There comes a point when a switch flips in someone’s mind that takes them from daydreaming about travel to acting decisively to make it happen.

Effective travel content rules this sweet spot – it has the power to heighten the traveller’s desire to visit a destination or escalate their demand for an experience. A wise man once succinctly said that travel is emotion – an empathic, targeted approach to your marketing and sales content is most successful at stirring that emotion.

The good, the bad and the ugly

As travel demand differs from one audience to another, it serves you as much as your audiences to identify what matters to them, and then target your content accordingly. Among the most ubiquitous online content, it’s worth noting the difference between the generic and the iconic: one hardly registers as a blip on the traveller’s radar; the other has universal, evergreen appeal. Meanwhile, the bulk of the remaining travel content languishing in print and stored with old tech risks becoming stale and inaccurate, and therefore irrelevant.

Nothing hurts a travel brand more than being misrepresented.

From huge hotel chains to boutique B&Bs, and from tour providers to beach equipment rental providers, it seems everyone has travel information to share online. And it’s not always clear whose is the most accurate, trustworthy, or useful. – Content Marketing Institute

Give travellers (and yourself) a break! A cohesive, consistent content story tells them what your brand represents and how your proposition matches their needs.

Competitive content balances depictions of bucket-list experiences with unique, specialised ones. And to flip that switch in the traveller’s mind, your content must be useful, inspiring and entertaining.

So, once you know what makes your target customers tick, get organised and ready to stir things up.

Why curation matters

Think of it as amassing a treasure chest of reasons to choose your destination or experience. ProfileTree describes tourism products as “services” that “survive through consistency, individuality, and relevance.” Take deliberate action. By curating content that best represents your brand and offering, you can avoid ending up with a mess of random, potentially outdated content.

Curated content has operational value that serves your staff and business better, and aesthetic value that serves your audience better.

  • It demonstrates your authority and leadership in a niche or speciality.
  • It helps you stay current as you regularly refresh your content, mindful of trends and new demand.
  • It’s an opportunity to inject your expertise and unique perspective, and differentiate your brand.
  • It helps keep your brand top of mind as a valuable, authentic source of information.
  • It ensures availability of a range of information that is relevant to your target audiences.
  • It maintains consistent brand representation, which instills trust in your brand.
  • It becomes a resource from which anyone on your team can confidently share content as needed, supporting an efficient workflow with easy access. It reduces guesswork, keeping everyone on track with your brand messaging and business objectives.
  • It’s easier to source relevant content to plug into your marketing and sales campaigns.

Content types and sources

What goes into a cohesive content story? Here are all the bits and pieces:

  • Product information and expertise, destination knowledge and insights – we’re talking logistics, maps and directions, local guides and services, and all those practical details that travellers expect you to take care of on their behalf.
  • Lots of visuals, including owned and outsourced, accredited photography, videography and virtual tours. Being current and relevant also means keeping up with the latest trends in visual media consumption – what travellers are seeking out and where, from mobile-responsive to social media.
  • Stories told in blogs and vlogs, client reviews and testimonials – a marriage, if you will, of your authority on the subject and peer recommendation.

What makes it authentic? You and your sources, people in the know, eager to share the following: 

  • Your customised content representing your perspective and specialist knowledge.
  • Contributions from staff, local influencers and content creators – from insights on diversity to diverse interests and language skills, there’s a wealth of unexpected expertise and competencies to discover that will potentially resonate with target audiences and add value to your brand narrative.
  • User-generated content in the form of travel pics and rave reviews, either sourced with permission from social media or directly from your happy customers.
  • Insider destination and product info from fellow travel industry tribe members and local communities – a mutually beneficial information exchange brings everyone onto the same page. Suppliers control how their products are represented by trade partners, while tour operators, DMCs and travel agents get what they need to better sell the accommodation, restaurant and activity products they use in proposals.

Content alchemy

Got content, where to next? Transform it into market-ready assets:

  • Use the Wetu platform to customise content for your destination and for your target markets.
  • Use your tools to create digital marketing assets that enable a virtual exploration of your experiences.
  • Develop digital sales assets for your B2B and B2C markets.
  • Plug your assets into content marketing campaigns via social media, blogs, websites, marketing mailers and trade publications.
  • Build a databank of supplier product content in Wetu to enable your team of consultants to create better tours.

Did you ever think that the simple process of curation could help facilitate your business operations, build trade relationships and serve travellers better? When it’s all there, stored, up-to-date and organised in one spot, it’s ready to showcase your offerings, and accessible to anyone in your team that needs it. What could be easier?

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