The domestic travel market is now even more important as a result of the travel restrictions and uncertainties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. People prefer to tour their own country rather than travel abroad.
From Deciding to travel and which travel package to book, the process is a bit time-consuming, but unlike old times, Travelers today do not have to depend on friends and family recommendations to get a perfect vacation.
There are a host of technological tools to help them identify and book the local trips with more than a hundred interactions with brands while researching. They also need not consider a travel agent to book their tours for them.
So why should travelers choose and book their tour package with you? And, how can your tours and activities business make the most of this domestic market?
Here in this article, we’ll present a few actionable tips to maximize domestic sales and stand out from the competition.
1) Reframe your perspective from international to local audience
Now, more than ever, it’s critical to be flexible and open to changing your perspective in the face of a crisis is critical for the long-term success of your tour business.
Explore new markets and a different kind of audience – the local audience.
Therefore, one of the most effective strategies during this pandemic involves shifting your focus to local domestic tourism. Identify the various local market groups to target such as:
- Couples: Romantic tours or activities are a great idea for couples looking to get away from their busy lives at work and within the home.
- Families with children: The new norm of working from home and children getting homeschooled can get quite tiring. Offering these families some fun activities away from the four walls of their homes can be quite refreshing.
- Corporate groups: Companies are often looking for opportunities to engage their workers in team-building activities. You can tailor-make your activities to suit such a market.
Keeping these local markets in mind can help you strategize on how to market your product. First, determine your ideal products/ services that will appeal to them, and secondly, develop a marketing language they will incline towards.
This leads us to our next tip.
2) Review your business model
If you want to earn a share of the domestic tourism market, you have to first ensure the service or product you are offering matches the needs of the local audience.
There must be unique strategies for catering 2 different markets that are domestic and international. Take time to review your business model, with the local market groups in mind, and make necessary adjustments in order to create an irresistible offering.
The local market is most likely aware of the top attractions and looks for something out of the ordinary. Add pomp and color to your services and make it exciting so that even a local traveler who’s lived in the same city for years will be excited to see what it is that you are offering.
Secondly, make sure your marketing language is appealing to the local audience. In view of the pandemic situation, highlight how your company is focusing on health and safety measures as per the local government’s directives.
You can find up to date shareable content at the TravClan Marketing section which can be shared with clients with your branding.
You can offer discounts for kids in order to attract young families with children, or honeymoon discounts for the couples.
3) Establish local promotion channels
Online promotion can help your business gain more visibility and therefore increase sales. Some ways to determine your local marketing strategy:
- Attract the local travelers using social media e.g Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube
- Revise your online ad targeting on Facebook and Google to target people in your location
- Partner with local publications and publish PR article
- Partner with local influencers
4) Create content geared to locals
If you have a website, creating a blog and publishing relevant content will help to gain organic traffic to your website which creates the opportunity to convert page visitors to customers.
Try to post content on a regular basis which also includes using relevant keywords and adding images, infographics, or videos. More to that, the content itself should be captivating so as to keep people reading and drive them to take action.
The language you use for your content is another important factor. Since you’re targeting domestic tourists, it’ll be very beneficial to use the local language.
Ensure your content is tailor-made to serve the local travelers.
5) Improve over time
It becomes really important to start small, do the drill regularly, and improve over time so you have a good setup for both domestic and international tourist. This way your business is well prepared to take on whichever market is more favorable.
We hope with these tips you are well equipped to take your share of the domestic tourism market and keep your business going despite the pandemic.
We at TravClan are all geared up to help you grow your business and provide solutions to your problems. Want to book Flights/Hotels or a website? Get in touch with us.