As a travel business owner, you must keep up with emerging or ongoing marketing trends to ensure your position in the industry. Consumer values have changed since the pandemic, and so have the demands. Considering the shift in an average traveler’s outlook now, you must adapt and adopt tourism marketing strategies that can turn around your business’s growth.
Do you want to:
- Stay ahead of the curve?
- Revolutionize the way you promote your brand.
- Capture more bookings than ever before?
This list of travel marketing trends is for you so you can learn and apply them to transform the way you do business.
Before diving into the trends, look at what travelers are searching for online.
The pandemic increased travel challenges, so each traveler is now more cautious than ever. More consumers are looking for safer travel destinations and protocols while looking for assurance that it’s the right time to explore someplace new again.
Most tourism companies realize that safety is critical to keep the travel industry thriving. Most travelers now want more flexible travel solutions, contactless tourism, and additional private options when traveling. Similarly, they want to ensure their bookings even if travel restrictions become necessary again.
Top Travel Marketing Trends For The Year To Get More Bookings
1. Virtual Reality Experience Is A Thing Of Today
Many ardent travelers are still on the fence about travel, and the virtual reality experience gives them a scope around their expectations. Ideally, the best VR experience requires a headset, but there are also 360-degree display technology and panorama videos that do the job.
This travel marketing trend is increasingly becoming popular that’s used by various other sectors as well.
Why virtual tourism is growing in demand:
- It provides guests with a multi-sensory experience.
- Allows travelers to explore a destination whenever they want.
- Inclusive of people finding it challenging to travel physically.
- It helps create memorable brand experiences.
- It supports sustainable tourism without the need for a physical footprint.
How to create and deliver virtual experiences guests want:
- Keeping them short and engaging is the best.
- Add a personal touch and fun facts.
- Focus on in-the-moment storytelling.
- Match up your pace to audience requests.
- Always use an HD camera and live-stream sync.
Promote your virtual offer online. Use social media marketing software to help spread the word.
2. Video content marketing is a game-changer
According to Cisco, 82% of global online traffic will come from either video streaming or downloads this year. Why not leverage one of the best travel marketing tools, share engaging visual content, and attract more online users?
Short-form travel videos rank third on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram for trending topics, as they offer an immersive experience to viewers.
3. Hop aboard the TikTok marketing train
Travel businesses have a unique opportunity to stand out on TikTok with over 1 billion monthly active users. Travel-related videos are a hit on this social media platform. People are desperately craving content like this, especially those who can’t travel as much as they want.
TikTok video stories and video tours have the potential to go viral. You can even cross-promote Instagram Reel videos to your TikTok account by repurposing the content.
These three tips by Trip Hacks DC founder can help you embark upon a successful TikTok marketing journey.
Tip #1 Use relevant TikTok hashtags as you would on Instagram. It will allow your content to show up when users look up the feature.
Tip #2 Geo-location is a critical factor in the TikTok algorithm. So ensure adding your location to your profile. Your posts will show in the relevant searches, helping you get more views.
Tip #3 There are two types of videos on TikTok — original and trending. You can copy any trending content and give it your own twist. Remember, sometimes original content does better than copying a trending video.
4. Facebook travel ads seldom fail
A few travel operators braved Facebook advertising despite the pandemic in 2020. Well! They ended up seeing remarkable results and six figures in revenue for booking with under $1000 ad spend.
Travel Facebook marketing requires careful planning to test what works and what doesn’t. While that’s time-consuming and unpredictable, running ads using Practina is a different game altogether. Practina is an automated social media marketing software that helps you run targeted Facebook ads within seconds and your budget and generate instant leads.
Similarly, Practina allows you to add custom call-to-action buttons to your ads, encouraging your target audiences to complete the action.
5. Major success with micro-influencers
Sometimes small is better. Micro-influencers seem like friends to the average social media user. So any content they create is a stamp of authenticity. Moreover, 82% of users are likely to follow a recommendation from micro-influencers.
Developing strategic partnerships with small-scale influencers can help build a substantial and trusting relationship with your target audience to get more conversions.
6. User-generated content helps build brand loyalty
You are in a good spot with your travel marketing efforts if you can evoke an emotional reaction with your content. This includes sharing user-generated content on your social media and motivating other customers to upload videos or images describing their experience with your brand.
Holding contests on social media also encourages users to create and upload content. It works well to build brand loyalty, increase followers, and generate more bookings.
7. Self-guided tours are more attractive
The concept of self-guided tours has grown in the post-pandemic world of traveling. One in five tourists in the U.S. took self-guided tours before the pandemic. Just imagine how much this number has risen. Besides, there are multiple reasons self-guided tours are more attractive in 2022.
Travelers today want more private or small group experiences, which are also easier on their pockets. Self-guided tours allow travelers to make their way through the destination by themselves. They don’t have to follow a specific route or itinerary.
Travel businesses can position themselves as innovators in the self-guided tour industry and get more bookings from interested customers.
8. Local SEO to promote local stay-cations
More tour operators now focus on encouraging locals to go on staycations or take trips close to home instead of roaming around the world. SEO is a way to target a specific audience and get more bookings.
Using specific local and geographic search terms should be a part of your SEO strategy. Plus, consistently update content on your website, social media, and all other marketing avenues.
Ensure your message is relevant to the local community while using local SEO strategies. One way to get this right is to use Google My Business to have your business listed in the top local searches.
The Final Note
Leverage these eight trends as a part of your travel marketing plan. Aim to focus on a couple of them you’re comfortable with to get started. For travel social media marketing management, simply use the automated tool Practina.
It’s the only social marketing software where you can set it and forget it. It automatically creates thousands of posts for you and publishes them consistently to help grow your social media presence and get more bookings. The Practina Gallery feature allows you to upload images to Practina, which automatically transforms them into stunning posts.
Download the Practina app to beat the local competition, find new clients in your zip code, and grow your travel business.
