travel agency commercials

Travel Agency Marketing (11 Proven strategies & Tips)

Travel Agency marketing is something that I’m passionate about, and I’m pretty good at it too. It’s also how I really started in marketing in 2009, working on my mom’s niche travel agencies.

In this guide, I’m going to explain some tactics I use. I hope you can implement some of the ideas below.

Have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

• Find what works

Links and PR

Social media, social advertising.

• Set up a website
• List yourself in all the local directories

Customer Relationship Software

Word of mouth, search engine marketing.

It wasn’t easy to start; I had to learn quite a lot and didn’t have someone to really help me, and the internet was very different back then. But I practised, learned, and tested. I grew to love it. It’s kinda why Travel Tractions Marketing was born 🙂

This guide details how I helped my mom to market her sites 10 years ago and what I do to market my own and client sites today.

My mom had one main business called Webtours, and then she decided to make niche websites for each service offering.

I thought this very silly at the time, but little did I know this was one of the smartest things we did.

It enabled me to learn much quicker than normal (because she had 3+ sites – I could test, try and dabble).

Not only did it allow me to test, but the agency position was also so niche; it gave access to different markets and appeared as a “specialist”.

Becoming or positioning herself as the “specialist” was a no-brainer and her niche agencies grew so much faster (in traffic and clients) than the general brand.

In this article, you will get:

• The best way to stand out
• Travel marketing ideas
• A travel marketing plan
• Travel agency ad examples

And leave a marketing ninja, not really. But you will be wiser. 😉

Marketing for Travel Agents Tips

Know where you differentiate and sell that. This could be customer service, affordability, quality, or speed. Anything that sets you even more apart.

I know it seems like laser focus, but sometimes that’s key. Especially with data-based digital marketing today. If you can zero down on your perfect customer, your cost of Return On Marketing Investment is much lower.

Find What Works

Different things worked for different businesses. Bridal conferences worked well for honeymooners while ranking for school holiday specials worked for the beach holiday agency website. Ranking for “all-inclusive ski holidays” worked great for selling Club Med ski holidays.

When you find out what channel, gap or method of marketing works for you, double down on it! But don’t give up on the other channels – consistency is key.

When she first started her business, it was general travel, but when she specialised, things really took off. Being known as an expert and having more experience/knowledge sets you apart from most of the competition.

Travel Agency Advertising Ideas

There are many methods to market your travel agency. below you will find the ones that actually worked.

Search Engine traffic accounts for 68% of the traffic , and COVID has drastically changed how consumers spend money online. So if you are not investing more than 50% of your marketing budget into SEO, you are doing yourself a disservice.

SEO does involve many different aspects that assist other channels

Creating long-tail content is KEY to surviving in the travel industry!

Google your area and “hotel” or “tour” it’s probably taken up by one of the big 5 behemoth sites like Viator, GetYourGuide, Booking, Agoda, Trip Advisor or some other monster…. You might find your site/page somewhere on the bottom or maybe on the next page, but no one will know because no one goes to the second page of Google.

By creating content that is more long tail and niche, like “best family resorts in Europe for a ski holiday”, you’ll find a lot of blogs and sites that you compete with, and beat.

My calculations for an average ski holiday for an average family (4 people) costs start at 10k USD. Sell one holiday from this piece of content, and you’ve paid for it 3 times over. The best part? It stays on top of Google until someone outranks you. Another win, you can use this content for social over and over again.

Content is king. Even 10 years ago, when backlinks were the bee’s knees in SEO, I got the majority of my wins/leads, if not all, by great content.

Invest in SEO. Ok, I’m biased here, but I wasn’t taught SEO in my marketing degree, but it isn’t rocket science to figure out where most of our enquiries and new customers were coming from. That’s why I specialised.

Links (other websites linking to your website) is one of the top 3 ranking factors. A few years ago, it was undoubtedly the number one ranking factor.

Links serve two purposes:

#1 They help you get higher in Search Engines.

#2 If you get a link in a good publication to the right audience, you could get referral traffic and maybe a booking.

So do what you can to acquire publicity, exposure and links as much as you can.

It’s important to build credibility, especially in the travel market, so building a brand and appearing to be a trustable business is key here. If you don’t, you will lose many customers.

