email templates, and an automated communications tool to support this.

Note: Our platform can also help with retargeting. For example, if somebody starts a booking but abandons mid-checkout, you could create an email that automatically gets sent encouraging them to finish booking their tour. (You could also design a follow-up offering a discount if they don’t complete checkout after email #1.)

9. Create blog content & content marketing

Another strategy to explore is content marketing. Adding a blog to your website and writing about events in your area, the types of experiences you offer, popular industry topics, or other general topics of interest can help you appear online when people look up these same things.

You could even get more strategic and create pages targeting keywords like “tours in [your location here]” so your website appears in Google’s organic search results (below the Tours & tickets feature) when people search for things to do.

Aside from online channels, you could also distribute your content in travel magazines to reach specific audiences.

If you’re not a writer, you can hire a content marketing agency or a blogger to help you determine what topics to talk about and produce content.

The website builder you use to design your site should enable you to create a blog section and add new content, but you can always reach out for help when tackling this task.

10. Try paid ad programs (on OTAs, social media, or Google)

We saved our paid strategies for last.

After exhausting free, organic strategies to market your tour company, you can also dip into paid online advertising programs. Cost-per-click (CPC) advertising (also called pay-per-click, PPC) are ad programs you can create where you only pay if somebody clicks on your ad. This is a great way to start into online advertising without hefty upfront costs.

OTAs, social media sites like Instagram, and search engines like Google all offer paid ad programs. When you opt into these programs, these platforms promote you at the top of pages so you’re easily found, or they show you more often.

For example, PPC Google ads place you at the top of search engine results with a “Sponsored” label, so searchers know you’re an ad. Social media sites will “boost” your content to target audiences, showing it to more people or more frequently, so you can capture more traffic there.

While you have to pay for online advertising, it can be a really effective way to drive bookings quickly. Start by setting small budgets on these platforms to test different strategies and find what works for you.

You can sign up for and manage these programs on your own — you don’t need an agency or rep from the platform to help — but if you’re unfamiliar with online advertising and want advice on determining budgets and choosing the best platforms to invest in, consult with an SEO or digital marketing agency.

Getting started with Bókun

Our tour operator software is designed with the features to establish your online presence and grow your tour company through digital strategies. We’re a Tripadvisor brand, and our platform connects with dozens of OTAs (we’re also a preferred partner with Viator). Our platform has an expansive Marketplace and provides additional features to create combo packages, offer upsells, and improve your customers’ experiences.

Our team can help you get started with the platform; we also work with growing businesses to help shape tour marketing strategies and reach new goals. We have experience with small one- or two-person teams and tour companies with teams worldwide.

You can get started on our platform for free to build your site, create tour listings, and connect with OTAs.

After the free 14-day trial period, our platform is available starting at a subscription fee of $49/month for START customers, and this grants access to our core booking platform. We charge the lowest booking fees across competitors (1% to 1.5%) — we waive Bókun booking fees on Viator reservations and never charge to manage offline bookings.

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• 10 ways to get more tour reservations & earn new customers
• Alternatives to creating a booking system in Excel
• Tour & activity booking system pricing comparison guide

Your Marketing Mix: the 7 Ps of Travel and Tourism Marketing

As a busy tour operator, developing a marketing strategy for your tour or activity business can feel like a daunting task. You already have your hands full ensuring your business is running smoothly, you can’t afford to waste time or money on the wrong things. Fortunately, you don’t have to go in without a plan. A good way to build out your knowledge of the fundamentals of marketing is to understand the marketing mix and how to use the 7 Ps of marketing in the travel and tourism industry.

A marketing mix is the set of actions that a business uses to promote its brand in the market and influence customers to purchase their product. An effective marketing mix focuses its efforts in multiple areas to build a robust marketing plan. These areas were initially known as the 4 Ps of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) and were first proposed by marketing professor Jerome McCarthy in 1960. Since then, marketing tactics have evolved and in an attempt to better address businesses in the service industry, the 4 Ps were expanded to 7 and now include people, process, and physical evidence.

Why Do They Matter?

Today, we’ll be exploring all 7 Ps of the marketing mix and how they can help you build an effective marketing strategy for your tour or activity business. While each element of the marketing mix is important on its own, collectively they provide a framework for creating a plan that is unique to your business and your target audience. Following the 7 Ps will help you better understand your brand so that you can develop a marketing strategy that works for you on all fronts. 

The 7 Ps of Travel and Tourism Marketing

The first P of the marketing mix is product. That is, what is it that you’re selling to your customers? In most industries, the product is something that is tangible. The customer can walk into a store, purchase a product off the shelf, and take it home with them. However, in the tourism industry, the product provided is often an intangible service in the form of a tour, an experience, or even the destination itself. 

Tangible or intangible, to give your product the best chance of success, it’s important to ensure that there is a demand for what you’re selling. Make sure you have a thorough understanding of the service you’re offering, the needs you’re fulfilling for your customers, and why they aren’t able to get it anywhere else. What makes your tour or activity unique and better than that of your competitors?

Answering these questions will help you discover your unique selling proposition (USP) and determine your positioning in the market. Above all, ensure that the tour or activity you’re providing is the best that it can be.

Next up is the price of your tour. What are your customers willing to pay for what you’re offering? Determining how to price your tour or activity package requires the careful consideration of factors such as competitor pricing, the budget of your target audience, and your own overhead and operational costs. Ultimately, you want to price your tour or activity competitively so that it is both attractive to your customers and profitable for your business.

The third P of the travel and tourism marketing mix is place, or the distribution method of your product. This is where and how you make your tour or activity available to your customers for purchase. As mentioned earlier, because the service you’re providing is intangible, the places where your customers can book your tour will primarily be online, whether it be through your booking website, social media platforms, or online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia and Booking.com.

Your online booking website is one of the most important places your tours and activities can be found, so make sure it’s doing everything you need by booking a demo with Rezgo .

Physical locations like your tour or activity office as well as neighboring businesses that you’ve partnered with are also places where your customers might access your product.

The last of the original 4 Ps of marketing is promotion, or how your customers learn about your tour or activity. Tour promotion encompasses all the tactics that businesses typically use when they think about marketing. This includes both physical and digital advertisements, social media posts , press releases, events, special deals or limited-time offers, customer reviews, and partnerships with hotels or other local businesses at your destination. The possibilities are endless when it comes to tour promotion and are really only limited by your own creativity. 

The people who represent your business and the customer service they provide are especially important when it comes to the success of a tour or activity company. Unlike businesses where physical products can sometimes speak for themselves, the overall experience a customer receives on a tour is greatly influenced by the people they interact and engage with. This includes tour guides, customer service representatives, and even booking agents. To ensure a positive experience for your customers, it’s important that anyone who interacts with your customers on your business’ behalf (even indirectly) is highly professional and knowledgeable about your products and services.

the sixth of the 7 Ps of tourism marketing is the process. The process that a customer goes through from the moment they book your activity to when they finally complete the tour should be as pleasant, convenient, and seamless as possible. Customers should be able to access any information they need with ease including their itinerary, booking info, waivers, etc.

Just as important is how your business decides to deliver this information to your customers. Plan and design your process so that it is easily replicated for efficiency, reliability, and consistency. A good booking system can automate a lot of your process to make sure the customer experience is smooth and efficient from start to finish.

Physical Evidence

Lastly, we have physical evidence. Once again, because the experiences and services provided by a tour or activity company are usually intangible, it can be difficult for interested customers to try them out before committing to a purchase or booking.

There are, however, still ways for tour operators to use physical cues to help convert potential customers. Some of these include website design, physical tour office layout, employee uniforms, brochures, marketing material, and souvenirs or free swag. It’s also worth highlighting any tangible elements of your tour that customers can look forward to in your promotional material or tour descriptions . 

Measuring the Success of Your Travel and Tourism Marketing Mix

Using the 7 Ps of marketing to build out a strategy for your tour company is great, but how do you know if it’s working? Measuring the success of your tourism marketing mix can be accomplished in a few ways. The first is to calculate your return on investment (ROI) to determine whether the money you’ve spent on your marketing initiatives are actually bringing in enough sales for a profit.

Another way to check on the performance of your marketing strategy is by using analytics on engagement data. How many people actually saw or clicked on that ad, post, or email? How many of those clicks converted into a sale? 

Rezgo offers a powerful reporting system that allows tour operators to track the performance of their marketing campaigns and analyze the impact of each referrer or promo code. By studying this data you can adjust your marketing strategy so that you’re focusing your effort and allocating your money in the most effective places.

There’s a lot to consider when developing a marketing strategy for your tour or activity business, but now that we’ve broken down the 7 Ps of a tourism marketing mix, you know exactly which areas you should be focusing on.

