Pre-pandemic, the tourism industry was incredibly competitive and this certainly hasn’t changed. This is why your tourism marketing needs to really stand out if you want to attract visitors once again and revive the sector.

In this article, we’re going to look at 7 ways to promote your destination in 2021, taking into account the effects of the global pandemic.

Let’s dive in.

How tourism marketing changed in 2020

If you go back and read the predictions for tourism marketing in 2020, written back in December ‘19 or January ‘20, they are in no way comparable to what actually happened. Marketing campaigns had to be shelved, and new cost-effective ideas created in limited time frames.

A survey from MMGY Travel Intelligence and Destinations International found that 95% of destination organizations surveyed in the US reduced or completely postponed marketing spend last year. This is understandable, but it meant that those companies that did create new campaigns had less competition for grabbing people’s attention.

Pre-2020, the primary objective of tourism marketing campaigns was to convince travelers to take the plunge and buy tickets or book hotels. Over the last 12 months, however, we have seen that the focus shifted to staying top of mind for when travel is allowed again.

VisitEngland decided to produce a series of posts connected to films and TV shows which showcased the country, from “The Crown” to “Love Actually”. Their aim? Keep top of mind and be number 1 on the list when people are planning their first trip post-lockdown.

Virtual tours have also become extremely popular in 2020, providing an escape from the day-to-day. Despite existing pre-pandemic, we have seen much more money invested in state-of-the-art virtual experiences from tourism organizations.

EnjoyIllinois.com changed their homepage to feature an image of a forest and cliffs and the caption ‘These views took 300 years to make. They’re not going anywhere anytime soon’ and then encouraged visitors to travel around the state from the comfort of their own homes, offering the option to explore cities, forests, and smaller historic towns.

A number of tourism companies have since started offering virtual tours, from amusement parks to city tours.

What can you do differently to attract tourists?

Better safe than sorry

Customer safety has always been important in the tourism industry but in 2022 it has jumped to the top of the list due to the pandemic. Travelers are much more conscious of hygiene than in previous years, so this needs to be reflected in your marketing plan.

Emphasize the steps you are taking to maintain social distancing and keep high levels of cleanliness. Essentially, your marketing needs to convince your visitors that they will be safe and secure. If you are a tour operator, get those creative juices flowing to design new itineraries that avoid large crowds and focus on smaller group sizes.

Think local

Yes, vaccinations are underway and experts are predicting international travel to make a comeback at the end of spring or the beginning of summer. However, even when international travelers are allowed to enter, it might take some time for people to start traveling longer distances again.

You should focus your marketing efforts for 2021 on domestic tourists. Don’t advertise your great weather as this won’t be news for them. Change the focus of your campaigns to highlight off-the-beaten-track activities or secret gems that might not be so obvious – and that would attract a more local customer base. Think about creating a discount for local residents, or a loyalty program that would entice them to become recurrent visitors.

Act sustainable

This is an important one. Consumers are now taking a more local outlook and are trying to offset some of the environmental harm that was done by travel pre-COVID. The enforced tourism ‘break’ has given us more time and space to notice how tourism impacts the environment. Over 65% of travelers are making more sustainable choices than in previous years so we can’t ignore this trend.

Travel companies can help their customers to minimize the footprint of their activities and make sure that they contribute to the environment and communities. For example, you could partner with your local train company to encourage visitors to travel sustainably. Make sure any campaigns you undertake are promoted on social media as people are likely to spread the word around sustainability.

Be smart with influencers

In 2019, it seemed that influencers in the tourism world were unstoppable. It remains a successful model and is one of the most cost-effective methods for brand awareness and customer acquisition.

However, 2020 has taught us to work smarter with influencers, otherwise, the backlash can be costly. We have seen travel influencers continue their lives in 2020 as if Covid-19 never existed, and as a result of this, both the influencer and travel companies sponsoring the trips have been understandably hit by bad press.

Investigate local micro-influencers instead, who don’t have to break any regulations to visit you. They tend to have between 1,000 and 100,000 followers and are viewed as experts or specialists in their niche. Their followers are much more likely to buy into whatever they are selling, and they are much cheaper than larger influencers. For more influencer tips, check out our blog article.

Tik Tok Time!

Unless you have been offline the whole of 2020, you must have heard of Tik Tok. The most downloaded app of 2020 is a firm favorite amongst Gen Z-ers and it is spreading to other age-groups. In fact, 30% of its users are over the age of 30.