Putting money behind average campaigns is how I see most business owners lose faith in online marketing.

Use your social media to remind and be top of mind.

Set up your social media so that you are continuously in your PROSPECTIVE clients’ faces as often as you can. It is important that you spend money only on people who have shown interest in your business.

My view (and many others since Apple gave less targeting data to Facebook ) is that social is a branding tool more than anything else, and only when you drill down into your customer insights and have amazing targeting.  During the Cambridge Analytica scandal they also limited some targeting (like targeting people who recently got engaged with honeymoon ads).

But if you can get in front of your potential clients at the right time, this is gold. But branding, attention, and social proof has the ability to convert customers and keep you top of mind.

Touchpoints and a well-created email funnel is one of the most powerful items in your arsenal.

A monthly newsletter goes a long way but keeping in touch with your customers is key to this. Again, consistency wins here.

Travel Agent Marketing Plan

This is how I had to market a website in 2020+ It includes small steps on creating different avenues for getting customers and then tracking them and managing your leads effectively.

Set Up a Website

This can be done on almost any platform, and I will always recommend for hundreds of reasons I won’t list here. If you are going to spend money on a website, you might as well make it SEO friendly and hire a professional before you make it live. I see sooooo many businesses make this mistake, so please get an external SEO to check out your development agencies website.

List Yourself in All the Local Directories

Once you have a website or somewhere to direct your potential customers, you need to start listing with all the directories in your local area and online. To be honest, you won’t get many leads from here, if any, but if you could rank in your area, it would be the easiest route to go from the start.

Attend Conferences

It’s important to build connections. I know in the 2020s, even passed COVID days, trade shows and conferences are a great way to make connections and learn about new developments in the industry,

Often the main pages of the website are not targeting long tail keywords. Your blog is where you get to write about the “best family resorts in Europe for a ski holiday” and many, many, many other opportunities. This also feeds into your social media and media strategy if done correctly.

I think this is really a place where businesses can excel. Make sure that you are pixeling all users (tracking who they are) that come to your site and marketing to them effectively.

If you have a CRM system, you will know their past consumer history and will appear more as a friend than some stranger off the street. Also, if tied in with email is gold in the holiday season.

How to Promote Your Travel Agency

There are various ways to promote your agency, and some work better than others. You can often ask your clients how they found you and then double down on that channel. All I know is that customer service and delivering what you promised is the best way to promote yourself, but below are some of the best ways that can be amplified.

Word of mouth or friends’ referrals is still the best way to get new customers – this is INCREDIBLY difficult when you are just starting out. So let any and everyone know what you are starting.

Have great service, I’m in the online game, but word of mouth is still one of the best ways to ensure your agency has some longevity increase your marketing falls flat.

Send an email to your friends. Nothing like a personalised email to a friend letting them know what offers you could have and if they would be interested. Try capturing emails on your website, an email list is an extremely powerful thing.

Don’t just start it and then invite all your friends to like the page – if you do this often enough; it’s one way to reduce your Facebook friends without unfriending anyone.

Write about offers and news, and try to write about evergreen topics with SEO in mind.

Make specials for particular times of year like school holidays, Christmas, New Year, and Easter. Promote those holiday times the most and try to have a special running.

There are two disciplines here: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) advertising, often called organic, or PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, often called paid ads.

It is imperative that when someone is searching for you, your business, or the problem your business solves, they find you! If not perhaps the most important thing.

SEO is more long-term. It’s an investment to be placed higher in Google or search engines naturally – think about it as buying a house (website) on Google pages; it takes a lot of time but is there for a very, very long time if done correctly.

I hope these ideas and plans help you with your marketing, and if you ever fall a little flat or are struggling to get real traction, give us a try . It’s what I’ve done for a decade, and we’d love to save you time.

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8 Best Travel Video Ads

Nothing sells travel better than amazing video footage. If you’re in the travel business and aren’t making video ads for social media, what are you waiting for?

We’ve created this list of eight popular travel video ads that tackle advertising in diverse, but equally effective ways. They have all racked up mass quantities of views, and probably a good number of leads . 1. A travel agency specializing in trips to Walt Disney World decided to get specific in this TikTok video ad . Rather than focusing on the variety of accommodations in the area, the video zeroes in on the Margaritaville Resort, using a green screen to simultaneously display the speaker as well as images of the resort and nearby attractions. It’s effective because it gives the casual viewer a concrete idea of what a vacation to the area would look like. A simple call to action with contact information ends the ad, which has been viewed 115,000 times.