Work on planning and building out each marketing element separately, but remember that they need to complement each other and work together harmoniously for the biggest impact. Adjusting your strategy in one area should affect the way you approach another. 

Rezgo helps tour and activity providers thrive by giving them the tools and guidance they need to work efficiently and expand their business.You’re passionate about providing amazing experiences. We’re passionate about building  flexible tools  to make your job easier and get you more bookings. Let’s work together to make your business thrive. Start using Rezgo today by signing up for free !

We can’t wait to see you launch your next marketing campaign. Good luck!

Written By | Edward Nieh

Edward Nieh is a freelance writer and copy editor working across multiple mediums for clients from various industries. He has a degree in creative writing with a focus on screenwriting for feature films.

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How to Build a Tourism Marketing Strategy or Plan in 6 Easy Steps

When it comes to your tourism marketing strategy, it’s important to know exactly where you’re headed. Having a wishy-washy plan of action is where most destination marketing strategies fall a little short.

It’s important that you get very specific and granular about the goals you would like to achieve because this means you’ll be a whole lot closer to actually achieving them. But before we dive into marketing in tourism , let’s find out what destination marketing is in the first place.

What is a Tourism Marketing Plan?

Having a marketing strategy in tourism means having a specific plan that aims at promoting touristic products or services such as tours, accommodation, or concierge services.

A well-executed tourist marketing plan or strategy is ultra important to the success of your business. After all, if you fail to let potential customers know the value that your business can add to their travels, they have no reason to use your business.

6 Step Marketing Strategy for Tourism

If you’re hoping to come up with a travel and tourism marketing plan that will actually generate leads, then follow these steps closely for the best results.

1.    Identify Your Target Audience

If you are hoping to implement an effective marketing strategy, you need to know exactly who it is that your marketing needs to be geared towards. If you try to market to EVERYONE, very often, it turns out that you’re reaching NO ONE.

You’ll need to come up with a customer persona that represents your ideal audience or customer. While you’ll need to outline their general demographic, you also want to get a little more granular with their description as if they were a real person.

Having this detail will help you to market directly to your ideal audience as well as effectively manage your marketing budget. So you can spend more time focusing on developing customer loyalty.

When creating a buyer persona, include information such as the following:

• Physical location

Creating a buyer persona is often overlooked, but without this step, your marketing strategy could be completely ineffective. You want your message to come through loud and clear to the people whose attention you are trying to grab. So make sure you know exactly who that is.

2.    Create Clear Goals

Your marketing strategy should have very clear goals. This way, you’ll be able to measure whether your marketing is effective or whether you need to reassess your strategy to help reach your goals. Each goal that you come up with should be a SMART goal :

If you ensure that each of your marketing objectives is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely, then you know that you have a list of very strong goals.

3.    Analyze Your Competitors

The best way to get ahead in any industry is to learn from other companies’ mistakes so that you don’t have to go out and make them for yourself. The best way to do this is to analyze your competitors to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This allows you to excel where they excel and improve on their weaknesses.

Take at least three of your top competitors, and run them through this analysis to get a better understanding of their marketing strategy:

• What makes them attractive to their customers?
• What experiences do they offer, and at what price?
• Who is their target audience?
• What unique features and benefits do they offer?
• What is their overall rating on review sites?
• What do their guests/customers say about them?
• What type of social media platforms do they use?
• What kind of content are they posting?
• What kind of distribution channels do they rely on?
• Their domain authority score (that can be checked on Moz Keyword Explorer or Ahrefs )
• What keywords do they rank for? (can also be checked on Moz or Ahrefs)

This type of analysis will give you a better idea of where to start and how you can improve on your competitor’s marketing strategies when creating your own.

4.    Choose Your Tourism Marketing Platforms

Unless you are a big company that can outsource its marketing efforts, you’ll likely have to refine your marketing to a couple of key platforms. So how do you decide which platforms are worth the ROI?

The best place to start is by looking at which platforms the majority of your competitors are focusing their marketing efforts on. There’s probably a good reason that most of them spend a lot of time on the same platforms. While that’s a good place to start, it may also take a little trial and error until you find the platforms that are converting best for you.

It’s important to remember that tourism is a highly visual niche, so whichever platform you are using to market your products or services, make sure it can support your high-quality content. These are some of the platforms that work well for tourism marketing :

• Pinterest marketing
• SEO (search engine marketing)
• PPC (pay-per-click advertising)
• Content marketing

As you can see, there are many directions you can go in when it comes to tourism marketing. So it’s best to refine the process early on and decide on a couple of main platforms rather than half-heartedly trying to use every single one.

5.    Ensure That You Are Selling a Unique Proposition

When creating your marketing content, you want to ensure that what you are selling has a clear message and one that sets you apart from your competitors. Here’s an example of what we are referring to:

• M&M’s – “Melts in your mouth. Not in your hand.” – this slogan tells people exactly what sets M&M apart as a candy.
• Domino’s – “Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed.” – they are not claiming to have the best pizza; they are claiming to have pizza in your hand quickly.

So what does this look like for a tourism company? Well, that is entirely up to you, but here are some examples of how you could make your offer different from industry competitors:

• Tour company: book your tours last minute, let us handle your entire trip or no person-to-person contact booking.
• Accommodation: last-minute bookings, free cancellation policy, or return visitors get a night free.

There are many different directions you can go with your USP ( unique selling proposition ), and they don’t have to come at a cost to the company. Think about how you want to set your business apart from industry competitors and make sure that message comes across loud and clear in your marketing strategy.

6.    Create Tourism Marketing Content

When creating a strategy for each of the platforms you have chosen, you need to make sure that each platform is working together as a cohesive team. For instance, you could run a competition on Instagram or Facebook that aims to collect emails for your email marketing campaign.

You should also ensure that the content being produced is not simply copied from one platform to another. The users of each platform are looking for something slightly different, so you will need to adapt your content to suit the audience of each platform.

Tips for Creating Marketing Content That Converts

Once you have chosen your marketing platforms, it’s important to understand that having a presence on those platforms is simply not enough. You need your copy to really speak to the right audience.

• Speak to your customer persona – You need to speak directly to the audience that you want to sell to, and your customer persona is a great example of your target audience. The voice present in your copy needs to speak to the values and perceptions held by your target audience. After all, if you try to speak to EVERYONE, you end up speaking to NO ONE at all.
• Use benefit-driven copy – when you are trying to entice your audience with an offer, focus on the benefits that you offer rather than just stating facts. If you are trying to sell a destination, focus on the benefits of visiting that location rather than just spewing out facts about the city or town.
• Collect emails ASAP – Having an email list that contains the emails of people interested in visiting your location or staying at your accommodation is one of the most valuable things you have. You can collect emails by having CTAs in your marketing content, offering freebies in return for emails, etc. This is important because you can send emails to people on your list, providing them with valuable content that can eventually lead to a conversion .

Implement Your Tourism Marketing Strategies

Now that you know exactly how to come up with a tourism marketing strategy, it’s time to implement it and get those bookings or sales. The marketing of tourism can seem tricky at first, but if you follow the steps provided above, you’ll be well on your way to running a successful company in the tourism industry.

We have been working with industry leaders for over 5 years. So if you would like to leave your tourism marketing strategy in safe hands, let us handle your marketing content so you can focus on building your business.

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5 Ways To Elevate Your Travel Marketing Strategy

Why do people choose Lapland over Las Vegas? A far-flung beach resort over the French Alps? Glamping over a cruise? 🤔

It’s 2024, and travelers aren’t willing to settle for just another cookie-cutter vacation. Their next destination must have unique experiences and a chance to explore the unknown. 

And yes—they’re willing to pay for it 💰

With the travel industry set to be worth over $900 billion this year, DMOs must have a rock-solid travel marketing strategy to get a piece of the pie. But the reality is, if you can meet travelers where they’re at and show them why their destination should be at the top of their list—you’re already halfway there. 

In this guide, we will look at how travel marketing is evolving, what strategies are working today, and how the right toolkit can make your social media campaign a success. 

Let’s get started 👇

What Is Travel Marketing?

Travel marketing is a blanket term for how Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and tourism operators attract more visitors. 

There are so many types of travel marketing that the list would be (stupidly) long, but it covers every corner of the travel industry from hotels to glamping, from museums to tour operators. The scale of travel marketing is why it’s important to think of how it will work within your specific niche. Obviously, the strategy (and budget) used by cruise operators will be a little different to a family-run glamping site. 

However, the aim of travel marketing remains the same across all areas—increasing visitor numbers. 

