Top 5 digital marketing ideas for Tourism

Digital Marketing for Tourism

Tourism is back, and now more and more travellers want to pack their bags to live incredible experiences all around the world. And it is that travelling is something that we should all do whenever we can, going to other countries or even visiting other states within ours expands our knowledge, empathy for people and creates beautiful memories.

If a sector was affected by COVID-19, you could guess it was tourism. World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) informed that in 2020 the tourism industry experienced a massive decrease of 49.1% from the 2019 level of USD 9.2 trillion in the global GPD. 

But now that the pandemic isn't the biggest deal, the WTTC informed that travel and tourism grew by 30.7% in 2021 and expected it to grow 31.7% this year. Even better, according to HomeToGo's travel trends report, released in November 2021, searches for stays in vacation homes abroad are at the same level as in 2019.

After an extended lockdown, people want to go outside and experience the world. In the latest UNTWO World Tourism Barometer, we see that tourism experienced an increase of 182% in the trimester of January-March, with countries worldwide receiving almost 117 million to 41 million during this period. 

In the report from UNWTO, we see that during the first quarter of 2022, Europe received +280% international arrivals, America +117%, the Middle East +132% and Africa +96%. 

Expedia Group is calling 2022 "the year of the GOAT, or "the greatest of all trips"; in a survey of 12,000 travellers, they found that 65% of respondents are planning to "go big" on their next trip.

Among the biggest travellers are people aged 18-34, representing 80% of people planning to go big on their next vacations. According to MMGY, Millennials are among the top travellers planning to take over 4.4 trips over the next 12 months.

Nevertheless, elder audiences also experience "a new sense of urgency to travel," as Stephanie Papaioannou, vice president of the luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent, says:

"Guests feel they have lost two years, and older clients are concerned about having fewer healthy years left to travel."

According to a Home To Go article, the top countries to travel on 2022 are:

• Saint Lucia (560%)
• Albania (543%)
• England (454%)
• Denmark (216%)
• Antigua 155%

The U.S. Travel Association informs that by July of this year, Travel spending surpassed 2019 levels for the third consecutive month and hit a new pandemic high of $105 billion in June 2022. With all these good numbers, tourism seems like an excellent business for 2022. To help you take advantage of this rise in travelling, Codedesign will give you the top 5 digital marketing tips for tourism.

CodeDesign is a leading digital marketing agency ranked #1 in Lisbon, Portugal. You could work with us to accelerate your business growth.

Understand the Travel Customer Journey

When we plan a trip, we do not usually buy a ticket from one day to the next, and it is a process that takes time from choosing the destination, knowing it from above, to scheduling a booking to plan your new vacation. This is something we can call the travel customer journey, and Google usually divides it into the following phases:

• Dreaming: During this first phase, travellers don't have anything defined, nor do they know what they will do; they come from various destinations to choose the one that most attracts their attention.
• Planning: Once they have chosen the destination, now comes the planning, which stipulates where, when and what they'll do at their destination.
• Booking: The flights, hours and plans are already confirmed. Now it's time for them to make their reservations. 
• Experiencing: Travelers are enjoying their trips and sharing their experiences on networks. However, even at the destination, they could get extra activities for their stay in the country.

Now that you know how this travel customer journey works, you can plan a better strategy to target travellers at each stage of this process. If you provide city tours, you can offer your customers guides or list the best places to visit. When you do this, you give a safe way to see a country they don't know about by letting them know what is best there, so they don't miss any of it.

A good example is Airbnb Guidebooks, an app where customers can add places or activities they want to do into a virtual scrapbook. Then, at the end of each page, users can find nearby Airbnb locations to stay.

When you understand your traveller's process, adding a call to action or other help to improve their experience is more effortless. For this, it is always good to identify your buyer personas so you can personalize experiences depending on how they usually behave.

Create Traveler Guides with Video Marketing

Through audiovisual content, you can sell the experience of a country to a client immediately, and it is like the trailer of what they'll be able to experience on their trip.