2. Our next example also has a narrow focus. This video ad by a Ukrainian travel agent showcases hotels with the best food in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. The video starts casually, with selfie footage of the speaker standing before a stunning aquamarine sea. Then it segues into video footage of mouthwatering resort buffets and glamorous restaurants, as the speaker gives voiceover reviews. This ad has been viewed more than 300,000 times. 3. While the last two ads were pretty targeted, the next one wins the prize for specificity. In this TikTok ad by @aubreepaigetravels , Aubree actually invites viewers to join herself and her husband at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico during a particular weekend. The ad features a view of a luxurious bubble bath in a bathroom with a floor-to-ceiling view of the ocean. No word on whether anyone accepted the invitation, but the ad was viewed more than 20,000 times. 4. Though this list focuses mostly on small businesses, we wanted to include this YouTube ad by travel giant Expedia. It’s creative and doable even on a smaller advertising budget. The ad features a birds’-eye view of a living room with sped-up footage of people rearranging the furniture to look like a car on a road trip, or a pool perfect for lounging in. If this compelling ad had been made by a mom-and-pop travel agency, you can be sure viewers would take the time to browse the agency’s other videos—it’s that interesting. The short clip ends with Expedia’s brand logo and has been viewed 75 million times.

5. Awarding Travels has done a bang-up job of catering to viewers trying to choose a hotel in Cancun, Mexico. This top-10 video list of all-inclusive Cancun resorts features reviews of each resort over a backdrop of official footage of each destination. The video description includes a convenient website link for viewers who would like to learn more. It has been viewed nearly a quarter of a million times, and you can bet some of those viewers have clicked through and booked a vacation. 6. While the last ad assumed viewers were interested in an all-inclusive vacation, the next one takes a slightly different approach. Geared more for the research-minded, skeptical traveler, this video by Costa Rican Vacations focuses on the pros and cons of an all-inclusive trip to Costa Rica. It’s not click bait or a marketing gimmick—the ad really does discuss actual, legitimate reasons not to book an all-inclusive. This approach casts this travel agency as a straight-shooting operation that won’t  try to sell you on a vacation package that isn’t what you want. 7. While most of the ads we’ve discussed so far are short and to-the-point, Harr Travel goes a different way in this video . The ad is actually a full walkthrough of Beaches Turks and Caicos resort, clocking in at over an hour in length. The agency’s logo and phone number appear on the screen throughout. This review is super-comprehensive, and has no doubt been very helpful to some of the 40,000 people who have viewed it.

8. Our last example is fun and casual , and very effective. This super-short ad by @shannonkittner starts with a caption stating, “I need professional help with planning a trip to Disney World for my family and I don’t know where to start.” Shannon dances to music and pretends to dial a phone, after which captions pop up on the screen advertising her business and emphasizing the fact that clients won’t pay anymore for her services than they would booking directly with Disney. The ad grabs attention with the music and dance, then seals the deal with a value proposition that’s hard to beat.

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Effective Travel Advertising Strategy for 2022 + 16 Ad Examples

You can’t rely solely on people’s wanderlust when advertising travel services because while it may keep your business afloat, it’s not enough to help you make waves in the industry.

Besides, people’s appetite for traveling is dependent on many factors and may decrease as a result of unforeseen events.

We’ve seen this happen when traveling took a hit in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is reflected in the industry’s spending data on digital advertising from previous years. While things are improving, a lot is riding on travel ads performing well.

For your vacation advertising efforts to be truly successful, you need a combination of good strategy and creative ads .

Stick with me as I walk you through the steps of building an actionable travel advertising strategy, including identifying your target audience, knowing the customer journey, setting your campaign goals, and measuring ads’ effectiveness.

We’ll also look at 16 travel ad examples from big names in the industry that will surely inspire your future campaign creatives.

If you’re more interested in the ad examples rather than the strategy, use the summary below to jump to that part.

A. Steps for the perfect advertising strategy 

1. Identify your target audience

2. know the traveler’s customer journey.

