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Content Marketing Tips for Travel and Tourism Companies

“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.” 

– Anthony Bourdain

In the world of travel and tourism, effective content marketing can be the key to capturing the attention of wanderlust-driven audiences. From strong travel SEO strategies to developing messaging that inspires consumers to plan their next trip, a lot goes into a successful travel content marketing campaign. The good news is if you’re looking for ways to take your travel content marketing to the next level, you’ve come to the right place.

What Goes Into Content Marketing for the Travel Industry?

Business-to-consumer (B2C) travel marketing is a branch of lifestyle content, and producing lifestyle content requires a few important elements:

Audience Segmentation

No traveler is the same, and not everyone dreams of the same travel experience. While one person’s ideal vacay might be a week at a tropical resort, another might crave an off-the-grid mountain escape. By understanding and identifying your different audiences and segmenting them into categories, you can create travel marketing campaigns that speak to each group’s interests. Examples of segmentation categories include:

• Adventure travelers.
• Luxury travelers.
• Budget travelers.
• Family-friendly travelers.
• Solo travelers.

Once your consumer audience has been properly segmented, you can create valuable content that meets the needs of each group, enabling you to develop a more engaging — and successful — marketing campaign.

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Storytelling

Effective storytelling is a key component of travel content marketing. Rather than telling consumers what they might experience, try sharing authentic and engaging stories instead. Doing so can enable you to cultivate a strong emotional connection with your target audience that inspires them to book a trip.

Keyword Research

There’s a lot of content out there, especially travel-related content. With so much competition, it’s easy for your content to get overlooked. That’s where a strong SEO strategy comes in. Diligent keyword research can help you identify which travel terms your target audience is searching for online. Once you have a good idea of these keywords, you can integrate them into your content strategy to help you rank higher on SERPs and drive traffic to your content.

Awareness of Current Travel Trends

The travel industry is frequently changing, so travel content marketers need to be up-to-date on the latest trends. Current trends include solo travel — 76% of Millennials and Gen-Z are planning a solo trip in 2024 — and sustainable travel, which involves traveling in a way that minimizes your impact on the planet. By keeping up with current trends, you can incorporate them into your travel marketing strategy. Examples include developing destination guides specifically for solo travelers or gifting customers with reusable straws they can take on their vacation.

Influencer Partnerships

A travel influencer may create reviews, travel vlogs and guides for their large audiences — all of which can have a massive impact on where people book their next vacation. Collaborating with travel influencers can help you boost your brand’s reach and get your travel content seen by new audiences.

What Makes Travel Marketing Content Unique?

Travel content should evoke emotions and create a sense of adventure and wanderlust among an audience — making it different from other forms of marketing. When it comes to travel marketing, you’re selling an experience , not a product. Therefore, the most effective travel marketing strategies aren’t overly pushy. Rather, they focus on inspiring adventure and matching an experience with a consumer’s interests.

A few factors that make travel content marketing unique include:

• Emotional Appeal: Whether it’s nostalgia, curiosity or excitement, travel marketing content should appeal to an audience’s emotions. You can evoke emotional responses by incorporating high-quality and engaging content into your campaigns, such as personal travel stories or videos of thrilling experiences.
• Visuals: Visual content captures the characteristics that make a destination unique, making it an essential element of any effective content marketing strategy for the travel industry. From drone footage of endless coastlines to panoramic photographs of high mountain peaks, visual content can quickly grab your audience’s attention and inspire them to book a trip.
• Keyword Usage: Travel content requires leveraging specific keywords that boost SEO. This may include keywords about certain locations or activities (such as, “What to do in Japan with kids”), transportation-focused keywords (such as, “How do you get around Bermuda without a car?”) and keywords that are specific to the type of accommodation someone may be interested in (such as “dog-friendly hotels near Lake Tahoe”). Learn more about what it takes to boost the SEO of your travel website here .
• Inspirational messaging: When it comes to travel content marketing, storytelling with an intent to inspire is the name of the game — and your messaging should reflect that. By encouraging consumers to explore a new place, step out of their comfort zone and try an activity they’ve never done before, you can inspire adventure and motivate consumers to plan their next trip.

What Types of Content Work Well for Travel Companies?

Content marketing for travel businesses can take several forms:

Visual Content

High-quality videos and photos capture the beauty of a destination and provide a glimpse at what a “day in the life” is like — leaving a lasting impression on travelers. Photos and videos can help your target audience envision themselves in these settings, making your travel marketing campaigns even more powerful.

Blogs Posts

A travel blog is the perfect medium for providing in-depth details about a specific destination. Usually informative, blog posts can include travel tips, guides for a specific destination, itinerary suggestions or personal travel stories. Just don’t forget to optimize your content by incorporating the right keywords and other appropriate SEO tactics into your blog post so it can rank high on a SERP.

Social Media

Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Pinterest are ideal for sharing photos, videos and general overviews of what to expect when visiting a travel destination. Whether it’s sharing photos of local cuisine or filming a TikTok about a great hike in the area, there’s no shortage of travel content ideas for social media.

Not every traveler will be able to drop everything and book an immediate vacation — despite how tempting it might be. That’s why continuously producing high-quality content that engages potential consumers is key. A great way to nurture prospects is through email marketing campaigns and travel newsletters. Your emails could contain testimonials or stories from travelers, highlight upcoming events in the area, inform travelers about deals or display featured social media posts. The goal is to keep your target audience engaged so that when they are ready to book their next trip, your brand or destination is top-of-mind.

User-Generated Content

Authenticity is essential in travel marketing, and personal recommendations from real people can go a long way. From reviews to video recaps, user-generated content can help a travel brand build a strong, trustworthy relationship with its target audience.

Infographics

Infographics can make complicated travel topics — such as packing lists, cultural do’s and don’ts, and travel itineraries — easier to understand and share with others.

What Are Some Travel Marketing Content Examples?

From local tourism associations to hotel and hospitality marketers , travel organizations that leverage the power of SEO and high-quality, educational content have been able to dominate the travel industry.

Popular Destinations Landing Page by AAA Travel

AAA might be known as the company that will save you if you get stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, but AAA Travel is the company’s travel-focused arm that specializes in helping people plan the perfect getaway. To keep its spot as one of the nation’s leading travel companies, AAA developed an educational landing page devoted to popular vacation destinations . In doing so, AAA can capitalize on trending SEO keywords — such as “things to do in Nashville” and “where to stay in Honolulu” — while providing consumers with everything they need to plan a trip to one of these leading destinations.

Traveler Stories by TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor has an entire blog focused on travel stories that provide first-hand advice to readers. The blog is split into categories, and the stories include tips for LGBTQ travel, the best dishes to try while in Paris and comparisons of popular destinations (such as Santorini vs. Mykonos). The content aligns with what travelers want to learn, and each article provides helpful answers to questions their audience may have. By providing such relevant, specific and informational content, TripAdvisor can maintain its position as the world’s leading travel guidance platform.

Lonely Planet’s Immersive Videos

Visual content plays a critical role in any travel content marketing strategy, and Lonely Planet is a travel company that does an excellent job of incorporating immersive videos into their campaigns. The videos are created on-location and feature footage of picturesque scenery and the real people who live in these destinations — giving their audience a glimpse at what they can expect should they plan a visit. From Mongolia to Montana, Lonely Planet’s videos cover important information that their target audience will find valuable, and the videos are designed to motivate their audience to book their next adventure.

The Croatian National Tourist Board’s Winter Wonderland UGC Campaign

To boost tourism during the colder months of the year, the Croatian National Tourist Board launched, “Croatia – Winter Wonderland.” The board encouraged people traveling to Croatia in the winter to post their photos on social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, and tag every photo with the campaign’s hashtags, #CroatiaWinterWonderland and #MagicalCroatia. The board also integrated giveaways into the campaign and collaborated with social media influencers to provide them with trips to Croatia hot spots, like Plitvice Lakes National Park and Dubrovnik.

Ready To Get Started on Travel Content Marketing?

There’s no time like the present to revamp your approach to travel content marketing. By segmenting your audience, telling impactful travel stories and developing a solid SEO approach, you can engage consumers and take your marketing efforts — and ROI — to the next level.

Melinda Miley

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Melinda (Mel) is a Content Writer at Brafton based out of Pennsylvania. In addition to writing professionally and for fun, Mel loves paddleboarding, hiking and telling her dogs how perfect they are.

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120+ Travel Blog Post Ideas For Creating Engaging Content

This post contains affiliate links to trusted partners. If you purchase through these links, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

By Jessie Festa. This guide to travel content ideas contains affiliate links to trusted partners!

Looking for engaging travel blog post ideas ?

Then you’re in the right place!

If you’ve ever sat in front of your laptop wondering, “What should I post on my travel blog?” this article shares over 120 topics — as well as bonus tips for those looking to see success and make money blogging.

Personally, I get most of my blog traffic through keyword research, and these travel blog post titles and topic ideas come from researching what people are actually searching in Google so that you can create content people truly want to read.

And with so many to choose from, you’ll never need to wonder what to write about again or spend hours coming up with new travel blog ideas.

Without further adieu, let’s dive into the list of travel blog content ideas!

Quick tip: There are many tools that make it easier to come up with blog post ideas. Personally, I love Keysearch for finding high traffic keywords. Use code “jessieonajourney30” for 30% off. Additionally, Jasper AI utilizes the power of artificial intelligence to help you come up with content topics, draft outlines, create content, and more – free trial included !

Table of Contents

Travel Blog Content Creation & Promotion Workflow Freebie

Now, I realize that even when you have a ton of travel post ideas it can still be challenging to understand how to create and promote your content.

Luckily, I’ve got a freebie that can help!

It’s a Content Creation & Promotion Workflow Trello Board that will help you plan your blog posts as well as write them and promote them for maximum engagement.

You can grab the free Trello board here .

Grabbed it?

Then let’s continue with our travel blog content strategy.

What Should I Post On My Travel Blog?

Writer’s block for bloggers is a very real thing, as is being confused on what to actually post to see growth.

So, before we dive into the list of travel blog topics , let’s discuss how to determine what to post on your blog.

One smart tactic is starting with a mission statement. You can use the template “I help [group of people] do [how you help].”

From there, you can pinpoint the best travel topics to fulfill that mission and even come up with a few travel blog categories.

For instance, if your mission is to help women feel confident traveling solo, you might write a blog post about how to travel solo in Paris or a guide to overcoming fear when you’re scared to travel alone .

Feeling stuck? You can use a tool like Jasper’s Blog Post Topic Ideas Template for quick and easy help. This tool uses artifical intelligence to instantly generate a list of topics that can engage your audience.

Also, if you’re curious how to write blog posts quickly , Jasper can help you create amazing content almost instantly (though it’s recommended to edit your articles to add a human element).

More on this tool below, though note that you can click here for a 10,000-word free trial of Jasper AI .

120+ Travel Blog Post Ideas For Engaging Content

To come up with the following list, I looked at popular blog post ideas related to travel.

Keep in mind, this list is in no way exhaustive. There truly are a limitless number of travel blog topic ideas that are possible.

Moreover, this list is customizable. You can always tweak any of the travel blog post titles mentioned below to better fit your own niche and audience.

For instance, if an idea mentions compiling a list of travel yoga mats, but you don’t cover yoga, consider what relevant piece of gear you can swap in, like sleeping bags, nutritious TSA-friendly snacks, or camera gear.

Once you’ve narrowed down what you’d like to write about, use a blog content planner to stay organized. You can also follow this strategy on how to plan a year of content in one week to help you save time.

Have ideas for travel blog posts to add?

Leave them in the comments below!

Travel Blog Post Ideas Focused On Travel Tips

A review of your favorite piece of travel gear

Best free travel apps

How to do a Global Entry name change

How to change your passport name

Why duct tape (or another item) is your best travel accessory

How to practice self-care while traveling

How to become a travel hacker

Your top travel hacks

Your top travel tips for introverts

Important advice for the first-time traveler

A list of uncommon travel tips

How to learn a language while traveling

Travel Blog Post Ideas Focused On Trip Planning

How to pack for a long trip with just a carry-on

What to pack for a particular destination

A review of your favorite travel insurance provider

What to wear in a particular destination

How to save up for a round-the-world trip in a certain amount of time

How to choose the perfect suitcase/backpack/luggage

A review of your favorite suitcase

How to ask your boss for an extended travel leave

The best credit cards for travelers

How to prepare your house for vacation

What to do the day before a big trip to prepare

Best Travel Content Ideas About Transportation

Things to do on a long bus ride

How to survive a long flight

What not to do one a plane

How to sleep on a plane

A review of the Eurail pass (or another transportation pass)

A guide to using a city’s transportation, such as the subway in NYC

How to get to the main part of a city from the airport — and vice versa, such as a guide to Bangkok’s airport shuttle

A guide to an airline’s rewards program

The best platforms for booking cheap flight/bus/train tickets

Travel Blog Post Ideas Focused On Destinations

Fun facts about a place

Things to do in a destination during a specific season

A roundup of your favorite tours in a destination

What not to do in a destination

A roundup of your favorite hotels in a destination

How to visit a particular place on a specific budget — such as $50 per day

A roundup of your favorite restaurants in a destination

The cheapest countries to visit on a certain continent

Your top travel tips for a specific destination

Travel Blog Post Ideas For When You Can’t Leave & Must Travel At Home

A recipe from a particular place, including a background story of the dish

Your favorite travel-inspired beauty ritual

Your favorite travel-themed craft

How to throw a dinner party inspired by a specific destination

How to transform your living space into a destination or give your space a makeover inspired by a particular place

Do a souvenir show-and-tell and share the story behind your favorite travel finds

Cocktail recipes from around the world

A roundup of your favorite movies set in a particular destination

A roundup of your favorite books set in a particular destination

How to visit the places featured in a certain movie

How to visit the places featured in a certain book

A roundup of inspiring TED Talks related to travel

Niche Travel Blog Post Ideas

Note: Feel free to swap in your own travel blog niche for any of the below ideas.

The best destinations for a budget-friendly wellness experience

Best weekend getaways for couples

The best destinations for solo female travelers

Best bookstores around the world

How to plan a cruise vacation

How to book an ethical volunteer trip

Best female travel blogs

How to stay safe when traveling solo

Relaxing couples vacations

Common work-related travel expenses

Top luxury travel companies

Meals from around the world

Cheap travel insurance for families

Best luxury hotels in the world

How to avoid the single supplement when traveling solo

Tips for flying with a baby

Lesbian travel groups

Outdoor vacations for couples

Fun trips for kids

Best travel yoga mats

How to travel with a yoga mat

Best hiking vacations

Top guided backpacking trips

Best travel baby gear

Gifts for traveling couples

The top all-inclusive family vacations

Best family beach destinations

Tips for traveling with grandchildren

Quotes about family travel

Travel jobs for couples

Top liveaboard dive trips

Fun yoga and hiking retreats

Top spiritual yoga retreats

Safest countries for LGBTQ+ travelers

Holiday Blog Post Ideas For Travel Bloggers

Best gifts for a certain type of traveler — such as the best gifts for solo female travelers

How to book cheap Christmas vacations

How to find cheap Thanksgiving flights

Where to travel during Christmas

Best Christmas markets in europe

Traditional Christmas desserts from around the world

Top Jewish heritage tours

Delicious Kwanzaa recipes

Inspirational Blog Post Ideas For Travel Bloggers

Lessons learned from traveling to X# countries

What travel teaches you

Benefits of traveling

How travel changes your brain

Inspiration travel quotes

Recount one of your favorite funny travel stories

Share an inspiring love story from the road

Share one of your favorite inspiring travel stories about the kindness of strangers abroad

Summer Blog Post Ideas For Travel Bloggers

Cheap summer vacations

Places to visit in summer in the USA

Summer vacation ideas for families

A summer travel guide for a particular destination — or you can even niche down to a specific month, such as July Travel In Seattle

Best travel-sized sunscreens

Stylish active swimsuits

Fall Blog Post Ideas For Travel Bloggers

Where to go apple picking

Fall wine tasting outfit ideas

Fall foliage tours

Scariest haunted houses in America

Best fall road trips

Winter Blog Post Ideas For Travel Bloggers

Best showshoes for hiking

Scenic winter hiking trails

Best places to spend New Year’s Eve

Cozy log cabin getaways

Top ski resorts in a certain destination

Spring Blog Post Ideas For Travel Bloggers

Best gardens in the world

Warm places to visit in April

Cheap spring break trips

Romantic spring getaways

Best Easter holiday destinations

Tourism Blog Ideas

Must visit attractions in X

Best hidden gems in X

Most Instagrammable spots in X

Where to Stay in X

Best restaurants in X

Beach Blog Ideas

Most beautiful beaches in the world

Best beaches for surfing

Best beaches for families

Instagrammable beaches

Best beaches for snorkeling

Travel Agent Blog Ideas

Best time to visit X

Travel deals and discounts

Best travel destinations for families/couples/solo travelers

Guide to all inclusive resorts

Where To Find New Travel Blog Post Ideas

After learning how to start a travel blog and make money , it’s important to regularly publish interesting articles that continuously bring you traffic and help you grow your income.

But, maybe you’re wondering how to come up with blog post ideas that people actually read .

Luckily, I have a few tips for this.

Note that for a full overview of how to create a content plan that aligns with your overall goals, I recommend taking my free Profitable Travel Blog Makeover , a four-day course that takes you from blog branding to monetization.

So earlier in the post I discussed starting with a mission statement that guides your content.

Along with coming up with travel blog post ideas from your own imagination, you can also utilize:

Jasper AI (click for a 10,000-word free trial).

Jasper uses the power of artificial intelligence to help you outline blog posts, create content, and come up with blog post ideas.

You can use the Blog Post Topic Ideas Template and simply enter your:

• company name
• product description
• tone of voice
• how many ideas your need

Boom — Jasper will provide you a list of ideas for travel topics to write about. From there, you can favorite the ones you like to help the tool better get to know what you’re looking for.

Keysearch  (use code “jessieonajourney30” for 30% off)

This is a powerful keyword research tool that can help you optimize your blog content to rank higher in search engine rankings.

You’ll also be able to input desired keywords to see related keywords — as well as questions people have about your keyword in the “Content Assistant” section. These can also be used as travel blog post ideas.

Like tutorials?

Check out this short video to see how to find micro niche keywords and relevant keywords you can actually rank for using Keysearch:

Niche Facebook groups & forums .

Pop into a Facebook group or Reddit forum related to your niche and see what people are discussing. These can make for great travel related content ideas.

Google Trends .

Monitor search trends over a given time. This can help you post about things people are truly talking about.

Pinterest Trends .

See what topics are trending on Pinterest. This tool can help your content marketing efforts by helping you get more traffic to your Pinterest pins, which translates into more visitors to your blog content.

These are just a few of many strategies for coming up with engaging travel post ideas.

How To Write A Travel Blog Post Without Traveling

One common question many travel bloggers have:

How do I write a travel blog without traveling?

Of course, there will be times when travel isn’t possible.

This doesn’t mean you need to stop creating content.

Instead, consider how you might cover where you live in a way that would be interesting to travelers.

For instance, I have loads of New York City travel content because I know that even though it’s not a travel destination to me, it is to other people. Plus, being a local allows me a unique perspective not every blogger can provide.

You might also think about “armchair travel” content; blog post ideas that have a travel theme but can be enjoyed without leaving home.

A few examples of this include roundups of short travel stories , cultural recipes, solo staycation ideas , and other travel at home posts that align with your mission.

These strategies are also great travel blog ideas for beginners, who may be looking to jumpstart their blog with content even if they’re not traveling.

How To Write A Catchy Blog Post Title

Now, here’s the thing when it comes to coming up with ideas for travel blog posts:

Even if you have an amazing article, if your title isn’t enticing, it likely won’t get read.

Luckily, there is a free Headline Analyzer tool from CoSchedule that can help with this.

Basically, it looks at your headline to ensure that:

• It has a good mix of common, uncommon, emotional, and power words
• The first and last three words of the headline are engaging (as these are the words people tend to focus on most)
• It includes searchable keywords
• It isn’t too generic
• It’s the right length (about 60 characters)

How To Start A Travel Blog Post

Now that you have a big list of travel content ideas , it’s time to dive deeper into how to actually write your blog post.

One very important part of your travel blog post is the introduction, as this will affect whether someone continues reading or clicks away.

To help you engage readers right away, I recommend utilizing the APP Method; also known as Agree – Promise – Preview.

This copywriting technique, which I learned about from Backlinko , revolves around the idea that your introduction should first agree with the reader to make it clear you understand them.