Tourism must go hand in hand with the visual aspect, even more so when the most popular social networks like Instagram or TikTok use videos and photos to promote everything. For this, you must make good use of your budget and create audiovisual pieces that allow travellers to experience the country of destination just before doing so, generating more desire in them to travel as soon as possible.

Diversify your content with longer-lasting pieces on platforms such as YouTube or Facebook, and, on Instagram or TikTok, take advantage of the short format to capture the attention of users on these networks ephemeral in terms of content.

You can use excerpts from the experience of your tours, a small demonstration of the places they can visit or even the cultural offer that the country has.

Finally, an invaluable resource to use is user experiences. This works for any business and sends the message that if these customers had a great experience travelling with you, others might as well.

Digital Marketing for Tourism.

Focus your marketing on Traveller Niches

When you market your travel agency or tour packages, you shouldn't stick to something as simple as getting to know the country and visiting its most iconic places. Rather you should differentiate your offer by giving options to travel niches.

In Marketing 101, one of the things you'll learn is that to survive the competition, the best thing you can do is differentiate yourself and remark on what makes you unique as a company. So, if everyone is offering the same Eiffel Tower tour, but you've got exclusive access to it, ensure that it is something you'll show in your marketing. If you have access to amenities that no one else has, or a luxury and more comfortable package for travellers, be sure to frame it as that plus that makes your agency a better option.

When we talk about travel niches, it is another excellent option to serve an audience that only travels with specific needs, some like adventure, others do gastronomic tourism, and some are even backpackers. Meet their needs and become this agency willing to meet their particular needs, don't stay in the typical bland and uninteresting agency.

There are many travel niches, and here we will mention some.

Adventure Travel

Newer generations like Millenials want more excitement in their lives, and this niche is the right option for them. You can include activities like shark encounters, surfing, cycling, and even rock climbing in this tourism sector. Nevertheless, some adventure activities that even more calm audiences can enjoy, like Northern Lights trips, bird-watching, or stargazing.

In the article "Six trends that will shake the travel space in 2022", the portal Amadeus informs that "epic destinations" is experiencing a jump in their searches, and countries like Tanzania, Jordan's Petra and Bookings to cities close to Machu Picchu have increased their popularity.

The same report expects this trend to grow throughout the year, and other destinies like Antarctica and the Indian Ocean will also increase their popularity.

One of the reasons behind the interest rise of this type of tourism is the pandemic, as people want to live their full experience in case another health crisis comes. In the words of Decius Valmorbida, president of travel at Amadeus.

"We have people just say: "Look, what if another pandemic happens? What if I'm locked in again?'" he said. There's "a psychological effect that now is the moment."

Source: YouTube.

Ancestry Tourism

When talking about the importance of travel, a psychological factor that drives it is the curiosity to know our roots. For this reason, we see how the popularity of websites such as  ancestry.com or 23andMe has influenced more travellers who want to visit the countries of their family's heritage to learn more about their origins.

Source: YouTube.

Bleisure

Bleisure, trip us the mix of business and pleasure, popular among employees and employers. This is great for employees as they get excited about their job, while it doesn't cost bosses a lot of extra vacation time. 

For this type of vacation, it is good to have the help of a travel agent since the workers can have a tight schedule, and the companies can take care of the travel expenses.

Tourism Marketing.

Bucket List Trips

The Bucket List trip is an experience that must be overwhelmingly positive for the traveller, something like the trip of their dreams.

For this type of trip, clients will be willing to pay quite a lot for it, so you can offer packages with multiple stops at iconic places or even one focused on activities such as visiting temples, museums or swimming with sharks. Make sure to show it on your social networks so that they get hooked on this.

Destination Weddings

New couples are excited about their wedding, so they plan it as a trip to make it a special and unique occasion. This one is an excellent business idea if you also have experience coordinating weddings as it requires excellent organization skills and attention to any detail the couple wants.

Traveller Niches.

