Written By: Media Analytics Executive, Nicole Seay
Tourism marketing can be tricky - you’re not just promoting products and services, but entire destinations and the people, places and experiences that make them up. Let’s look at some trends marketers are tapping in to in order to entice travelers to plan their next trip:
Harnessing the Power of Influencers
Influencer marketing is everywhere right now, and the tourism industry is no exception. Influencers are literally being paid to go on vacation - promoting hotels, experiences, and sometimes even entire cities, states or countries. These influencers share their experiences with their followers on social media, providing an authentic feeling and look into what a vacation in that location might be like. The popularity of influencer marketing is no surprise in the tourism industry, with over 40% of millennials saying they take into consideration the ‘Instagrammability’ of the destination they’re thinking about traveling to.
Entering Strategic Partnerships
Marketers are increasingly understanding that travelers are often looking to experience more than one culture or destination on their trip. This has led to destinations forming strategic partnerships with each other, in order to co-promote. Iceland and Copenhagen have recently entered into such a partnership, after research showed that 9% of U.S. visitors to Iceland also visited Copenhagen. A video was produced that included stunning scenes from both destinations, and was designed to demonstrate a sense of cohesion between the two while also highlighting the uniqueness of each as well.
Incorporating Consumer Insights into Campaigns
Consumer insight driven campaigns are everywhere right now, and it’s no surprise. Using consumer insights to develop campaigns and marketing strategies allows for the creation of content that is more likely to resonate and connect with consumers. In 2018, Tourism Ireland released its “Fill Your Heart with Ireland” campaign, a perfect example of this type of advertising. Tourism Ireland invited a couple to take a trip around Ireland, followed by a film crew. While the couple was taking in the beautiful sights and experiencing everything Ireland has to offer, they were also wearing custom made heart rate monitors, so their physiological responses to each activity was recorded. The campaign was then designed based on insights driven from this heart rate data. When the campaign was put together, the footage in which the couples heart rates were the highest is what actually was included in the video.