From there, you make a promise to them — such as a solution to a problem or a benefit of some kind.

Finally, you provide a preview by sharing exactly what they’ll get out of reading the blog post.

This blog post on growing an email list as a blogger provides a nice example of the APP Formula in action.

It’s also shown here:

Promoting A Travel Blog Post Organically

There are many smart ways to increase blog traffic , a few of which I’ll outline here.

I recommend incorporating these into a content checklist so that you always know exactly what needs to be done before hitting publish on a blog post.

Optimize your blog posts for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) .

In my opinion, the best way to grow your blog traffic is to optimize it to rank in search results.

Once it ranks, you can continue to enjoy steady traffic for the foreseeable future.

Again, Keysearch makes it simple to both research if you can realistically rank for a keyword and then optimize your content for it. You can use code “jessieonajourney30” for 30% off.

While Keysearch offers loads of tutorials on how to use their tool, here is a quick overview:

Above is an example of me researching “places to hike on Long Island,” a keyword I currently rank in the first spot of Google for.

On the left, you can see a graphic comparing all of the first page posts — which provides information for determining whether it’s worth competing for the keyword or not.

For instance, you can see things like how your Domain Authority compares to the other posts already ranking, as well as if the other posts have optimized their title, description, and URL for the keyword you want to rank for.

Additionally, on the right, you can see other suggested keywords with important information related to how competitive they are and how often people search for them.

Keep in mind, this is just the main page of Keysearch. The tool has numerous other features for ranking your posts in Google, too.

Take your SEO to the next level.

Now, another tool that can help with optimizing your content to rank in organic search results is Surfer SEO .

Instead of simply giving you data about other sites that are ranking, Surfer SEO analyzes your website to make tailored recommendations for:

• specific keywords to target
• specific ways to optimize new content
• specific changes to make to old content to improve its chances of ranking
• specific missed opportunities for internal and external backlinks
• specific on-page SEO optimizations (such as optimal word count, title length, image count, etc)
• and much more

As you can see, the tool gets very specific.

In short, you’ll get a step-by-step SEO workflow that can help you grow your traffic and increase your rankings – no guesswork required!

Here is a quick tutorial going over some of Surfer SEO’s powerful features:

While you’ll need a paid plan to get everything I showcase in the video, they do offer a free AI Article Outline Generator to give you a small taste of the platform.

Promote your new travel blog post on your social media channels.

When you promote new content, I highly recommend weaving a story into your shares to increase engagement. Talk about why you wrote the post, how the topic has impacted you, and how it can benefit others.

To save time, you can use a tool like StoryChief to blast your new travel blog content across your blogging hubs, social media channels, and email newsletter with one click.

Speaking of email newsletters…

Understand how to promote your blog content to your email subscribers in an engaging way by utilizing storytelling email marketing .

Just like when sharing travel blog content on social media, it’s helpful to share a story to make your email even more valuable.

Moreover, if you have an automated email sequence set up for new subscribers you can add in your best blog posts to help the content continuously get traffic.

Looking for an email marketing software that’s feature-rich and intuitive — and includes automations?

Click here for a free one-month trial of ConvertKit (no credit card required!).

The platform is made for bloggers by bloggers. And once you sell products, they also offer a marketplace to help their users increase sales.

Choosing Blog Post Categories

In terms of the categories you put on a travel blog post, consider how you want to organize your content.

Typically, your categories will be your blog’s main themes, while your tags help further break them down.

For instance, you might have “North America” as a category and “USA” and “Canada” as tags.

How To Get Paid As A Travel Blogger

There are many ways to boost your travel blogging income — especially if you’re focusing on offering paid products, services, and experiences that fulfill your mission and that are an extension of your travel blog content.

Again, I highly recommend grabbing a seat in my free four-day travel blogging course if you want to learn how to make money blogging, though a few of the main ways I monetize my travel blog include:

Creating & selling online courses.

You’re already sharing knowledge in some way through your helpful blog content. Why not package up your wisdom into an online course that further helps your readers?

Personally, I use and recommend Teachable for creating online courses. That link gets you a two-week free trial, no credit card required!

You’ll have everything you need to be successful — including powerful training videos and support. It’s what I use to create and launch all of my online travel blogging courses .

Selling photo tours in NYC.

After having loads of readers ask me to show them around New York, I decided to get licensed as an NYC tour guide and start offering local experiences.

In fact, I’ve done so well selling these through my blog that I started a sister company, NYC Photo Journeys .

Working with brands.

This includes working on blogger brand collaborations as well as going on paid press trips and promoting partners in my travel blog content.

Affiliate marketing for travel bloggers .

When coming up with travel blog post ideas, I highly recommend you regularly add content optimized for affiliate sales to your publishing schedule. Here are some creative ways to promote affiliate links .

Running display ads on my travel blog.

Personally, I work with Mediavine for this. To see success, you should be publishing SEO-optimized articles and regularly updating older content so that it’s up-to-date.

How To Become A Travel Blogger

If you stay focused, it’s possible to make money blogging in one year or less .

Map out your blogging goals , including what they are, how to reach them, and by when.

Stick with one or two main strategies, and then once you master those, you can add in others. This helps alleviate spreading yourself too thin.

This might mean saying you want to earn $5,000/month in affiliate sales by June 1 through publishing two affiliate-optimized blog posts per month, publishing two affiliate-optimized videos per month as part of your YouTube strategy , and hosting a free challenge that promotes an affiliate each quarter.

Remember, also, to grab access to my free Travel Blogger Resource Library to snag printables and workshops that can help you take your blog full-time much quicker.

Bonus: 10 Ways To Make Money Travel Blogging [Free Workshop]

While we’re on the topic of growing a profitable blogging business, I’d love to invite you to my free workshop: 10 Powerful Ways To Make Money Travel Blogging.

During the 60-minute on-demand workshop, you’ll learn:

• Myths related to monetizing a blog (that may be holding you back!)
• Strategies for creating profitable content (so those blog posts, emails & social shares lead to income!)
• Tips for earning recurring passive revenue as a blogger (so your income grows even when you’re away from your laptop!)
• How to create products that you know your audience will buy (so you don’t waste your time!)
• Advice for growing your affiliate income (with a strategy that truly works!)

Plus, your free ticket to this actionable workshop also includes a Q&A, limited-time replay, and special bonuses.

Click here to grab your seat in the free travel blog monetization workshop .

Bonus Profitable Blogging Tutorials [Video Playlist]

Want to learn more powerful strategies for taking your blog full time?

Check out this curated playlist of blogging tips and tactics that work:

What travel blog post ideas would you add to this list?

Which of the above best travel topics are you excited to write first.

Enjoyed this post on travel blog content ideas? Pin it for later!

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A Guide to Content Writing for Travel Companies

Ibn Battuta once said, “Travel leaves you speechless then turns you into a storyteller.” That’s all you need to remember while writing travel content.

Are you a travel company looking to captivate your audience with engaging content that piques their interest in exploring new places? This blog provides you with the information and expertise necessary to fully realize the potential of travel content writing.

In this digital world, content writing has become essential for many industries, especially travel. You can take your audience to thrilling destinations, awaken their wanderlust, and persuade them to use your services with the power of words. We at Content Whale aspire to do exactly that for you by creating compelling content through tourism content writing. 

Effective travel content writing is more than just sharing information; it creates compelling narratives that generate emotions, pique curiosity, and encourage action.

Imagine a prospect looking for adventure and inspiration landed on your website or blog. You can maximize this opportunity by painting vivid pictures of exotic locales, crafting immersive narratives, and creating stories that carry readers away to their dream destinations through engaging and captivating content. You may gain their trust, develop a loyal following, and eventually turn them into satisfied consumers by captivating their imagination and offering valuable information.

That is why we have put together this guide to travel content writing for travel companies. Content Whale ‘s mission is to emphasize the importance of quality content in the travel industry, and if required, we can provide the expertise you need to create attractive travel content that connects with your target audience.

So, let’s get started!

How Do You Research and Plan Travel Content Writing?

A solid foundation of research and planning is required for creating engaging and informative content that captivates the hearts and minds of your audience in the field of tourism content writing.

Collecting Information About The Destination

Thorough research on destinations is essential for compelling travel content writing. Here are some efficient methods for collecting information:

Internet resources: 

Scout through different official tourism boards and research your competitors’ content delivery and destination-specific blogs to gather detailed information about your target places to take inspiration. This data can help you with up-to-date information, insider tips, and interesting stories.

Local knowledge: 

Seek advice from local guides, travel companies, or tourism officials familiar with the area. Their firsthand knowledge and insider tips can add originality to your tourism content writing.

Content created by users: 

Participate in user-generated content platforms like social media, travel forums, and review sites. Real travelers share their travel stories, revealing popular sights, lesser-known gems, and local culture, and ask them to collaborate with you.

Exploring Popular Sights and Activities

The heartbeat of travel content writing is the exploration of popular sights and activities every location offers. It is essential to explore and point out the most popular sights and activities within each destination to grab the attention of your target audience. Here’s how to do it correctly:

Must-see landmarks: 

Explore the destination’s famous landmarks, historical sites, and architectural wonders. Create captivating stories that reveal their historical significance and attraction.

Experiential activities: 

Identify one-of-a-kind experiences that highlight the destination’s culture, adventure, or natural beauty. Bring these activities to life with detailed descriptions and appealing storytelling, whether a culinary tour, hiking adventure, or cultural exchange.

Local recommendations:

Connect with locals, tour guides, or travel groups to feel the area’s energy. Seek their advice on hidden treasures, unexplored paths, or authentic local experiences that will add depth to your content. Also, don’t forget to mention them if you are using their given insights. It’s just an ethical practice.

Staying Updated on Travel Trends and News

It is essential to stay up-to-date on travel trends and news to stay at the forefront of travel content writing. Here are some strategies that work:

Publications in the industry: 

Subscribe to travel magazines, blog posts, and newsletters that cover industry trends, new destinations, and expert advice. It will allow you to add new perspectives and information to your tourism content writing.

Social media monitoring: 

Follow travel influencers, tourism boards, and relevant hashtags on social media platforms. Participate in discussions and watch for emerging trends, destinations, and traveler experiences.

Attend trade shows and conferences on travel: 

Participate in trade shows, conferences, and networking events related to travel. These provide opportunities to network with industry experts, share knowledge, and gain insight into future trends.

Identifying Destination’s Unique Selling Points

Recognizing and highlighting each destination’s unique selling points is essential to differentiate your tourism content writing and capture your target audience. 

Here’s how:

Cultural immersion: 

Highlight opportunities for visitors to participate in authentic cultural experiences. Showcase festivals, local traditions, or immersive workshops that connect visitors to the destination’s history.

Landscapes and natural wonders: 

Emphasize the destination’s natural beauty, such as beautiful scenery, clean beaches, or majestic mountains. Include activities such as wildlife safaris, eco-tours, and nature hikes that allow travellers to explore and appreciate nature.

Customized experiences: 

Find niche experiences customized to specific interests, like food, adventure sports, wellness retreats, or environmentally friendly tourism. Customize your content to show how the location caters to these specific preferences.

By using these techniques for researching and planning travel content writing, you’ll be well-equipped to captivate and motivate your target audience.

How to Create Informative and Engaging Travel Content?

Creating informative and engaging travel content in this digital era is essential to stand out. So, buckle up and be ready to take off on a journey that will change your travel content writing strategy.

Creating Attention-grabbing Headlines and Introductions

When it comes to travel content writing, first impressions count. The initial step in capturing your target audience’s attention is through attention-grabbing headlines and introductions. Your headline must be appealing and attractive and communicate the essence of your content crisply and concisely. It should pique readers’ interest and compel them to continue reading.

Similarly, your introduction must be engaging, addressing the topic from the beginning and appealing to readers to continue reading. Consider using powerful storytelling strategies, posing thought-provoking questions, or providing statistics to capture your audience’s attention.

Creating Engaging Narratives and Stories

One of the most effective ways to connect with your target audience is to incorporate interesting narratives and stories into your travel content. Stories can move readers, generate emotions, and create bonds. 

Narratives can bring your tourism content writing to life and make it unforgettable, whether sharing your travel experiences, featuring unique stories from other travellers, or creating fictional tales inspired by a destination. 

Consider including vivid descriptions, sensory details, and relatable personalities to immerse your readers in the journey and make them feel like they are with you.

Including SEO-relevant Keywords

While creating engaging travel content is essential, it is also essential to ensure your content is visible in search engines. It is where including relevant SEO keywords comes into the picture.

Conduct extensive keyword research to discover the terms and phrases that your target audience is looking for. Then, strategically incorporate these keywords throughout your content using effective tourism content writing practices. 

However, avoid keyword stuffing and use keywords organically, as search engines value high-quality, reader-friendly content. Strike a balance between optimizing for search engines and providing useful information to your readers.

Providing Useful Information and Tips

Aside from capturing attention and narrating stories, your travel content writing should also provide practical information and tips to your readers. It is where you can show your expertise and establish yourself as a trustworthy source of travel guidance. 

Whether it’s insider tips for navigating a specific destination, suggestions on the best local cuisine, or packing necessities, useful data in your tourism content writing adds value to your content and helps travelers make informed decisions. Maintain your content up to date, provide correct details, and consider solving common issues or frequently asked questions to meet your audience’s needs.

Effective Use of Visuals and Multimedia

In travel content writing, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Increase the effectiveness of your content by using visuals and multimedia effectively. Beautiful photographs, colorful videos, and exciting virtual tours can take readers to the locations you’re writing about.

Make sure your visuals are high-quality and related to your tourism content writing. Consider creating engaging infographics to convey information in a visually appealing form. Utilise multimedia platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok to share dynamic content and engage with your audience excitingly.

How to Write Travel Content for Various Platforms?

In the ever-changing field of travel content writing, adapting your approach to different platforms is essential to reach and engage with your target audience successfully.

Content Optimization for Website Pages

Your website acts as the hub for your travel company. Follow these key strategies to optimize your tourism content writing for website pages and capture the attention of your target audience:

Headlines that are clear and compelling: 

Make catchy headlines that emphasize the unique aspects of your travel offerings. Use inspiring language that piques the reader’s interest and promises valuable information.

User-friendly formatting: 

Subheadings, bullet points, and short paragraphs divide your content into easily scannable parts. To increase engagement, include visually appealing elements like images, videos, and infographics.

Call-to-action:

Include clear and compelling calls to action throughout your website pages to encourage readers to take the desired action, like booking a trip, subscribing to a newsletter, or exploring additional content.

Writing Interesting Blog Posts and Articles

Travel content writing, including blogs and articles, allows you to showcase your travel expertise while engaging readers deeper. Consider the following when writing captivating blog posts and articles:

Approach to storytelling: 

Create captivating narratives that carry readers to the destination and elicit emotions. Make your content memorable by incorporating personal stories, compelling narratives, and storytelling techniques.

Practical suggestions and advice:

Provide useful information, tips, and advice to your target audience’s travel needs. Share insider information, money-saving tips, and hidden gems to add value.

Participate in comments and feedback: 

Respond to comments and participate in discussions to encourage reader interaction. It creates a sense of community and trust among your audience.

Creating Engaging Social Media Posts

Social media platforms offer a dynamic environment for connecting with your audience and displaying your travel content writing. Consider the following strategies for creating captivating social media posts:

Visual storytelling: 

Use eye-catching visuals, like high-quality photos and videos, to draw attention and inspire wanderlust. Create clear captions that complement the visuals and effectively communicate key messages.

Hashtags and trending topics:

Look for relevant hashtags and trending topics in travel and tourism. Add them effectively into your posts to boost visibility and reach a larger audience.

User-generated content: 

Encourage user-generated tourism content writing by featuring photos and stories from your audience. It encourages participation, fosters community, and provides genuine social proof for your travel offerings.

Making Use of Email Newsletters and Campaigns

Email newsletters and campaigns are powerful tools for building customer relationships and promoting your travel company. Consider the following suggestions:

Segmentation and personalization: 

Customize your emails based on your audience’s preferences, travel history, or demographic data. Make the travel content writing more relevant and engaging by personalizing it.

Exclusive offers and valuable content: 

Provide valuable content to subscribers, like insider travel tips, destination guides, and exclusive offers. It fosters loyalty and keeps your audience interested.

Subject lines that grab your attention: 

Create interesting subject lines that pique recipients’ interest and encourage them to open your emails. Use clear and impactful language to communicate the benefit of reading the email.

Personalizing your travel content writing for different platforms is essential to reach and captivate your target audience successfully. Accept each platform’s unique opportunities, adapt your content accordingly, and watch your travel company’s reach and engagement skyrocket.

Create a Consistent Brand Voice in Travel Content Writing

Creating a consistent brand voice is the key to standing out and connecting with your target audience in the crowded world of travel content writing. Join us as we look at strategies for helping your travel company define its personality and tone, align the brand voice with the target audience, and maintain uniformity across multiple channels.

Establishing the Brand’s Persona and Tone

Establishing your travel company’s personality and tone is essential to develop a distinct brand voice. Consider the following procedures:

Brand identification: 

Determine the unique selling points, core values, and mission of your travel content writing. These elements will shape your brand’s personality and contribute to your writing style.

Analysis of the target audience: 

Understand the demographics, preferences, and aspirations of your target audience. Align your brand voice with their wants, needs, and expectations to create a genuine connection.

The tone of voice: 

Choose a tone that is appealing to your target audience and consistent with your brand identity. Maintain consistency across your travel content writing, whether it’s friendly, authoritative, adventurous, or informative.

Brand Voice Alignment with Target Audience

It is essential to align your brand voice with the interests and aspirations of your target audience to engage and connect with them. Consider the following approaches:

Vocabulary and language: 

Use appropriate language for your audience’s sophistication level and cultural context. Avoid using complicated or overly technical terms unless your audience includes industry professionals.

Emotional appeal: 

Determine the emotions associated with travel that your target audience feels, like excitement, wanderlust, or relaxation. Incorporate storytelling, expressive language, and emotional experiences into your travel content writing.

Personalized messaging: 

Make your content relevant to specific segments of your target audience. Understand their needs, interests, and issues, and adapt your brand voice to create a strong connection.

Keeping Consistency Across Multiple Channels

Building a recognizable brand voice requires consistency. Ensure that the Voice of your travel content writing is uniform across all channels. Consider the following strategies:

Style guidelines: 

Create a comprehensive style guide outlining your brand’s Voice, tone, and writing guidelines. Include examples and guidelines for maintaining grammar, punctuation, and formatting consistency.

Communication and training: 

Provide guidance and instruction to your content creators to ensure they comprehend the brand voice and its application. Maintain consistency by encouraging regular communication and feedback.

Strategy for cross-channel communication: 

Create a cross-channel strategy to ensure your brand voice is consistent across all platforms, including your website, blog, social media, and marketing materials. Maintain a consistent message and tone to increase brand recognition.

A consistent brand voice is an indicator that guides your audience to your travel company in the world of travel content writing. Accept your distinct identity, speak directly to your target audience, and watch as your brand voice captures hearts, encourages wanderlust, and drives success.

In conclusion, content writing is essential for the success of travel companies. Companies can capture their audience, encourage wanderlust, and drive business growth with the right approach to travel and tourism content writing. Companies can establish a strong online presence and establish themselves as reputable authorities in the travel industry by meticulously creating engaging narratives, emphasizing unique selling points, and staying current on travel trends.

Content Whale’s travel content writing service is ideal for companies looking for professional assistance with their content writing needs. Content Whale understands the complexities of the travel industry and knows how to create captivating content that connects with travelers, thanks to a team of competent and experienced writers. Their writers comprehend travel destinations, attractions, and trends, allowing them to create engaging blog posts, articles, website content, and social media posts that captivate the essence of each destination and drive engagement.

Content Whale’s travel content writing service provides a comprehensive solution for companies looking to improve their online presence and connect with their target audience, whether showcasing a city’s hidden gems, offering practical travel tips, or generating captivating storytelling. Content Whale is dedicated to assisting travel companies in succeeding in the competitive field of travel content writing by focusing on quality, creativity, and delivering content that engages readers. If your requirement is content writing for the travel industry, contact us or get a general idea of pricing using our price calculator .

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Tourism Marketing: A Guide to Effectively Market Your Tours and Experiences

Discover how to strategically promote your tours with our comprehensive guide on tourism marketing and elevate your brand visibility today

by Janelle Visser | 2 February 2024

If you build it, they will come, as the adage goes. But in today’s digital age, where anyone can build anything and put it online in moments, the question becomes: how will they find — and choose — you? 