3. Set campaign goals

4. Create ads with seasonality in mind

5. Choose the right advertising platform

6. measure your ads’ effectiveness.

B. Inspiring travel advertising examples and templates

A. Steps for The Perfect Advertising Strategy

Advertising takes time, money, as well as other resources, so needless to say, the end goal is to maximize ROI.

The surest way to achieve this is by devising a strategy beforehand, meaning a step-by-step plan to reach the right audience and persuade prospects to choose your travel services over those of your competitors.

On top of giving you a precise course of action, having a strategy also provides a reference to assess your results along the way and re-evaluate the plan if need be.

Here are the key steps you must check to build a strong tourism advertising strategy:

A well-defined target audience is the foundation of any good travel advertising strategy. 

Just think what a waste of resources it would be to target users with no potential to become customers. Narrowing down the group allows you to focus your efforts on reaching those who would benefit most from your travel services.

Plus, with a clear target audience in mind, you can create travel ads that double as personalized customer experiences, proven to be more successful in converting to sales.

To define your audience, make a list of different attributes you’d like your ideal customer to have, a.k.a. build a buyer persona. These attributes can be geographic, demographic, psychographic, or behavioral. 

• Geographic : anything related to location, including customers’ country, region, city, or even postal code;
• Demographic : population-based attributes, such as gender, age, education, income, marital status, and so on;
• Psychographic : personality traits, values, interests, hobbies, and lifestyle aspects;
• Behavioral : online behaviors according to browsing patterns, spending and purchasing habits, and many others.

The customer journey sums up all interactions a prospect has with a brand during the purchase process, from the first encounter, up until a transaction is completed. 

Commonly, it’s divided into three main stages: awareness, consideration, and conversion.

However, a traveler’s customer journey differs from the typical model because booking a trip isn’t an easy-to-make purchase decision; quite the opposite—a lot of thought and planning is put into it. 

I mean, would you buy plane tickets as quickly as you would a chocolate bar? Me neither.

So, the customer’s travel journey can be split into the following four to five stages: 

• Dreaming: whether it’s picturing themselves in a gondola on the canals of Venice or sunbathing in Greece, all soon-to-be travelers begin here.
• Planning: even the most spontaneous people make some sort of arrangement for their trip, even if it only implies picking a hotel to stay at.
• Booking: prospects are ready to buy plane tickets and book accommodation. 
• Experiencing: travelers are enjoying their vacation and making lasting memories.
• Remembering: this is an optional stage that comes after the traveler’s journey is completed, where you can consolidate the relationship with your brand .

Understanding this customer journey allows you to time your travel advertising to the most favorable moments, specifically when prospects are in the planning and booking stages.

3. Set your travel campaign goals

Goals or objectives give your travel campaigns a clear direction and help you measure progress along the way, so you don’t lose sight of the value of your work.

To yield the best results, you should set your campaign goals according to the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. The acronym stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, all qualities your goals should have.

A few of the most common goals that can aid your campaign’s success are the following:

• Increase brand awareness by getting your travel services on the radar of potential customers;
• Grow website traffic or attract new visitors to your company’s website;
• Drive consideration through campaigns that promote different travel services;
• Generate leads , whether that means new subscribers to a newsletter or prospects filling out a form to find out more about an offer;
• Boost conversions , a.k.a. make sales.

4. Create travel ads with seasonality in mind

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain . 

Well, not really. It falls along Spain’s northern coast and mountains. But the country has its meteorological particularities, as do all travel destinations .

Tourism is highly dependent on weather conditions. As a general rule, there are three seasons in the travel industry: peak season, shoulder season, and off-season.

Demand usually hits an all-year high in summertime (mid-June through August), known as the peak season or high season.

From April to mid-June and from September to October is the shoulder season, during which people still travel, but not as much as they do during peak season.

All travel businesses experience a decline in sales from November to March during what is known as the off-season.

However, seasonality isn’t necessarily a negative thing for travel marketing as it allows you to have a clear perspective over the following months.

Try to stay mindful of seasonal patterns and trends as you will understand when prospects want to purchase plane tickets, accommodation, or all-inclusive offers to specific destinations. Timing your creative ads and tailoring your messaging according to these seasons might help you influence purchase decisions.