Its algorithm is very effective in showing users what they like, based on what they have previously viewed, and features everything from beauty tutorials to dance choreography. With TikTok predicted to continue its exponential growth, it would be wise for travel brands to get on board and start sharing content.

First off, you should download the app and secure your username. We would recommend not posting straight away, so you and keep your profile private. Take your time to look through existing travel content, jot down what works and what doesn’t, and get used to the algorithm. Then you can formulate your approach and start testing the platform.

Recommended reading: How to Use Social Media to Promote Tour Packages

Keep an eye on reviews

Of course, reviews have always been crucial. But according to Podium’s ‘2020 State of Reviews’, they have ‘never been so important or influential’. 3.4 is the average star rating consumers require in order to even consider engaging with a business. But the content has now changed. Instead of focusing on keywords such as ‘price,’ and ‘customer service’, people are searching more for social distancing, hygiene, and mask-wearing policies.

So, what do you need to do? Actively request feedback in your post-visit email correspondence. Block out an hour or so a week to go through all reviews and comments on review sites and social media. Make sure that you respond with empathy to all comments, good and bad. Reflect on the more critical comments, and see if there are areas that you can improve.

Recommended reading: The Ultimate Guide to Generating Positive Customer Reviews

Stay digital

In 2020 we all upped our digital offerings to stay relevant and keep top of mind. This needs to continue. Yes, we will start welcoming back visitors this year but there will be some people that don’t want to travel just yet. For this segment, virtual reality is a promising area to explore, allowing potential visitors to experience an attraction, tourist activities, or hotels from the safety and security of their own home – enticing them for an in-person visit. Even the Vatican is doing it!

Have a think of what you could include in a virtual reality tour of your destination. Make sure that your content is optimized for both desktop and mobile, and use social media to promote it. You can also use VR as an extra tool of persuasion during the booking process.

Conclusion

That’s it for our top 7 ideas to make your tourism marketing stand out in 2021. As visitors begin to make their first plans for 2021, make sure that you differentiate your offer from the competition in order to win their business.

One last tip? Continue to engage with your customers and potential visitors. Talk to them, listen, and understand why they want to visit your attraction and what could stop them. By adapting to their fears and requirements, you’re more likely to climb up their 2021 ‘to-do’ list.

You might also like: 

• 10 Innovative Ideas to Differentiate Your Tours
• Tourism Marketing Strategies for 2021 and Beyond
• Four Ways to Promote Your Tours to an International Audience
• 5 Ways to Create an Innovative Tourism Experience

The post Tourism Marketing: 7 Ideas to Promote Your Destination in 2022 appeared first on Regiondo.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), travel and tourism grew by 3.9 percent in 2018; generates $8.8 trillion in revenue; and created 319 million jobs.

Those are some pretty big stats.

In order to compete in such a growing and lucrative industry, you need a rockstar marketing strategy. A strategy to get more eyes on your brand, and consequently, more customers.

That’s what we want to share with you in this article: the most up-to-date marketing strategies for tour and activity providers.

What’s a Marketing Strategy?

Before we begin, it’s important to make a distinction between a marketing strategy and a marketing tactic. (As we will strictly be covering marketing strategies in this article.)

A marketing strategy is essentially an overarching plan to achieve one’s marketing goals and objectives. In plain terms, it is a plan which guarantees that your marketing tactics are constantly contributing to your business goals.

Tactics, on the other hand, consist of highly practical marketing activities that you do every day. For example, posting to social media, writing blog posts, sending emails, etc.

That distinction is quite important. In this article, we will cover the top tourism marketing strategies for tour and activity providers.

14 Tourism Marketing Strategies to Help You Succeed in 2021 and Beyond

1. Understand Your Customers

The first thing you need to do is to understand your ideal customers.

You need to know their demographic information; as well as what drives them to book and how they prefer to book. Questions to ask yourself during this brainstorming session are: What motivates them [your ideal customer] to travel? Where do they find information about their destination? How do they prefer to book? What annoys them about the research and booking process?

You can build at least 3 customer personas from your answers to those questions. You can then develop your branding, website and marketing strategy around the personas.

Keep your unique selling point and what drives you as a business in mind. You’ll need to convey that in an appealing way to reach your customers on a more personal level.