In the dynamic world of tourism experiences, the key to attracting travelers lies in successfully marketing your tours, activities and attractions. And it’s not just about attracting tourists, it’s about creating unforgettable connections that turn one-time visitors into loyal advocates for your brand. 

Marketing is consistently ranked by Arival event attendees as one of the most important topics they are looking for insights on. As traveler preferences and booking habits change, so do the most effective ways to market to them. 

In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the evolution and strategies of marketing for travel and tourism in today’s digital era, providing actionable insights for tour operators and attractions, and answering key questions that every tour operator grapples with. From crafting a marketing strategy to understanding the components of a successful tourism marketing campaign, we’ll explore how to navigate the competitive and ever-evolving landscape of tour, activity and attraction marketing, and create lasting connections with your guests.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is Tourism Marketing?

The evolution of tourism marketing, how to create a tour marketing strategy.

• Conduct Thorough Market Research
• Identify Your Target Audience
• Understand Your Customer Needs and Expectations
• Create Unique Selling Propositions (USPs)
• Build a Strong Brand
• Consider Offline Marketing for Tours
• Embrace Digital Marketing Strategies
• Leverage Modern AI Technology
• Take Advantage of the Current Trends
• Monitor and Evaluate Your Strategy
• Navigating the Future of Tourism Marketing with Arival

At its core, tourism marketing is a strategic approach to promoting destinations, tourism products and services to tourists. For operators, this primarily means promoting your tour, activity or attraction offerings. The aim is to understand and meet the needs and wants of travelers, creating memorable experiences that encourage reviews, repeat visits and referrals. 

In the context of the global tourism economy, where according to Arival’s latest data the in-destination experiences industry is expected to be worth $270 billion in 2024. Tourism marketing plays a pivotal role in the success of travel businesses, helping them to stand out above their competitors and serving as the bridge that connects them with their target audiences of travelers.

As travel marketing company Blend ’s Managing Director put it recently in an interview with Arival, “The simplest way to define [marketing] is what comes to mind when someone thinks about your brand or experience. And what you do through your marketing channels is help shape that perception.”

The landscape of marketing in tourism has undergone a profound transformation since the early 1900s when the Michelin Guide first encouraged motorists to explore the world beyond their own towns. Progressing from traditional tourism promotion methods like brochures and word-of-mouth recommendations to the digital age of Google searches and social media influencers, technology has played a pivotal role in shaping how destinations and experiences are promoted. 

Fast forward to today, where the advent of short-form video marketing and generative AI has added new dimensions, allowing every tour, activity or attraction operator to engage travelers in innovative ways. These tools provide opportunities for engagement, personalization, and storytelling that were once unimaginable, and have become integral to captivating the modern traveler.

Successful marketing for tourism starts with a well-defined marketing strategy, which will help ensure the effort and resources you put into marketing are effective. The following steps will help guide you through the creation of a marketing strategy for your tour, activity or attraction company.

1. Tour Marketing Strategy

Understanding the market is the foundation of any effective strategy. Thorough research into customer demographics, travel patterns, and consumer behaviors will provide invaluable insights as you create your marketing strategy. 

Arival conducts regular tourism market research to assist tour, activity and attraction businesses with this process. For example, Arival’s latest consumer research on the 2024 U.S. Experiences Traveler found that day tours are on the rise among U.S. travelers , and that younger millennial and Gen Z travelers in particular are moving away from traditional sightseeing tours and looking for more experiential tours , such as culinary tours and immersive experiences. See Arival’s latest research here . 

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Targeting your tourism marketing plan to a specific audience is crucial, as this will enable you to enhance the relevance of your offerings, improve engagement, and maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Identifying your target audience involves a strategic process that combines market research as described above, data analysis, competitive analysis and customer profiling. Google and social media platforms, for example, offer analytics tools that provide insights into the age, interests, geographic location and income bracket of your followers, that can help you to develop detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal customers, and create a plan to reach and engage these audiences. 

In addition, analyzing the target audience of your competitors will help you build on this and identify gaps or underserved segments in the market that your tourism marketing plan can effectively target.

3. Understand Your Customer Needs and Expectations

Conducting tourism market research and identifying your target audience will help you with this step. Once you have an idea of who your target customers are, you can discover what their needs and expectations are, and how to develop a marketing strategy to reach them effectively. 

For example, if you offer sightseeing tours and you have identified younger Millennial and Gen Z travelers from the U.S. as a demographic you want to market your tours to, you will need to go beyond sightseeing to attract this demographic, according to the latest Arival research . 

How can you make your tours more immersive and experiential, and reflect this in your marketing to engage this demographic? Anticipating and meeting your customers’ needs and expectations can lead to higher customer satisfaction, fostering reviews and repeat business. Personalization is key.

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4. Create Unique Selling Propositions (USPs)

One of the challenges a tourism marketing strategy needs to solve is how to make you stand out above your competitors. Why do tourists choose some travel experiences over others? One way to differentiate your offerings is by identifying and highlighting unique selling points (USPs) that resonate with your target audience.

Let’s say you have identified younger Millennial and Gen Z travelers as a group you’d like to target with your marketing efforts. In your city there are multiple competitors offering similar tour products to yours, however you’ve realized that this target audience has an affinity for food tours. You find a way to work elements of culinary tourism into your sightseeing tour offering and your marketing to set yourself above your competitors and offer something unique in your region.

5. Build a Strong Brand

A consistent, strong brand fosters trust and ensures your tour company is memorable in the minds of potential guests. You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t recognize the logo of an apple with a bite taken out of it, or doesn’t know where the phrase “just do it” comes from. 

Brands are about more than creative logos and catchy slogans, however. Building a robust brand for your experience business involves defining a clear identity with a focused mission and incorporating those USPs described in the previous step. Then, reaching out to your target audience through engaging storytelling and content, bolstered by a strong online presence, will enable your customers to build an emotional connection with your brand. Ensuring you’re delivering high-quality customer experiences to your target audience is crucial to building trust in your brand, and encouraging positive reviews is essential to building your brand’s reputation and ensuring ongoing brand success. 

Arival Insider Pro Access members can learn more about the importance of building your brand here. 

6. Consider Offline Marketing for Tours

Before we go too deep into digital marketing in tourism, it’s important to recognize that traditional methods like print advertising, brochures, and partnerships with local businesses still have relevance and can complement digital marketing strategies.

Many travelers are still waiting to book their things to do until they are in-destination, which means there is an opportunity to meet these travelers where they are. For example, working with destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and other regional tourist organizations that operate tourist information centers can enable you as a tour or experience operator to get printed promotional material about your experiences physically in the hands of tourists looking in person for things to do. Reach out to destination marketers in your region to take advantage of this offline marketing opportunity. 

7. Embrace Digital Marketing Strategies

As travelers increasingly use digital channels to discover, plan and book their travel, operators can and should leverage a range of digital marketing strategies to effectively promote their tours and engage with potential customers. 

From Google Things to do to search engine optimization (SEO), from social media strategy to working with influencers, from effective email marketing to impactful content marketing, a strong tourism marketing plan will incorporate a variety of digital marketing elements to bring a wider audience to the top of the funnel, and engage with them throughout the funnel at various stages of their discovery, planning and booking journey.

Arival has developed a number of guides and articles to help experience operators navigate the world of digital marketing for travel and tourism. Here are a few resources:

• An Essential Guide to SEO for Tours & Activities
• Content Marketing
• Your Guide to Influencer Marketing in Travel and Tourism

8. Leverage Modern AI Technology

The popularity of AI in 2024 cannot be understated, however many companies in the travel industry have been using AI in various forms long before the release of ChatGPT in late 2022 brought Generative AI, or Gen AI to the forefront. Gen AI, though, has made it a lot more accessible for travel businesses and tourism marketers without a lot of technical expertise to integrate AI to personalize customer experiences, generate targeted content, and enhance decision-making in marketing strategies for tourism. 

Many companies in the marketing for tourism space have developed tools and resources for tour, activity and attraction businesses, some of which are listed on Arival’s list of AI Resources for Experience Operators . Find out more about what’s the latest with AI in travel and how tour and attraction businesses are using it at the next Arival event. 

9. Take Advantage of the Current Trends

Staying up-to-date with the latest digital trends in marketing for travel and tourism is essential to stay relevant and get ahead of your competitors. 

For example, over the last couple of years, short-form videos on platforms like TikTok have risen dramatically as a channel for travelers — younger Millennial and Gen Z travelers in particular — to find inspiration for travel experiences. Incorporating vertical and short-form video in your tourism marketing will help you engage this audience, enabling you to meet travelers where they are online and present the experience offerings of your tour, activity or attraction company in a format your audience is familiar with.

@j_buzzi I don’t think I’ll ever get over how amazing bioluminescence is! 🤯🌌 #bioluminescence #getupandgokayaking ♬ Another Rain (From “Halo 3: ODST”) – DS Music

Justin Buzzi , founder of Get Up and Go Kayaking , jumped on the vertical video trend and attracted millions of views and over one million likes on TikTok with this short bioluminescence video.

10. Monitor and Evaluate Your Strategy

A strategy without evaluation is like a ship without a compass. Regularly assess the effectiveness of your marketing strategy using key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing strategy could include website traffic, conversion rates, social media engagement, booking levels, and customer reviews and ratings. Consistent monitoring and evaluation ensure that you not only navigate the course but also make agile adjustments, keeping your strategy aligned with the ever-shifting tides of the tourism market.

1. What are the key components of a successful tour marketing campaign?

Success lies in a well-researched strategy with clear targeting built on tourism market research, compelling USPs that speak to the needs and expectations of your target audience, and a strong brand built on a balanced mix of offline and digital marketing, as well as a compelling tourism experience product itself. All of these components work together to make for a successful marketing strategy. 

2. How often should I reevaluate and update my tourism marketing strategy?

In the world of tourism marketing, trends and traveler preferences change rapidly. Check in regularly with travel trends (and let Arival research guide you). While you might evaluate the effectiveness of your overall strategies quarterly to stay responsive to market changes and ensure your strategy remains effective, more frequent monitoring of individual social media channels, website KPIs and SEO will help you be that much more effective.

3. How can I optimize my website for tour marketing purposes?

Your website is your digital storefront. Prioritize content marketing , then optimize for search engines ( learn more about SEO here ), ensure seamless user-friendly navigation and online booking system capabilities for both computer and mobile booking , incorporate visually captivating elements like photos and videos, keep your pricing and product listings up to date, and update your content regularly. 

4. Are there any specific strategies to attract international tourists?

To attract international tourists, consider ways to tailor your marketing messages for the specific regional audiences you’re interested in reaching. Look at tourism market research and trends for the different regions you intend to target — what works in the U.S. might not work in Asia and vice versa. Your local and regional destination marketing organizations (DMOs) may be able to help with this, as destination marketers often conduct research on the international travelers coming to your destination. Consider utilizing multilingual content to reach a broader range of potential travelers, and explore partnerships with international travel agencies. Check out Arival’s list of OTAs organized by geographic region to help you identify potential distribution partners in other languages and regions.

5. How important are customer reviews and testimonials in tour marketing?

Customer reviews and testimonials play a crucial role in tour marketing, acting as powerful social proof that influences potential customers. Positive reviews build credibility and trust, addressing concerns and reservations prospective customers may have. Encourage your satisfied customers to share their experiences on platforms like TripAdvisor or Google, or wherever they booked, and don’t forget to respond to these reviews, whether positive or negative.

6. What are some unique challenges in tourism marketing compared to other industries?

Tourism marketing faces unique challenges such as seasonality, unpredictable external factors (e.g., natural disasters ), and the need for real-time adaptability to changing travel trends. High competition demands innovative strategies to stand out, and the reliance on positive word-of-mouth makes ensuring customer satisfaction even in the face of unpredictable challenges critical. 

7. How can I use tourism marketing to cope with seasonal fluctuations in the industry?

To cope with seasonal fluctuations, craft seasonal promotions, diversify offerings to match changing preferences, and use marketing to highlight the unique experiences available during different seasons. Some strategies include implementing targeted off-season promotions, creating incentives for bookings during slower periods, and developing themed tours or events that align with seasonal interests and capitalize on festivals or holidays. Implementing dynamic pricing strategies , where prices vary based on demand, can also help maximize revenue during peak seasons and encourage more visitation during slower periods.

Navigating the Future of Tourism Marketing With Arival

Success in tourism marketing lies in learning about your audience, developing practical strategies to reach them, constant adaptation to keep up with changing market conditions and traveler trends, and utilizing tools and research like what Arival provides to stay ahead in a competitive landscape. 

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TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY

• 10 Content Marketing Ideas for Travel and Tour Businesses

• Travel & Hospitality

Oh, the places you’ll go travel marketers, with just a tad bit of steering in the right direction. Travel is an experience – it is exotic and it is compelling. And, it’s way past time all you travel entrepreneurs and businesses realize how powerful is the thing you are trying to sell – dreams, adventures, memories – experience all in all.

All businesses are creating content – but travel businesses have the advantage of being the cool kid of the lot. You already have your stories laid out for you – you just need to package them in the right manner and on the right channels. So, today we’ll talk about content marketing ideas for travel businesses, and how travel marketers can use the power of compelling story-telling in their campaigns to stand out.

We are the first generation of both consumers and marketers seeing the gaps between human experience and technological advances bridge up close. And there is no industry better suited to use this to their advantage than travel and hospitality.

True, technology has given you the power of easy discoverability, with all the travel planners researching online for options before making a decision. But, on the downside, it has also given you far more competitors that ever. Now, unlike your times in physical offices, you have to compete with not just your neighboring travel agents, but with the bigger travel planning websites as well.

The competition is fierce – so what do you do to stand out?

Answer – Create better content than everyone else!

This answer may seem simple in theory, but is far more complex in execution. Therefore, this post.

Let’s Talk About the Travel Planning Paradigm Shift

I have said this before; no longer are we in the age where booking a tour package meant finalizing a travel destination or a resort on that family friend’s recommendation, walking into the agent’s office, and bam. Travelers have options now – such great options. And indeed, they can! The decision to travel might be taken in a moment of spontaneity, but the time between the decision and booking sees an enormous amount of research. Consider these stats for a moment: And they are doing all of this online. They have a plethora of options to choose over you. It’s not only your 100 other competitors distracting them away, but the omnipresent Google’s curated content as well, with the best real estate on the search housing them – after all they do own the property.

In such a competitive ecosphere, how long would you survive with mediocre marketing? Or, you would survive, but would you triumph?

Where’s the solution?

The solution lies in having a consumer-focused mindset, and everything else stemming from there – create content, a lot of it, but while thinking from customer’s perspective.

1. Single out your Audience Before you Create the Content

A consumer-focused mindset begins with identifying to whom you are trying to sell. You would broadly have 2 kinds of target market, and you have to package the same aspiration differently for these 2 segments.

1. The first are the traditional ones traveling with their families.

2. The second are the millennials and Gen Xs raised on pieced up dreams of seeing faraway places, and nurturing wanderlust rooted deeper than the generations before.

Besides the two, you would also have different segments based on the budget brackets. This classification would depend on your own offering as well – maybe you cater only to the affluents, maybe only the budget travelers.  The secret lies in creating content that would inspire your target audience.

People would say that this type of aspirational and emotional marketing is biased towards big brands, with big budgets backing them. No way! In fact, smaller startups are at an advantage, because they begin with a digital mindset, as opposed to their larger counterparts that have been doing traditional marketing for many decades.

Many smaller travel companies have used highly compelling, customer focused marketing to improve their revenue. No matter what line of travel business you are in – tour operators, hotels, travel curators, or whatnot, you have the power to tell compelling stories , which brings me to the focus of this article – story-telling in travel business.

2. Self-generated Content to Create Stories

If you have a business model where you or an employee (a guide) accompanies the travelers, you can very easily capture the “experience” as photos and videos and share it on your website and other social channels.

i) Photographs

Showcasing photographs of the destination taken while actually on tour, is one of the best content marketing ideas for travel businesses.  WOW Club is one Indian company completely kicking ass at this. They have a very popular Facebook page, accounting to the interesting content that they share with their followers, and the fact that they share real experiences in the form of pictures. Their target audience (women travelling alone) seems to be completely taken by the idea, which is clear from the growing popularity of the company.

They of course have a “cool” factor aiding them as well (that it’s more a women travelers’ club than a regular travel company), which adds to their popularity, but there is no reason why fellow travel companies (especially smaller ones) cannot replicate their success.

This is what they are doing right:

a) Sharing travel postcards: They share tour photos or “postcards” on their Facebook page – which most probably are clicked by the WOW tour guide (also a woman) that travels with the group.

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b) Using real people’s photographs on website: Their website is also personalized with pictures from their travel groups. Of course, they cater to a smaller segment – women, in a higher income bracket, but they are doing it perfectly right for their audience. Their posts are exciting, personal, and aspirational for women who would one day want to travel alone – thus enticing others with a similar mindset to join in, expanding their audience size further.

You can film some excerpts from the expedition and share them on their website. Many businesses are already doing that.  GreatWideOpen , a travel company that connects travelers to local tour operators is an example. These videos show interviews with the travelers on the expedition, tour experts leading them on etc. People planning their trips can get an idea of how how the experience would be, and make a choice accordingly.

 3. User Generated Content to Create Stories

I) photographs/videos.

People that love to travel, love to document their journeys in the form of photographs/videos, and share them as well. You can ask the people who bought the package from you to share these experiences with you. You can then showcase them on your website (and social channels), along with their testimonials.

Channels other than website to capitalize this on

Social Media: Instagram and Pinterest  are great for sharing this content in addition to travel business’ favored Facebook, even though they are just growing in India.

The best part – it’s not really a whole lot of extra work for your marketing team – you already have the content (or the users have it), you just need to promote them on the right channels (and that becomes easier with this exhaustive checklist for content promotion ). There’s more about Instagram and Pinterest as photo-content channels later in the post. 

ii) Testimonials and Reviews

Before people take a trip, they want to make sure of what kind of experience they can expect at a particular destination. Photographs and testimonials from fellow travelers affect their travel plans quite a bit because of this. Consider these stats: Reviews on TripAdvisor and Google Reviews are especially helpful for you as Google pulls them in organic search results as well. Bangalore based activity and travel curation company, Thrillophilia is doing that right. They have TripAdvisor reviews embedded on their site, in addition to video and email reviews .

iii) Contests

If you have a decent social following, one of the best content marketing ideas for travel is a contest. You can ask your followers to share photos, and their experiences with your service. Not only is it a great way to source  user generated content and engagement, but it can be used as social proof as well. Channels you can run it on:

a) Facebook

AirBNB (a network of accommodations offered by locals) ran a contest on Facebook, called Destination Honeymoon. 

To increase their brand awareness and drive traffic to their website.

What needed to be done

Couples had to share their photographs with AirBNB’s Facebook page and answer a few questions; the ones selected by a panel based on their answers to the questions, and general likes by Facebook users would win a dream honeymoon package.

The campaign was successful, and drove engagement in the form of 10, 299 votes (Source: Strutta ).  Here’s how the contest looked:

b) Instagram

This is a platform where you market for discovery. Instagrammers are the ones that would actually engage with your photo-contests, therefore you need to have a presence and a decent following there yourself, before you can run contests.

c) Pinterest

People that create travel wishlists, dream destination bucket lists etc. are on Pinterest, and so are travel bloggers. Beautiful user generated and your own photographs would do wonders here.

How would this help?

The people repinning or following you might not buy from you, but would definitely spread word about you, and be your brand ambassadors, as long as you keep sharing interesting swoon-worthy content.

Example Campaign

Hotel deals website  JetSetter once ran an awesome campaign on Pinterest “Pin it to win it.”

Aim To improve traffic to the website and increase stickiness.

People were invited to create “The ultimate destination pinboard” , across several categories, like escape, adventure etc, with relevant pictures. The winners would get to be JetSetter Curators, meaning they would be sent to dream destinations under the category of their choosing.

During the campaign, the pageviews on JetSetter increased 150%, the referral traffic via Pinterest increased 100%, and the bounce rate decreased by 10-15%. (Source: Mashable ) Yes, Pinterest is not yet enormously famous in India, but it is decently famous in the your business category, so you might want to try it out.

 4. Influencer Strategy

If you talk about famous travel bloggers, photo-bloggers and the likes on your own blogs, it would gain the attention of not just these influencers and their followers, but virtual tourists as well (people searching for travel related content on the web).

There is a strong possibility of these 3rd category of people to become your customers, if your content entices them enough. Many of the influencers’ followers would fall in this category as well.

