According to Google, more than half of the tourists today believe that brands must personalize experiences based on personal preferences. The potential success of the future travel industry will ride on the level of customization to personal desires.
Today’s travel marketing videos are beginning to show a great deal of personalization, and its impact on the consumer is already taking great strides forward. A popular travel website found that 96% of marketers believe that personalization results in improved customer relations.
This radicalization in expectations is just not restricted to marketers. Consumers are also feeling the need for personalization, with 83% of the customers expecting personal preferences to be the basis for recommended products.
The digital revolution has bolstered this unprecedented transformation in the travel industry. In a short period, digital marketing means to have majorly impacted the tourism sector. The bulk of tourists globally have consistently grown in the last decade.
Today the consumer is searching for a travel experience that is transformational and engaging, to say the least. Organizations and businesses marketing the travel industry mean pushing the envelope to newer experiences and curated travel experiences. One way to do this would be to attract visitors to authentic local experiences.
The essential question that most businesses are seeking an answer to know more about travel marketing is why this change has come suddenly. This is vital to understanding so that businesses can know how to prepare for it in the coming times.
WHY?
Most travel marketers have adopted the tried and tested patterns with the help of an online slideshow maker like this one here. While this has been the perfect formula for success, it cannot sustain future trends. This is because the market players and their respective strategies have evolved.
- It is increasingly becoming tough to keep track of the growing innovation and the number of players in the market. The contemporary market is no longer the level playing field it once was. Why so? Because of the average consumer, his demands, needs, and expectations of an ideal vacation have changed drastically.
- The hospitality sector has evolved too. Today, it is no longer restricted to accommodation and a roof over the head. The contemporary hospitality sector is an experience in itself. Ranging from exotic locations to natural wellness, the hotel of today is not just restricted to a plush cushy downtown spot.
- Trends such as eco-hotels, green stays, wellness stays, local stays, bed, and breakfast, and shared stays are just some examples. All of these have led to a rich and exotic mixture of curated travel diaries catering to the growing wanderlust in you.
- The final reason is the evolution of travel. Gone are the days when travel marketing was all about speedy and quick travels. Although flights continue to be a popular mode, there is a growing shift to pursue slower travel modes.
Picture yourself on a hill station and reaching your destination through an ever-winding steam railroad experience. If you can imagine that, then perhaps you will understand where contemporary travel marketing is lacking.
HOW?
- Since travel personalization is yet to be perfected in the industry, one of the principal challenges you should steer clear from is hyper-personalization.
- The various travel verticals and a strong technological influence mean sometimes you might tend to get overboard.
- That is when the problem begins. To make sure that travel marketing remains an exciting prospect for your consumer, you must make sure that there is room for exploration too.
- To achieve significant personalization, travel marketers must engage their prospects on various key points. This can be done through the gathering of data from as many sources as possible.
- It would typically mean involving newer technologies and undergoing a significant digital revamping. As you can very well imagine, this is extremely time consuming and partly why it tends to make business responses slower.
The opportunity of Travel marketing
The other part of the equation lies in the marketing of experiences. Millennial youth are fascinated with the idea of travel more than the travel itself.
The contemporary marketers need to make more effort in this area. A number of surveys have shown that consumers eye brands that can live up to their expected deliverables of desired personalization.
The opportunity of travel marketing lies in the purchasing power of the millennial crowd that is becoming the dominant influencer for business growth. Businesses that are marketing products and services to this segment of consumer groups must adapt to changing scenarios.
This change can not be driven on the back of innovative approaches alone. The need of the hour is to address major shifts in customer behavior through data analyzed from social media and other sources.
The travel market’s aim has evolved from merely providing a comfortable travel experience to delivering a customized travel experience. Execution of such business objectives requires the building of a robust mechanism and equipping it with modern-day databanks.
- The first of many steps involves the usage of data points effectively to reach the consumer with the right suggestions at the right time.
- Due to this, travel marketers must move away from pointing wholesome segments to a precision-based approach.
- A robust top to bottom mechanism can deal with massive data and provide equally selective offerings. These analytics can be used to provide tailored chances to plunge into local cultures and curate some rich experiences.
The Bottom Line
Technological innovations have put travel businesses in a unique space wherein they can experiment with personalization. This also helps them to achieve a more comprehensive understanding and implementation of customized strategies.
In simple terms, the work done by some of the companies like AirBNB sure looks promising, but it certainly needs redefining to suit the industry on the whole.
Companies must realize that the “personalization” of the travel market should move beyond the “Hi [Name]” emails and newsletters. The challenges and opportunities of personalization are more about delivering curated experiences rather than curated mails.