Disney Travel

Disney is practically the owner of almost all the intellectual properties we see today in pop culture. Therefore the Disney fever among families with children is entirely latent among all. So you can imagine that you have a huge market here and that if you are also passionate about the world of Disney, you can schedule incredible experiences for these families that they can enjoy from the parks, their hotels or even Disney cruises.

Source: YouTube.

Gastro-tourism

Eating is a pleasure, but there is no more extraordinary sensory experience than eating food from where it originated.

Yes, pizza or sushi is famous worldwide, but some people want to visit Italy or Japan to try the gastronomic experience. This is a very vibrant market and one that you can take advantage of and offer them the opportunity to prepare food for themselves, visit farms or have the chance to eat at the chef's table.

Source: YouTube.

Themed Cruises

Cruises are a trip that we all have to live at least once in our lives, even more, we can guess that some of your clients want to repeat it after.

Cruises have it all in one place: an all-you-can-eat restaurant opened 24/7, health and wellness centers, live shows and many more. You can also focus on specific zones like the Caribbean, Mediterranean or even European river trips.

Source: YouTube.

Voluntourism

Volunteering mixed with tourism is an excellent idea for both aspects. On the one hand, you allow the traveller to get to know a country of his interest, and at the same time, he will give value to the country by offering any service for his guests or the country in general.

Countries in a crisis like Venezuela often take advantage of these opportunities to get better options or a better future in another country. So we see how young people go to countries like Germany or London to live in homes where they will help with different domestic tasks and have the opportunity to practice the language and work in the country.

Wellness Travel

This travel experience is aimed at your mental and physical health. In this traveller niche, clients look for a trip where they can focus on practicing exercises that improve their performance or going to spas that give a break to the routine of their countries and make them enter a state of peace and tranquillity.

Take advantage of User Generated Content with challenges and brand mentions.

Travelling creates memories; there is no better place for tourists to store and share their memories than on social media. That's why it's a great idea to encourage your clients, hotel guests or tour attendees to take photos of their memories and tag your business in them. Also creating a custom photo book and gifting them with their memories is another great idea to capture the days of the past. On the one hand, you gain more followers because the friends of these travellers will see your posts and follow you; meanwhile, you get "free" content that you can post on your networks with the client's prior consent.

There are great ideas for hosting photo contests, and you can encourage your users to post photos of:

• Their favourite location or activity.
• Countries nightlife.
• Wildlife or nature shoot.
• The best plate of food they tasted.
• "Secret" places they discovered.

Then you can spice up all this with a hashtag that spreads the virality of your business and makes it reach more people interested in travelling.

The idea is to create unique hashtags to differentiate yourself and then mix them with a fairly generic one so that it reaches the typical customer.

So, you can put a hashtag like #GastrotourismLisbon and then mix it with hashtags like #Tourism, #TravelGram or any other trending hashtag.

Photo Tourism.

Use lead magnets

A Lead Magnet is a gift or small exchange if you want to see it, so it will help you stay connected with your potential clients.

The idea is to offer a piece of exclusive content in exchange for their emails, giving you an incredible window to keep them up to date with all the news or offers from your tourism business.

For this, you can offer items like:

• Travel guides (in video or illustrated).
• Lists of the essential things that they must take to a place.
• Top of the best places to visit in one location.
• Introduction to the country's culture and history, since if they know a little about the history of the place, the trip will be more enriching for them.

Once you have this entire list, you will begin to use email marketing strategies to maintain constant contact with them, keeping your agency at the top of mind for everything that has to do with their next trip.

Final Thoughts.

The world has taken a break from the health crisis, and now that COVID isn't in the way of tourism, people are begging to know the world they live in with freedom and security, especially biosecurity.

When you market tourism, you must show pieces of the country's experience so that your clients are projected in those places and want to buy tickets for their next vacation.

If you want to enhance your tourism business potential and make all those bookings increase, contact us at Codedesign to take charge of your digital marketing. We'll make your business reach all those travellers willing to pay anything for their next trip.

Until a new trip, see you!

Feel free to contact us to see the unprecedented growth of your business.

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