The road to achieving this goal is a little more complex. It requires educating target audiences about why they should visit a destination, what makes it special, and why it can give them an experience they won’t find anything else. 

So, how can travel marketers stand out in an industry… that will be worth a trillion dollars by 2028? 🤔

How Is Travel Marketing Evolving?

The new generation of travelers wants more out of their vacation. The not-so-new generation of travelers are changing the way they search and plan for their next holiday. 

No matter how you slice and dice it, every travel marketer is battling to get eyeballs on their content—and people to their destination. One thing travel marketers can be certain of is a lot of content that’s resonating with people and influencing their next trip is being viewed online. This is heavily driven by changes in what travelers want out of a vacation: 

• 95% of American travelers say they want to experience something new and unique on their next vacay
• 81% of people want to explore the “unknown” next time they hit a destination
• 42% of travelers want to explore Indigenous heritage and culture

And then, there’s the impact of AI in planning travel decisions. 

Within the next decade, over 70% of travelers expect to use AI to plan everything from accommodation to transport, activities and their trip’s environmental impact. A further 62% of millennials say they want AI insights and tips to help them plan a holiday. 

In the next 10 years, AI will grow in importance for tourists to seek out information and ideas. For now, travel marketers should focus on authentic content in their strategy to win over their target audience 👇

5 Ways To Elevate Your Travel Marketing Strategy in 2024

1. create once—promote endlessly .

An underrated travel marketing strategy is to do less with more. 

Creating impactful content can be expensive, and most DMOs don’t have a huge budget to play with. In fact, 61% of the DMOs we spoke to for our 2024 Trends Report said their annual content budget was $200,000 or less. 

The best way to stretch this budget is to develop content that has a long shelf-life, and then recycle it across multiple platforms for maximum reach. 

Let’s look at an example. 

Visit Alamosa has perfected the art of creating evergreen, recyclable content across its blog and social media channels. One of the area’s main attractions is its historic railway, which is talked about in-depth on the DMO’s blog: 

The information from each section of the blog is then cut into smaller content pieces to use on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, like this: 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Visit Alamosa (@visitalamosa)

The cool part about Visit Alamosa’s content recycling strategy is they did less with more: 

📋 The information for social posts was pulled from the blog, saving time and resources

📹 The DMO outsources short-form video creation for its social media to CrowdRiff Creators , which keeps its content library full of high-quality, authentic assets 

♻️ Its Instagram feed is embedded on its website. Each time a new post is uploaded to Visit Alamosa’s feed, its main website gets a glow-up:

Visit Alamosa’s Instagram feed is embedded on its homepage

Just like that, the DMO has managed to create a full content circle using information from a single blog post—and a little help from CrowdRiff 😉

2. Get personal

DMOs are facing a personalization conundrum. 

Personalizing your travel marketing strategy is non-negotiable, but relying on basic personas filled with demographic data is no longer enough. In reality, this data isn’t flexible enough to accommodate how people (especially younger Gen Z travelers) are planning and booking their vacations. 

So, why is this approach becoming way less impactful? 🤔

Well, one reason is people don’t fall into neat categories just because of their age, location or net worth. DMOs must start to look at people as individuals and create campaigns around the reason someone is taking a vacation, instead of where they live or how much they earn. 

As Piero Sierra, Chief Product Officer at Skyscanner, says , personalization should be based around helping customers pick their perfect destination, “whatever their trip’s vibe”. DMOs must truly understand why visitors might pick a destination using tools like surveys, data collection, analytics and a healthy dose of experimentation. 

These tactics could include: 

📈 Analytics . Take a look at what travel marketing campaigns performed best in the past. Dive into social media data, website visits and engagement to see what content and campaigns your target audience loves to see. 

📋 Itineraries . The best way for visitors to discover the best bits of your destination is to map out exactly what they should spend their time seeing. Don’t just promote the main attractions, but shine a light on the hidden gems of your destination to give visitors a truly unique look at what you have to offer. 

🥳 Giveaways. Give the unique activities and destinations in your custom itinerary a little extra boost by including them in online giveaways. For example, if you want to highlight a sustainable activity or local restaurant in your area, partner up with the operator and agree on a giveaway promotion to get visitors excited about these hidden gems. 

Think outside the box and target travelers on their vibe—not just their age 👌

3. Celebrate Your Green(er) and Slow(er) Destinations

Most U.S. travelers think there aren’t sustainable travel options—and they want more.  

A Booking.com report found 70% of travelers are more likely to book accommodation if the property is planet-friendly. This tracks with a rising trend of demand for “greener” vacations, which DMOs can capitalize on by using environmentally-focused marketing campaigns: 

🌱 Encourage sustainable activities. Market the greenest parts of your destination, and celebrate what the community is doing to be more environmentally friendly. Learn from other DMOs on how to use sustainable tourism to draw more travelers’ eyes in this helpful guide .

🦥 Promote slow travel. Not every traveler wants to be up from dawn ‘til dusk with a packed schedule. “Slow travel” is a growing trend to connect local people, community and culture to the environment. In fact, slow travel now makes up 10% CAGR. Think about how to promote slow travel in your area and give travelers what they want—an authentic connection with a destination. 

Another bonus of promoting less-visited parts of a destination is to spread our visitors when they visit. The last thing your destination needs is bloated tourism in just a handful of places. Take a hard look at what parts of your region can handle large(er) influxes of visitors—and put them on the map 🗺. 

4. Invest in Short Form Video

People now feel UGC is 9.8X more impactful than influencer content. They even prefer it over a brand’s own content. A report found UGC is 2.5X more authentic than branded content.

Travelers on Instagram and TikTok are drawn to content made by real people, not “polished” travel marketing campaigns. Social media users love UGC and seeing real people traveling to your destination. After all, it’s the closest they can get to the real thing. 

Jump on the UGC bandwagon by creating shareable social media content for your audience. Or, get your visitors to do the hard work for you. 

This is exactly what the Yarmouth & Acadian Shores Tourism Association (YASTA) does to beef up its social media game. The Western Nova Scotia-based DMO uses UGC to tell the story of its region from unique perspectives and angles. As CEO Neil MacKenzie explains, the UGC content is more trusted and gives its marketing efforts a more “alive” feeling. 

“You can discover more places around your own backyard, and things you haven’t necessarily seen before. It also helps us really get a feel for what’s around us, and what’s happening.” Neil MacKenzie, CEO of Yarmouth & Acadian Shores Tourism Association (YASTA)

YASTA gathers and uses UGC in a couple of different ways: 

• Legally sourcing UGC. The DMO uses CrowdRiff’s rights request functionality to source UGC and store it in its CrowdRiff gallery. As content is automatically sorted based on engagement, it’s easy for the DMO to share content that’s already gaining traction on social media to its own channels. 
• Website galleries. UGC fills individual galleries for each of the DMO’s partners’ listings on its website to promote seasonal photos and regional events
• External media. Visit Yarmouth doesn’t just use UGC for online marketing. Once it has rights to an image, it will repurpose it in other spaces like print media

An example of Yarmouth & Acadian Shores’ UGC on its Instagram feed. Image Link

MacKenzie has one (important) piece of advice for DMOs wanting to add UGC to their marketing strategy. 

“Invest in owned media and branded content but leverage earned media like UGC too. Find that right mix; see if you can get these folks who are already creating content to be storytellers for you even if they’re starting out, because they might be a good content partner for you moving forward.”

One caveat about using UGC—which you may have picked up on—is it’s a looooottaaa work 😬

We built Creators to connect busy DMOs to experienced locals. It’s the easiest way to outsource UGC creation to get quality content in less time. Learn more about how Creators works here 👀

5. Save Time With The Right Toolkit

A key part of a “do less with more” travel marketing strategy is knowing exactly what assets you have to play with. Whether it’s recycling assets you already have on hand, or repurposing content created by others, the right toolkit can save your DMO a ton of time and money. 

Some DMOs are experimenting with tools that craft AI-powered itineraries or generative AI to make image sourcing easier. While these tactics are (super) exciting, most DMOs can find immediate value by using AI to help with the bread and butter parts of their strategies like:

✂️Asset management. CrowdRiff digital asset management (DAM) tool has built-in machine-learning capabilities to spot and delete blurry/low-quality content from your library. 

🏷️Tagging. CrowdRiff’s DAM also uses automatic AI visual tagging to connect themes and subjects of your assets. Next time you need to find an image or short-form video about a specific place or event, it’ll be easy to find it quickly using keywords

📊Metadata. Use internal data to stay organized. Add licensing information, location, and permissions to every asset in your library so your team knows exactly what they can use for their next social media campaign.

