5 Travel Marketing Trends You Need to Know in 2019

Travel Industry Marketing Trend 1. Adopt New Technologies

Booking.com conducted a research among its users and highlighted simplicity and innovations as a major tendency of 2018. What is more, this is relevant for all tourism fields from tour booking to access to accommodation.

It should be noted that tourists, including Russian ones, are interested not in robot-butlers and complex digital ‘bells and whistles’ as much as accessible apps for a comfortable rest. Favorites are real-time baggage tracking via a mobile app (57%) and availability of one app for planning, booking and everything related to travelling (57%). Interestingly, 31% respondents all over the world told that they are waiting for appearance of a ‘digital travel agent’ who will respond to inquiries about trips; besides, AR technologies are in-demand to learn a particular destination closer.

Travel Industry Marketing Trend 2. Personalize Your Offer

Predictably, tourism individuality is on the top of travel marketing trends—one third of respondents (34%) are interested in ready-made personal recommendations for travels. Notably, 41% would entrust travel planning to artificial intelligence that would offer options on grounds of the analysis of their previous travels. Taking into account that the majority of Russian entrust preparation of their travels to travel agencies (more than 60% Russian tourists prefer organized tours), personalized offers will surely catch the interest of a greater part of tourists.

Finally, 52% respondents voted for digital guides and support of any technical innovations that could help make their travel unique.

Travel Industry Marketing Trend 3. Take Care of Your Image

According to Yandex WordStat, nearly 400 thousand Russians are monthly interested in ‘travel feedback’. Plus, on top of the queries is feedback on travelling with children, at the seaside, and, as expected, in Turkey (being the most popular tourist destination among Russians).

However, pure feedback is not enough. As far back as in 2016 Google conducted a research, according to which 69% users had doubts in the correctness of decisions that they had made:

- Didn’t I buy a too expensive ticket?

- Did I choose a tourist destination the right way?

- Did I choose a right hotel?

For example, if you are a tour operator, try to study all these issues at a stage of tour booking so far: prepare a maximally explicit offer that can surely persuade a buyer that his or her decision is right. Ideally, all information about the flight, tourist destination, and hotels must be presented in your website in expanded form, with numbers, facts, and live pictures or, even better, video.

Most countries, as of now, have their own website with description of their landmarks—do not be afraid to give links to these websites when promoting your tours and to share them with your buyers. The more information tourists will get from you, the more credibility to you and less desire to look for extra information on the Internet they will have.

Travel Industry Marketing Trend 4. Speed is Key

One more interesting trend that is notable in online queries of Russian users is that they began looking for tickets on the date of departure more often. The number of queries ‘air tickets today’ has grown almost twice. In 2018, 84% more users looked for ‘air plane tickets today’, as compared to 2017. Within the last half a year, the number of the related queries has never dropped lower than 5,000 queries a month, and this is only about Yandex. On top of the queries are ‘air tickets today’, ‘air tickets today price’.

How can you use this trend in marketing for the travel industry? First of all, make sure that your services are available 24/7. No matter if you offer air tickets or hotels (after all, most people, just after they find air tickets, will start looking for a place where they can stay and, what is more, with a possibility to book a room ASAP).

Add extra settings to your PPC campaign. If you do not have key queries related to ticket purchase or booking today yet, we highly recommend you to add them.

Travel Industry Marketing Trend 5. Learn a Traveller’s Journey

It would be ideal if a user made a query ‘buy voucher’, context ads showed him your hot offer of, for example, a tour to Bali, and he bought it right there.

However, modern search is more sophisticated. A modern Russian tourist is more complicated. So, in order to understand what advertising channel and when it is best to apply, you need to have CJM at hand. RMAA Travel experts developed two Traveller’s Journey Maps (for a single traveller and for a married couple), where you will learn:

• How do Russian tourists make travel decisions?
• What affects their choice?
• At what stage and through what channels will you be able to affect tourists’ choice in favor of your offer?
• At what stage will you be able to convert a common Russian tourist into a loyal client of your brand?

You can download CJM of Russian tourists now. Just enter your email and download it for free.

If you have any questions about marketing promotion of your business in the Russian market, RMAA Travel experts are always glad to answer your questions.

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