Travel Marketing The Covid-19 pandemic has already made its own adjustments to the prospects for the development of the tourism industry. Today, several trends in the tourism industry clearly stand out, which were reflected in the choice of marketing tools for promotion in such a difficult period.
Trend # 1. Focus on domestic tourism
The travel business has had to adapt to home destinations. According to Mastercard, in the second quarter of 2020, the share of car rentals in total transportation costs almost doubled from 9% in 2019 to 17%. In some countries, the demand for scooter and bicycle rental has increased. Most tourists today prefer overland transport. So, according to NAFI, 63% of Russians traveling this summer traveled by car.
In this connection, many countries in the strategy until the end of 2020 have focused on programs for the development of domestic tourism. For example, in Russia, every tourist who buys a tour package from a tour operator can count on a cashback on the tourist’s card.
But what about foreign tourists? As we have repeatedly emphasized, countries and regions need to actively use new AR and VR technologies in their marketing strategy and conduct live streams. One of the trending travel marketing.
Trend # 2. Development of local excursion tourism
This trend flows smoothly from the previous one. It should be noted, however, that most travelers who like to travel abroad know very little about the sights of their own country. At the same time, it is the domestic tourists who can become excellent ambassadors who, with their reviews and posts, will attract even more attention to their region.
On an excursion, you can not only visit the existing objects of the city, but also show what the city could be if the historical sights that have already been wiped off the face of the earth were preserved in their original form.
Trend # 3. Development of objects of “ecotourism” display
Another trend that should be highlighted in the development of domestic tourism: the development of natural parks and natural monuments. This trend intersects with the global trend of sustainable eco-tourism development.
Countries and regions need to take a closer look at parks and natural monuments, assess whether sufficient funding is allocated for their development and whether enough attention is generally paid to this particular issue. This is helping the travel marketing easy and save the environment.
Trend # 4. Travelers choose mini hotels
Travelers are increasingly preferring smaller accommodations. Recently, the recovery rate of small hotels has outpaced large hotels by more than 50%, according to Mastercard.
In this situation, large hotels should pay attention in the promotion strategy to the precautions taken in order to make the stay of tourists in the hotel as safe as possible and, oddly enough, secluded.
Trend # 5. Private trips recover faster than business trips
Mastercard analyzed spending on individual cards versus corporate cardholders, showing that spending on personal air travel and car rentals is recovering faster than on business travel. In general, the lockdown period made it clear that many business issues can be discussed online and in the near future we are unlikely to see the return of the business travel market to its previous indicators.
In this regard, when promoting regions, tourist offices should pay special attention to the content and key message of the entire marketing campaign. Remember that today for tourists the most important factor and motivator for buying a tour or a ticket to a particular country is not just the opportunity to visit the destination, but to travel as safely and openly as possible.
Trend # 6. Focus on new audience segments – freelancers
When everyone switched to remote work (well, almost all) and are not tied to the office, the segment of remote workers has grown. And this audience may be of interest to countries for several reasons: they come for a long time, they continue to earn and, accordingly, spend money, they post a lot of content from their new home office and in fact become ambassadors in promoting your region.
So Dubai introduced a new annual program for foreign workers working remotely due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Dubai offers to combine business with pleasure and in the midst of a working day to escape from the laptop, for example, a walk on the sunny beach. Georgia made a similar proposal to freelancers
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