🔍Search. Scan your entire visual library using natural language (in up to six different languages) and filter assets by type, size, orientation, date taken, and more. 

Last but not least, make the most out of every piece of content your audience creates with the right UGC rights management tool . With CrowdRiff, you can find UGC from visitors and request the rights to use it on your own social channels: 

Once the visitor agrees, their content will be ticked away in your CrowdRiff library—ready to use when you need it 😎

Want to see why 900+ DMOs trust CrowdRiff to supercharge their travel marketing strategies by finding, organizing, and sharing UGC across their socials?

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8 Digital Marketing Strategies for Travel and Tour Agencies

If you own a travel agency or business based on tours and travel industry , you need to have a solid marketing plan to thrive. The modern travel industry is extremely competitive, so without a thorough strategy you may fall behind the competition. In this article, we uncover some of the basics of how to market your travel agency and use digital marketing for travel industry businesses. We will share a wealth of marketing ideas for travel-based businesses and help you benefit from travel agency promotion ideas. 

Here are some tips for digital marketing strategy for travel agency businesses:

Content Marketing 

All content  you create for your business should add value to the reader. Offer advice, ideas, or inspire users and make them read more and come back to your page. A good content strategy should not only offer information but create a bond with your audience. Any written/video/podcast content you create should resonate with consumer needs of your readers.

Here is a bunch of ideas on how to find out what you can write about:

• Conducting user surveys will help you understand your audience and their immediate travel needs. 
• Analyzing your most frequently asked questions is a good starting point in creating blog posts that will keep users staying on your site longer and coming  back. 
• Using keyword research tools will show you the most frequently browsed queries connected to your business. Using those keywords will help potential customers find you more easily.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the core digital marketing strategy for travel agencies. It optimizes your website and content with the right keywords so your travel brand shows up prominently in local search results. This is a win-win approach while it boosts your website's visibility and attracts more visitors and your potential customers who are actively browsing for travel services and tours like yours. By consistently ranking high in search results, you establish your agency as a trustworthy source for travelers and upgrade the brand’s  online visibility and credibility.

Looking for assistance in discovering the most effective keywords for your SEO strategy? Explore this article .

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)   is slightly different from SEO because it is about paying for top positions in search engine result pages (SERPs). Platforms like Bing, Google, and Yahoo provide various options to create paid advertising campaigns tailored to travel business. If you're seeking highly targeted results and want to avoid the lengthy process of organic SEO, SEM is your best bet. The SEM alternative will quickly boost your visibility by ranking higher for new keywords and giving your business a brand-new start. With SEM, you pay for each click your link gets, which is quite fair in terms of marketing budget optimization .

72% of individuals who initiate a local search end up visiting a physical store or location as a direct outcome of that search.

Overall, SEO   is about focusing on a worldwide audience to achieve top search engine results. In its turn, local SEO helps you optimize your page to reach a hyper-specific and local audience. This marketing strategy for travel agency businesses is a great solution if you have a brick-and-mortar outlet and want to attract more local customers to visit your physical office. The strategy assumes using local keywords and placing data from your region on your webpage to target users who are seeking a travel agency in their area. You’ll also make your travel business far more visible on Google Maps.

Paid ads are an online marketing for travel agency business strategy that works like SEM. PPC advertising is displayed on other pages in your niche by Google or through social media. You can set up PPC campaigns for your travel agency with a persuasive  sales copy to direct prospective customers back to your page and hook them to order in the tours they’ve been looking for. Paid ads come as a scalable strategy that depletes your budget whenever someone clicks on your link. The strategy l involves a permanent  monitoring to ensure you are targeting the right users and pursuing an effective sales funnel consistent with your strategic marketing goals. 

To learn more, read our article about the benefits of paid ads for travel companies.

Email Marketing

Email marketing works like a content marketing campaign. The strategy heavily relies  on building an email list of your current clients and prospective clients . Here, you will  need to create promotions to gather emails from users online and send out useful email content to a mass list as part of your travel agency promotion ideas. Creating a successful email list can take some time, though once you have a list of clients and prospective clients interested in your valuable travel tips or promotions on new tours, you’ll get rewarded with a high degree of converted sales and visits to your website from your email links. 

We offer some ideas for your email marketing strategy in this article . 

Review Management 

All travel companies  depend on reviews and your travel agency is no different. Asking each of your clients to leave a review on your service with a website like Yelp or Google Business reviews will come as a huge help in establishing trust with your prospects. A large number of your prospective clients will look for reviews or testimonials from your past clients and this is an organic and authentic form of marketing that has a significant impact on your business. That’s why it’s important to pay close attention to search engine reputation management .

Video Marketing

Creating high-converting video content is an excellent way to reach out to prospective clients on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Digital marketing for the travel sector is changing and posting a video from your tour or hotels featured by your company can have a huge impact on someone who is scrolling through videos or is looking  forward to spending a vacation. Video marketing can take work and coordination with the travel companies you work for, but it's a huge help with visual representation of  what your customers can get. This is also about reaching out to prospective customers on new platforms.

If you have trouble with establishing a quality marketing strategy for your travel agency, working with a digital marketing agency will give you a boost over the competition. Working with professional marketers will ensure you have high-converting advertising and the best digital marketing strategies to skyrocket your business.

Content Marketing Manager at Promodo

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10 Strategies For Travel Businesses To Boost Tour Sales Performance

• Sales & Bookings

Every travel company wants to maximize tour sales. Even more so now, where the travel industry has seen a great deal of change and quiet time: finding ways to boost sales performance is critical.

With a tactical approach, it’s possible to set your business up to reach more of your ideal clients. Now more than ever, paying careful attention to the finer details is going to be a priority.

Below, we’ve listed some of the best strategies to help your travel business stand out, get more leads, and drive revenue.

Strategies To Boost Tour Sales Performance

1. point out the unique benefits of your tour.

One of the essential strategies to increase tour sales is to highlight the benefits of the tour clearly. Instead of listing the tour features, paint a picture to show travelers what they can expect to see, feel, and get from the experience.

A good tactic to help achieve this is to include positive reviews and testimonials from existing clients. Happy clients are your biggest advocates. Usually, they are more than willing to write a positive testimonial for your tour.

2. Add A Little Extra Enticement

To really highlight the benefits of your trip, offer extra snippets of information that clients might not typically expect to see in a tour description.

For example, they may not be thinking about where the best places to eat in Tuscany are at this stage of the funnel. But, give them a compelling glimpse of what to expect (al-fresco, organic dining in a grape vineyard overlooking the rolling hills), and this can act to entice their curiosity.

The result--a tour inquiry that can lead to a booking!

3. Find Your Niche In The Industry

To sell more tours, you need to understand your customers. The tourism industry is vast, so it's essential to really get into a niche. This will help you establish a more specific target audience and market your tour to the right people.

Carve out your corner and create a unique product for your business. Your goal should be to sell something that other tour operators aren't selling. Or to find a different angle to your competitors on the product that you sell.

So, find what makes your business unique, shout it to the rooftops, and explain the benefits to your clients. This will help you to really distance your business from competitors.

4. Ask For Client Referrals

Referrals help extend your network and reach, allowing your tours to become more visible to more potential customers. If you can get your clients to refer your tour to their circles, you will get access to a whole new market.

You can simply ask your existing biggest fans for referrals. Another tactic is to incentivize referrals through promotions. For example, you could run a tour giveaway that offers a bonus entry to each referral. This will soon help you to reach a larger audience.

5. Establish Strategic Relationships

If you want to boost tour sales, try selling across several different channels. A great tactic is to establish strategic relationships with vendors, partners, and agents who can market and sell your trips to their clients.

You can establish these types of relationships with local DMOs, tourism boards, local business partners in your community, travel agents, OTAs , etc.

6. Use Technology For Bookings

Offering online bookings is a great way to boost tour sales without much effort. In fact, by not offering online bookings, you are potentially losing out on a great number of sales. People rely on technology more and more every day; self-service transacting and processing reservations online go part and parcel to this!

Importantly, give your clients a streamlined and straightforward online booking using a variety of payment options. WeTravel’s payment and booking management platform is great for this. It is designed especially for travel companies, multi-day, group, and international tour operators, giving them excellent payment processing abilities, beautiful booking pages, and streamlined booking management.

7. Make The Most Of Social Media

Every travel business needs to have a clear content marketing strategy, which includes your social channels. Social media is full of opportunities to promote your tours and increase your sales. Plus, it is where many of your potential clients hang out online.

Engage with people on social media, target the right audience, and post engaging content to reel them and get a conversation going. You never know; it may well lead to making a sale.

