Destination Promotion

Tourism Marketing Plan for Your Destination

You need a creative marketing idea, but it comes in at number one because it’s the base for the rest of your marketing activities. An effective marketing plan is necessary for Tourism promotion.

Creating a tourism marketing plan may be the most important thing you do for your internet marketing. Without a plan in place you’ll have a difficult time achieving your goals, have a hard time keeping track of what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and if it’s even being effective!

The most effective marketers and marketing agencies are those with a detailed plan in place that they use to guide their marketing actions.

Creating a tourism marketing plan allows you to map out your step-by-step process to success, so start creating a marketing strategy document that you regularly update as your strategy changes.

Drive Exposure with Programs

Using online influencers as a way of marketing for hospitality and tourism agencies is becoming more and more popular.

Influencers are people who have established a following around their personal online brand. Think bloggers, YouTube, , Instagrame. etc.

Many influencers have large followings and a highly engaged audience. They have been creating content for a specific niche for a long time and their audience is always happy and even eager to see more from them.

Find an influencer that caters to your industry and set up an exchange. You help them create content and experience something new and you get to expose your business to a new audience. The goal is to find someone who creates content that relates to your business and whose audience would be interested in what you have to offer.

Create an Amazing Guide About Your Area

Travellers are the lifeblood of the tourism industry. Therefore your tourism marketing needs to be focused around their wants and needs.

Most of them won’t know your area the fun, informative guide is something that they would consider extremely valuable.

Make the guide easy to read and understand. No matter how good it is, very few people will read it word for word. Include lots of ideas for things to do and places to see, as well as all of the other information you feel is important to know about your area. Create a guide that you would want to sell or be willing to pay for, then give it away for free. That means high-quality photos and professional design.

Build a Discussion Platform on Facebook

People visiting your area will have plenty of questions that they need answered before they come. A great way to tourism marketing is by creating a discussion platform around your Facebook page. Some businesses use their Facebook page as a customer-service platform.

You’ll be using it in a similar way, but instead of dealing with customer complaints you’ll be answering questions regarding your area quickly and informatively.

“What type of activities do you recommend for couples?”

“Do you know of a dog-friendly hotel in this part of town?”

“Is it difficult to use public transportation to get from here to there?”

Most of the questions you receive will be simple and the trust you’ll earn from the people visiting your page will be extremely valuable.

You can do the same thing around your Twitter or even Instagram handles.

Create Awesome Destination Videos

The whole online world is moving toward videos. Videos convey a huge amount of information in very little time, so it’s a great way to showcase who you are and what you do.

But don’t go out and make a video that is just all about your business. Instead, show people your destination and help them out at the same time. We already talked about creating an informational guide about your area, why not turn that information into bite-size videos?

Create helpful videos that showcase things to do in your area, helpful tips about getting around, fun facts, and locals-only secrets. Share these videos on your website and social media. (Facebook is highly promoting videos and providing them with more exposure in users’ news feed.)

Use a Challenge to Spark Interest in a Destination

Challenges have become a well-loved internet sensation. Today, promoting your own challenge is easier than ever because people are far more likely to participate and share with their networks. A challenge is when you challenge a group of people—this could be your email subscribers or Facebook fans—to do something for a certain amount of days.

Create a fun challenge related to your niche and get your existing customers to help spread the word via email, social media, etc. Challenge will benefit you in another great way

Gather User-Generated Content and Promote It

The trust generated from a positive review or even a challenge photo will be highly influential and help others get to know your brand. People buy from brands they like and trust!

You don’t need a challenge to find user-generated content though. People love to share and someone has probably already shared about your brand in one way or another.

Show Off What Makes You Unique on Social Media

In tourism internet marketing, these types of campaigns highlight the human side of your business and build trust with the people exposed to it. Even if your business isn’t able to showcase a 5-star customer experience, you have something special to share. These campaigns are easily shared, especially if they’re funny, cute, entertaining, heartfelt, etc.

Focus Your Marketing by Traveller Type

One of the most important parts of any tourism marketing plan is to know who you’re selling to. If you don’t focus your approach, your efforts will get lost in the either amongst the droves of competition in your highly competitive industry, families, couples, seniors, backpackers.

Whom are you targeting? Do you know where to start?

If you own a vacation rental company in a renowned surf destination and your typical customers are families, start by targeting families interested in surfing instead of the general population. As you learn more about your customers you can adjust the parameters and branch out.

Make the Most of Mobile

Seventy-five percent of the world population use mobile, and spend more time on their phones than all other devices combined. They also travel more frequently than any other generation.

Market to them on mobile platforms and make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices when they end up there. That means: easy to navigate, fast loading, and a user-friendly layout. Make the most of mobile tourism marketing by getting on the level of the majority of mobile users. Pictures tell a story faster, so create an Instagram account and post your best photos to it regularly. Show your followers a unique view of your city that others aren’t sharing. Guide them through a virtual tour of your favourite things to do and see with thoughtful photos.

Highlight What’s New in Your Area

One of the best ways to differentiate your message from that of your competitors is by highlighting the things that are new and exciting in your area. Keep visitors in the know about important events and unique goings-on around you.