Hotel Trident’s #tridentsocialhotel Campaign to Engage Influencers via Twitter

Hotel Trident, Hyderabad ran a 2-day campaign (last year, December) encompassing Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + FourSquare, and 2 travel bloggers battling it out across several challenges. Even food orders were taken via Twitter.

It created quite a buzz, with the engagement happening among Hotel Trident, their followers, the bloggers and the bloggers’ followers with the hashtag #tridentsocialhotel. And, that wasn’t a one-time campaign; Hotel Trident ran the same campaign in one of its Mumbai Hotels early this year, and trended nationally for it, and created quite a bit of engagement once again.

This “Case Study” would tell you what they did:

Learning from the mistakes

And, they did turn out to be pretty good social listeners as well. During their December campaign, they had shared the bloggers’ room numbers via Twitter as well. It was pointed out to them publicly that it invades privacy; they implemented the learning in the March campaign, by DMing this kind of private information, instead of tweeting it.

The campaigns not just created a lot of engagement but got them new followers as well. You can find out more about the campaign here .

 5. Blog Strategy

This is an extension of both your self-generated and user-generated content. Thrillophilia have been doing an awesome job at creating content on their blog. Of course, with the exercise they have built a good community of brand advocates as well.

Not only do they generate awesome content on their blog, with exciting topics like “21 Best Backpacking trips in India to add to your bucket list”, that have enormous sharability, but interview travelers and source guest posts as well.

Lead Capture Content on Blog

Everything we have discussed thus far were discoverability and engagement campaigns to a large extent. However, after driving traffic to your site, you have to try and capture the lead details as well, especially if the visitors are not immediate buyers. The first offer that you see on Thrillophilia’s blog is a “Travel Guide” in exchange for your email address and name (they subscribe you to the blog in exchange for these basic details).

This is a pretty good strategy, because the casual virtual tourists that would land on a post might subscribe to this, and the next time they are planning their trip, or an activity, Thrillophilia would be in their inboxes and on their minds.

6. Use Email Wisely

Email has been every smart direct marketer’s choice of communication for a very long time, and still remains so even with the advent of social media and other fancier content marketing channels. This is not without a reason. Email gives you the power to communicate one-on-one with your prospects, and you should not let this opportunity slide .

You can combine the power of technology and story-telling to create highly customized emails and strike a real chord with the prospect. See how Etihad Airways has used it.

Etihad Airways pre-flight upgrade email

Now the email goes out to customers that are travelling long distance and travelling solo (so it is highly customized offer).

Travel marketers can use this in a very efficient manner. For instance, if someone booked a 2 adults and 2 children tour with you last year, it would not make sense for you to send them a solo or couples only adventure tour this year. Send them family offers instead.

7. Content’s Best Friend – Mobile-friendliness

People do most of their travel search on mobile, and if your website (where most of your own content is housed) is not responsive, you are not just losing immediate bookings, but you are losing credibility in their eyes for future bookings and recommendations as well.

Consider these stats: That’s way too many people looking for information on mobile, you do not want to miss out on them.

8. Never be Tempted into Taking the Easy Road – Content Spinning

Let’s face it, you have one thing to sell – the place (and the experience associated with it). You have 100 other competitors trying to sell the same place, a similar projection of experience, and not enough bandwidth to create content that is unique and enormously appealing.

You might, in these cases, be tempted to take the easy path – of taking content that already exists on the web, and spin it around to place it on your website. I have only one advice for you – refrain! This may seem like the easy option, and might even work for some time, but Google’s junk finders are getting smarter by the minute, and you don’t want to be in its path when the wrath unleashes the next time.

9. Be Data-driven While Creating a Content Strategy

This should be the very first point in any marketing strategy, but there’s a reason why I have kept it almost at last. I would use a Hitchhiker’s Guide reference, because this post is about travel, and because Hitchhiker’s is awesome.

“The Answer to the Great Question… Of Life, the Universe and Everything… Is… Forty-two ,’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.” “Forty-two!” yelled Loonquawl. “Is that all you’ve got to show for seven and a half million years’ work?”

“I checked it very thoroughly,” said the computer, “and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you’ve never actually known what the question is. ”

Those that have read the book, would know what I am trying to reference. For others, according to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the ultimate answer (to life, and universe and everything) is 42. The problem with the answer is that nobody quite knew (or knows) the question.

You can have all the metrics at your disposal, but you have to really know what it is you are trying to measure to make sense of the data.

You have to decide what your goal is – with any strategy.  You have to be sure of what you want to do with your content – improve conversions, improve engagement, reduce bounce rates etc.

I quoted this point last, just to drive home the fact that just because all of these campaigns worked in case of the quoted examples, doesn’t mean it would work for you too – so define goals, run campaigns, create content – measure . Change strategy if it doesn’t give you ROI.

 10. Prepare to handle the Negative Impact of Easy Technology

A) first, try to provide the best experience.

Super-connected travelers might really boost your reputation by giving you awesome reviews, but sometimes, things might turn the other way round as well. You cannot have dirty bed-sheets and expect that they would not tweet about that, if they can tweet about an awesome cocktail you served the last time they were here. People can be ruthless, and if they pay for an experience, they will not compromise.

b) If you do mess up, take responsibility, and make it right

In service industry, goof-ups happen; somethings are bound to go wrong, people are bound to get pissed off, but you cannot just ignore a negative feedback , and delete it off the website.

You can do that on  your own properties, but not on rented properties, like TripAdvisor, Google reviews and the likes. Not only would your reputation take a hit, if you do that (nothing can be swept under the rug, when people are so incredibly connected socially), but you would see the impact in the search rankings etc. as well, with Google now taking a head first plunge into the travel search industry as well. They display reviews from all of these external websites, and they would show up. You cannot hide them.

c) Monitor and Listen

Instead, what you need to do is keep listening; have your social mention monitoring set up using any of the tools like HootSuite , Mention etc. and listen for what people are talking about you.

d) Have an Appeasement Plan

If something backfires, have a compensatory back-up plan; appease agitated people with something like a complimentary travel kit (depending on the enormity of goof-up), and they would at least have the satisfaction that you are listening, and not ignoring customer grievances.

So, that’s it!

These were a few content marketing ideas for travel and tour businesses to create engagement, traffic, and new sales leads. What are your strategies – are you using content?

Meenu Joshi works with the Content Marketing team of LeadSquared. She consults with multiple clients on leveraging content to generate and nurture leads. You can connect with her on Twitter

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How do you create tourism content?

By Erick Tomaliwan

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They say that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And more often than not, the initial encounter a visitor will have with your tour brand will be online. And this is where tourism content writing can help to communicate the type of experience guests can expect from you.

With insightful content and visuals, you’re better able to attract travelers to your tours and activities, even before they’re ready to buy. In fact, some of the best content is a mix of being educational, with a dash of expertise and entertainment — all wrapped up in one post.

Building your tour brand won’t happen overnight, but with a handle on what your audience wants to see and contributing regularly, you’ll outpace competitors with increased visibility .

What is tourism content writing

For many experience providers, coming up with travel-related content can tumble down the list of priorities. Tourism-content writing is centred on storytelling, where as an experience provider, you share content designed to give the reader a better sense of what you offer.

Ultimately, producing content that’s both entertaining and helpful can increase brand awareness, foster trust and improve conversion rates among website visitors.

Writing travel industry content isn’t something that comes easily to most experience providers. And even if you consider yourself an expert in your field, it can be tough figuring out what to write about. 

Keeping in mind that more travelers are looking to book with companies they believe align with their values . All the more reason to position your tourism content writing front and centre, to articulate your unique selling proposition (USP).

While there are many benefits to creating content, some of the strongest reasons are establishing your tour brand as a reputable and trustworthy company.

Aim to be empathetic and helpful

Imagining yourself in the mind of your reader puts you into an empathetic and helpful frame of mind, which will help your thoughts flow more clearly.

As the expert in your business, you can lean on guest comments and questions to help guide the type of travel content you want to share.

Picture yourself answering a question from a guest in real life, in how you’re more inclined to be both empathetic and informative in your response. And you may find that once you start brainstorming ideas, you’ll notice more come to mind.  

Brainstorm ideas

When you start thinking about the best travel to write, begin by asking yourself, “if I were someone who knew nothing about this destination, what could I learn from reading this blog or social media post?”

Imagine yourself in the reader’s shoes by answering, “if I was deciding between two different travel options would I be more inclined or swayed to try this experience?” and build on the how and why someone might feel this way.  

For instance, you could showcase what goes into preparing for guests or how you decide on certain landmarks to include in your sightseeing tours. Or perhaps writing a post about the most efficient route to get to your destination and sharing recommended methods of travel.

Another idea might be providing a packing list for a weeklong stay at your resort which also offers on-site kayaking and paddle board rentals. By giving your audience a sneak peek of what you offer, you incentivize them to learn more.

Focus on squashing fears

When tour guests arrive onsite, it will likely be the first time the get to try out this particular tour or activity. Before they decide to book, there’s bound to be some fear of the unknown, and as an expert in the tourism industry, you can quell some of their concerns. 

Use this insight to power your content creation, aiming to answer questions future guests might have. Describe what visitors can expect from your experiences, how to prepare along with ways they can make the most of their travels.

Once you address some of the roadblocks travelers might have through your travel-related content, you cultivate a sense of trust among your audience.

Keep your writing short and to the point

When writing blog posts, use plenty of headers, lists and images to break up large bodies of text. Short, snappy sentences encourage the reader to keep reading.

As you draft a few potential topics, focus on listing key points instead of reaching a specific word count. Start with an outline or a few sentences detailing what the post will uncover and build from there.

Organize your travel content

When you start writing tourism content, try to group trains of thought, to make your posts easier to scan. Anticipate what prospective guests might be looking for and be proactive in addressing their questions.

Travelers value the inherent knowledge you have as a tour operator, but it’s important to share in a cohesive and easy-to-follow method.

Why produce travel content

When travelers start to research their next trip, they’re more inclined to trust a company that answers their questions. With travel content, you can provide detailed accounts of experiences which help to paint a picture in your audience’s mind.

Fortunately, past guests be one of your most valuable outlets for information prospective guests are curious about. Plus, you have a wealth of knowledge and can use this to benefit your audience. 

Thankfully, you don’t need to limit your content efforts to writing alone. Videos and photos can lead the way with cultivating inspiring travel ideas.

Consider capturing or sources a few different visuals to inspire the written content you’ll share with each photo or video.

Examples of travel-related content

• Detailed social media posts
• How-to guides
• Travel guides
• Videos   

When you start creating and writing tourism content, know that the main purpose of content marketing is to build trust for your brand,  become the go-to resource in your destination for travel advice and share helpful tips with your audience. 

When to expect results in tourism content writing

Understandably, some tour operators expect content to drive conversions immediately. But this isn’t the way it works.

Content marketing is all about the long game. It can take some time to deliver the type of content your audience wants to see. And when it comes to travelers, answering questions is a compelling tactic for using keywords that match users search intent online.

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t spot big spikes in bookings right away and by right away we mean within 1-3 months. The effort can absolutely be worth the time investment.

Consider writing tourism content to be like kneading bread dough before setting it to rise. With a few ingredients, the right measurements and a bit of patience, you’ll be well-equipped to see results.

For instance, if you put yeast with hot water, flour and salt in the oven before stirring and leaving the mixture to rise overnight, you’ll be left with some pretty sad-looking bread dough.

And if instead, you use warm water and the right amount of yeast, allowing the mixture to bubble before mixing in with the flour and salt, you’re much more likely to enjoy a delicious loaf of bread.

While you probably didn’t come here to learn how to make bread, you can see the parallels with tourism content writing.

As author Zeeshan Ahmed shares, “Never give up, great things take time.” Much like bakers, writers know that the secret to quality content is consistency and patience for beautiful results. 

How to start writing tourism content 

Providing your audience with travel-related content addresses the what’s-in-it-for-me (WIIFM) mentality shared by guests and site visitors, alike. With a tour operator blog, your goal should be to provide additional value before asking your site visitors to buy from you.

As a natural storyteller, you’ll likely have a wealth of ideas to draw upon. The biggest challenge you’ll face is in carving out the time to create the kind of content you know travelers will appreciate.Getting started with regular blogging and content production is likely your biggest challenge, so follow these steps to get the roadblocks out of your way.

Allocate 1-2 hours per week to brainstorm topics

The thing about stories is that they’re so much more relatable than facts alone — and even better if you can share funny accounts of things that have happened.

But in order to put your stories to paper, you need to set aside time in your schedule to make it happen. I recommend choosing a specific day or time of day that can be uninterrupted brainstorming time.

The best part? You don’t have to do it all at once. Spending 15-20 minutes at a time will make a difference in pulling travel-related content out of your head.

Be consistent with creating tourism content

While it can take some time to develop your brand voice and how you approach writing tourism content, your blog and social posts should be on a consistent schedule.

Aim to look ahead and plan out your content for each quarter. Knowing that once your busy season starts, you may not be able to dedicate as much time to creating new travel-related content. But coming up with ideas and acting on them are two different components of building out your content library.

Document ideas as they come to mind

Instead of trying to come up with brilliant content on a daily basis, build momentum with a few easy steps.

Genuine content that clicks with customers will come from real-life experiences. And whether it’s from the guest standpoint or your own, as a tour operator, both perspectives can help you to connect with your audience.

Share photos and videos of guests (with permission) and scenery

As powerful as words alone can be, you’ll be more persuasive by adding photos to your content mix.

While you don’t need to be a professional photographer, quality photos can speak volumes to your audience and help cultivate ideas for writing the best travel content for your tour business.

In addition, photos showcasing a variety of age groups and traveler dynamics will help you show up as being more inclusive to guests considering your tour brand.

Your audience wants you to create valuable content, answer questions and entertain them, because we all love share-worthy travel photos and posts!

Write down questions you receive from guests

By getting into the habit of writing and creating content, you’ll eventually have a library of ideas and images to pull from.

Rather than starting from scratch, look back on emails and interactions you’ve had with guests to see if themes keep popping up. You can often find a range of ideas to write about just by re-visiting the questions that come up amongst your guests.

Wrapping it travel-related content up with a call-to-action

Ensure that readers know what to do next, after reading a post or an article. Let them know that they can book online, learn more or subscribe for ongoing updates.

If it feels too simple, you’re probably doing a great job communicating to readers the next steps for them to take.

Where to find the best travel-related topics

When searching for what to write about, start with questions you’ve gotten from customers in the past. Lean on your competitors for ideas — not to copy them— but to gain a sense of the tourism content they believe works for their audience.

You can also try searching for keywords related to the experiences you offer including the specific activity or tour type along with your location. As you search to see what else pops up, scroll to the “people also ask” section of the results to see what else people are looking for with similar search terms.

Fortunately, travel-related content generates brand awareness and nurtures an audience. As a result, your tour brand will come to mind first once someone is ready to travel to their destination and book. 

Final thoughts

Sure, tourism content writing can be a big hill to climb — at first. But it can be the one strategy that sets you apart from your competitors and expands your reach.

And, as you continue to improve your writing, ask yourself questions like, “so what” and whether this information could be sourced easily with a quick Google search. 

When it comes to writing the best travel content, aim to bucket your information into a few categories to make the process easier. It’s a marathon, and not a sprint, and with a dedicated effort, you’ll be able to enjoy the satisfaction that comes from investing in your tour business.

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Shopping cart items, 25 social media content ideas for travel.

On social media, the content you post is critical to engaging your audience and creating a solid fan base. Yet, many travel professionals struggle with knowing what to post. Whether you are wondering what to say on Twitter, Facebook, blogs or any other channel, here are some travel content ideas to help get the creative juices flowing:

I’ve said it many MANY times : travel is an experiential product and the best way to get people thinking about travel is to show them fun places to go and fun things they can do while they are there. If you can, share personal or client photos of destinations you want to sell. They don’t need to be professional shots and often work even better if you’re in the photo doing something silly! I’ve had many travel agents report that they sell at least one or two packages they wouldn’t have otherwise every time they post photos of a trip they took.

If you don’t have photos of your own,  Flickr  is a great spot to find amazing shots of every type of destination around the world. Do a quick search and link (don’t steal!) to particularly amazing photography that you think your audience would enjoy.

Videos are also a great way to inspire customers to travel and usually works even better than photos because of their interactive nature. Once again, you don’t always need a professionally shot video to attract attention. A home video of a particularly memorable moment, useful information (like the view of a new cruise ship cabin), fun activities or footage of a new resort will do the trick. Got a knack for humor or publicly humiliating yourself without worry? Great! Use it to your advantage when you create your videos. The funnier the better!For those who are a little camera shy, don’t despair!  YouTube  is a great resource for videos of all kinds.  With a little imagination you can search and find some pretty amazing clips.

3. Useful links

The latest traveler alerts, a list of recommended items to pack, articles about the hottest trends in travel – think about what would be useful for your readership to know and you’ve got some sharable content. This is your chance to show off your expertise as a travel professional and provide your potential customers with information that they may not find otherwise.

Not sure where to find this information? Blogs, news sites, and trade press have articles that can fit the bill. You can also use  Google Alerts  to monitor the web for articles on just about any topic.

4. Blog posts

This one should go without saying, but too many people don’t think about it. If you publish regular blog posts, PLEASE remember to post links to them on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc if you have accounts there. Most blog platforms will allow you to connect your blog to other social channels automatically if you have trouble remembering to post.

5. Destination fun facts

Everyone loves a good bit of trivia or little known facts! It’s entertaining, informative and can again help position you as an expert in your field. Many tourist boards and hotel properties have fun facts available through their marketing department. Just ask to see if they can help you out.  Otherwise, the web is always a good alternative!

Engage your audience by asking them questions about things like their favourite vacation spot, what type of perks they like to get from their agent, what makes their holiday a perfect one, etc. Get them talking to you AND use the opportunity to do a little behind-the-scenes market research to find out what you can do to win and keep their business.

7. Event announcements

Are you attending your local travel show or hosting a consumer evening? Let the world know where you will be and when! Invite your fan base to come see you.  You might be surprised by how many of them show up…and bring a friend!

8. Top 10 lists

Quick, useful and always a good way of giving quick recommendations on destinations to see, things to pack, attractions to visit and more. You can either compile your own top 10 or link to someone else’s. Bonus points if you create your own with photos or video!

9. Community work updates

People like to know that you care about your community.  If you or your team partake in community service or charitable work, share information like updates about your latest donation, photos of your team volunteering, or news about your favourite charity.

10. Contest announcements & updates

Contests are ALWAYS a popular thing. If you choose to run one, you can build anticipation and buzz by posting regular updates. Whether you talk about the prizes, highlight funny entries, countdown the days until the winner is announced or something else, you’re sure to get attention (and probably new followers/fans/readers) really quickly.

11. Travel updates

Here’s another great opportunity to showcase your expertise as a travel expert. Share updates about your favourite suppliers (new bathtubs in every cabin? Service upgrades at a resort? New designer bag with every purchase? Ok…maybe not the last one, but you get the point) or important travel updates about specific destinations (everything from new passport requirements to travel warnings).

12. Ship inspection information

If you are a cruise expert and visit ships while they are in port, by all means, share pictures and reviews with your fans.  They WANT to hear your expert advice to know which ships are worth sailing.

13. Fam trip reports

I know too many agencies who require these reports from staff and then stuff them in a folder where they will never be seen again. You are experiencing travel while on these Fam trips and NEED to share those experiences with your fan base. This can be in the shape of photos, videos or blog updates. It doesn’t really matter. Either way, tell them what you liked, didn’t like, recommend and find amazing. If you do a good job, you may get a booking or two out of the experience.

14. Client stories

Ever get an email from a client who tells you how GREAT their trip was or wants to let you know about something funny that happened? If so, ask for their permission to share it with everyone. It acts as a testimonial for you and can be entertaining all at once.

15. Answers to common questions

If there are travel questions you get regularly, use the opportunity to share the answer with a wider audience. It may even prompt your fan base to ask you more questions and start engaging. Again…show everyone that you know your stuff and the bookings will follow!

16. Opinions

If something is happening in the travel community and you have an opinion to share, you can use your social channel to do so.  However, I would caution you to think twice about being excessively controversial or political as it may turn some people away. Some controversy is ok, but too much can be hard to handle for some people.

17. Travel tips

These can be quick tips or longer blog posts about your recommendations. Just like the fun facts, top 10 lists, and other ideas listed here, they help position you are the expert that your are while being useful.

18. Behind-the-scenes updates

If your teams is planning an event or preparing something big, there is always interest in seeing you have fun behind-the-scenes.  Be creative here with photos, videos, stories and staff comments.