There are numerous advertising platforms available, and the easiest way to identify the most suitable ones for your brand is to look where your customers are spending time.

Generally, the following three platforms are obvious choices for most businesses:

Google Ads: Running search or display campaigns on the Google ad network allows you to leverage Google’s massive reach and advanced targeting options to get in front of potential customers exactly when they are looking for travel services.

Social media ads: Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, advertising on social media helps you increase brand recognition and reach a wider audience at the same time. Plus, it gives you the chance to experiment with a wide range of ad formats, including image and video ads.

Email marketing: Email offers a direct communication channel with customers that you can use to send personalized messaging, as well as discounts and special offers. Besides, it’s a cost-effective marketing method that provides easily measurable results.

Even with a killer strategy up your sleeve, things might not go as expected. And even if they do, measuring the success of your travel campaign is vital to understanding how your vacation ads are performing. 

If everything is going well, you’ll know what to repeat with future campaigns, and in the opposite scenario, you’ll figure out how to optimize ads for success.

Luckily each advertising platform, including Google and Facebook , offers relevant metrics known as KPIs (key performance indicators) to track for the most popular campaign objectives. Hence, you know exactly what to look at.

Things work differently for email marketing campaigns, as you need third-party tools that also enable email automation to measure campaign performance.

B. Inspiring Travel Advertising Examples and Templates

On to the part everyone has been waiting for, here are 17 travel ad examples that succeed in capturing audiences’ attention in one way or another:

Expedia: Chase new experiences

Let’s kick things off with an industry giant—Expedia. These two creative ads from the same campaign work so well because they promote experiences tourists can have in Marocco rather than the destination itself.

The font pairing is a match made in heaven, and the copy conveys a powerful message when teamed up with the beautiful scenery photos.

Kayak: Group trip without the drama

This Kayak display ad gets the struggle of planning a trip with a large group of friends. No matter how tight the relationships are, it’s bound to be a bumpy road.

While design-wise, the ad might not be too impressive, the copy makes audiences feel understood, which is why I think it deserves a place on this travel ad examples list.

JetBlue: Stretch your legs, not your wallet

Moving on to a different traveling pain point, we have this witty JetBlue Facebook ad that promotes the airline’s extra option to have up to 7″ more legroom in coach class.

The simple illustrated design is elevated by the ad copy that manages to capture viewers’ attention and say so much with so few words.

As this is one of my favorite travel ads on this list, I couldn’t resist including a second Facebook ad from the same campaign, a video one this time.

Once again, the funny ad copy is the star, suggesting you don’t have to be a billionaire such as the likes of Jeff Bezos to get to space, which is a clever way of saying JetBlue travelers can get more legroom at an affordable price.

Carta Travel: Tailor made travel experiences

Edit this template

Pictures have the power to transport viewers to different locations, so many travel ads use them to do just that. This template is no exception, using a photograph of a beautiful sunset as its main focus.

If you’d like to create similar designs for your business, open this template in Creatopy and customize it with different elements from our extensive library.

Lufthansa: The joy of flying

The view from an airplane window has become representative of traveling. Many people pay extra money to sit in the window seat when flying or rejoice when randomly assigned to it.

The German company Lufthansa chose this specific image to evoke the joy of flying and invite viewers to click this half-page display ad promoting the over 200 worldwide destinations in their portfolio.

Air France: Le Rendez-Vous

This animated Air France display ad compares a trip in business class to an anticipated first date, embodying the french elegance and romantic spirit. Of course, we’d expect nothing less from France’s flag carrier.

The ad is also a lesson in consistency, as the brand’s distinctive personality is instantly recognizable thanks to the blue, white, and red color palette, as well as the emblematic logo.

Tripadvisor & Visit Orlando: Explore Unexpected

The Tripadvisor Facebook ad above encourages users to take a different kind of trip from the comfort of their own home—an interactive voice tour of Orlando.

The different shades of teal used for the ad’s design help it stand out on the Facebook feed, while the choice to use a single font ensures the text’s high readability.

Delta Air Lines: Your ticket to more travels

Delta Air Lines uses footage of an idyllic destination to catch the eye right before inviting users to learn more about the miles reward program through the CTA of this Facebook video ad.

