Category Archives: Tourism

GDPR. No, it’s not just another buzzword that’s afloat on the internet. Everyone with a website needs to pay attention!

What is GDPR?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and it goes into effect internationally on the 25th of May 2018. GDPR is an updated version of the Data Protection Directive that has been in effect since 1995. In the simplest terms, it boils down to protecting the rights of people who give you their personal data.

What personal data you may be collecting?

If you have Google Analytics, videos played on your site from YouTube, an e-commerce function that collects billing information and other features that load automatically on your site via “cookies” then you are collecting personal data.

GDPR does not only affect your business...

The best way to sell travel is to tell stories about the experience. Whether it is skinny dipping in the crystal-blue oceans of the Bahamas or bungee jumping from the Macau tower in China, you want your audience to feel the excitement as if they were there themselves.

However, the credibility of your story is best augmented by first-hand experiencers. So, as a travel agency, if you want to sell any experience, the surest way to do so is let original travelers tell their story. Give them a free rein- a platform on your site- to share the joy and excitement they felt on their journey. This user generated content (UGC) will go a long way to boost the number of inquiries about your service.

What is User Generated Content?

In online marketing, content is everything. In addition...

In tourism, we have the luxury of selling “fun.” Total piece of cake, right? No need for super detailed marketing, because who in the world doesn’t like fun?!

While it seems simple in theory, tour and hospitality marketing takes a great deal of planning and strategy. There’s a lot of competition, a ton of noise in targeted publications, and countless visitor profile types to keep track of.

So where does one start? 

Begin with Data

To break through and create an action (i.e. sales), you’ll need to set goals for messaging. The types of goals depend largely on what you already have going for your brand…. But more importantly, where you can improve.

Ask yourself, what is your biggest traveler market segment? Where do they come from? Do they book on mobile or desktop? How...

If you're an in-house tourism marketer, you're probably a very busy bee. Whether you're managing the spill over into sales or helping with booking redemption logistics, your work is never quite finished.

While it may be easy to get sidetracked in the many arms of a tourism or hospitality company, using automation tools and strategizing ways to keep focus will help you work efficiently and achieve results much sooner.

Here's a few of our favorite tips:

1) Listen to your market.

• Base new endeavors on statistics and trends. Think

When it comes to online sales, TripAdvisor may be tourism’s answer to Amazon. By highlighting social proof, offering booking immediacy through 3rd parties, and utilizing various tactics for user engagement, the website has become a high ranking, widely used portal for people across the globe to plan holidays.

Just how popular is TripAdvisor? Well on average, the site gathers 390 million unique visitors per month. Per Alexa.com, the site ranks 82nd for all sites within the United States.

Conversion rates sit at about 6%, so by very simple calculations, that comes out to 23.4 million people making an action on the site monthly!

Clearly, collaborating with TripAdvisor can be a lucrative venture for tour and travel based businesses. TA makes this pretty easy, with a management...

While fresh ways for reaching people online keep popping up, few are as effective as going directly to a potential customer and hitting their email inbox with one of your latest offers. When used correctly, Email Marketing can lead to increased bookings.

Here are three ways to best use Electronic Direct Marketing and E-Newsletters:

1. Share the Love

Encourage your offer to be shared around! Offer a special to your past guests and newsletter sign-ups then encourage them to share the deal with their friends and family – “spread the news and share the love”. Let’s face it, we all know someone who could do with some good news and TLC, and more so, everyone loves a good special. This is a also a great way to expand your brand awareness. Everyone gains something out of it, and the...