19. Favourite quotes

Inspiring travel quotes are fairly easy to find (Google to the rescue!) and quick to post. If you are out of inspiration for the day, a quick quote can keep the engagement going with minimal effort.

20. Staff picks

Get your whole team involved in recommending hotels, resorts, cruises, activities or whatever else you can think of. This can be really fun for everyone and helps showcase your agency as a whole.

21. Interviews

Think written or video interviews with people on your team, a destination representative, hotel partner, etc.

22. Funny Stories

Whether it’s a cartoon, a funny video, an anecdote or the joke of the week, humor always goes a long way!

23. Updates from the road

This is where you bring out your inner journalist.  If you have access to an internet connection or a smartphone while on the road travelling or attending events, you can provide live updates.  This works particularly well on Twitter or Facebook where updates can be quick and short. Blog posts take some thought, but you could still provide one update per day once you have a chance to slow down a bit in the evening.

24. Milestones

Did you just get a new specialist certification? Did your agency win an important award? Maybe you got featured in the local newspaper. It’s time to let everyone know so they can share in the joy and find out how fabulous you really are!

25. Travel deals

I saved this one for last because it seems like the most obvious choice, yet it’s not always the best one. Depending on your sales goals, you may not want to attract the bargain hunters looking for the best deal. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if deals are a good choice for you.

It’s not as hard as it may seem. Many of the ideas above are already available within your agency or on the web.  A simple Google search or using  Google Alerts  can help you stay in the loop and find interesting content quite easily and without gobbling up your precious time.

Now it’s your turn…

Have you had success with any of the ideas above? Or perhaps I’ve missed a few good ones that you’d like to share?

A Guide to Content Writing for Travel Websites in 2023

David kovacs.

• January 3, 2022
• 17 Comments

1. Do your research

Create an outline

Before you even start doing your research, it is extremely important to always make an outline for the entire article. Making a list of ideas or topics is necessary if you want your content to have a good flow and without clutter.

Doing research as an expert

You can write your content as an expert in the travel niche. However, if you present yourself as an expert, you have to prove yourself and explain why you know all those information you’re providing. You have to include data and statistics in your content to prove your point.

Using data and statistics throughout your content has a dual-purpose.

First, you are providing information from reliable sources. You will gain the trust of your readers because you are presenting a piece of content that is accurate.

Second, when you are using data and statistics from other sources, you are of course ‘linking out’ to those sources. This will have a positive impact on your content in terms of SEO in the long run.

Doing research as someone looking for answers

Another way to approach your research is to come off as a regular person looking for a solution to a problem. You could think of yourself as someone who wants to help a friend finds the best hotels in Hawaii or Budapest. Doing research this way is quick and simple. Answers are usually spread across the internet through forum posts and YouTube videos.

2. Write an amazing headline

Why do you need headlines that grab peoples attention?

A headline that turns heads or sparks someone’s interest is as important as the content itself. If no one clicks on your headline, then your just wasting time creating content.

Cosmopolitan magazine uses sexy headlines that entice people to read their content. If you’re an email marketer, the phrase you use in the subject line makes a big difference as to whether people will open your emails or not.

Likewise, you need to write catchy headlines so people will click on your webpage on Google’s search results. The point here is to get people to take that next step and read your content.

So how do you write headlines that are so appealing that people not only want to click through but read the rest of your content?

Tips on writing amazing headlines 

1. Headlines with 6 to 7 words perform better

According to Neil Patel , blog post titles that are too short or too long won’t do justice to your precious content.

Titles that are too short won’t be able to tell your readers upfront what your content is all about. On the same note, titles that are too long tend to be overwhelming to your readers. No one wants to click on a headline that looks like a long sentence.

2. Use adjectives within your headline

Adjectives can make your headline more attractive to your readers. Some of the adjectives you can use are “unbelievable”, “incredible”, “top”, “best”, etc. With adjectives, there’s a huge chance more people will want to click on your headline.

3. Add the current year within your headline

Although this may not be applicable to all of your posts, adding the current year within your headline will tell your readers that your content is updated or “fresh.” This strategy works better if your content is about “guides” or if it’s a “how to” article.

Surely you have read some of these in the search results, “updated 2020” or “best travel sites in 2020”. People will most likely click on a headline because it’s fresh. Who would want to read on outdated content?

4. Get to know your readers

You can start on getting to know your readers at the comments section on your post. There would always be someone who will leave a comment after reading a post. You can start on getting connections from there.

Once you get to know who your readers are, you’ll have an idea on how to create headlines that relates to them. You’ll have an idea of finding the best travel topics for your content.

If you’re a travel writer , you can ask your readers about the problems they encounter when they are traveling.

Content that provides a solution to a problem especially on a specific niche tends to get more clicks. Not only that, your readers might share your content on social media. This means more exposure for your content and more leads for your business.

3. Focus on the topic only 

When writing content for your travel business, it is best to focus on one topic or message. Considering that you already have the topic, the next step is to write the first sentence and your ‘answer paragraph’.

The first sentence

Your first sentence should contain the keywords that you want to rank for. You should cleverly insert those keywords in your first sentence where it fits naturally. Don’t insert keywords just for the sake of putting them in the first sentence.

Your first sentence should be either a single message or a question that needs an answer.

Answer paragraph

The ‘answer paragraph’ is just a quick summary that answers the question raised from your first sentence. Or it could be the solution to a specific problem. You only need three to four sentences for your ‘answer paragraph’ when you’re 

From there, you need to create a list of subheadings or subtopics to further expand your content while focusing on one single topic.

4. Grab reader’s attention

First impressions last

As the saying goes, “you only have one opportunity to make a great first impression.” Well, this is also true when it comes to writing content. Your introduction is that one opportunity.

If your introduction doesn’t capture all of your reader’s attention, then this will not motivate them to continue reading your content.

Luckily, there are some tactics you can use to captivate your readers using your opening sentence.

Opening sentences that grab the reader’s attention are often called ‘hooks’. There are several ways you to use this in content writing for travel websites.

One way is to ask a series of intriguing questions.

Notice the word ‘intriguing’ here. Don’t just ask random questions that don’t have a purpose. Likewise, do not ask your readers if they want to learn something. Also, don’t ask them if they want to hear a story.

Make your opening sentence so intriguing that leaves your readers wondering what in the world are you talking about.

Data and statistics

In addition, you could also share statistics involving numbers. Such as “57% of internet users talk to more people online than they do in real life.”

Other ways of creating a great ‘hook’ are using:

• a surprising fact,
• a super descriptive setting,
• some catchy dialog,
• a flashback, or
• just diving right into the action.

Diving right into the action means giving your readers a short summary of your message.

Or a short paragraph with the first sentence that raises a question. And then two succeeding sentences that directly answer that question.

Of course, no matter how direct the answers are, two sentences aren’t enough to satisfy your reader’s curiosity. They will eventually continue reading the rest of your content.

An effective strategy in content writing for travel websites is trying to grab your reader’s attention. This will keep visitors reading until the end of your post, which is good for SEO. This will tell the search engines that your website’s content is helpful to internet users.

The longer your readers will stay on your website is one of the new ranking factors in SEO.

5. Write an engaging content that people are willing to share

Here’s why engagement is also an effective strategy when it comes to content writing for travel websites.

Do you spend time on Instagram? Facebook?

Well, you might have been clicking ‘LIKE’ on those photos, right?

But you don’t just ‘like’ those photos because they look nice. It’s also because you admire the people who uploaded them. You think you have a personal connection with them. You feel as if you are involved in their lives.

‘Liking’ their photos is like sending them a message that you like what they’re doing. You feel you’re rooting for them and you wish them to do well. You want them to keep going because you think they’re doing a great job. And you can’t wait to see what they’ll upload next.

On the other hand, you may follow a couple of professional photographers on Instagram but you don’t always like their photos. No matter how stunning those photos look, you seldom hit that ‘LIKE’ button.

It’s because you don’t know who they are and where they’re from. You don’t know what they want to do with their lives. You just know that they take good photos. But you have no reason to engage. Their photos aren’t giving you any value at all. Why would you give something back?

So try to have your content writing for travel websites on a more personal level. Something that makes your readers feel they are connected with you. Tell them a little about your life, your struggles as a travel writer, and what you’re doing at this point.

Here are the travel content ideas you can use.

When writing content, always try to develop a connection with your readers.

Here’s a sample sentence.

“I’m sitting here at the airport and thinking, why do other people’s luggage gets delayed or lost?”

“I did some research and here’s what I’ve found.”

This is like telling your readers that you’re also a traveler and you’re creating this content for them. You’re looking for a solution to a problem that many travellers face every day.

Again, the idea here is that you’re not coming as generic like the rest. You’re coming instead as somebody who has wondered the same thing. Somebody who looked around the internet to find the answers. You then put those answers together into one useful post.

But how do you create content that people are willing to share?

It’s all about the headline. Great content does affect how many social shares you’re getting. But it’s the headlines that drive people to share your content.

Neil Patel did some tests about headlines. He learned that 8 out of 10 people will read your headline. But only 2 out of 10 people will read the rest of your content.

How do you write headlines that get a ton of social shares?

You already know the tips to make an amazing headline. But here’s one last tip to make your headlines go viral.

Go to forum sites like Reddit and Quora and type in the keywords related to travel. They will show you some popular articles. This will give you travel content ideas for your next post.

Look for an article that has a list such as an article that breaks down 7 ways to do X, Y, Z within the travel niche. You can take that list and expand those 7 ways or topics through research. You can make those topics as subheadings for your new content.

6. Target keywords using Google Keyword Planner

Your content must always drive traffic to your website every time people do a search. This is where your keywords come in. But be sure to base those keywords from topics that can really target them.

Secondary keywords or long-tail keywords are as important as your primary ones. They give your content an even higher chance of getting found with every search.

You can use the Google Keywords Planner not just to help you find the keywords you can target. You can also do a ‘mix-and-match’ with your keywords as well. This is another way of looking for keywords variations you can use with your topic.

7. Optimize the content

Here are some quick tips on optimizing your content.

Optimize your title

Insert your keywords not just on your headline but also in the ‘title tag’. They should always be present in the ‘meta tags’ (or meta description) and the header tags as well. Header tags are the subheadings or subtopics of your content.

Remember to always use a title that grabs the attention of your readers. The title is the first thing they will see and if it’s enticing enough — they will keep reading.

Optimize your images

The one thing that would deter your customers the most is a slow-loading webpage. There are a lot of things you can do to increase the page speed with plugins but the biggest killer are images.

So resize your images and compress them. There are online tools for compressing and re-sizing such as TinyPNG and befunky.com.

Be direct with your writing

People don’t have to read fluff content to find what they want to find. Be clear and direct. Remember to tell them why they need your product or service and how it will benefit them.

Distribute your keywords to every part of your content; from the headline to your summary.

Put your primary keywords in the:

• Headline (Heading 1)
• Heading 2 and so on…
• first paragraph

8. Use Yoast plugin for WordPress to improve SEO and readability

The readability for posts is a key factor for holistic SEO strategy. You probably already know about holistic SEO and how important it is to write quality content. Quality content needs to be original and relevant to your readers but it should also be easy to read.

What is content that is easy to read?  

A readable text is a text that is well structured. It should have an introduction, a body that conveys your message, and the conclusion. Within this bigger structure, the text needs to be divided up further into paragraphs that reflect your ideas and arguments.

These paragraphs need to precede with subheadings. That clearly states the content of each paragraph.

Furthermore, make sure to start each paragraph with a topic sentence. The topic sentence is the most important sentence of that paragraph. It will give the reader an idea of what the whole paragraph is about. The following sentences on that paragraph will then elaborate on that topic sentence.

In addition to these structural elements of your texts:

Structural elements

• Subheading 1

You also should consider stylistic elements:

Stylistic elements

• Go for short and sentences
• Use transition words
• Use simple words

Your texts should be pleasant to read. So whether it comes to your choice of words or sentence structures, go for short and clear ones, rather than long and convoluted.

Transition words

Write sentences that are not too long and that are clearly marked by transition words. Examples of transition words are “in contrast”, “In addition”, and “therefore”. Transition words give your readers direction when reading your content.

Finally, don’t go overboard with complicated terminology. Don’t stuff your sentences with long, hard-to-read words. Instead, use simpler words to achieve the same effect.

Why is readability extremely important for SEO?

Most importantly, you really want to focus on your audience, especially their reading experience. You want to write an article that is well-structured and pleasant to read. You want your readers to understand the message of your post quickly and without too much effort.

That way, you will not only entice readers to click-through from the search results to your website, but they will also be more likely to stay on your website.

Making your text more readable is not about dumbing down your content. It’s about making your posts as accessible as possible. It’s about avoiding unnecessary complexity in your writing.

You can still tackle complex issues on your post. But it’s the part of the writer’s job to breakdown complex ideas and make them clear and easy to understand.

And then there’s also Google’s ranking algorithms to consider.

Google is becoming smarter and smarter in how it evaluates websites. To determine the topic of the page, it will make use of the same factors that human readers use. For example, it will pay attention to the headings and subheadings to determine the topic of the page.

Another effective strategy in content writing for travel websites is readability. This can really help rank websites as well as provide a good reading experience. This is why Team Yoast added the readability analysis in the plugin. 

This analysis consists of various assessments that will check the structure of your content, as well as the various elements of your writing style.

Your content will get feedback with green, red, and orange bullet points. The colored bullet points will lead you to the areas of your content that still need improvement. That way, you can be sure you’ve got all the important points covered when it comes to the readability of your content.

9. Content length 

So, how long is the average length of a page or content should be?

Keep in mind that longer content always wins. The average Google first page result contains 1,890 words.

Gone are the days when we could rank for 300 words. At present, we need to have longer content. And by longer content doesn’t mean filling our them with random text.

You need to explore a topic with more depth so you can elongate that piece of content. That way you are thoroughly covering the topic at hand to make your piece of information better than your competitors.

Also, there should be no fluff. You should produce meat with a purpose so Google can say, “without a doubt, this is the best piece of content on the internet!”

10. Aim to convert

You’re working hard to get your website rank higher than your competitors. Your creating amazing content using the targeted keywords you want to rank for.

But sometimes, you’re too busy with SEO that you forgot why you’re here for in the first place — to convert visitors to become customers for your business.

What is a conversion?

Conversion can be in many forms such as call-to-action (CTA), landing pages, forms, pop-ups, and even live messaging. Your conversion process is how you can turn an anonymous visitor into a customer.

How to make your content help in conversion?

It is typically by offering something that visitors want. This offer should be something that is helpful to them.

‘Helpful’ as in helping them solve their problems. ‘Helpful’ in a way that they can better determine a solution. Usually, content offers are used for this exchange.

Your content should encourage visitors to take your offer. If someone is on your website and sees an option to download a free guide, they may be willing to give their information, like their email address. As long as they see value in it.

In conclusion, you don’t have to create content that does well in the search results. You just need to create content that teaches people to do well in their everyday lives. And this is by far — the best way to sell.

11. Edit your final content

When you think you’re done with all the research and you have put the pieces of your content in their proper arrangement, it is now time to proofread. You need to proofread and edit your content so you can be sure it is of high quality when it published.

Here are tips on proofreading:

• Try to speak out loud about what you’re reading. This is a good way to spot errors in your writing.
• Two heads are better than one. Try to have somebody read your draft. He or she might spot errors you have overlooked.
• After proofreading your draft, try to walk away for a while and then go back and look again for errors.
• When you think your draft is ready to go, run it on plagiarism checkers to make sure it doesn’t get any Copyscape hits.

Nowadays, travel websites with 500 word-content that are no longer dominating page 1 of Google’s search results.   For your content to perform better than your competitors, you need to create content that is in-depth.  Content that visitors find useful and that they are willing to share with their friends and families. That right there is the product of effective content writing for travel websites.

Do you have any other content writing tips? 

Grow Your Travel Business with SEO

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17 thoughts on “A Guide to Content Writing for Travel Websites in 2023”

Amazing content writing strategy on Travel Websites. It really helped me in creating my client’s website. Thank you so much.

Thanks for the comment Amit, I am glad that you’ve found it useful. 🙂

amazing thank you for this explain ..

Very informative article. Thank you very much.

Thank you Alina!

Hey- Although this is an amazing guide, it is more focused on travel blogs. I was looking for a guide to help me write engaging tour content which include an overview, some highlights , itinerary (what you’ll do). I am a non English speaker travel agent and it’s really hard for me to write content in a foreign language since I don’t find the correct words and phrases that can flow correctly so the potential client can be interested in our activities. I also didn’t find any guide out there about this topic. Can you help me out? I will be extremely grateful Cheers!

Hello Mauricio! Thanks for your comment. Please send us an email and our team will help you with some tips and tricks ([email protected]). Cheers, David

Is this comment realy writen by you Mr. M….but you say you’re weak in your second language… I don’t think so. If you try you could achieve.

Thanks Ramzy!

Thanks for sharing the great post. Looking forward for more posts.

Really contented after reading your content. This write-up answers more than 90 percent of my questions I had regarding creating a travel-content.

Hey David, What a blog it was! It was quite useful for any travel blogger. I’m sure it will definitely goona help everyone. Thanks again

Hello Amit, thanks!

Doing SEO for a tourism industry or related website is one of the great experience. You have described well about all the points for leisure industry. Subscribed your blog.

Thank you Ravi!

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What is the future of travel?

All aboard! After the pandemic upended life and leisure as we know it, travel is roaring back. The industry is set to make a full recovery by the end of 2024, after losing 75 percent of its value in 2020. Much of this has been so-called “revenge travel,” or people embarking on international or bucket list trips that were delayed by the pandemic. But domestic travel is recovering quickly too and is set to represent 70 percent of travel spending by 2030.

Get to know and directly engage with senior McKinsey experts on travel and tourism

Margaux Constantin is a partner in McKinsey’s Dubai office, Matteo Pacca is a senior partner in the Paris office, and Vik Krishnan is a senior partner in the Bay Area office.

We’ve done a deep dive into the latest travel trends and how industry players can adjust accordingly in The state of travel and hospitality 2024 report. Check out the highlights below, as well as McKinsey’s insights on AI in travel, mass tourism, and much more.

Learn more about McKinsey’s Travel, Logistics, and Infrastructure Practice .

Who are today’s travelers, and what do they want?

In February and March 2024, McKinsey surveyed  more than 5,000 people in China, Germany, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom, and the United States who had taken at least one leisure trip in the past two years. Here are six highlights from the results of that survey:

• Travel is a top priority, especially for younger generations. Sixty-six percent of travelers we surveyed said they are more interested in travel now than before the COVID-19 pandemic. And millennials and Gen Zers  are traveling more and spending a higher share of their income on travel than their older counterparts.
• Younger travelers are keen to travel abroad. Gen Zers and millennials who responded to our survey are planning nearly an equal number of international and domestic trips in 2024. Older generations are planning to take twice as many domestic trips.
• Baby boomers are willing to spend if they see value. Baby boomers still account for 20 percent of overall travel spending. They are willing to spend on comforts such as nonstop flights. On the other hand, they are more willing to forego experiences to save money while traveling, unlike Gen Zers who will cut all other expense categories before they trim experiences.
• Travel is a collective story, with destinations as the backdrop. Travelers both want to hear other travelers’ stories and share their own. Ninety-two percent of younger travelers were inspired by social media in some shape or form for their last trip.
• What travelers want depends on where they’re from. Sixty-nine percent of Chinese respondents said they plan to visit a famous sight on their next trip, versus the 20 percent of European and North American travelers who said the same. Respondents living in the UAE also favor iconic destinations, as well as shopping and outdoor activities.

Learn more about McKinsey’s  Travel, Logistics, and Infrastructure Practice .

What are the top three travel industry trends today?

Travel is back, but traveler flows are shifting. McKinsey has isolated three major themes for industry stakeholders to consider as they look ahead.

• The bulk of travel spending is close to home. Seventy-five percent of travel spend is domestic. The United States is currently the world’s largest domestic travel market, but China is set to overtake it in the coming years. Stakeholders should make sure they capture the full potential of domestic travelers before turning their attention abroad.
• New markets such as India, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe are growing sources of outbound tourism. Indians’ travel spending is expected to grow 9 percent per year between now and 2030; annual growth projections for Southeast Asians and Eastern Europeans are both around 7 percent.
• Unexpected destinations are finding new ways to lure travelers and establish themselves alongside enduring favorites. Rwanda, for example, has capitalized on sustainable tourism by limiting gorilla trekking permits and directing revenue toward conservation.