2. Optimize Your Website

Your website is the foundation for all your internet marketing efforts. As such, you should optimize it frequently to improve user experience and boost your conversion rates.

If your site performs poorly on mobile, is cluttered, too slow, or just too old, you definitely need to optimize it. You can test your site performance and speed with SEO Grader tool.

Perhaps you already do all that and your site is well-designed and well-functioning. But is it optimized for clicks and conversions? In that case, it may be a good idea to call in an expert (with industry knowledge) to help you make the right optimizations.

3. Focus on Mobile

According to Think with Google, 48 percent of US smartphone users are comfortable researching, planning and booking their entire trip on their mobile devices. The stats are similar in Europe: 45 percent of UK travelers and 44 percent of French travelers are comfortable planning and booking their entire trip on their mobile devices.

What does this tell us?

That the mobile experience should be as good as the website experience, if not better. Users need to be able to perform the same tasks, as comfortably, on their mobile devices as they can on the desktop version of your website.

To highlight the importance of the mobile experience, the same Think with Google study found that 33 percent of mobile users have a negative perception of a brand if their mobile experience is slow.

That says a lot.

4. Be Social

Social media is one of the most effective marketing channels for the tourism industry. That’s if you choose the right platform (where your customers are) and set up a strategy for each platform.

Facebook

Facebook is perhaps the best social media platform for tour and activity providers, in terms of driving traffic to a website. It’s a crowded social network but you can find your tribe by using specific targeting and advertising. Here’s a detailed guide to rocking it on Facebook.

Instagram

Instagram has one billion monthly active users. That’s a lot of people to get your brand in front of. Additionally, Instagram is a purely visual platform which makes it the perfect medium to market a destination.

Instagram launched IGTV in 2018 to host vertical long-term video content on mobile devices. The platform has experienced tremendous growth since its launch, as marketers and brands have become increasingly reliant on mobile video content to boost engagement metrics and conversion rates.

5. Live Video Marketing

Video marketing is king right now, especially for brands in the tourism sector. Travelers are frequently searching for videos of destinations they want to travel to. The problem is that they no longer want just pre-recorded videos.

Live streaming videos are getting more and more popular. Your potential customers probably love watching them (research shows that 82 percent of people prefer to watch live videos over social media posts); while you get to lower your video production costs and show your authenticity as a brand.

Let’s take a look at a brand that gets live video streaming right: Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. They have a 24/7 live beachcam to show customers the beach fun they’re missing out on. They simply set up a camera and put on a live feed.

6. Send Those Emails

Your email list is the only (and most valuable) marketing asset you own. It is more powerful than other marketing strategies: It converts better than both social and search.

So if you don’t have an active email list, you need to start building one. You should ideally have a subscription form on your website to invite website visitors into your inner online community. From there, you can connect with them again and convert them into paying customers.

Here are the ins and outs of email marketing for tour and activity providers.

7. Accept Online Bookings

According to Zion Market Research, the online travel booking market was worth 765 billion USD in 2017 and is expected to generate 1,955 billion USD by 2026. In addition to that, over 57 percent of all travel reservations (including accommodation, tours and activities, flights, etc.) are made online.

Travelers have a lot of online resources and tools at hand to research, review deals, and choose the best travel deals for them. If you want yours to be one of the travel deals they book, you need to meet them where they are: they’re booking travel deals online so you need to facilitate online bookings on your website.

To start getting bookings online, you’ll need a booking system embedded to your website. Try Regiondo – it’s the most popular booking system in Europe that lets you grow your revenue and automate everyday reservation tasks. Book a demo and our experts will guide you through the platform and answer all your questions.

8. Tap into The Power of Reviews

Review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google Local are perfect for building up an online presence and reputation.

Consider getting on one, or a couple of notable ones. Make sure to respond to all reviews – both negative and positive – to acknowledge that you’re listening and hearing every single feedback.

Reviews not only increase consumer confidence in your brand and products, but user-generated content, in general, can help boost your website ranking and conversion rates.

9. Blog, Consistently

Your customers want to hear from you. They want knowledge and insights from you, i.e. a blog. Blogging is a good way to tell stories, share unique insights about the destination, share travel tips, etc.

It’s also a good way to reel in your audience and advertise your expertise in the field. If you do not currently have a blog, create one and blog on a consistent schedule.

10. Get SEO Right

SEO is more important today for tour and activity providers than ever before.