You should also encourage social proof. Try to get people posting about the experiences you offer, and make sure to share their posts. User-generated content on social media can help you gain exposure and get more people excited about your offering.

8. Use Online Marketplaces

There are plenty of websites and online marketplaces that sell tours. Loads of people check these to see what activities are on offer in the place they are visiting. So, it can be a good idea to list your products on these platforms. The trick is to find a balance with your direct bookings and not rely too heavily on OTAs that charge hefty commissions.

9. Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews

A significant factor that influences tour sales is trust. Your tour needs to excite customers, but they also need to trust your business before they go ahead with making a booking. Positive reviews and feedback are essential for this.

After your clients finish up your trips, encourage them to leave a review on your preferred platforms . The more positive mentions you have, the greater the number of new clients you can attract.

10. Upsell Other Tour Products

It’s a good idea to boost tour sales by upselling to existing customers . Instead of leaving a booking as it is, see whether there is an opportunity to add other beneficial upsells. This could include things like a room upgrade or add-on activity for your participants.

This strategy works well because you sell to people who already trust your business and want to support it.

Final Thoughts

You can have a great tour to offer, but you still need to sell it . The major challenge for many businesses in the industry is to stand out from their competitors. We hope the ideas above have given you some inspiration to try out.

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Top 7 strategies to boost sales during the off-peak travel season, why offering flexible dates with scheduled departures is great for increasing tour operator sales, best travel sales techniques to respond to clients negatives during the booking process.

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The tour operators’ guide to creating an exciting marketing strategy

Are you a tour operator that is struggling to generate leads?

In an industry as dynamic and competitive as tourism, creating an exciting marketing strategy is crucial for gaining and retaining clients.

Tour operator marketing might seem like a daunting task, but we are here to guide you and to share our top tips on how to make the most out of marketing and develop a strategy that is guaranteed to attract customers.

Why is Marketing Important for Tour Operators?

We all know that marketing is a crucial element of any successful business, and for tour operators, doing business in a market as saturated as travel makes it difficult to stand out against the vast array of competitors.

The tours and activities sector has been one of the hardest hit during the pandemic, and our current crisis has greatly impacted where, how and why we travel. As the industry begins to recover, what better time to optimise your marketing strategy than now?

Types of Marketing

There are various types of marketing that you can incorporate into your strategy. Here are just some of the ways that you can entice prospective customers:

• Social Media

Social media is one of the most powerful tourism marketing tools and allows you to engage and communicate with a wide audience with little investment. Today, consumers use social media at every stage of travel; research shows that 55% of travellers like social media pages related to trips they are planning, and many more are likely to post images or videos of their travel experiences. 

86% of consumers stated that they became interested in a destination after seeing user-generated content, and brands can also utilise platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to share this content in order to inspire potential customers.

• Paid Marketing

Paid advertisements are an extremely effective form of marketing, offering a high return on investment and the guarantee that your company’s message will be seen by its target audience. 

Digital advertising platforms such as Google and Facebook ads have the power to target specific consumer groups based on criteria such as location, interests, search terms and previous purchases and can then direct traffic to your landing page.

• Email Marketing

Email marketing may be one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, but it is still one of the most effective ways to promote your business, develop a relationship with customers and increase brand loyalty.

It also offers an incredibly high return on investment (ROI), and can be used to update potential or previous customers on special deals, promotions or upcoming tours and activities.

• Word of Mouth

Have you ever travelled to a specific destination, stayed at a specific hotel or eaten at a specific restaurant based on online reviews or recommendations from family and friends? Word of mouth marketing is a wonderful tool in the tourism industry, and you can leverage this by encouraging your customers to leave ratings on trusted sites such as TripAdvisor. 

Content marketing involves the creation of relevant, valuable and inspiring content such as photos and videos as well as articles, blog posts and destination guides in order to attract and engage your target audience. High quality content is a key element of any successful marketing strategy, and written content should focus on utilising search engine optimisation (SEO) to help drive traffic to your website and increase bookings. 

Outbound vs Inbound

Outbound marketing aims to reach out to consumers with a specific message, whereas inbound marketing focuses on creating and publishing content that will draw customers in.

In the tourism industry, traditional outbound marketing such as advertisements are a great way to reach a wide audience, however, the use of inbound marketing is on the rise.

Today’s tech-savvy consumers are now more likely than ever to seek out information, and according to PhocusWire , 80% of so-called ‘next-gen’ travellers begin by planning and researching their trips online using online travel agencies, review sites and brand websites as well as social media, blogs and video platforms like YouTube.

Inbound marketing is a great way to attract consumers who are already actively searching for your services, and according to Doxee , an excellent inbound marketing strategy consists of 4 main steps :

Attract and engage your target audience with compelling social media content and SEO optimised blog posts in the hope that they will become customers. 

Initiate contact with potential customers to understand exactly what they’re looking for. At this stage, you can provide valuable and informative content in exchange for customer details such as an email address or telephone number.

Utilise targeted communications such as email marketing to convert leads into customers. 

Nurture your relationship with the customer and create brand trust and loyalty by continuing to engage and provide useful content as well as news, promotions and offers. 

Audience Research

As the tourism market is highly unique, dynamic and competitive, it is crucial that you conduct effective research before you begin to develop a marketing campaign. Due to the immense changes in the industry over the past year, it is now more important than ever to gather information about your customers and competitors.

Regiondo suggests first defining your customer profile, your company’s major competitors and the size of the market before gathering qualitative or quantitative data using focus groups, online reviews, interviews and surveys. Once you have enough data, this can be analysed, reviewed and integrated into your marketing strategy.

Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Creating a strategic marketing plan is a task that takes both time and practice. An article by Peek identified some of the common marketing mistakes that tour operators should avoid, and we are here to share them with you.

• Not regularly updating your website

It is essential for tour operators to have an attractive, informative and up-to-date website. Not only is your website often the first point of contact with potential customers, it is also a way for them to book your tours and activities. 

• Too much focus on competitors

What makes your tours special?

Rather than focusing on beating the prices of your competitors, you should aim to promote the value and experience of your own offerings.

• Lacking consistency on social media

With social media, consistency is key. PhocusWire states that adaptable and digitally focused businesses are the most likely to succeed after the current crisis, and now is the perfect time to focus on creating harmonious, attractive and engaging content on your company’s digital platforms. 

• Not following up with customers 

As we discussed in our article “ Automation versus Personalisation ”, a personalised customer experience is highly important in the tourism industry. Today’s consumer expects a high level of personalised service, both before, during and after their trip.

• Disregarding the value of email marketing

As we already discussed, email marketing can be a highly effective tool for tour operators. An article by Epsilon explains that email marketing is flexible, offering marketers a way to rapidly respond to changes in the market or industry while keeping customers informed and retaining a personal touch. 

• Not promoting online booking services

Online bookings have increased exponentially over the past year and a half, and this trend is only set to continue. If you offer online booking services, be sure to make it clear to customers where and how they can book. 

• Neglecting past customers

Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer, and although many of your clients may be one-time-only, don’t miss out on the opportunity to nurture relationships with past customers that could turn into regular visitors.

• Ignoring negative reviews

Research has shown that reviews play an essential part in the booking decisions of 83% of consumers . Let’s be honest, negative criticism never feels good, but by responding to negative feedback and aiming to rectify the situation you can show customers that you care about their experience. 

• Constantly trying to sell

While it is important to promote your tours and activities, consumers don’t want to feel like they are being bombarded by advertisements all of the time. Making an effort to share content that not only focuses on sales will result in more loyal customers. 

Should I use a CRM?

Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is an important part of any marketing strategy. While it might not be necessary for all businesses, within the tour operator sector a CRM tool offers an array of benefits.

Travel Market Report explains that by using a good CRM tool you can efficiently collect invaluable information on customers and business prospects, allowing you to foster better relationships, offer more personalised services and, ultimately, increase sales.

The Winning Strategy

Although tourism companies have seen an upturn in bookings as travel begins to bounce back, travellers are still wary of changing rules and restrictions. More than 70% of travellers now expect information about rebooking and cancellations to be provided before booking, and it is clear that the future of travel marketing should aim to foster brand loyalty, trust and affinity .

A consistent, integrated and engaging strategy is key to the growth and success of your tour operator . Be sure to set clear objectives and attainable goals, proactively conduct market research and stay up-to-date with the latest travel trends in order to plan and adapt your strategy accordingly.

Here at Nezasa , we are passionate about travel. Be the first to find out about our latest content by signing up for our monthly newsletter below , and join our next webinar to learn how our bleeding-edge TripBuilder software can take your tour agency to the next level.