Introducing McKinsey Explainers : Direct answers to complex questions

For a more in-depth look at these trends, check out McKinsey’s State of travel and hospitality 2024   report .

How will AI change how people travel?

In the 1950s, the introduction of the jet engine dramatically reduced travel times, changing the way people traveled forever. Now AI is upending the industry  in a similarly fundamental way. Industry players down to individual travelers are using advances in generative AI (gen AI) , machine learning , and deep learning  to reimagine what it means to plan, book, and experience travel. “It’s quite clear,” says McKinsey partner Vik Krishnan , “that gen AI significantly eases  the process of travel discovery.”

For travel companies, the task now is to rethink how they interact with customers, develop products and services, and manage operations in the age of AI. According to estimates by McKinsey Digital, companies that holistically address digital and analytics opportunities have the potential to see an earnings improvement of up to 25 percent .

McKinsey and Skift Research interviewed executives from 17 companies across five types of travel business. Here are three key findings on how travel companies can reckon with emerging technologies, drawn from the resulting report The promise of travel in the age of AI :

• Segmentation. Companies can use AI to create hyperspecific customer segments to guide how they interact with and serve customers. Segmentation can be based on a single macro characteristic (such as business versus leisure), or it can be so specific as to relate to just one customer.
• Surprise and delight. In the travel context, gen AI could take the form of digital assistants that interact with customers throughout their journeys, providing personalized trip itineraries and tailored recommendations and helping to resolve unexpected disruptions.
• Equipping workers better. AI tools can free up frontline workers’ time, allowing them to focus more on personal customer interactions. These tools can also shorten the training time for new hires and quickly upskill  the existing workforce.

AI is important, yes. But, according to Ella Alkalay Schreiber, general manager (GM) of fintech at Hopper, “The actual challenge is to understand the data, ask the right questions, read prediction versus actual, and do this in a timely manner. The actual challenge is the human thinking, the common sense .”

How is mass tourism changing travel?

More people are traveling than ever before. The most visited destinations are experiencing more concentrated flows of tourists ; 80 percent of travelers visit just 10 percent of the world’s tourist destinations. Mass tourism can encumber infrastructure, frustrate locals, and even harm the attractions that visitors came to see in the first place.

Tourism stakeholders can collectively look for better ways to handle visitor flows before they become overwhelming. Destinations should remain alert to early warning signs about high tourism concentration and work to maximize the benefits of tourism, while minimizing its negative impacts.

Destinations should remain alert to early warning signs about high tourism concentration and work to maximize the benefits of tourism, while minimizing its negative impacts.

For one thing, destinations should understand their carrying capacity of tourists—that means the specific number of visitors a destination can accommodate before harm is caused to its physical, economic, or sociocultural environment. Shutting down tourism once the carrying capacity is reached isn’t always possible—or advisable. Rather, destinations should focus on increasing carrying capacity to enable more growth.

Next, destinations should assess their readiness to handle mass tourism and choose funding sources and mechanisms that can address its impacts. Implementing permitting systems for individual attractions can help manage capacity and mitigate harm. Proceeds from tourism can be reinvested into local communities to ensure that residents are not solely responsible for repairing the wear and tear caused by visitors.

After risks and funding sources have been identified, destinations can prepare for growing tourist volumes in the following ways:

• Build and equip a tourism-ready workforce to deliver positive tourism experiences.
• Use data (gathered from governments, businesses, social media platforms, and other sources) to manage visitor flows.
• Be deliberate about which tourist segments to attract (business travelers, sports fans, party groups, et cetera), and tailor offerings and communications accordingly.
• Distribute visitor footfall across different areas, nudging tourists to visit less-trafficked locations, and during different times, promoting off-season travel.
• Be prepared for sudden, unexpected fluctuations triggered by viral social media and cultural trends.
• Preserve cultural and natural heritage. Engage locals, especially indigenous people, to find the balance between preservation and tourism.

How can the travel sector accelerate the net-zero transition?

Global warming is getting worse, and the travel sector contributes up to 11 percent of total carbon emissions. Many consumers are aware that travel is part of the problem, but they’re reticent to give up their trips: travel activity is expected to soar by 85 percent  from 2016 to 2030. Instead, they’re increasing pressure on companies in the travel sector to achieve net zero . It’s a tall order: the range of decarbonization technologies in the market is limited, and what’s available is expensive.

But decarbonization doesn’t have to be a loss-leading proposition. Here are four steps  travel companies can take toward decarbonization that can potentially create value:

• Identify and sequence decarbonization initiatives. Awareness of decarbonization levers is one thing; implementation is quite another. One useful tool to help develop an implementation plan is the marginal abatement cost curve pathway framework, which provides a cost-benefit analysis of individual decarbonization levers and phasing plans.
• Partner to accelerate decarbonization of business travel. Many organizations will reduce their business travel, which accounts for 30 percent of all travel spend. This represents an opportunity for travel companies to partner with corporate clients on decarbonization. Travel companies can support their partners in achieving their decarbonization goals by nudging corporate users to make more sustainable choices, while making reservations and providing data to help partners track their emissions.
• Close the ‘say–do’ gap among leisure travelers. One McKinsey survey indicates that 40 percent of travelers globally say they are willing to pay at least 2 percent more for carbon-neutral flights. But Skift’s latest consumer survey reveals that only 14 percent  of travelers said they actually paid more for sustainable travel options. Travel companies can help close this gap by making sustainable options more visible during booking and using behavioral science to encourage travelers to make sustainable purchases.
• Build new sustainable travel options for the future. The travel sector can proactively pioneer sustainable new products and services. Green business building will require companies to create special initiatives, led by teams empowered to experiment without the pressure of being immediately profitable.

What’s the future of air travel?

Air travel is becoming more seasonal, as leisure travel’s increasing share of the market creates more pronounced summer peaks. Airlines have responded by shifting their schedules to operate more routes at greater frequency during peak periods. But airlines have run into turbulence when adjusting to the new reality. Meeting summer demand means buying more aircraft and hiring more crew; come winter, these resources go unutilized, which lowers productivity . But when airlines don’t run more flights in the summer, they leave a lot of money on the table.

How can airlines respond to seasonality? Here are three approaches :

• Mitigate winter weakness by employing conventional pricing and revenue management techniques, as well as creative pricing approaches (including, for example, monitoring and quickly seizing on sudden travel demand spikes, such as those created by a period of unexpectedly sunny weather).
• Adapt to seasonality by moving crew training sessions to off-peak periods, encouraging employee holiday taking during trough months, and offering workers seasonal contracts. Airlines can also explore outsourcing of crew, aircraft, maintenance, and even insurance.
• Leverage summer strengths, ensuring that commercial contracts reflect summer’s higher margins.

How is the luxury travel space evolving?

Quickly. Luxury travelers are not who you might expect: many are under the age of 60 and not necessarily from Europe or the United States. Perhaps even more surprisingly, they are not all millionaires: 35 percent of luxury-travel spending is by travelers with net worths between $100,000 and $1 million. Members of this group are known as aspirational luxury travelers, and they have their own set of preferences. They might be willing to spend big on one aspect of their trip—a special meal or a single flight upgrade—but not on every travel component. They prefer visibly branded luxury and pay close attention to loyalty program points and benefits .

The luxury-hospitality space is projected to grow faster than any other segment, at 6 percent per year  through 2025. And competition for luxury hotels is intensifying too: customers now have the option of renting luxurious villas with staff, or booking nonluxury hotels with luxury accoutrements such as rainfall showerheads and mattress toppers.

Another critical evolution is that the modern consumer, in the luxury space and elsewhere, values experiences over tangible things (exhibit).

Luxury properties may see more return from investing in a culture of excellence—powered by staff who anticipate customer needs, exceed expectations, create cherished memories, and make it all feel seamless—than in marble floors and gold-plated bath fixtures. Here are a few ways luxury properties can foster a culture of excellence :

• Leaders should assume the role of chief culture officer. GMs of luxury properties should lead by example to help nurture a healthy and happy staff culture and listen and respond to staff concerns.
• Hire for personalities, not resumes. “You can teach someone how to set a table,” said one GM we interviewed, “but you can’t teach a positive disposition.”
• Celebrate and reward employees. Best-in-class service is about treating customers with generosity and care. Leaders in the service sector can model this behavior by treating employees similarly.
• Create a truly distinctive customer experience . McKinsey research has shown that the top factor influencing customer loyalty in the lodging sector is “an experience worth paying more for”—not the product. Train staff to focus on tiny details as well as major needs to deliver true personalization.

What’s the latest in travel loyalty programs?

Loyalty programs are big business . They’ve evolved past being simply ways to boost sales or strengthen customer relationships; now, for many travel companies, they are profit centers in their own right. One major development was that travel companies realized they could sell loyalty points in bulk to corporate partners, who in turn offered the points to their customers as rewards. In 2019, United’s MileagePlus loyalty program sold $3.8 billion worth of miles to third parties, which accounted for 12 percent of the airline’s total revenue for that year. In 2022, American Airlines’ loyalty program brought in $3.1 billion in revenue, and Marriott’s brought in $2.7 billion.

But as this transition has happened, travel players have shifted focus away from the original purpose of these programs. Travel companies are seeing these loyalty programs primarily as revenue generators, rather than ways to improve customer experiences . As a result, loyalty program members have become increasingly disloyal. Recent loyalty surveys conducted by McKinsey revealed a steep decline in the likelihood that a customer would recommend airline, hotel, and cruise line loyalty programs to a friend. The same surveys also found that airline loyalty programs are driving fewer customer behavior changes than they used to.

So how can travel brands win customers’ loyalty back? Here are three steps to consider:

• Put experience at the core of loyalty programs. According to our 2023 McKinsey Travel Loyalty Survey , American respondents said they feel more loyal to Amazon than to the top six travel players combined, despite the absence of any traditional loyalty program. One of the reasons for Amazon’s success may be the frictionless experience it provides customers. Companies should strive to design loyalty programs around experiential benefits that make travelers feel special and seamlessly integrate customer experiences between desktop, mobile, and physical locations.
• Use data to offer personalization  to members. Travel brands have had access to customer data for a long time. But many have yet to deploy it for maximum value. Companies can use personalization to tailor both experiences and offers for loyalty members; our research has shown that 78 percent  of consumers are more likely to make a repeat purchase when offered a personalized experience.
• Rethink partnerships. Traditionally, travel companies have partnered with banks to offer cobranded credit cards. But many credit card brands now offer their own, self-branded travel rewards ecosystems. These types of partnerships may have diminishing returns in the future. When rethinking partnerships, travel brands should seek to build richer connections with customers, while boosting engagement. Uber’s partnership with Marriott, for example, gives users the option to link the brands’ loyalty programs, tapping into two large customer bases and providing more convenient travel experiences.

In a changing travel ecosystem, travel brands will need to ask themselves some hard questions if they want to earn back their customers’ loyalty.

Learn more about McKinsey’s Travel, Logistics, and Infrastructure Practice . And check out travel-related job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced include:

• “ Updating perceptions about today’s luxury traveler ,” May 29, 2024, Caroline Tufft , Margaux Constantin , Matteo Pacca , and Ryan Mann
• “ The way we travel now ,” May 29, 2024, Caroline Tufft , Margaux Constantin , Matteo Pacca , and Ryan Mann
• “ Destination readiness: Preparing for the tourist flows of tomorrow ,” May 29, 2024, Caroline Tufft , Margaux Constantin , Matteo Pacca , and Ryan Mann
• “ How the world’s best hotels deliver exceptional customer experience ,” March 18, 2024, Ryan Mann , Ellen Scully, Matthew Straus, and Jillian Tellez Holub
• “ How airlines can handle busier summers—and comparatively quiet winters ,” January 8, 2024, Jaap Bouwer, Ludwig Hausmann , Nina Lind , Christophe Verstreken, and Stavros Xanthopoulos
• “ Travel invented loyalty as we know it. Now it’s time for reinvention. ,” November 15, 2023, Lidiya Chapple, Clay Cowan, Ellen Scully, and Jillian Tellez Holub
• “ What AI means for travel—now and in the future ,” November 2, 2023, Alex Cosmas  and Vik Krishnan
• “ The promise of travel in the age of AI ,” September 27, 2023, Susann Almasi, Alex Cosmas , Sam Cowan, and Ben Ellencweig
• “ The future of tourism: Bridging the labor gap enhancing customer experience ,” August 1, 2023, Urs Binggeli, Zi Chen, Steffen Köpke, and Jackey Yu
• “ Hotels in the 2030s: Perspectives from Accor’s C-suite ,” July 27, 2023, Aurélia Bettati
• “ Tourism in the metaverse: Can travel go virtual? ,” May 4, 2023, Margaux Constantin , Giuseppe Genovese, Kashiff Munawar, and Rebecca Stone
• “ Three innovations to solve hotel staffing shortages ,” April 3, 2023, Ryan Mann , Esteban Ramirez, and Matthew Straus
• “ Accelerating the transition to net-zero travel ,” September 20, 2022, Danielle Bozarth , Olivier Cheret, Vik Krishnan , Mackenzie Murphy, and Jules Seeley
• “ The six secrets of profitable airlines ,” June 28, 2022, Jaap Bouwer, Alex Dichter , Vik Krishnan , and Steve Saxon
• “ How to ‘ACE’ hospitality recruitment ,” June 23, 2022, Margaux Constantin , Steffen Köpke, and Joost Krämer
• “ Opportunities for industry leaders as new travelers take to the skies ,” April 5, 2022, Mishal Ahmad, Frederik Franz, Tomas Nauclér, and Daniel Riefer
• “ Rebooting customer experience to bring back the magic of travel ,” September 21, 2021, Vik Krishnan , Kevin Neher, Maurice Obeid , Ellen Scully, and Jules Seeley

Want to know more about the future of travel?

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BUSINESS STRATEGIES

14 best travel and tourism websites and design to inspire

• Kylie Goldstein

Whether you’re new to tourism—curating local experiences or renting out your home—or a travel veteran who has weathered the storm of tourism woes, there’s no better time to create a website for your tourism and travel types of businesses - its the perfect service business idea . We’ve compiled a list of some of the best travel websites, plus a few travel website design tips to help you create or improve your own.

Read Also: How to start a business

What is a tourism and travel website?

The tourism and travel industry has become more accessible than ever. The internet has made it easier to research, plan and book trips, all with just a few clicks. You can find everything from flights, hotels, and restaurants to car rentals and local experiences online.

A tourism or travel website serves as an information hub for prospective travelers planning a getaway. Today, people travel for a range of experiences—babymoons, staycations, voluntourism or bleisure—you name it. So, provide as much relevant information as possible to help users plan their trips.

When creating a travel website, entice travelers with blogs or video content that offers insider tips and local secrets. You can discuss practical information like local currency, customs and expectations, or review or rating popular destinations. You can also supply average local prices for travel necessities, offer tips for transportation or even add a Google Map of your favorite spots.

Tip: You can understand how to plan your website , then make your hotel website with Wix, complete with ready-made travel and tourism templates .

Best travel website examples

Let’s explore a range of tourism website examples, all built with Wix:

Inward Travel

Tourism Richmond Hill

Echo Fitness

African Empire Tours

Champlain Tours

Bella Vista

Home Sweet Home

Immanuel Wilderness Lodge

Sea Breeze Panormos

Jon's Carmel Marketing Cooking Class and Food Tour

The Berlin Storyteller

All Inclusive Vacations

Twende Zetu Kilimanjaro

01. Inward Travel

Creator Noå runs Inward Travel to “take the opportunity of lifelong learning, to improve quality of life and performance by consciousness and exercise.” The company curates unique cold water experiences, sweat-dripping-exercises and leadership trails in destinations like The Netherlands.

Inward Travel’s minimal one-page website highlights the relevant information clearly and concisely. The enticing video strip in the first fold of the website instantly paints a picture of the experiences offered. The simple color palette aligns with the brand messaging and the site effectively uses his logo, including the favicon.

02. Tourism Richmond Hill

Canadian-based Tourism Richmond Hill’s informative website includes thorough details for both locals and visitors alike, paired with eye-catching visuals and clear language. A clear menu leads users to navigation options like ‘restaurants around town,’ ‘where to stay,’ ‘things to do, and ‘useful links’. Additionally, their ‘Shop Local, Support Your Community,’ section expands their potential visitor pool, encouraging residents to treat their hometown like a tourist destination.

03. Echo Fitness

Don’t let the name fool you, Echo offers much more than just a fitness website . The homepage gives a brief description of all of Echo Fitness’s services, including active holidays, fitness retreats, personal training and ski instruction—all based in Zermatt, Switzerland—with clear CTAs to learn more. Each section includes a thorough description, complete with sample itineraries of previous trips or retreats. The travel website also gives a clear breakdown of plans and pricing, with a clear Book Now button for easy requests. Echo Fitness’s social media bar also includes a link to TripAdvisor, using this external platform to establish trust from previous travelers’ reviews.

Learn more: Travel business names

04. African Empire Tours

African Empire Tours immerses travelers in the culture, architecture and natural splendor of Asante, Kongo, Songhair, Zulu and Ethiopia. The tourism website clearly outlines the five tour destinations and gives a clear itinerary example.

African Empire Tours also smartly includes a clear Subscribe form above their contact information to engage with prospective travelers in the research/deciding phase of trip planning. Adding a subscribe form can help you keep visitors up to date on your business offerings.

05. Champlain Tours

Champlain Tours puts their pre-arranged group and customizable private tour options front and center, so prospective visitors can easily find what they want. They also include links to their social media profiles, including their YouTube channel which showcases video content of what visitors can expect when on tour with the company. They also prominently display previous travelers’ customer reviews as social proof to establish trust.

06. Japan Time

Japan Time’s Tom and Stav share their first-hand experiences with a range of thoughtful blogs, guides and tips for other travelers looking to make the most out of their experience. They break down the essentials like travel budget, transportation, food as well as holidays and cultural traditions in the land of the rising sun. The travel site also includes experiential tours like a “Culinary evening in Osaka” or “Ikebana techniques” that visitors can directly book online.

07. Bella Vista

Ciao Bella—arriving at Bella Vista’s vacation website offers an instant escape into the Sicilian countryside. Creative travel website design elements such as parallax scrolling brings the hotel to life; from a close up shot of a mouth-watering cannoli to the gorgeous view their property boasts, visitors will want to book a vacation and sign up for Italian lessons, too. This is one of the best hotel websites we've come across, as the captivating photos take you on a beautiful Italian getaway.

08. Home Sweet Home

Sometimes when vacation planning, you want a home away from home rather than a big to-do. Well, at France’s Home Sweet Home, you can choose from three uniquely styled rooms fit for comfort, relaxation and fun. Take a closer look at the photo gallery for every room and start to feel that vacation vibe seep in. Our favorite part of their travel website ? Their on-site private spa services.

09. Immanuel Wilderness Lodge

For those seeking adventure, consider Immanuel Wilderness Lodge, located in the Namibian Savannah. This family-run lodge has earned a collection of rave reviews and well-deserved TripAdvisor awards. For those who prefer to know exactly what to expect before arriving, their amazing 360° virtual tours show off their accommodations, lobby, restaurant and surrounding property.

10. Sea Breeze Panormos

Is there anything more exotic than a Greek vacation? After browsing their travel website, you’ll know why the four properties comprising Sea Breeze of Mykonos offer a quintessential vacation spot. Look at the romantic views, pristine accommodations and learn about what this magical island offers.

Using a teal Book Now button pops out amid the muted gray background, helping users know exactly what to do upon entering the site.

11. Jon’s Carmel Market Cooking Class and Food Tour

Almost any traveler to Tel Aviv knows that a visit to the Carmel Market is a must. Jon’s Carmel Market Cooking Class and Food Tour’s clear and direct website makes it incredibly easy for travelers to navigate through the famously bustling market. Jon, the owner, includes a short, captivating video that lets visitors know what a typical day in the market looks like. He also provides a detailed itinerary and a strategically placed CTA for Book Now.

Jon also uses a Wix pro gallery to showcase the vibrant colors and flavors of the food market. His contact information is easy to find and includes links to all his social channels, including his TripAdvisor rating.

12. The Berlin Storyteller

Dennis Behnke, a Berlin native offers his tour services and in his own words, “Be it on foot and public transportation, be it on bike or in a van, let me help you create your perfect Berlin private tour.” His thoughtful and well-organized travel website design includes a clear list of his unique tours with detailed descriptions and lengths. Behnke has native experience and insights into the diverse city.