A typical traveler’s journey today starts with Google. Tourists use search engines to research destinations, accommodation, transport, activities and tours, etc. If your offerings are not on the first page of search results, you don’t exist to a potential customer.

In fact, people joke that the best place to hide corpses is on the second page of Google search results because no one ever goes there.

So it’s important to show up in the top search results pertaining to your brand and offerings.

However, competition is high.

It’s not easy to rank on the first page of search engine results for many popular travel keywords. However, the effort is worth it because ranking high in Google search results for a specific keyword is better than running a Facebook ad or a TV commercial.

That is because people don’t use Facebook to buy products or services. However, when they search for specific products and services on Google, they often have an intent to purchase that product or service.

So, if they search for tours and activities in a destination you’re in, they are highly likely to book from you if you show up in the top results. You can check your SEO performance and keywords you are ranking for with our free SEO grader tool.

Cosmos, a tour operation company in Italy does SEO really well. They even show up in the top search results for the “tours in Italy” keyword on Google.

11. Set Up or Optimize Your “Google My Business” Listing

Speaking of SEO, Google My Business is a good place to start your SEO efforts, particularly local SEO.

For those unfamiliar with Google My Business (GMB), it is a free tool that enables you to control how your business shows up on Google Search and Google Maps. It specifically enables you to add your business name, contact details, location, hours, photos, etc. You can also monitor and respond to customer reviews, and see where and how people are searching for you.

And when people search for tours and activities near them, they’re usually ready to book the tour on that same day. Therefore, it’s important to create and optimize your GMB listing.

12. Focus on Experience

As mentioned earlier, we live in an experience economy and thus, in an era of experiential marketing. Experiential marketing is basically marketing that allows customers to experience your brand as opposed to you marketing your tours and offerings to a broad audience.

It’s also known as engagement marketing and it enables people to interact with brands one-on-one. Brands use physical branded materials to show customers what they offer and what they are all about on a more personal level.

You guessed it, it’s millennials that brought about experiential marketing; and at this rate, it’s only growing bigger. And it’s not only millennials that respond well to experiential marketing, older consumers do too.

Let’s take a look at an example of good experiential marketing: Travel Wisconsin. Travel Wisconsin ran a campaign to help potential tourists to imagine themselves doing various activities around Wisconsin. They used a funhouse mirror with local activities like tubing, and placed the activity in areas where people would be waiting, e.g. bus stops.

As you can see, experiential marketing is very different from traditional marketing strategies. Instead of spreading your message through traditional marketing tactics like print ads or commercials – messages that people don’t want to see or hear – you’re allowing people to interact with your brand in a fun way.

And guess what? Those are experiences people don’t want to miss out on.

13. Engage Micro-Influencers

Micro-Influencer marketing really came to the forefront last year and is still rising today. An increasing number of brands are relying on influencers with smaller and more targeted audiences (versus influencers with larger and broader audiences) to market their products or services.

Micro-influencers usually have 1,000-1,000,000 followers and specialize in a specific niche within their industry. As such, they often have higher engagement, more loyal followers, and better conversions on their social channels. Plus, they are cheaper than the big influencers.

14. Set Goals, Monitor and Optimize

When you begin executing some of these marketing strategies, you may notice sudden changes in your business. Those changes are a result of you getting to know your audience better and knowing which marketing strategies work best for you.

For example, you’ll know the types of blog posts your ideal customers like, whether they are responding well to your social strategy, and how they feel about your tour offerings and brand (via reviews).

You need to assess and analyze that data/feedback, and then make the appropriate changes to your marketing strategy.

For example, if a certain type of blog post is doing far better than other post types, consistently, then you should probably publish that type of post every week. Or perhaps you have many followers on Facebook but few on Twitter…you should review your social media strategy and make optimizations.

Conclusion

Those are the top tourism marketing strategies to consider implementing this year and beyond.

If the strategies in this post are executed correctly, you’ll get considerable results in terms of overall sales.

You might also like:

• 10 Ideas to Help Differentiate Your Tours in 2021
• Four Ways to Promote Your Tours to an International Audience
• 10 Tourism Marketing Campaigns that Work Despite Difficult Times
• 5 Ways to Offer an Innovative Tourism Experience to Your Clients

The post Tourism Marketing Strategies for 2021 and Beyond appeared first on Regiondo.