3 Top Marketing Trends in the Travel Industry

Marketing in the travel agency is more important than ever before. It is especially crucial when trying to reach millennials who demand a personalized experience rather than a one size fits all solution. People naturally want to keep up with their friends and neighbors. They are seeing those pictures on social media at a larger rate than ever before. If you are a travel industry professional, then make sure to consider these five trends.

Use Virtual Reality

Customers are already using a variety of programs to give them a taste of what traveling to a destination is lie before they actually book a vacation. The travel industry will catch on to this trend by offering branded virtual reality videos of travel locations. While many consumers will not have the latest technology in their homes yet, travel agents can use this technology to get visitors into brick-and-mortar stores again. Hotels can use virtual reality tours to upgrade services allowing users to see the benefits before they arrive. The cost of basic virtual reality has dropped to the point where everyone needs to be doing it.

Travel Industry Must Personalize Experiences

Millennials are very used to getting individualized experiences. Thanks to big data, those experiences are very easy to provide to guests. It is easy to track exactly what a potential customer is doing with their mouse allowing travel industry professionals to collect data and organize it in a way that will attract more conversions. The latest technology even allows companies to tell exactly where a viewer is looking when they gaze at the computer screen. Therefore, companies can place their ads where viewers are much more likely to notice. This data can even be used to proof that a specific place has exactly what the potential guest wants and needs.

Recommendations are Still King

There has never been a time when the recommendation of friends was not more important than any advertising the travel industry could buy. What has changed is the ability of people to get those recommendations from friends all over the world on social media. Therefore, the travel industry must make it exceedingly easy for people to leave positive feedback about their experiences. Set up photo booths and encourage customers to share the great time that they are having at a particular destination. Give discounts or upgrades to repeat customers who have already shared on social media about their experiences. Use tracking software so that any issues can be spotted quickly and responded to immediately.

William Doonan is a tax law and legal expert in New York.