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8 Underestimated Tactics for Successful Tour Marketing

Table of Content

1. optimize your pricing, 2. email is still big, 3. define the right add-ons, 4. partner with influencers, 5. get seo right, 6. review your toolset, 7. get your share of mobile bookings, 8. master multi-channel management.

Many things will change in 2021 for tour marketing.

To start with, traditional approaches like generating positive online reviews and social media will not be enough to stand out.

Even focusing on video is old news.

To make it big in 2021, you’ll need a comprehensive approach with multiple marketing activities that work together well.

Today, we’ll cover some of the best tour marketing tactics that are often neglected due to focusing on the large (and overcrowded) channels that everyone else is using.

By giving these underrated concepts more consideration, you’ll have the basis to form a comprehensive marketing strategy for the new year with multiple elements that work together like magic.

So without further ado, let’s look at 8 underestimated tactics for successful tour marketing.

Pricing is a sensitive subject.

It’s hard to make changes because it’s risky.

What if your sales drop substantially? What if people get annoyed and don’t buy from you anymore?

Here, it’s important to put your experimenter hat on.

One of the most effective ways to determine the optimal price is by surveying your customers.

You can create a free and beautiful survey with tools like Typeform .

In addition, you can use discounts to test how demand changes at lower points. You can also do special premium offers (by adding extra value) and see how that affects demand.

You can also introduce different tiers of service and then see which one is most profitable so you can focus on it. The important thing is to have a good reason for making any price changes.

Be wary of showing different prices to different customers (known as A/B testing). In many cases, this will lead to more problems than advantages .

If you’re just starting out and you don’t know how much you should charge, talk to potential customers and look at how your competition is priced.

Click to learn more about creating a successful marketing mix.

Despite the rapid growth of social media , chatbots, and search engine ads, email is still one of the most effective channels out there.

Source: NeilPatel.com

For tours and activities, email is a way to reduce reliance on new customers.

Once you have a visitor’s email address, you can reach them later with targeted offers and promotions that add value so they come back and purchase from you again.

It’s also a great way to boost referrals.

You can run more effective referral programs using email so more people know about your service and ultimately buy from you.

Learn more about email marketing for leisure companies in our dedicated article on the topic.

Marketing a tour company is hard.

Getting someone to your offers pages is a big win so you should maximize the opportunity.

This is when add-ons come in (also known as cross-selling).

Customers are most receptive while they are buying so this is a great time to offer complementary products and services that provide more value.

But make sure you don’t confuse cross-selling with up-selling. The former relates to selling an additional product or service while the latter means you’re upgrading the customer to a higher tiered offer.

Source: TechTarget

Amazon is the biggest example here – you can often see a “Frequently bought together” highlight on the product page (see below).

So, what do you do about it? Define the right add-ons for your products and include them on your offers pages. You’re sure to bag some extra sales and get a higher ROI from your promotional efforts.

In recent years, influencer marketing has exploded.

This is especially true in the travel industry where people turn to real reviews and experiences of other folks before they make a buying decision.

Therefore, it can make a big difference when you partner with an influencer and offer them your tour or activity for free in exchange for a review.

Of course, you’ll have to provide an amazing experience for them so it can be risky. After all, if you fail to make a good impression, they could seriously harm your reputation.

So only use this tactic if you’re 100% confident you can deliver.

Getting people to your website is a big part of tour marketing.

And one of the highest leverage, long-term approaches is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Getting found on search engines is crucial because that’s how people acquire information these days. If they are in the consideration stage and you show up during their search, you increase the likelihood of getting a booking tremendously.

So how do you get SEO right?

There are 2 main components: your content and how you promote it.

1) Your content

It’s not enough to create your offer pages and your website description if you want good results from SEO (although these elements are important).

You also need helpful information to educate customers about your city and how they can have a great time.

2) Your promotion

Next, it’s time to promote your content.

You might ask – aren’t people supposed to find my content using search engines?

Well, yes, but they won’t until you rank on page one ( which gets almost 90% of all clicks ).

And how do you rank there? Promote your content.

The crucial thing here is acquiring backlinks from other websites that signal your site is an authority on the subject.

By combining these two elements, you will climb up Google’s rankings faster.

Most of these tips are easy to implement on their own but as the list grows larger, you might wonder “How do I get all this done when I have only 24 hours in the day?”

Well, this is where the right tools come in.

There is a variety of free and premium tools you can use to automate and speed up your promotional efforts. That’s the real leverage that can help you promote your tour company like a pro.

You can find our pick of the best marketing tools for tours and activities here.

Almost half of the global internet users browse on their phones.

In addition, our data shows that over a third of tour and activity bookings are made on mobile.

In 2021, it’s going to be more important than ever to establish and maintain a strong mobile experience.

But isn’t that expensive?

The truth is you don’t need a full-blown app – but you do need a mobile-responsive website at the very least.

Find out if your website is mobile-friendly here .

You should also pay attention to the partners and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) you work with – how good are they with mobile? This will have a big impact on your success rate from partnerships.

Okay, we went through a bunch of underused tactics that can complement your existing initiatives.

But how do you manage all of this?

What happens when someone makes a booking over the phone, another one comes in from your website and then you have a third from an OTA?

Now, you could track everything meticulously in a spreadsheet, always staying close to your email, phone, and other channels.

But a better way is to use a dedicated online booking system to track all of your sales in one place. This way, you’ll save time for improving your products, doing more marketing, managing your resources, or lying on the beach – it’s really up to you!

Read more about creating an effective multi-channel strategy here.

As competition for people’s attention increases, marketing channels lose their effectiveness.

This is why you should look towards underused tactics to supplement your primary efforts.

Today, we looked at a variety of approaches to help you build successful tour marketing campaigns in 2021.

As we touched on multiple topics, here’s a brief summary:

• Start by considering your price and overall position in the market.
• Use email marketing to reduce reliance on new customers and stop grinding 24/7.
• Introduce add-ons to your offers to maximize the impact of your promotional efforts.
• Leverage the power of influencers that share the same audience with you.
• Review your website to see if it’s mobile-friendly.
• Create educational content and promote it heavily to get long-term visitors from search engines.
• Make sure you track bookings in a single place so you don’t go crazy.
• Finally, tie everything together with the right tools to help you build and optimize your online presence.

With that, we hope you found at least one helpful tip to boost your marketing efforts in 2021 and we wish you an amazing year ahead!

You might also like:

• How to Market a Tour Company for Free: 7 Big Platforms You Should be on
• 10 Ways to Promote Your Tours for Maximum Sales
• Marketing Mix for Tour and Activity Operators

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Promote your tour packages with these 5 strategies

By Rezdy — 4 Jul 2013

branding   marketing   tour operator   tourism business strategy   website   yield management

Updated September 2023 – While you probably have a marketing plan to advertise your business as a whole, you shouldn’t forget the importance of marketing individual packages offered by your organization. One of the sure-fire ways to increase your bookings each month is to raise awareness about individual tours and activities that you offer as a company. But how does one market travel and tours , exactly? The following tour marketing ideas will help you build awareness about individual tours and activities that you offer, which will ultimately lead to an increase in bookings each month.

The importance of getting your tour package strategy right

Getting your tour package strategy right is crucial. But it’s not just about offering incredible experiences; it’s about effectively marketing and promoting them to the right audience. 

Your tour packages are the heart of your business, and ensuring they shine in the spotlight is essential for boosting bookings and revenue.

A well-crafted tour package strategy not only helps you attract potential customers but also sets you apart from the competition. It enables you to showcase the unique and exciting experiences you provide, ultimately enticing travelers to choose your offerings over others. 

Here are some key aspects to consider when developing your tour package strategy:

1. Tailor packages to your target audience: Understand your target market’s preferences and interests. Design tour packages that cater specifically to their needs and desires. For instance, if your target audience is adventure-seekers, create packages that emphasize thrilling activities and adrenaline-pumping experiences

2. Highlight uniqueness: Identify what makes your tours stand out from the rest. Whether it’s exclusive access, off-the-beaten-path destinations, or expert guides, make sure to emphasize these unique selling points in your marketing materials

3. Pricing strategy: Carefully consider your pricing strategy. Offer competitive prices that reflect the value of the experiences you provide. Consider bundling services to create cost-effective packages that appeal to budget-conscious travelers

4. Consistent branding: Maintain a consistent brand image across all marketing channels. From your website and social media profiles to printed materials and tour guides, ensure your branding reflects the quality and professionalism of your services

5. Customer feedback: Continuously collect and analyze customer feedback. Use this valuable input to improve your tour packages and address any issues that may arise

What makes a successful tour promotion campaign

A successful tour promotion campaign is the cornerstone of any tour marketing strategy. To effectively promote your tour packages and boost bookings, consider the following elements:

1. Compelling visuals: Invest in high-quality visuals, including photos and videos, to showcase the beauty and excitement of your tours

2. Engaging content: Craft engaging and informative content that highlights the key features and benefits of each tour package. Share stories, traveler testimonials, and expert insights to build trust and credibility

3. Mobile optimization: Ensure that your marketing materials, including your website and promotional emails, are mobile-friendly

4. Email marketing: Use email marketing to reach out to past customers and potential leads. Send personalized offers, newsletters, and updates about new tour packages to keep your audience engaged

5. Social proof: Incorporate social proof in your marketing materials. Showcase positive reviews , ratings, and user-generated content to demonstrate the satisfaction of previous customers.

