The global tourism industry is well and truly booming, with a projected value of $14.77 trillion by 2029.
But it’s not all sunshine and revenue for tourism businesses. The competition is fierce, so if you want to snatch up your share of the market, you’ve really got to wow your target audience. And to do that, you need some stellar tourism marketing strategies.
In this article, you’re going to find out how to take your tourism business to new heights with my top 10 strategies. Whether you work for a hotel, restaurant, local attraction, or any other business within the industry, you can mix and match these strategies to help make sure you’re the top choice for tourists.
Let’s go!
What’s the role of tourism marketing?
Before you get to work on building an effective tourism marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to pin down your tourism marketing aims – beyond simply driving sales. This will make it much easier to stay focused and adapt your tourism marketing strategies over time.
How will you measure the success of your marketing? How will your marketing efforts impact your overall brand image? To help you answer these questions, I’ve put together a quick overview of the key roles of tourism marketing.
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Create memorable experiences
Travel is all about taking a break from the daily grind to discover new places and create lasting memories. Tourism marketing has a huge part to play in this, by helping travelers plan their perfect trip and make informed decisions.
From the initial browse through to the final booking, tourism marketing should streamline the entire customer journey with engaging content, practical tips, and seamless booking options.
Most importantly, your marketing strategies are there to inspire your audience and get them excited for their visit. For a lot of people, that pre-holiday buzz is one of the best bits of travel!
Promote your local area
Tourism marketing isn’t only about promoting your specific business but also showcasing your local area and all that it has to offer.
Effective tourism marketing elevates the entire community, fostering economic growth and a positive reputation that benefits all local businesses. Ideally, your marketing strategies should have one eye on creating a vibrant image of your region that attracts visitors from near and far.
By marketing your business as an integral part of an entire travel experience, you’ll convince more people to spend their precious vacation days with you.
Build credibility for your brand
Tourism marketing, when done right, will naturally position your business as a reliable brand that offers top-notch service and experiences.
At the end of the day, tourism marketing is all about creating unique content and building trust with your visitors and customers. In return, this trust encourages repeat visits and positive reviews, which further enhances your brand’s standing within the industry.
When you approach every brief as a chance to build trust with your target audience, you’re automatically enroute to a successful tourism marketing strategy.
Speaking of, let’s dive into those top 10 strategies!
1. Create a compelling content marketing strategy
Image source: Airbnb
Storytelling is a powerful tool for most industries. But it’s even more effective for tourism marketing as it helps your audience create a connection with a place before they’ve even booked tickets. And there’s no better way to tell a compelling story than with content marketing.
Tourism marketing content can take many forms, including blog posts (like the Airbnb Newsroom above), vlogs, flyers, and podcasts. By setting up an effective content marketing process, you’ll be able to tailor your content to match what your audience is looking for.
In terms of topics for your content, you might highlight local experiences, activities, and hidden gems. Another idea is to feature stories from local figures such as artisans, chefs, or guides in your region. Their journeys and contributions can add a human touch to your marketing.
The key to content marketing success is to deliver high-quality content that adds real value. Use content to keep your audience up-to-date and position your brand as an expert in the space.
2. Pique customers’ interest with personalized marketing
Image source: Promodo
If you’ve ever gotten an email or digital ad that feels like it was made for you, you’ll know how scroll-stopping it can be. This tactic is quickly growing in popularity for tourism marketing as it’s a highly effective way to meet travelers’ unique preferences and expectations.
To create personalized marketing, you’ll need to have an in-depth understanding of your audience segments (starting with age, gender, and location). You can then use AI tracking tools to collect data around their preferences and behaviors to help tailor your content. Social media listening tools and online surveys are also popular.
By serving personalized content across email and digital marketing channels, you greatly increase your chance of converting clicks into sales – all while creating a more satisfying experience for your customers. What’s not to love?
3. Expand your reach with SEO
Today’s travelers have the world at their fingertips, with new destinations and exciting experiences all just a few quick clicks away. In fact, a recent Statista survey showed that 86% of millennials believe it’s important to be able to book a trip entirely online.
With that said, if your website isn’t easy to discover through search engines like Google, you’re missing out on a significant chunk of the market. Which is why search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial strategy for success.
Here are a few ways to optimize your tourism marketing:
- Keyword research – Identify relevant keywords and phrases that potential travelers are searching for
- Optimize website content – Incorporate targeted keywords into titles, headers, and meta descriptions
- Create high-quality blog posts – Write blog posts that address common questions and interests of travelers using long-tail keywords
- Build a user-friendly website – Ensure your website is easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and loads quickly
- Use backlinks – Include links to authoritative sources in the travel industry (sparingly) to make your own marketing content more credible
4. Make the most of your social media channels
Image source: Instagram
Social media marketing is hardly a new concept. But are you using it to its full potential? If you’re just posting the odd photo and replying to comments and DMs, then the answer is “nope”.
Social media platforms are constantly evolving, which means they’re always offering new ways for you to engage with your audience. For example, try using Instagram and Facebook Stories to share real-time updates, behind-the-scenes looks, and special promotions with your audience. You can even share others’ comments in your story to spotlight positive feedback or answer a common query.
