Have you ever noticed that when you see a picture of any beautiful place while scrolling through Instagram, you have never been there before but suddenly start dreaming of being there. It is nothing but the influential power of social media and that is what every tourism business wants. This power makes the role of social media in tourism marketing very important.
With 5.17 billion people using social media and spending hours on it every day, there is no need to think twice about why tourism companies must focus on their social media presence. Social media platforms make it easier for tourism businesses to connect with the travelers more effectively. It allows two way communication, which helps you learn more about the interest of tourists through comments and interaction.
For example: As a travel company, you can post photos of beautiful places on Instagram along with comments from happy customers. This may inspire others to book a trip
So, without any further delay, let’s delve deeper into this blog to know what is the exact role of social media in tourism marketing.
Table of Content
Key Takeaways
- Over 75% of all travelers use social media to get inspiration and ideas for their next trips, instead of any family member or friend’s suggestions.
- More than 1 million travel-related hashtags are searched weekly on Instagram. There are also over 300 million posts containing the word “travel.” This shows how popular travel content is on social media.
- 57% of travelers are dependent on social media for the majority of their travel decisions.
- In fact, 86% of people are interested in visiting certain places after seeing photos of them in their feed.
- 76% of people who browse social media for travel posts say it makes them want to travel more.
- Nearly 69% of people use social media for travel-related reasons, and 45% of Gen Z rely on advice from influencers when deciding where to go.
- A fun fact is that 40% of millennials choose travel destinations based on how good their instagram photos will look there.
These facts are eye-opening facts for every tourism business. You must have a good online presence if you really want to attract more travelers. Social media not only encourages travelers to travel more but also makes them excited to explore new and adventurous places. So, this is a great opportunity to work with an effective social media marketing strategy either on your own or by partnering with any social media management agency.
The Influence of Social Media in Tourism Marketing
As mentioned earlier, some statistics clearly show that social media is very important for the tourism industry. Now there is no doubt why it is considered one of the powerful tools of the tourism industry, but to dig deeper let’s look at how social media impacts tourism marketing.
Improves Customer Connection
Social media allows tourism companies to talk directly with people from all over the world. Unlike old-fashioned ads on TV or in magazines, which were one-sided, social media lets businesses and travelers have two-way conversations.
For example, a tourist company can reply to questions, share news, and get feedback instantly. It makes tourists feel more personal.
Impact on Travel Plans
As you read above, most of the people used to get travel ideas from the platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and other social media platforms. They look at photos, reviews and stories to decide where they want to go. Usually when a place becomes popular on Instagram, it often attracts more people to visit once there. This is sometimes called the “Instagram effect.”
The Power of User-Generated Content
Things like reviews on TripAdvisor or travel blogs written by real tourists play a very crucial role in tourism marketing. Like, positive reviews and personal stories can make a destination seem more attractive, while bad reviews can damage its image. Tourism companies often encourage visitors to share their experiences to take advantage of word-of-mouth marketing.
Changing Marketing Strategies
Tourism marketing has changed a lot due to social media. Instead of using magazine ads or TV spots, marketers now focus on creating fun, shareable posts that tell stories about the attraction of the place, culture, or unique experiences. Here the goal is to create content that people want to share, so it spreads to a larger number of potential travelers.
Collaborate with Influencers
One of the most powerful and smart tactics in social media is to work with influencers or travel bloggers who have a large following. These influencers create content that feels real and relatable and they can provide a destination for many new people. Collaboration with influencers has a huge impact on the tourism business because most people get easily influenced by the people they follow.
Best Social Media Channels for Tourism Marketing
By now, you clearly know that social media is extremely important for the travel industry. Here the problem you might face is, there are many social media platforms but which can be one of the best for the most effective results. These are some of the platforms that you can use according to your target audience to play a better role of social media in the tourism market.
Facebook is one of the most used platforms with over 3.065 billion users every month. You will be surprised to know that this is about 61% of social media users around the world. Using this platform you can reach all kinds of people. If you use it, you will get a great feature here, which is a recommendation feature where people share their travel experiences.
This helps you know what tourists or travelers are saying about the destinations and tourism businesses that helped them plan their trips. One of the best things about this platform is it displays ads that blend in with regular posts and you can use it to grab people’s attention easily with the help of any Facebook management services.
One of the main attractions of Instagram is its beautiful photos. If you remember, it started as a photo sharing app but now after decades it has turned into a platform with the most aesthetic and beautiful photos. This makes it ideal for the travel industry. Nearly half of Instagram users turn to it when deciding where to go on vacation. 71% of travel businesses say Instagram brings them more traffic and better engagement than other platforms.
Many young travelers admit that Instagram posts influence where they decide to travel. There are many hashtags like #travel and #vacations are extremely popular on Instagram, with over 200 million users each month. It may be difficult for you to manage your business and all this at the same time, any of the Instagram management services here can help you manage your social media activities more effectively.