6. Clear calls-to-action (CTAs): Include clear and compelling CTAs in your promotional content. Encourage readers to take specific actions, such as booking a tour, signing up for a newsletter, or following your social media profiles

7. Analyze and optimize: Regularly analyze the performance of your promotion campaigns. Use analytics tools to track website traffic, conversion rates, and customer behavior and adjust your strategies based on the data

5 tips for building a successful tour marketing strategy

Tip 1: create a strong online presence.

Having a robust online presence is vital for any tour marketing strategy . Make sure your website is user-friendly, visually appealing, and provides detailed information about each tour package you offer. Utilize high-quality images, engaging videos, and descriptive content to showcase the unique experiences your tours provide.

Here’s another tip for your tour marketing plan: You can also leverage social media platforms to reach a broader audience. Share captivating content related to your tours regularly, engage with your followers, and encourage them to share their experiences. Positive reviews and user-generated content can significantly influence potential customers’ decisions, increasing the chances of bookings.

Tip 2: Get your tour package pages ranking

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in driving organic traffic to your website. Make sure your marketing strategy for your tourism company includes optimizing your tour package pages with relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and alt tags for images. This will improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results, making it easier for potential customers to find your packages when they search for related keywords.

Content should also be an integral part of your tour marketing strategies. Consider creating blog posts or articles that highlight the unique features and attractions of each tour. Not only will this enhance your SEO efforts, but it will also showcase your expertise and authority in the travel industry.

Tip 3: Run paid ad campaigns for tour packages

While organic efforts are essential, complement your tour marketing strategies with paid advertising. Platforms like Google Ads and social media advertising can help you target specific demographics and interests, increasing the visibility of your tour packages to potential customers who are more likely to be interested.

Create eye-catching ad creatives that convey the unique selling points of each tour package. Include a strong call-to-action and direct potential customers to a dedicated landing page for each package, simplifying the booking process and encouraging conversions.

Tip 4: Build partnerships

When creating your marketing strategy for tours and travels, it’s critical to consider collaborating with other businesses in the travel industry as it can be mutually beneficial. Partner with local hotels, restaurants, or transportation services to cross-promote each other’s offerings. For instance, a hotel could promote your tour packages to their guests, while you could offer exclusive discounts to their customers.

Consider forming partnerships with influencers or travel bloggers who have a significant following in your target market. Their endorsement and reviews can have a powerful impact on potential customers, driving more bookings to your tour packages.

Tip 5: Offer discounts and promotions

People love a good deal, and offering discounts and promotions as part of your tour operator marketing strategy is a fantastic way to attract new customers and encourage repeat bookings. Create limited-time offers, early-bird discounts, or seasonal promotions to create a sense of urgency and entice potential customers to take action.

For example, if you have a hard time filling up your sailboat excursions during the month of May, offer this tour at a discount and promote it individually. Coupon deals will help you increase your bookings at a relatively slow time for your business while also attracting new customers who may opt to take other tours with your company while on vacation.

Make sure people aren’t missing out on your tours

Ultimately, promoting your tour packages effectively is a critical component of growing your travel and tourism business. These five strategies will help you create a robust tour marketing plan that increases awareness of your individual tours and activities, ultimately leading to higher bookings each month.

Ready to take your tour packages to the next level by growing your business and attracting more travelers?

Start implementing the above tour marketing strategies today and watch your bookings soar! With Rezdy’s user-friendly booking software and channel manager , you can easily manage and promote your individual tour packages, streamline your operations, and provide exceptional customer experiences. Sign up for a FREE 21- trial or book a demo today.

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Disney’s marketing strategy: 5 secrets and 5 learnings for travel brands

September 27, 2024

When you think of the world’s most iconic brands, Disney has got to be up there. From the films and characters to the theme parks and merchandise, the beloved brand has the world wrapped around its little finger. 

And the stats speak for themselves.

Disney has been going strong for more than 100 years. And in Forbes’ latest list of the World’s Most Valuable Brands , Disney ranks in seventh place – topped only by tech giants and Coca-Cola. 

In this guide, I’ll explore how Disney keeps the magic alive after more than a century in the business, and explore five key things that travel brands can learn from Disney’s success. 

To really understand the brand and why it’s stood the test of time, we need to start at the very beginning. 

Let’s take a look at Disney’s story and what’s gone on behind the scenes over the past 100 years. 

Company history – building one of the world’s most beloved brands

Once upon a time there were two brothers, Walt and Roy Disney, who had a dream of bringing animated stories to life. 

In 1923 the brothers founded the Disney Brothers Studio in Los Angeles, and their first major breakthrough came in 1928 with the creation of Mickey Mouse. The famous mouse made his debut in Steamboat Willie, the first ever animated film to feature synchronized sound, marking  the beginning of Disney’s rise to fame.

Source: d23.com

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1930s 

In 1937, Disney made history with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – the world’s first full-length animated feature film. This success allowed the company to expand and create even more classics: think Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. And this quickly solidified Disney as a leader in the family entertainment industry.

By the 1950s, Walt Disney had a new vision – creating a place where families could experience the magic of his films firsthand. In 1955, the first ever Disneyland opened in California, redefining amusement parks with its immersive world of storytelling and themed lands. 

Disneyland became an instant hit, setting the stage for Disney to expand into television, live-action films, and merchandising. All while maintaining the company’s core value of bringing joy to families around the world.

Source: paleofuture.com

Throughout the next few decades, Disney faced a whole lot of highs and lows. Walt Disney’s death in 1966 left the company at a crossroads, but Disney kept on innovating, expanding its reach into global markets and opening new Disney parks further afield. 

In 1971, Walt Disney World opened in Florida, and Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris followed. What started as one park became a worldwide vacation destination that kids and adults alike were desperate to visit. 

Source: disneylists.com

1980s and 1990s

By the late 1980s and 1990s, The Walt Disney Company experienced a renaissance with classic animated films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King, drawing in new generations of fans. Fast forward to the 21st century and a wave of innovation and acquisition propeled Disney to new heights. 

To the noughties and beyond

In 2006, Disney acquired Pixar Animation Studios, followed by Marvel Studios in 2009 and Lucasfilm (home of Star Wars) in 2012. The launch of Disney+ in 2019 positioned the company front and centre of digital streaming.

Source: blog.ravulacharan.com

What started as a small animation studio in the 1920s is today one of the most beloved brands in the world.

So what are its secrets? Let’s take a look at five key qualities that have defined Disney’s marketing strategy and made it so successful for so long.

Five factors that keep Disney’s magic alive  

From Disney’s origin story you can get a real sense of why this beloved brand has stood the test of time. But what exactly is it that makes the brand so magical? For me, the success of the Walt Disney marketing strategy revolves around five key elements. 

Let’s take a look!

1. Storytelling

Storytelling is at the very heart of everything Disney does. It’s the brand’s raison d’etre. Disney excels at telling stories that resonate emotionally with audiences of all ages, creating narratives that capture hearts and spark imaginations.

With inspiring characters and compelling plots, Disney draws people into worlds they never want to leave. From there, the magic extends beyond the screen into Disney products, theme park attractions, and immersive experiences. But it all starts with the story – the foundation that builds those deep emotional connections with audiences. 

These connections foster a sense of belonging and nostalgia (more of nostalgia shortly), transforming audiences into lifelong fans and building unwavering brand loyalty.

2. Continuous innovation

Since the Disney brand was launched more than 100 years ago, it has continuously innovated to stay relevant and ahead of the curve. It was the first company to create an animated film with synchronized sound. The first to create a full-length animated feature film. 

It redefined amusement parks with the launch of Disneyland. And it launched the Disney+ streaming service to stay culturally relevant to new generations. 

The brand consistently adapts to new technologies and audience demands, helping it stay current and remain a global leader in entertainment. 

3. Consistency, consistency, consistency

For Disney, consistency is key to building and maintaining its global brand identity . From its visual identity to its messaging – you always know when it’s Disney. And even with all the adapting and evolving, Disney manages to stay true to its core values and identity across all aspects of its business. 