He includes his TripAdvisor rating directly on his homepage alongside a personalized explanation of his experiences, effectively reinforcing his brand name as the Berlin Storyteller. Working as an independent tour guide is a great service business idea. It can be a great side hustle or full-time venture if you have detailed knowledge of a city or specific destination.

13. All Inclusive Vacations

This travel website asks users a simple yet profound question upon entry—where to? For those who connect with this spark of wanderlust, there’s a relevant questionnaire to fill out and to receive a range of all-inclusive vacation packages.

This travel website design also offers visitors drone video content, providing a bird-eye’s view and immersive look into each exotic getaway. In addition, All Inclusive Vacations includes their team’s photos, letting prospective travelers know who they’re talking to while planning their trips. A chatbot provides instant responses and efficiently handles incoming questions as well.

14. Twende Zetu Kilimanjaro

For hikers looking to experience iconic Mount Kilimanjaro, this travel website offers practical information including medical details, experiential knowledge, trip schedules and trail guides. Users can easily navigate the clearly laid-out information, helping them to understand the most relevant information before such an exciting hike.

What to include in a tourism and travel website

Every tourism or travel website will vary depending on the destination and target visitor. However, most travel websites should include the following:

Easy-to-use scheduling software

High-quality photography and images

Relevant information about nearby attractions—including museums, arts, cultural events, restaurants and shopping

Packing advice

Maps and directions

Public transportation information (note if users need to download apps in advance)

Air travel and airport information

Language guidelines and local slang

Clear links to social media channels

Contact information

Reviews or testimonials

An online store to buy branded or local merchandise (use an online store builder  for this)

Ready to create a blog  for your travel website?  Make one today. Or read more about how to start a travel blog .

Tourism and travel website design tips

Whether you have created a hotel website  starting from scratch or you are updating your current travel website, keep these design tips in mind.

Include a logo: A logo can help establish consistency for your brand’s online presence. A good logo should communicate the crux of your destination, tour company or rental and help visitors make a positive association with your business before they even arrive. You can use a free logo maker  to design a logo for your travel website, plus use it for business cards, brochures, branded merchandise and social media channels.

Ensure a cohesive travel website design: Select a representative color palette for your brand and stick to it throughout your travel website’s visual identity. For example, if you run a natural spa getaway, stick to tranquil and calming colors over rugged and earthy tones that better match an extreme sports tour guide. With Wix’s editor's site and theme design , you can customize your website colors, fonts and images and maintain a cohesive look with automatic theme updates across your site’s pages. Also check out some of these general website examples  for inspiration.

Use images: For prospective travelers planning their future getaways, high-quality images can immediately transport them to your destination. We recommend ​​using  JPEG ,  PNG  and GIF files for images to appear their best on your site.

Don’t overload pages: Travel is all about the escape. Make your site’s user experience just as relaxing as traveling should be—don’t overload it with superfluous content or features. Tip:  Build your travel website with Wix website performance  at its core. Sites offer better page load speed plus Wix’s site speed dashboard  to test, analyze and optimize your site’s performance for both desktop and mobile.

Think about site hierarchy within your travel website design : As visitors explore your site, you want them to receive relevant information and experience your offering efficiently. Prioritize your main pages and create menus, headers and subheaders that clearly reflect this hierarchy. Not only will this create a better user experience (and hopefully convert visitors to customers) but it will also make it easier for Google’s search engine robots to scan and index your pages.

Make it mobile friendly: Mobile accounts for approximately half  of web traffic worldwide, meaning potentially half (or more) of visitors will explore your website via their devices. Creating a mobile-friendly travel and tourism website will ensure a better experience, regardless of device. Tip:  The Wix Editor automatically creates a mobile version for every website  it designs.

Lean into templates : Templates are a great way to create a design-friendly travel and tourism website in an efficient way. Here's a selection of our favorite travel and tourism templates from Wix: Travel services templates , Travel agency template , Food and travel website templates , Travel blog template , Travel documentary templates , Hotel and BnB website templates.

Consider SEO:  If you optimize your travel website content to rank on search engines, you can increase your traffic. How? First, target specific keywords. For example, think of your prospective travelers: what questions or phrases might they search for that could lead them to your tourism website? Integrate these keywords into your website content. Tip:  Check out Wix SEO features  or the Wix SEO hub  for more detailed steps that’ll help your travel website perform better on search engines.

Maintain your travel website design: Just as you care for your hotel or tours, you need to apply the same TLC to your website. Fresh and up-to-date content (like prices and current links) can help users get the most out of their experience.

Try out new technologies:  Following the latest travel technology trends , try integrating a chat bot for quick responses and user engagement or use 3D/AR viewer  to give users a virtual tour of your destination.

Tourism and travel website design examples FAQ

What are some famous examples of travel websites.

There are many: Skyscanner, AirBnb, Kayak amongst others.

What are the different types of travel websites to create

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Tourism Content Writing: How to Promote Your Tourism Business Through Blogging

If you’re a travel professional and you own a travel business, investing in tourism content writing is an idea worth considering. For that purpose, you will need a blog on your website.

So how do you create a successful blog to attract more visitors to your destination?

I’m going to try my best to keep it short to give you a few tips and tricks when it comes to starting a travel blog to promote your tourism business .

The first step is to create your website if you haven’t got one already. You can use WordPress or Wix, for instance.

Steps for an effective tourism content writing strategy

When you have a registered domain , you can promote your tour offers and services online, accept online bookings and so on and so forth. But to make all those efforts efficient, you definitely need a tourism content writing strategy and a blog.

Setting up a blog

There are a two ways you can do this:

• Creating your own blog inside your website or
• Using blogging platforms

The first option is to create a blog that’s integrated into your website, you can do that in a subfolder, for example “www.mytourbusiness.com/blog”. The second is using platforms such as Medium , in that case all you need is to create an account and start publishing.

Though, I recommend you go with the first option. Why? Because your goal is to promote your tourism business website in order to attract visitors and potential clients.

Decide on the topics

Before you rush into tourism content writing, consider what would you write about .

Have in mind the target audience for your travel blog.

What would they like to read about?

Is your destination best visited at a certain time of the year or do you offer different activities all year round?

Here’s a title for you: Best Time To Visit ________ . You can write a lengthy blog post just about that for starters.

Additionally, you can use your blog to showcase your company, services, as well as show off your experience in the field.

Take into consideration what kind of services and tours you’re offering. Check out what your competition is doing.

Take this as a travel content writing example, if you’re offering boat excursions on the Adriatic coast, make sure you offer quality content that relates to what your business does. Use the blog post to inform travelers about the Adriatic coast, tell them what’s so interesting about visiting the Dalmatia and its many islands. Talk about what they can experience and see if they decide to take your tours.

Create an editorial calendar

Step up your game. Write down all the topics you think of and create an editorial calendar.

You can use Google Sheets or another app to keep track of your blog posts and topics, I use Notion for example. Devise a plan and stick to it.

As you go and keep a track record, you can tweak a few things along the way—for instance, how often are you going to blog. You might start with once a week and see how it goes. It really depends on the type of travel business you run.

Tourism content writing is all about storytelling

I’m pretty sure you already know this by now, but it’s doesn’t hurt to go over it again.

Every destination has its own unique story. Even your tour business has a story which you can use to establish your brand.

The thing with stories is that they get tourists interested and curious to find out more about a place they’re going to be visiting. It sheds new light on a destination.

Storytelling is an old yet powerful tool to promote your tourism business, so better you learn how to tell a good story .

Before you start with tourism content writing, you need to recognize who you’re writing for and what is the story you want tourists to hear about . This means you need to do your research. Get to know the history behind your destination and places of interest. Take notes on every single detail you can get your hands on.

What is it that brings people to a specific destination? Use that to your advantage.

Let’s take the island of Hvar in Croatia as an example. It’s known for its extraordinary beauty, history, lavender fields, olive oil, the oldest theater in Europe, etc. There are also a lot of legends and tales about Hvar, such as the origin of the Tudor family in Milna on Hvar. Or take the island of Brač with its mystical tales about how dragons ruled the island.

Write about hidden gems, coves, architecture, historical events, local cuisine, etc. Tell tourists how exciting this particular place or activity could be.

Name all the reasons why they should come and visit.

You can always use the historical data and folk tales to make your destination or tours more tempting. However, don’t get carried away and start making things up. 

If you’re a tour guide then you might even know all those stories by heart, you just need to put it in writing.

If you don’t want to reveal the whole story right away, save the best parts for the tour and give people only a sneak peek.

By telling a story, you’re basically presenting your storytelling talent and the power to grab people’s attention with interesting topics. Also, travelers get to meet you and your brand by following your blog. They get to virtually meet you and how you do your business before they actually book anything.

Time to blog

1, 2, 3, GO!

Sounds simple enough, right?

You may think that tourism content writing is easy and that you can carelessly open up a Word document and start typing.

That’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s best to check out a few best practices before you get started.

• Decide on the language you’re going to use. Or you going to write in your mother tongue or in English? It all really depends on your travel blog target audience.
• Have a proofreading tool, such as Grammarly . You don’t want any typos to sneak up on you, now do you?
• Be sure how to model you post. Tourists want information that’s easily digestible, credible, and timely.
• Use plenty of headings and keep your paragraphs short and interesting. The goal is to spark people’s curiosity.
• Have in mind that longer content ranks better as long as it’s relevant and useful to your audience. Spend as much time promoting your content as you do creating it.
• Always include a call to action and make them perfectly clear. For example, tell people to subscribe to your weekly newsletter, book a tour, read related articles, etc. It doesn’t really matter, just decide on one CTA and don’t make people think what they’re supposed to do after they read your blog.
• Don’t overwhelm potential clients with information. Prioritize your content. It might be a better idea to blog periodically but offer quality content than blog randomly about every little thing that pops into your head and has no actual meaning to your target audience.
• Write persuasively. After all, the main purpose of maintaining a blog is to promote your tourism business, which means selling (tours, excursions, accommodation, tickets, and others). You’re selling an experience.
• If writing is just not your cup of tea, you can hire a freelance blogger or a freelance content writer to be in charge of your tourism blog. Or… you can make an arrangement with a travel blogger to come up with a guest post from time to time. (further reading: How to Make sure Travel Bloggers are Right for your Tour Business? )
• When running out of ideas, don’t panic—you can always turn to customer reviews and build an interesting post, especially if they’ve attached quality photographs when taking your tour.

Don’t forget that it’s OK to be honest and don’t be afraid to show your vulnerability. Your clients will appreciate the honesty. That’s pure travel content writing.

Does SEO apply to your tourism content writing?

The answer to this question is yes.

If you’re using WordPress, you could try a plugin called Yoast which takes care of everything you need at the beginning. However, it doesn’t hurt to know at least a thing or two about SEO for tour operators.

First things first, a single blog post isn’t enough to rank for a certain competitive keyword. I’ll be upfront with you guys, matching the exact phrase is becoming irrelevant.

And no, I’m not saying you should ditch SEO altogether. Focus on user intent rather than wasting your time with stuffing your blog posts with keywords. Keyword stuffing is dead. I repeat, keyword stuffing is dead.

Nowadays, you must focus on building multiple keywords into one blog post if you want to see any real results. This is called keyword clustering and you might want to read up on that after finishing this article.

There are plenty of tools you can use to measure and optimize your blog’s performance. Here are some powerful tools to help you with SEO:

• Google Marketing Platform

Share your blog posts on social media

Ok, so your tourism content writing strategy is finally taking off, now what?

You share it on your social media accounts! Honestly, I can’t stress enough just how important it is to have an online media presence and share your content on the Internet with your travel blog audience.

For a detailed guide on this matter, check out this blog post:

• How To Use Social Media To Promote Tours

Enrich your blog with prominent visuals

Make sure you use quality photographs, preferably your original ones and not stock photography. By adding amazing photos and videos (why not) you can strengthen the effect of your blog.

Photographs help you tell your story. How else are you going to promote your tour business if not with the help of great content AND gorgeous photos?

• Tour Provider’s Cheat Sheet – Win Customers with Authentic Photos [Infographic]
• How to Make Remarkable Tour Photos
• Best Free Photo Editing Apps for Breathtaking Tour Photos

Implement an online booking button

Blog posts offer a great opportunity for you to add a “Book Now” button so your customers can book your tour, activity or service directly from your website while they’re reading your blog post.

• Advantages of Using Online Booking Software
• This Is What the Most Effective Booking Button Looks Like
• How To Grow Your Tour Business Via Online Marketing

Use Orioly to add a customizable BOOK NOW button to your website and get bookings 24/7 . The advantage of this is that your customers can then book directly on your website at lower rates.

Going beyond tourism content writing

Are you struggling with the idea of how to grow your tour business through various online marketing channels and strategies?

For a detailed guide on best digital marketing practices, we’ve prepared a comprehensive 60-page eBook that you can download for free.

ORIOLY on May 19, 2021

by Lidija Šomodi

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What next for travel and tourism? Here's what the experts say

In many countries, more than 80% of travel and tourism spending actually comes from the domestic market. Image:  Unsplash/Surface

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Stay up to date:.

• In 2020 alone, the travel and tourism sector lost $4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs globally.
• But as the world recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, travel and tourism can bounce back as an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient sector.
• Two experts highlight some of the key transformations in the sector going forward during the World Economic Forum's Our World in Transformation series.

The Travel & Tourism sector was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving not only companies but also tourism-driven economies severely affected by shutdowns, travel restrictions and the disappearance of international travel.

In 2020 alone, the sector lost $4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs, impacting the living standards and well-being of communities across the globe. Moreover, the halt in international travel gave both leisure and business travellers the chance to consider the impact of their choices on the climate and environment.

Amid shifting demand dynamics and future opportunities and risks, a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient travel and tourism sector can be - and needs to be - built.

The World Economic Forum's Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021 finds that embedding inclusivity, sustainability and resilience into the travel and tourism sector as it recovers, will ensure it can continue to be a driver of global connectivity, peace and economic and social progress.

We spoke to Sandra Carvao , Chief of Market Intelligence and Competitiveness at the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and Liz Ortiguera , CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Thailand (PATA), and asked them to highlight some of the key areas of risk and opportunity in the sector during an episode of the World Economic Forum's Our World in Transformation series.

Have you read?

Travel & tourism development index 2021: rebuilding for a sustainable and resilient future, towards resilience and sustainability: travel and tourism development recovery, how can we really achieve sustainability in the travel sector, what are some of the top global trends you're witnessing currently in the travel and tourism sector.

Liz Ortiguera: Given the extended lockdown that we had on travel with the pandemic, vacation for friends and relatives (VFR) is now a high priority for people who haven’t been in touch for a long time thanks to the pandemic. So, people are reconnecting. And that kind of links to the second trend, which is multi-purpose or blended travel. Never before, particularly now that we can connect digitally through Zoom, has the ability to work from anywhere enabled travellers to cover multiple purposes, like visits with friends and multiple business trips. So, we'll find that the duration of travel and the length of stay is longer. And third is the continued high focus on safety and wellness which is top of mind for travellers due to the pandemic. All travel is wellness-related now.

Sandra Carvao: I think there is a bigger concern with sustainability, which is very welcome in our industry. Consumers, particularly the younger generation, are much more aware of the impact they have, not only on the environment but also socially and on the communities they live in. We've also seen an increase in expenditure per trip, so I think people are very eager to go outside, and they're staying longer. And on the other side, I think there are some challenges: we’re seeing a rise in late bookings because restrictions can change at short notice and that’s having an impact on the decisions of travellers. This is putting pressure on the industry in terms of planning and anticipating fluctuations in demand.

Social media surveys have shown that travellers who have immersive experiences are more likely to post about them, which is good for the industry.

What is community-based tourism and why is it important?

Sandra Carvao: One of the positive impacts of the pandemic is that people are looking for local experiences and are spending more time with communities. So, the concept of community-based tourism is obviously one that puts the community at the core of every development, ensuring that it's engaged and empowered and that it benefits. At the UNWTO, we worked with the G20 and the Saudi presidency back in 2020 and produced a framework for tourism development in communities, which states that communities need to be part of the planning and management of tourism activities. We need to go beyond traditional definitions of community to a point where the industry leans on partnerships between the public and private sectors and communities.

Liz Ortiguera: In July 2022, PATA is hosting a destination-marketing forum and one of the key themes is community-based tourism. The purpose is really to put the community and authenticity-in-culture activities at the heart of the travel experience. There are benefits for all stakeholders. One is that travellers can have an authentic experience. They're not in overcrowded, touristic locations and they experience something new and unique within the community. These experiences are designed in partnership with communities who get the benefit of financial inclusion, and if activities are designed properly, the reinforcement of their cultural heritage. Governments also engage in economic development more broadly across countries. Another interesting trend is creative tourism, which means you create an experience for tourists to participate in, like a dance lesson, or a cooking lesson. Social media surveys have shown that travellers who have these kinds of immersive experiences are more likely to post about them online and that's good for the industry.

It is important to emphasize that virtual experiences, while they are a fun tool, can never replace visiting a destination.

How is technology and innovation helping to leverage cultural resources?

Sandra Carvao: One interesting trend we’re seeing is that more and more people are booking trips directly, so communities need to be supported to digitize their systems. Education and upskilling of communities are important so that they can leverage digital platforms to market themselves. From the tourists’ perspective, it is important to emphasize that virtual experiences, while they are a fun tool, can never replace visiting a destination.

Liz Ortiguera: People have been living virtually for more than two years. Amazing innovations have emerged, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, and all kinds of applications and tools. But the important thing is the experience. The destination. Real-world experiences need to remain front and centre. Technology tools should be viewed as enablers and not the core experience. And when it comes to staff, technology can really democratize education. There’s an opportunity to mobilize a mobile-first approach for those who are on the frontlines, or out in the field, and can’t easily access computers, but need to get real-time information.

How is the sector dealing with labour shortages and re-employment of the workforce?

Liz Ortiguera: Labour shortages are much more dynamic in North America and in Europe. But it’s having a knock-on effect on Asia. If, for example, their air carriers are limited by staff and they have to cancel flights, which we're very much seeing out of Europe, seating capacity then becomes a limiting factor in the recovery of Asia Pacific. That's the main constraint right now. And compounding that is the rising price of fuel. But people in the Asia Pacific are keen to get reemployed.

Sandra Carvao: Labour shortages are a priority for the sector in countries around the world. Many workers left the sector during the pandemic and the uncertainty that surrounded the measures taken to contain it left many people unsure of whether the sector would recover. It is time to address things like conditions, scheduling, and work/life balance, all things which have been top of mind for workers during the pandemic. As the sector recovers, we need time to bring new hires on board and to train them to take over where those who switched jobs left off.

Are we seeing a growing trend towards domestic tourism?

Sandra Carvao: We’re talking about 9 billion people travelling within their own countries. And in many countries, for example in Germany, more than 80% of the tourism spending actually comes from the domestic market, similarly in countries like Spain and even smaller economies. Whenever it's possible to travel again, domestic markets tend to be more resilient. They kick off first mostly due to perceptions of safety and security issues. As the world economy recovers from the pandemic, there is a good opportunity for nations to rethink their strategy, look at the domestic market in a different way, and leverage different products for domestic tourists.

When it comes to sustainable tourism, how quickly could we mainstream eco-friendly modes of transportation?

Sandra Carvao: Transport is one of the key contributors to energy impacts and tourism. But it's also important that we look at the whole value chain. The UNWTO together with the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme just launched the Glasgow Declaration, which includes green commitments from destinations and companies. We’re seeing a strong movement in the airline industry to reduce emissions. But I think, obviously, technological developments will be very important. But it's also very important to look at market shifts. And we can't forget small islands and developing states that rely on long-haul air travel. It’s important to make sure that we invest in making the problem much less impactful.

Liz Ortiguera: 'Travel and tourism' is such a broad encompassing term that it’s not fair to call it an industry: it is actually a sector of many industries. The pandemic taught us how broad the impact of the sector is in terms of sustainability. There's a big movement in terms of destination resilience, which is the foundation for achieving sustainability in the journey to net-zero. We now have standards to mitigate that impact including meetings-and-events (MIE) standards and standards for tour operators. There are multiple areas within our industry where progress is being made. And I'm really encouraged by the fact that there is such a focus not just within the sector but also among consumers.

This interview was first done at the World Economic Forum's studios in Geneva as part of 'Our World in Transformation' - a live interactive event series for our digital members. To watch all the episodes and join future sessions, please subscribe here .

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World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Sustainable tourism, storytelling, and social impact for for travel content creators. Industry news, tips, guides, and solutions delivered straight to your inbox.

