Travelers are gearing up for getaways; how is your brand’s sales strategy? Learn more about how to build and appropriately inspire traveler excitement.

How to Boost Travel Excitement During COVID Recovery | Union

How to Appropriately Inspire Traveler Excitement with Sales and Bookings During COVID Recovery

“In a life without plans, nothing really happens.” “Let’s go there. Let’s make some plans.” “Somewhere. Anywhere. Everywhere.”
These bits of travel motivation are sprinkled throughout the <a href="https://vimeo.com/454159978">video ad</a> launched by the U.S. Travel Association in September to shoot some adrenaline into the travel and tourism industry and encourage bookings on the heels of the industry’s pandemic-related downturn. It’s all part of their Let’s Go There campaign, featuring resources for travel and tourism organizations that are ready to welcome visitors now, or that are still preparing for when that day comes.
<a href="https://www.ustravel.org/toolkit/lets-go-there-toolkit?utm_source=MagnetMail&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=9.8.20%20-%20LGT%20-%20Postcard&amp;utm_campaign=ust">Per UStravel.org</a>, “The Let’s Go There campaign aims to inspire Americans to do what is exciting and productive: make plans to travel. ...These resources will allow you to join a national conversation to reignite America’s sense of wanderlust and reinstate the feeling of anticipation.”
With travel and tourism <a href="https://union.co/industries/travel-tourism">brands</a> getting invited to join the campaign, how do you inspire the right kind of traveler excitement (as in, one that’s not reckless) when you start to approach sales and bookings during COVID recovery? Here are three places to start.

“One of the best taglines is, ‘we’re here when you’re ready,’” said Senior Paid Media Strategist Allie Robbe. (It’s also one of the most common taglines lately). “It comes off as authentic, with brands not trying to force anything on consumers when they may be having a difficult time financially or emotionally.”
That’s why, when brands return to their sales funnel approach to media campaigns, bringing their audience back into the buyer’s journey, they shouldn’t be pushy about it.
“You need to take baby steps,” Robbe said. “You can’t go from ‘we’re all in this together’ messaging straight to ‘buy now’ ads. You need a gradual reintroduction of awareness, consideration and decision phases when it comes to your messaging, otherwise you’ll rub everyone the wrong way.”

<h2>Go back to the sales funnel</h2>

“Know your consumers’ priorities, like safety and access to destinations within driving distance, and make sure that’s <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/data-brand-strategy/brand-identity-messaging">addressed in your brand messaging</a>,” said Paid Search Strategist Amanda Zwerin.
According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/06/15/11-ways-pandemic-will-change-travel/">Squaremouth</a>, about 48% of summer travel plans involved domestic trips, which represents a 15% increase from 2019 travel plans. Similarly, Travelocity shared that most hotel bookings were within a distance of 100 miles from travelers’ homes.
Big brands have picked up on this. Airbnb has pushed a lot of organic social <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CD3ilsvD-ug/">content </a>with the hashtag #GoNear, as well as language about nearby refuges, in order to appeal to day-trip and staycation seekers. Then there’s Travel and Leisure, which has been posting <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CF0T0LXl6ye/">images</a> of vast and mostly-empty destinations on social, offering the impression that travelers won’t be throwing themselves into crowded and potentially risky environments.
Zwerin added, “Consider creating content around safe, outdoor things to do as well as general reopening news pertaining to your business so you can let people make their own choices while generating brand awareness.”

Start with “nearby” messaging

According to a <a href="https://adara.com/covid-19-insights-series-week-11-an-audience-with-roger-dow/">webinar</a> hosted by ADARA, only 25% of people believe the travel industry when they say it’s safe to travel. However, if consumers hear a consistently believable message from all three main sources of travel safety information – the CDC, the government and the travel industry, trust in that messaging can rise to 75% of people.
While travel and tourism brands don’t necessarily need to push social messaging about their sanitation protocols and safety measures, it’s a good idea to include a link to that kind of information on the website or landing pages these posts are driving to. That can range from a tab to a banner calling out COVID resources for the consumer, with information about safety and cleaning addressed by the brand, to local government updates and CDC updates.
Not only will this help reassure consumers who are deciding whether to commit to a booking, but, it could be the start of a long-term commitment to these protocols by travel and tourism brands. As Roger Dow, CEO and President of the U.S. Travel Association said during the ADARA webinar, certain positive steps taken by airlines and hotels are likely here to stay, because that’s what people are looking for now. “Long-term,” he said, “I think we’re going to have these health and safety protocols with us forever.”

Include cleanliness/safety information on your website

Valtech + Union is a creative &amp; performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results. Obsessed with data-driven performance, we believe every marketing dollar should be viewed as an investment. Our clients expect a meaningful return and we prove the ROI of our work with quantifiable data.