Here’s how Disney has maintained brand consistency :

• Storytelling – Every Disney film, show, or franchise follows the same approach to storytelling: engaging and heartwarming narratives with strong emotional arcs, memorable characters, and universal themes. That’s what makes us love Disney, and that’s what keeps us coming back for more. And more. And more.
• Visual identity – From the iconic Cinderella Castle to the unmistakable Mickey Mouse ears, Disney’s visual identity is consistent across all of its parks, films, and merchandise. This consistency means audiences can spot Disney from a mile away.
• Brand messaging – Disney’s marketing communication remains true to its family-friendly, magical image. Whether it’s promoting new films, Disney parks, or merchandise, the messaging always aligns with the brand’s values of wonder, imagination, and joy.

4. Different platforms for different audiences

One of Disney’s most powerful marketing strategies is its ability to target different audiences across a variety of channels. The beauty of Disney is that its audience is so vast – from children and families to older generations. And each segment engages with the brand in different ways. 

Think about it. There’s a different Disney product for each generation: 

• Disney Channel for kids
• Disneyland for families
•  Disney+ for streaming enthusiasts 
• Marvel and Star Wars for teenagers and nostalgic adults
• Documentaries for older viewers
• Stage shows for theater-goers

By using different channels to target these distinct groups, Disney makes sure it reaches the widest possible audience. All while making sure its messaging resonates with everyone, regardless of age!

5. Nostalgia 

Disney is a master of nostalgia. In fact, it’s probably the most nostalgic brand I can think of. There’s barely anyone alive today who has existed in a world without Disney, and so many of us have fond childhood memories of our favorite Disney movies and Disney characters. And Disney is great at using  this to its advantage by appealing to these deep emotional connections.

One of the main ways Disney uses nostalgia is by frequently revisiting and reviving its classic films and characters through various formats. 

For example: 

•  Live-action remakes – like The Lion King, Aladdin, or Beauty and the Beast
•   Sequels – like Toy Story 4 and Frozen II
• Reboots – like Maleficent and Cruella 

These strategies not only re-engage older fans who grew up with the originals, but they also introduce these beloved stories to a new generation, creating a shared experience across age groups.

By producing content that parents and grandparents want to share with their children and grandchildren, Disney creates a powerful cycle of loyalty, embedding Disney in the hearts of new generations and keeping the magic alive. This is organic marketing at its purest!

Source: usatoday.com

Five things travel brands can learn from Disney’s marketing strategy

You’ve seen how Disney keeps its magic alive. But as a travel brand, what key lessons can you take away from the successful Disney marketing strategy? 

No matter whether you’re a tour operator, a hotel chain, a flight operator, or a travel agency, here are five key takeaways that can elevate your marketing strategy and help you build lasting connections with your audience.

1. Tell stories that connect with your audience

Like Disney, travel brands can put storytelling at the heart of their marketing. Instead of just selling a destination or service, tell stories about the experiences travelers can have.  

You can highlight the excitement, personal growth, or relaxation that comes with visiting a place. Whatever you decide to do, make sure to focus on the emotional journey, not just the physical one.

You can do this by showcasing real travelers’ stories, creating content that sparks nostalgia or excitement, and building compelling narratives around the cultural or historical significance of destinations.

Think about characters too, but in a different way. For example, you could introduce travelers to real people or cultural ambassadors from the destinations.  

Locals, guides, or past visitors can all serve as relatable characters. And sharing their personal experiences or perspectives will make the destination feel more personal and inviting to potential travelers.

2. Innovate and adapt to meet ever-evolving needs

Travel businesses can apply Disney’s marketing strategy of continuous innovation by embracing change, leveraging new technologies, and consistently adapting to evolving customer preferences. 

Here’s how:

• Stay ahead of trends – Keep an eye on industry trends, such as sustainable tourism, wellness travel, or remote work vacations, and be the first to offer innovative services that meet these emerging demands.
• Embrace technology – Invest in cutting-edge technology as part of your marketing strategy. That could be virtual reality tours, AI-powered trip planning tools, or personalized digital experiences to engage tech-savvy travelers and improve customer service.
• Adapt to changing consumer behavior – Whether it’s offering flexible booking policies, promoting solo or digital nomad travel, or creating trendy digital content, keeping up with changing consumer behavior will help you stay current and relevant.

3. Create a strong and consistent brand identity

As you’ve seen, Disney is consistent across the board when it comes to branding. 

Here’s how travel brands can learn from this Disney marketing strategy and make it work for them:

• Visual identity – Consistency in visuals is key for brand recognition – covering everything from logo design and color schemes to photography style. Make sure your visual identity is cohesive across all platforms, including your website, social media, brochures, and adverts. Your audience should be able to tell right away that they’re looking at your brand. 
• Brand messaging – Just like your visuals, make sure your tone of voice and brand message are consistent across all touchpoints, from ads to customer service. Your brand messaging should reflect your values and resonate with your core audience. 

4. Meet your audience on different platforms

Travel brands can take a leaf out of Disney’s book by adopting a multi-channel strategy to reach a broad and diverse target audience. 

Just like Disney uses specific channels to engage distinct groups, travel brands can tap into various platforms to deliver tailored content that resonates with different types of travelers.

Start by dividing your target audience into different segments, such as families, adventurers, luxury seekers, and older travelers. You can then use different platforms to reach each traveler demographic and tailor your marketing efforts to speak directly to their interests. 

For example:

• Post family-friendly travel tips on Facebook
• Share video content for Gen Z travelers on TikTok
• Distribute physical brochures at travel agencies for older travelers
• Leverage LinkedIn for business travel
• Send personalized offers via email to luxury travelers

5. Use nostalgia to capture your audience’s hearts and minds

Travel brands can harness the power of nostalgia just like Disney by tapping into the emotional connection people have with past travel experiences. 

Here are some ideas for how to use nostalgia:

• Share nostalgic customer stories to create a sense of community around past experiences
• Run marketing campaigns celebrating the anniversaries of famous destinations and attractions
• Create engaging content that tells the stories of multi-generational travelers or famous visitors from the past
• Design campaigns using retro visuals and messaging to evoke the charm of past travel eras
• Offer multigenerational experiences that allow parents and grandparents to relive their own childhood trips while creating new memories with younger generations

Final thoughts

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about Disney’s marketing strategy and how the brand has kept its magic alive for more than 100 years. For more marketing inspiration for your travel brand, discover the best viral marketing campaigns and learn why they worked.

Katie Garrett

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City Introduction

Tyumen is one of the famous cities east of the Urals. It was founded in 1586 as the first Russian settlement in Siberia, and it was established in connection with Russia’s expansion to the east. As a hub for transport over land and on the Tura River, Tyumen quickly developed into a trading town and later an important industrial city.

You will see modern Tyumen along the banks of the Tura, and by the river you can walk along the town’s lovely promenades that stretch through the entire city center. This walk is among the most popular for the citizens of the city and there are lots of activities and sights on the way.

In Tyumen you can see many churches and monasteries in beautiful Russian architecture. Some of them are close to Tura, and thus they help to form some beautiful panoramas when you look at the city skyline. Some of the churches go back to the time when Tyumen was a much smaller city than today.

Modern Tyumen spreads from Central Square and the streets of Lenina and Respubliki. Here there are shopping malls, theaters, concert halls, urban spaces and much more. A special place to visit is the beautifully landscaped Flower Boulevard with lots of activities.

Useful Links

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visittyumen.ru

Russia tourism

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Russian railways, tyumen airport, geolocation.

Overview of Tyumen

About the Whitehorse travel guide

Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area Published: Released soon Author: Stig Albeck Publisher: Vamados.com Language: English

About the travel guide

The Whitehorse travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Canadian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.

Whitehorse is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.

Read more about Whitehorse and Canada

Canada Travel Guide: https://vamados.com/canada City  tourism: https://visitwhite-horse.ca Main Page: https://www.vamados.com/

Buy the travel guide

Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.

Use the travel guide

When you buy the travel guide to Whitehorse you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.

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List of Tour operators in Tyumen Oblast

Tour operators are also establishing a strong digital presence across various platforms: 2 have facebook pages, 3 are active on instagram, 1 have x (formerly twitter) handles, 1 are on tiktok, and 2 have youtube channels. about 9 tour operators have their own website and the remaining 7 don’t have their own website., number of tour operators, email addresses, phone numbers, with websites.

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There are a total of 16 Tour operators in Tyumen Oblast as of August 15, 2024 .

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List of Tour operators in Tyumen Oblast By Ratings

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