Whether you’re a writer, blogger, influencer, photographer, videographer, podcaster, or some other content creator working in the travel and tourism industry, you have a job that many people envy.

But you know being a storyteller is hard work, and with that hard work comes incredible responsibility.

After all, your job lets you interact with interesting people, participate in engaging activities, and see incredible places … but you also have the difficult decision of deciding what deserves coverage and how to approach and frame every single piece of content you create.

Your job is more than just creation. You must:

• Decide who or what you will feature — and who or what you will leave out.
• Think critically about word choice, imagery, messaging, personal perspective, and historical and cultural context.
• Know where to find and how to incorporate underreported stories, people, or social and environmental issues that bump up against tourism.
• Understand how the content choices you make impact the behavior and actions of readers, listeners, followers, and fans.
• Stay on top of new ways to approach travel content.

And you need to do that over and over again, even as you juggle travel plans, assignments, and relationships that keep your career afloat while avoiding burnout and animosity about content creation that many people consider "soft." 

As a powerful influence bridging travelers with the places they visit and the communities they encounter, you play a critical and often under-recognized role in the tourism industry. Rooted is here to provide you with the tools, resources, ideas, and inspiration you need to fuel this important work and confidently navigate the relationship between sustainable tourism and responsible storytelling.

Travel writing can be problematic. You are the solution. R esponsible Travel Writing for Travel Media

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Resources for writers:

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Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong about the World — and Why Things are Better Than You Think - Journalism often thrives on extremes. This book uses data to highlight some of the misconceptions the media (and society in general) perpetuate. It also offer strategies for recognizing and thinking beyond those misconceptions.

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Travel and Tourism Drive More Than 10% of the European Economy

A ccording to the latest forecasts from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the travel and tourism sector is expected to increase its GDP contribution to the European economy from €2.25 trillion in 2023 to €2.4 trillion in 2024. Over the next ten years, this might rise to a staggering $3 trillion by 2034, representing around a 10th of the country's total GDP.

This infographic shows the direct, indirect, and induced contribution of travel and tourism to the European GDP from 2019 to 2023, with a forecast to 2034.

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The 20th City Travel Report shows a 13.7% increase in European city tourism in 2023, with significant growth in bed nights and sustainability measures tracking CO2 emissions.

The 20th edition of the  City Travel Report by CityDNA  (formerly known as the  CityDNA Benchmarking Report ) reveals a steady growth in European city tourism, as cities achieved an average increase of 13.7% in 2023. The report, featuring results from 117 European cities, showcases the remarkable progress made in the post-pandemic recovery. In line with sustainability strategies, the report includes estimations of transport-related CO2 emissions related to city tourism.

“This report is the perfect illustration of a fruitful collaboration between European destinations; it highlights significant trends, notable challenges, qualitative KPIs and key market dynamics that are shaping the landscape of city travel compared to national tourism.“  commented  Barbara Jamison-Woods , President of  City Destinations Alliance .

This development is due to growth in total bed nights experienced in 114 out of 117 analysed cities. The top three cities in terms of total bednights in 2023 remained the same as 2022: London, Paris, and Istanbul.

Among the top 20 performers, the most notable increases were recorded in Rome (45.2%), London (32.1%), and Vienna (30.6%). Compared to 2019, Istanbul had the highest growth: the city exceeded its 2019 values by 24.3%.

The main source markets for European cities have shown robust performance in 2023. However, the growth rates were diverse: single-digit growth for France; double-digit growth for United Kingdom, United States, Italy, Spain, and Germany; and an impressive triple-digit growth for China and Japan.

The past year has shown positive average international annual growth rates in both the report cities (19.6%) and the EU 27 nations and UK (13.8%). Cities increased much more than other regions (15.5% versus 7.2%) in terms of total volumes, which highlights yet again the importance of city destinations within European tourism.

Further analyses revealed that the average growth rate of bed capacity gained momentum with an increase of 4.6% in 2023. Regarding the bed occupancy, the benchmark average in 2023 was 46.8%, in comparison to 43.1% in 2022.

In line with the varied sustainability strategies that are on the agendas of many DMOs, the  City Travel Report by CityDNA  continues with estimations of transport-related CO2 emissions related to city tourism. Upon inspection of CO2 emissions caused by tourists travelling to/from the city, average nominal value for total CO2 in 2023 was at 776,678, which unsurprisingly, was heavily skewed by large cities such as Amsterdam, Lisbon, Vienna, and Prague. Regarding kg CO2 per tourist 2022-2023, average percentage growth was 11.8%, with only 3 out of 61 analysed cities recording negative rates, namely Stockholm, Liepaja, and Luxembourg.

These results offer a brief preview of the further post-pandemic recovery and stabilisation of the European city tourism in 2023, despite ongoing challenges (e.g., conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, inflation, and the impact of climate change). More insights and analyses that are found in the  City Travel Report by CityDNA  can be of great assistance to city DMOs in setting realistic targets for their destinations.

“City tourism is the clear growth driver of tourism demand in Europe and the most important segment in tourism. In 2023, demand was on track to fully return compared to the period before.”  concluded  Karl Wöber , President of  Modul University Vienna.

Vicky Karantzavelou

Vicky  is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the  Editor-in Chief . She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.

She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.

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Distribution of travel and tourism spending in Austria 2019-2023, by tourist type

The share of domestic and international spending in travel and tourism in Austria shifted slightly between 2019 and 2023. Even though inbound traveler spending decreased by 1.6 percentage points over the period considered, it still accounted for the majority of the total, with international visitors generating nearly 55 percent of travel and tourism spending in 2023.

Distribution of travel and tourism spending in Austria in 2019 and 2023, by type of tourist

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• European countries with the highest number of inbound tourist arrivals 2019-2023

Leisure Travel

• Leading European city tourism destinations 2019-2022, by number of bed nights
• Number of international tourist arrivals in Turkey 2000-2023
• Number of inbound tourist arrivals in selected European destinations 2019-2023

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Statistics on " Travel and tourism in Turkey "

• European countries with the highest inbound tourism receipts 2019-2023
• Travel and tourism's total contribution to GDP in Turkey 2019-2023
• Share of the GDP of the tourism sector in Turkey 2013-2028
• Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in Turkey 2019-2022, by type
• Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in Turkey 2019-2022, by tourist type
• Total tourism income in Turkey 2001-2023
• Tourism income in Turkey 2021-2023, by type of expenditure
• Inbound visitor arrivals in Turkey 2008-2023
• Inbound day visitor arrivals in Turkey 2008-2023
• Number of foreign tourist arrivals in Turkey monthly 2020-2023
• Number of international visitors in Turkey 2023, by purpose of visit
• Leading inbound travel markets in Turkey 2019-2023
• Average tourist expenditure per capita of inbound visitors in Turkey 2003-2023
• Number of domestic trips in Turkey 2009-2023
• Domestic overnight stays in Turkey 2009-2023
• Average number of domestic overnight stays in Turkey 2023, by age group
• Domestic tourism spending in Turkey 2019-2023, by type
• Domestic tourism expenditure on leisure and vacation trips in Turkey 2009-2023
• Number of residents traveling abroad from Turkey 2006-2023
• Leading outbound destinations visited by residents of Turkey 2019-2023
• Overnight stays of Turkish citizens traveling abroad 2019-2023, by accommodation type
• Outbound tourism expenditure from Turkey 2003-2023
• Outbound tourist expenditure from Turkey Q1 2017-Q1 2024
• Average tourist expenditure per capita of outbound travelers from Turkey 2003-2023
• Number of arrivals to tourist accommodations in Turkey 2010-2023, by tourist type
• Number of arrivals to tourist accommodations in Turkey 2023, by type of establishment
• Inbound overnight hotel stays in Turkey 2014-2023
• Number of hotel rooms in Turkey 2010-2022
• Number of hotel bed-places in Turkey 2010-2022
• Occupancy rate of star-rated hotels in Turkey 2023, by rating
• Most affordable cities for backpacking in Europe 2024
• Leading Europe city destinations 2023, by traveler ratings
• Most visited destinations by international tourists in Turkey 2019-2023
• Number of foreign tourist arrivals to Istanbul 2014-2023
• Monthly number of foreign tourist arrivals to Istanbul 2020-2024
• Overnight accommodation costs in Istanbul 2019-2023, by month
• Attitudes towards traveling in Turkey 2024
• Travel frequency for private purposes in Turkey 2024
• Travel frequency for business purposes in Turkey 2024
• Travel product bookings in Turkey 2024

Other statistics that may interest you Travel and tourism in Turkey

• Premium Statistic European countries with the highest number of inbound tourist arrivals 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic European countries with the highest inbound tourism receipts 2019-2023
• Basic Statistic Travel and tourism's total contribution to GDP in Turkey 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic Share of the GDP of the tourism sector in Turkey 2013-2028
• Basic Statistic Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in Turkey 2019-2022, by type
• Basic Statistic Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in Turkey 2019-2022, by tourist type
• Premium Statistic Total tourism income in Turkey 2001-2023
• Premium Statistic Tourism income in Turkey 2021-2023, by type of expenditure

Inbound tourism

• Premium Statistic Inbound visitor arrivals in Turkey 2008-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of international tourist arrivals in Turkey 2000-2023
• Premium Statistic Inbound day visitor arrivals in Turkey 2008-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of foreign tourist arrivals in Turkey monthly 2020-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of international visitors in Turkey 2023, by purpose of visit
• Premium Statistic Leading inbound travel markets in Turkey 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic Average tourist expenditure per capita of inbound visitors in Turkey 2003-2023

Domestic tourism

• Premium Statistic Number of domestic trips in Turkey 2009-2023
• Premium Statistic Domestic overnight stays in Turkey 2009-2023
• Premium Statistic Average number of domestic overnight stays in Turkey 2023, by age group
• Premium Statistic Domestic tourism spending in Turkey 2019-2023, by type
• Premium Statistic Domestic tourism expenditure on leisure and vacation trips in Turkey 2009-2023

Outbound tourism

• Premium Statistic Number of residents traveling abroad from Turkey 2006-2023
• Premium Statistic Leading outbound destinations visited by residents of Turkey 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic Overnight stays of Turkish citizens traveling abroad 2019-2023, by accommodation type
• Premium Statistic Outbound tourism expenditure from Turkey 2003-2023
• Premium Statistic Outbound tourist expenditure from Turkey Q1 2017-Q1 2024
• Premium Statistic Average tourist expenditure per capita of outbound travelers from Turkey 2003-2023

Accommodation

• Premium Statistic Number of arrivals to tourist accommodations in Turkey 2010-2023, by tourist type
• Premium Statistic Number of arrivals to tourist accommodations in Turkey 2023, by type of establishment
• Premium Statistic Inbound overnight hotel stays in Turkey 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of hotel rooms in Turkey 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of hotel bed-places in Turkey 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Occupancy rate of star-rated hotels in Turkey 2023, by rating

Tourism in Istanbul

• Premium Statistic Number of inbound tourist arrivals in selected European destinations 2019-2023
• Basic Statistic Leading European city tourism destinations 2019-2022, by number of bed nights
• Basic Statistic Most affordable cities for backpacking in Europe 2024
• Basic Statistic Leading Europe city destinations 2023, by traveler ratings
• Premium Statistic Most visited destinations by international tourists in Turkey 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of foreign tourist arrivals to Istanbul 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Monthly number of foreign tourist arrivals to Istanbul 2020-2024
• Premium Statistic Overnight accommodation costs in Istanbul 2019-2023, by month

Public opinion

• Premium Statistic Attitudes towards traveling in Turkey 2024
• Premium Statistic Travel frequency for private purposes in Turkey 2024
• Premium Statistic Travel frequency for business purposes in Turkey 2024
• Premium Statistic Travel product bookings in Turkey 2024

Further Content: You might find this interesting as well

Travel and tourism sector deal activity down by 12.6% YoY in H1 2024: GlobalData

M&a deals declined by 7.4% during h1 2024 compared to h1 2023.

A total of 347 deals (comprising mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing deals) were announced in the global travel and tourism sector during the first half (H1) of 2024, which was a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 12.6% compared to the 397 deals announced during the same period in the previous year, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Even though there was a decline globally due to a dent in deal-making sentiments, the trend was a mixed bag across different markets and regions, with some countries contributing to the decline while some experienced improved activity. And the same was the case for the deal types under coverage.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database revealed that the volume of M&A deals declined by 7.4% during H1 2024 compared to H1 2023, whereas the number of venture financing deals fell by 29.6% YoY. Meanwhile, private equity deal volume remained at the same level.

North America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and the South and Central American regions witnessed YoY decline of 31.7%, 14.5%, 11.1%, and 41.7% in deal volume during H1 2024 compared to H1 2023, respectively, whereas Europe saw YoY growth of 11.7% in deal volume.

Similarly, the US, China, Australia, and France witnessed a YoY decline in deal volume by 31.5%, 46.4%, 18.8%, and 40%, respectively, during H1 2024 compared to the same period during the previous year. However, markets such as the UK, India, and Japan saw respective deal volumes grow by 7.9%, 12%, and 18.2% YoY in H1 2024.

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An American mom who moved to the French Alps experienced the impacts of over-tourism firsthand. She says there's a better way to do it

• Tourism is bigger than ever, with international tourists set to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2024.
• A new book, "The New Tourist," talks about balancing tourism's impacts and being a mindful traveler.
• The author explained to Business Insider why the stigma around the word "tourist" needs to go.

Whether carving their names on the Coliseum in Rome or haphazardly approaching bears at Yellowstone National Park , tourists frequently make the news for behavior that's, frankly, very stupid.

Well-behaved or not, all tourists can have negative impacts on a destination, from too much traffic and congestion to rising rents and priced-out locals. And yet tourism can also bring economic and cultural benefits to a community — especially when it's done right.

Paige McClanahan's new book, "The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel," is all about how tourism impacts the world, from the good to the bad, and how people who travel can be the right kind of tourist.

McClanahan, an American journalist based in France, talked to Business Insider about what it means to be a new tourist, her experience living in a small touristy village in the French Alps, and why people should stop saying they're a "traveler, not a tourist."

The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

BI: Why do you think your book — and conversations about how to be a better traveler — are important right now?

Paige McClanahan: In 2024, we're expected to see 1.55 billion international tourist arrivals , which is breaking the pre-pandemic record. Tourism is growing. It's growing faster than the global economy. It's a huge force.

At the same time, so many of us who are traveling are looking at our travels through a different lens. All of us, of course, were forced to stay at home during COVID because of pandemic restrictions, and I think that forced so many of us to reexamine this aspect of our lives that we had taken for granted.

I'm hoping this book is arriving in a moment where it can really resonate with people because we're traveling more than ever, and I think we're more ready than ever to consider the implications of our travels. And actually surveys are showing that people are more concerned about sustainability, they're more concerned about their impacts on communities. They're willing to spend more to have a positive impact on the place. So I hope the book is coming really at the right moment to speak to that audience.

Was there a specific moment or an experience you had traveling that sparked the idea for the book?

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In 2018, I moved with my family to a little village in the French Alps.

I had a chance to see firsthand how tourism really brought life into this village that would otherwise have become a ghost town, probably 50 years ago. It brought life, it brought energy, it brought culture, it brought all sorts of activities for my family, for me and my children, that we wouldn't have had otherwise in this beautiful corner of the French Alps.

At the same time, as a resident of a tourist destination, I, for the first time in my life, really had to deal with things like having a heaving grocery store for maybe six or eight weeks a year, or having the parking lot where drop kids off at school overflowing sometimes, or sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the road that leads to my house when I'm just trying to get home with my groceries.

Tourism is so huge and it has so many impacts that go so much deeper below the surface than most of us think about when we're traveling. It was really so moving to this village that that inspired me to start looking at travel and tourism in my journalism.

Everywhere I look, there's complexities, there's good and bad and it's so important.

Can you describe what you mean by "the new tourist"? What does a new tourist look like?

In the last chapter of the book, I respond to an essay that was written by an exceptional writer named Agnes Kard and published in The New Yorker last summer called "The Case Against Travel." She described some tourists as "unchanged changers" — people who go to a place and they change the place, they inflict their presence on the place, and they're unchanged. They themselves remain closed in their hearts and minds to the experience and they come away unmoved. So, I took that as my starting point. That's what I see as an old tourist. Let's have a new tourist be somebody who's a changed changer, changed and enlightened.

A new tourist is someone who takes the time to educate themselves about the impact that their presence will have on the place they're visiting and uses that knowledge to do their best to minimize any negative impacts of their presence on the place and maximize any positive impacts, whether it's economic, social, or cultural impacts.

And they're changed themselves. They come with a view to having their mind changed. They come with a level of humility. They come with a strong desire to really see the humanity in the people they're visiting and the beauty in the place they're visiting and don't see themselves as superior to the people or the place.

It's a mindset shift, really, but I think that it's a really powerful mindset shift that can lead to very constructive impacts both the tourist destination and on the traveler herself.

How might travel look differently for someone who's embraced that mindset? How would their behaviors change?

To start as an example, how you decide where you're going to go on a trip. When you're thinking about where you want to go, really take some time to reflect. Are you going to a place because it's on some top 10 list that you saw, and you feel like you're obligated to cross it off? Or are you going for a deeper sort of reason, like you want to connect with the culture? Maybe there's something meaningful there that you want to take the time to really learn about or get engaged with when you're there. I think it starts with self-reflection and making sure your motivations for where you want to travel are coming from a deeper place and not a superficial bucket list.

At a really practical level, maybe taking fewer trips, but staying longer and really taking the time to engage in a place. Because if you, as an American, come to Europe for two weeks and hit five major cities with two to three days in each place, that's not going to give you the chance to engage in a meaningful way with anybody who lives there or with the culture and history of the place. But if you come to Paris for two weeks, you settle in, and you're seeing the same people at the corner shop every day, you're going back to the same bar at the corner, the same cafe at the corner, and you have a chance to build some relationships. You have a chance to really get to know this corner of Paris. You have a chance to explore beyond the top five things to do and explore other perspectives of the city, not just the cliché.

Visiting fewer places is also better for the climate and it's better for the economies of the places you're visiting because every tourist destination wants people to come and stay longer. Be a high-quality visitor. And hire a local tour guide, whether it's for an hour or half a day or a full day, or multiple days. It gives you a chance to really have a personal, human, one-on-one interaction with someone who lives in that place, and you're directly supporting a local.

That's one of the highest aims we can have as new tourists: to come away with a real human connection and not just photos for our Instagram feed.

You write in the book that the stigma around the word "tourist" needs to change. Why?

I think the problem with somebody saying, "I travel a lot, but I'm not a tourist when I travel, I'm a traveler" — It's like, OK, sure, you're a traveler, but I want you to remember that you're a tourist too. If we dissociate ourselves from this phenomenon of tourism that means we don't feel any ownership over the problems that tourism presents. If tourism is something that only other people do, then why should we be bothered about the problems that come with it?

If we implicate ourselves in tourism, if we say, "Yes, I'm a tourist," then we might hopefully feel some ownership over the problems with tourism and we might be inspired to actually do something to change it.

Because if tourism is this thing that only other people do, and everyone in the world, all of us who are lucky enough to travel, see tourism as something that other people do, nothing's ever going to get better.

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Paris has fewer Olympic tourists than expected: Here are a few last-minute deals

As Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics, areas that would typically be overflowing with tourists this time of year are actually less crowded, with travelers keeping their distance from hotspots like the Champs-Élysées or Arc de Triomphe due to fears of overcrowding and other potential safety threats.

The Paris Tourism authority recently estimated 11 million visitors on the ground for the Olympics, which is 4 million fewer than originally predicted.

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Travel expert unpacks airlines financial losses, Paris tourism slump and deals post-Olympics

Delta, the U.S. airline with the most flights to Paris and the airline sponsoring Team USA, previously estimated a $100 million revenue hit this summer as a result of travelers waiting out the Olympics to instead visit after the mega-sporting event concludes.

Several tourists who did make their way to Paris told ABC News the thinner crowds have been a pleasant surprise.

There are still some great last-minute travel deals to be found for those eyeing a visit through mid-August, especially if you plan on arriving during the second half of the Olympics.

Last-minute Paris travel deals

According to the travel experts at Going, there are some flights available for as low as $519 roundtrip from New York City to Paris. Set up a Google Flights alert and track your dates to find the lowest fares.

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Roundtrip fares from other major U.S. cities including Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles also have options under $750.

Upon arrival, travelers can also find four-star hotels for less than $200 per night like the Hotel de l'Esperance for around $141 a night or the Hôtel Aiglon on Boulevard Raspail for around $165 per night.

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