Summer is that time of year when people search for the perfect vacation - and while some are inspired by their friends' Instagram photos when making their travel plans, others are just Googling for family vacation ideas or cheap travel deals. If you’re working in the travel industry, you already know that competition is higher than ever this year, as people are starting to feel the travel bug again after two years of on-and-off lockdown - especially since most countries have announced their borders will stay open this season and the authorities have eliminated all restrictions.

In this context of a travel boom, how can you make sure you get more customers than ever before? Is your marketing strategy able to generate highly qualified leads?

Here are 5 tips to improve your travel marketing strategy in 2022:

1. Start creating insightful content for your target audience

According to Google research, 55% of leisure travellers go on just one or two trips a year. But they do a lot of research before booking those trips.

You know our “Content Marketing is King” motto, but this time we have the numbers to prove it. Just imagine, every month millions of people do high-intent searches for travel info - here are some examples, according to Bing:

• 33 million people search for airline tickets or reservations

• 29 million people search for hotel or motel reservations

• 16 million people search for vacation packages

• 14 million people search for car rentals

• 10 million people search for cruises

Why not be the one they find on the first page when they search next? Spend time creating a travel content plan, be consistent with it, and don’t forget about SEO - this is in fact what helps your content rank better and be discovered by more people from your target audience. But remember - content marketing brings long-term results, so don’t expect leads to come overnight after you hit the publish button.

If you’re not familiar with the Content & SEO topic, dive into our SEO guide for beginners.

2. Take advantage of the newest type of Google Ads 

SEO is great, but if you’re just getting the hang of it and there’s not much organic traffic coming your way, then Google Ads should be your best friend. Besides creating a brand campaign and a general search terms campaign (for people searching for terms like exotic holiday, travel deals, travel agency etc.) you should also check the search volumes for some of the most popular destinations in your portfolio and see when they peak so that you can run targeted campaigns. Moreover, there’s a new type of campaign in Google called Performance Max which can help you deliver your ads on every Google-owner platform your target audience may be active on, making it easier to create more contact points and get the user acquainted with the brand. These platforms include Youtube, Google Maps, Gmail and Display, for example - this way, when they start the research process, your name will be top of their mind and the multiple different touch points across channels will contribute to your brand recall.

3. Take advantage of the trending events

Search volumes are a living organism, especially in the travel market. Some TV show filmed in Thailand starts to air? Search volumes for holidays in Thailand will be higher than ever. There’s a big event organised in Japan? People will start searching for trips to Japan. Some mega TikTok influencers are choosing the Maldives for their honeymoon? Everybody will start searching for hotels and airline tickets for the Maldives. Your marketing team should be on the lookout for travel trends and start creating content and campaigns in the right way, so you can take advantage of the hype created without having to invest big money.

4. Understand the user’s journey when booking a trip

How do you imagine someone books a trip? Search for “vacation in Bali” on Google, click the first result, and then book the holiday? Well, if things were this simple…

In fact, a normal person has hundreds of interactions with a brand before booking a trip - and it can take months from the moment they start planning the vacation until the moment they book it.

Google identified four critical moments in a traveller's customer journey:

1. Dreaming - people are searching for inspiration regarding the destination they should choose for the next vacation (depending on their interests, their favourite activities, their group of friends or family’s preferences)

2. Organizing - people are starting the research phase for vacation packages, airlines, hotels, activities

3. Booking - people make their reservations.

4. Experiencing - people are searching for things to do and new places to visit near them on their trip.

How does this affect you? If you understand the user’s journey, you will plan your marketing campaigns differently and your expectations will be set from the beginning. Moreover, it will be clear to you that diversifying your social media and email marketing content is the best decision you can make as your audience is almost never in the same moment of their journey, so you need to provide inspiration all the time.

5. Improve Customer Experience with VR Marketing 

VR technology (Virtual Reality) opens a new world of possibilities for the travel industry. Using a special 360 headset and a 3D image or video, you can help your clients travel anywhere in the world - virtually, of course. Their VR experience can greatly contribute to their decision to travel to a country or not, so invest in VR content for the key destinations in your portfolio. Such 3D videos can already be found on Youtube - so you only need a 360 headset to have the most amazing balloon safari experience for example. 

This increasingly popular travel marketing practice is helping travel agencies or even hotels and airlines to exceed their customer expectations and, more important, to remember to their clients that they are not really paying for services, they are paying for experiences.

Wanna find out more about travel marketing? Here’s our most loved content piece in the industry: DIGITAL MARKETING FOR TOURISM AGENCIES  - 4 EFFICIENT TECHNIQUES TO GROW YOUR TRAVEL AGENCY ONLINE