In 2015, Reem Nasr has released a report on CNBC stating that the online travel industry is flourishing. His survey and studies further revealed that approximately 180 million people visited e-travel sites in a single month. You can read the full report here.
Zoom to 2019, and who has the time to visit a brick-and-mortar travel agency? Would you take out time from your busy schedule to plan your holiday? You probably won’t and the number of people who think like you is on the higher side thanks to a competitive world and exacting professional and family life.
The infusion of Digital Marketing for travel and tourism industry is not a new concept, but recently the online travel company’s move to adopt innovative ideas for travel agency has become aggressive. This can be attributed to the fact that 4 billion people across the globe are using Internet today and 2.3 billion people are using mobile devices.
Since the global population stands at approximately 7.6 billion, you can do the math of how many people travel agencies can potentially lose out on if they’re not thinking about online marketing and business plan travel agency.
A report published on livemint stated that by 2020, online hotel bookings are going to generate approximately $2.3 billion. It is also predicted that 78% of all travel bookings are going to be routed through online travel agencies. You can read the full report here.
Travel buffs are searching for information online
Today, people search for everything they need online. Google is their favorite search engine followed by Bing, Yahoo and so on. 70% of travel-related searches come from smartphones, 30% of searches are location-related and 50% people have reportedly discovered new online travel agencies online. So to promote your travel agency, you must adopt internet marketing strategy. You need to include digital marketing ideas and online promotion plan for travel industry marketing.
You can read the full travel statistics and insights here.
This clearly means that there is a demand for travel agencies to be present online. A digital marketing company in Kolkata for travel industry stated that even though the agency has a brick-and-mortar establishment, a dominant online presence will help in enhancing brand awareness and recognition. Search engine optimization can do wonders when travel agencies need to be on the top 3 position on the SERPs and hence this will improve travel agent business.
Social media presents great opportunities for communication
Social media marketing for travel agents can grow their business rapidly. The multitude of social media platforms like, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more, are responsible for strengthening communication ties between consumers and service providers. MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip and others are making use of social media networking sites to advertise their offerings. Mostly these travel agents use Facebook ads for their business promotion. They are gaining customers from these sites and even docking sales in certain occasions. So, startup travel agencies can definitely think about making use of social media networking sites to get the word out. This is also beneficial because generally the age group targeted by travel agencies is between 18 and 34 years who are constantly present on social media channels.
So, are you the owner of a travel agency or aspire to be? Starting online may seem like the profitable and wise decision because AI and such high-end technologies already trending, it won’t be long when physical establishments are only seen as a backup for the online counterpart.