Youtube
This platform is all about vlogs and videos. Here you can create high quality videos of your tours and activities to give your viewers a virtual tour which will inspire them to book a tour with you. Because creating virtual tours can help people experience your destination before they book. After publishing a video, you can also track how your videos are performing and adjust your strategy as needed as this platform has YouTube analytics tools that allow you to do so. But if you’re not able to create and edit videos yourself, you can also use YouTube ads to reach people who are actually interested in your destination or use YouTubers or influencers to reach a wider audience.
Tik Tok
TikTok is all about short and catchy videos, so you can showcase your destination and the activities with quick and fun clips. You can join trending challenges on TikTok and use trending hashtags to expose your videos to more people and for more effective advertising, you can also hire any of the Tik Tok ads services. TikTok ads allow you to target specific groups so you can also collaborate with influencers which can help you spread the word about your destination to more potential travelers.
Snapchat
Snapchat has 800 million monthly active users around the world. On average, more than 4.75 billion Snaps are created daily by millennials and Gen Z, who travel more than users of other platforms. So it could be one of the best platforms to attract them towards your destination easily. And in 2022, Snapchat introduced Dynamic Travel Ads, to make it easier for tourism companies like you to display personalized ads based on users’ travel interests and preferences.
Pinterest allows you to create fun travel boards that showcase your destination and the experiences it offers. You can use keywords in your board titles and descriptions to help people find your content when searching for travel ideas. You can work with influencers or travel bloggers to highlight your destination and increase your reach. You can also add a Book Nowbutton to drive more traffic to your site. But if you can’t do all this while doing your core business, you can partner with any Pinterest management services that can help you with all these things.
5 Effective Social Media Strategies for Tourism Marketing
Now you have a better understanding of most things related to the role of social media in tourism marketing, but it all depends on the strategy you create and opt for. So, let’s see a few effective strategies by following which you can make the most of social media for your tourism company.
Know your target audience
Almost every person loves to explore beautiful and new places. Many travelers are Gen Z and some are from an older crowd, so you’ll have to strategize according to both groups. Like if you want to reach Gen Z travel influencers or bloggers then it would be smart to create content that speaks to them on platforms like snapchat and instagram according to cool trends they follow.
On the other hand, you can focus on platforms like Facebook to attract an older crowd like business travelers or people who like to cruise. Overall it is important to first find out who your audience is and where they spend the most time online.
Collaborate with Travel influencers
As noted in Takeaway, 45% of Gen Z rely on the advice of influencers when deciding where to go, so collaborating with influencers can be a big help in getting your name on the tourist list. You can ask a travel blogger to mention your location, ask a travel expert to review your services, or find an influencer to promote your brand.
Influencers often have a large following who trust them, so it can get you attention quickly. But the recommendation is not to rely solely on influencers, who can change quickly because you still need a solid social media strategy to stand out.
Invest More in Customer Service
While planning trips many people are accustomed to asking questions on social media about their doubts or your services. Then try to respond to messages and comments quickly and politely. This way you can make them feel appreciated and supported. Sometimes they share their thoughts on social media platforms, try to respond to them and improve yourselves according to the feedback, which will also make them feel that you value your customers more than other companies and will help you attract them more towards you.
Make Great Videos
Video is now one of the best ways to attract more potential travelers. A great video showcasing amazing destinations can inspire them to start planning their next trip. You can use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok to share your videos.
You can also try using live streaming, people love to watch things as they happen. To make your videos look professional, you can also use free online video editing tools.
Use a Social Media Tool
To stay organized and post regularly, you can use many tools available to plan your posts and track their performance. If you post consistently, it will help keep people thinking about your brand name. You can also work with the best digital marketing agency to help you keep up with everything.
No matter what your plan looks like, regular posting and being active on social media will help your travel business stand out and attract more customers.
Need Help with Social Media Tourism Marketing?
Now, if you are ready to win the tourism industry with the power of social media marketing and make your tourism business stand out, Geek Master can help.
As you read in this blog, how important is the role of social media in tourism marketing. It is clear here that if you ignore its power, you may be out of the race itself. So, if you are facing any problem in balancing your core business and marketing together, let us do it for you. Our social media management services can showcase what makes your business unique and why people should choose you. Our social media experts create strategies that align with your business goals, whether that’s increasing your followers or boosting your bookings, and help you see what other tourism businesses are doing well and where you can do better.
Contact us now to make your brand shine in the tourism industry.
Reference:
https://digitaltravelapac.wbresearch.com/blog/social-media-in-tourism-marketing
https://rezdy.com/blog/the-vital-role-of-social-media-in-tourism-marketing/
https://www.themediaant.com/blog/role-of-social-media-in-tourism-marketing/
