Despite all the uncertainty travel marketers faced in the last couple of years, people are ready to go. From glamping to dog-friendly vacation destinations, we’re ready to prioritize travel. Good storytelling, across channels, by travel and tourism destinations, will make brands part of the traveler’s journey.
Source: Statista
After taking in these statistics, do you have to ask why travel marketing is important? There’s real money to be made.
With real demand comes real competition. There are any number of reasons people travel and even more ways. There are solo travelers and those who crave local experiences. While others seek wineries and prioritize sustainable destinations. Appreciating this it’s essential that travel and tourism businesses distinguish their destination through clear messaging across channels. Below are just a few way brands are getting noticed:
In the travel industry, videos have long been an indispensable marketing tool. They show off destinations and hospitality businesses in their full glory. Travel marketers that lean into video creation—and that doesn’t have to equal big budget productions--will forge connection with target audiences. Digital video is an amazing way for brands to educate, elicit emotion, tell compelling stories.
Year after year, the need for insightful data analytics grows. At-a-glance dashboards can be overwhelming at first, but the exciting part about raw data is that, eventually, that becomes a story. Here are a few things you should be looking for when looking at analytics:
It’s the ultimate test vacation. The metaverse can transport you just about anywhere and no passport required. Like what you see? Post an offer and start planning. While still in the early stages, the tourism industry is already making the jump in the virtual reality (VR) world. Over the past few years, museums have introduce more creative ways to interact with exhibits and some have even taken consumers on pub crawls. The Thomas Cook, a pioneer in the travel and tourism industry for more than 170 years, is using 360 VR films so travelers can test the waters of Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt and more. And if you’re trying to reach Gen Z, they’re here and they’re ready to go places.
It’s easy to consider SEO an afterthought after so many other options vying for your attention and let’s be honest, some seem more fun but. Skipping search in your marketing plan would be like not seeing the Eiffel Tower when in Paris. While it’s important to have a well-rounded strategy, SEO should remain a top priority for its importance in facilitating direct bookings, driving site engagement and overall cost-effectiveness.
Getting your brand name on the first page of results is the holy grail to success when 94% of search start with search engine and more than 25% click the first result that comes up. This organic traffic is yet to boosting bookings directly from your sights rather than a third-party or worse, a competitor. While you may already spend on SEO, it a good idea to have an SEO check-in from time to time make sure you’re targeting the right folks and doing so the way they want you to.
Few things combine time and place than native advertising. It’s the ultimate storytelling device empowering marketers to say exactly what they want to say and where. A good native advertising piece will take the shape of an article for example showcasing a vineyard in Napa on the cover of Travel + Leisure or a video showcasing the beaches of Mexico within a surfing site. The creative will transport and hopefully a nicely placed call to action to a website that will give audiences more of the information they seek.
The world is open and it’s up to marketers in the travel industry to decide how best to invest advertising dollars.
Media Now Interactive connects brands to real people and gets messaging where it needs to go; to be seen and acted on.