Travelers of today no longer rely on travel agents or magazines to decide where to go on their next getaway. Travelers are tapping into digital and social media to give them unique perspective and inspiration for travel destinations. Connecting with travelers on social media, travel blogs and search can help bring awareness for tourism destinations, deals and reach a larger audience. These channels have a wealth of information readily available at the fingertips of potential customers.

Travel blogs give potential travelers the access to a tourist on an excursion, eating at a local restaurant, fully immersed in a tourist attraction without leaving their home. Partnering with travel bloggers by developing branded content is an effective tool to entice travelers. It helps build a relationship with your audience and consumers trust content from bloggers they regularly read.    

Social Media provides visibility for users looking for inspiration for the next big destination and travel deals. Influencers with a dedicated following could entice them with an upcoming travel deal or even sweepstakes entries driving user engagement. Another benefit of utilizing social media marketing is the ability to use their data segments to reach any unique and specific audience the advertiser desires allowing cost efficiencies for a marketing campaign. This is a huge benefit to a digital campaign.

Search exposure is also important as part of a digital strategy for the travel industry. You can reach travelers through the different stages of travel planning through search. Marketers can develop ads with messaging to target users at each stage:

• Looking for destination inspiration
• Researching travel dates and hotels
• Booking flights and hotels
• Searching for local activities and attraction

Targeting each of these stages of the journey with tailored messages can reach them at the right mindset. Having search presence also helps increase visits to your site to further educate your users on your offerings. 

Utilizing these various strategies can provide engaging and valuable travel information to potential travelers to your destination. Connecting with your audience using the right targeting and social channels is the success in driving travelers to your destination.