From AI-generated stickers to immersive AR ads, there are loads of ways to spice up your social media content for more engagement. The key takeaway here is to make time to regularly brush up on social media trends and updates to keep your social media marketing strategy fresh and interesting for your audience.
5. Tap into influencer marketing
Source: instagram.com
Influencer marketing involves collaborating with people that have a sizable following on social media, to promote your business. It’s a powerful tool that can help you build up credibility real fast, so it’s no surprise that it’s one of the most popular strategies for tourism marketing.
To hit the mark with influencer marketing, you’ll want to work with influencers that are popular among your target market. Then, typically these influencers will promote your business by posting photos or sharing videos of their experience with their social media following.
Another growing trend in the world of influencer marketing is working with nano or micro influencers. These influencers, who have smaller but highly-engaged followings, can even be more effective for certain campaigns because of their authentic and personal connections with their audience.
6. Encourage user-generated content
Image source: taggbox
If you’re searching for a budget-friendly way to promote your tourism business, look no further than user-generated content (UGC). UGC is any content that comes from members of your audience rather than from the business itself. It can include anything from images and videos to blog and social media posts with a specific hashtag.
The thing is, your customers will rarely share UGC just for the sake of it. Instead, you need to come up with fun opportunities that encourage them to make and share content.
For example, you could set up aesthetic photo walls or murals at popular spots. These can be uniquely designed and branded backdrops that encourage visitors to take and share photos. Or you could simply organize a photo contest where visitors share their best travel photos from your destination for the chance to win a prize.
7. Transport your audience with virtual reality tours
I personally think it’s pretty cool that we can explore spots all over the world from the comfort of our own couch. And there’s a good chance your target audience feels the same.
Virtual reality (VR) really took off during the pandemic, and since then it’s become a game-changer for tourism marketing as it lets customers “visit” a destination or hotel, or even try out an activity before making a booking. These experience tours can be enjoyed through web browsers and viewed on a computer, mobile, or tablet.
As well as helping customers make more informed booking decisions, virtual tours can help create a sense of excitement about the adventures you provide.
8. Reach for the stars with customer reviews
Image source: motel one
One of the first things I look at when booking just about anything is the customer reviews section. And I’m certainly not the only one. In fact, 89% of global consumers say that checking online reviews is part of their buying journey. In other words, this is one of those traditional marketing strategies that’s here to stay!
With customer reviews and ratings, both quality and quantity are important. Potential customers might actually only read a couple of them, but the more reviews there are, the more trustworthy your business will be – especially for newcomers.
To make the most of your review marketing strategy, you can encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews by following up after their visit and by making the process easy. Then, highlight these reviews on your website and social media to build credibility and attract more bookings.
9. Collaborate with other businesses
Image source: Singapore Tourism Board
Travelers need lots of things to do, food to eat, and places to sleep during their trip. And collaborative marketing helps you cater to these needs while supporting the growth of other local businesses in your destination. You can collaborate on restaurant ads, hotel ads, or even advertisements for some specific attractions.
This strategy makes sense for many different reasons. By pooling together your resources, you have a bigger budget for your marketing content. Plus, just think about how much extra publicity you can get if other businesses recommended you on their websites, social media platforms, and travel brochures.
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10. Venture into experiential marketing
This travel ad from the Swedish Tourist Association shows how you can use creative thinking to bring your brand to life. Here, Sweden became the first country to have its own phone number. So anyone in the world could call the number and chat about what life is like in Sweden. The idea was so strong that it earned a whole lot of media coverage around the world.
Experiential tourism marketing campaigns don’t need to be budget-breaking either. Another great example from Ottawa Tourism saw the brand make its own ice cream to reflect the vibrancy of Ottawa with five unique flavors, custom packaging design, and its own Instagram account. The ice cream was then handed out at a pop-up in Toronto. A super sweet (and effective) idea!
The seven Ps of tourism marketing (with examples)
If you’re looking for a tried and tested framework to develop your tourism marketing strategy, I’d recommend starting with the seven Ps.
The seven Ps expands on the traditional marketing mix to address the needs of service-based industries like Travel and Tourism. Here’s a brief overview of the framework:
- Product – the service you offer (tours, destinations, package activities)
- Price – how much your services cost, your pricing strategy, discounts, and perceived value to your customers
- Place – where your product or service is delivered (physical locations, online travel agencies, etc)
- Promotion – how you communicate your offers and persuade prospects (ads, PR, social media, word-of-mouth)
- People – who’s involved in delivering your service (customer service reps, guides, and other staff)
- Process – how you deliver your services (booking procedures and post-experience follow-ups)
- Physical evidence – resources like your website, brochures, uniforms, merch, and physical facilities that create a mental cue for customers
You should consider each of these seven Ps when coming up with your tourism marketing strategy.
Final thoughts
The tourism sector is filled with exciting possibilities for travelers and businesses alike. But to stay ahead of the competition, you need to regularly refresh your tourism marketing strategies so you can give your customers what they want.
I hope this article inspires you to take your tourism marketing to new and exciting places. And if you’d like to see how Filestage can help you get there faster, start your free trial today.