The copy aims to persuade by linking the reward card to states of wonder, serenity, and inspiration, all of which can be achieved through traveling.

Hilton: Where the pets stay

Now, this ad will make a lot of pet owners go aww . I mean, it can’t be just me swooning at the idea of traveling with my cat.

It’s true Hilton is targeting a niche audience with this adorable Facebook ad that announces pets are welcome in their hotels. Still, even travelers outside the ad’s target audience are likely to smile at the cute animal photos and the pet-away wordplay in the copy.

Traveloom: A great stay is a happy memory

Is there a more effective way to advertise for hotels and resorts than by using actual pictures from the location? I don’t think so, as all travelers want to see where they will stay before booking accommodation.

This fully customizable Facebook template can be adjusted for any use case by adding and replacing design elements in Creatopy’s drag and drop editor. 

Hotels.com: Find your perfect somewhere

Hotel.com knows how important compatibility between a tourist and its booked hotel is. So much so that they compare it to that between lovers, stressing the importance of choosing the right hotel.

The hotel description narrated in the first person by the personified boutique hotel immediately draws viewers into this upbeat ad. It is reminiscent of about me sections on match-making websites, further supported by the tagline Find your perfect somewhere , which sounds similar to Find your perfect someone . Overall, a great example of video storytelling.

Airbnb: Turn the world into a field trip

This colorful newsletter ad promotes Airbnb’s Field Trips, a collection of online experiences from around the world targeted at kids. 

This time around, the visual part outshines the ad copy, as the bright-colored background catches the eye instantly, and the exciting collage image prompts viewers to click the CTA button that invites them to Explore Field Trips .

Vacasa: Make check-in a breeze

The vacation rental company Vacasa aims to increase app installs with this clean and sharp-looking newsletter ad that promises a stress-free trip experience where travelers needn’t worry about aspects like hotel check-in, home entry codes, or wi-fi connection.

Viewers get a glimpse of how the app looks thanks to two mobile phone screens placed on a color block backdrop, which is a great selling point.

Visit Greece: All you want is Greece

The classic problem and solution approach works here because the ad’s characters are so relatable that viewers can easily identify with them. 

Wrapping It Up

As seen from the strategy tips and ad examples in this article, understanding and connecting with the customer is key in the travel industry. 

Hopefully, you’ve learned something new that you can implement when planning your future travel campaign or designing ads for it.

Let us know what you found most helpful, and feel free to share your own travel advertising tips in the comment section below.

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Home Blog Digital Marketing 12 game-changing tactics to boost travel agency marketing

12 game-changing tactics to boost travel agency marketing

13 min read Last Updated Nov 30, 2023

The travel industry has undergone remarkable transformation  over the past few years. While online bookings are still popular, curated travel experiences are also gaining traction. 

Travelers are increasingly seeking off-beat destinations with guided tours. They prefer a relaxed travel experience, focusing more on enjoyment rather than planning. Therefore, the role of travel agencies has become more critical than ever as they craft these personalized and hassle-free travel experiences for their customers. 

With the right travel agency marketing strategy, travel agents and businesses can attract the ideal client to their business and grow rapidly.

This blog post is the complete guide for travel agencies to unlock opportunities, grow their business, and use the best marketing strategies to reach their clients. 

Table of contents

How do you develop the best marketing strategy for travel agencies.

• How do you market your travel agency? 12 strategies and ideas to launch today 
• FAQs on travel agency marketing 
• Birdeye – the top-rated customer experience platform to grow your travel agency business 

Travel agencies can follow a simple process to identify the right digital marketing strategy for their business. For best results, they require an intimate understanding of their market, audience, business USP, competitors, and the marketing channels they can explore. 

Let’s dive in for more details: 

1. Know your market 

Getting the lay of the land will let you know how to compete in the market. Start by understanding who the leading players are (even if they are not direct competitors). Analyze the average travel budget and how much clients are willing to spend annually on travel businesses. 

You must also gauge the potential risk factors, especially when entering a new market. 

2. Understand your audience 

Within the overall market, travel agencies must clearly define their target audience. Use identifiers such as age, gender, family size, earning potential, location, etc. You can also create elaborate buyer personas to guide your digital marketing efforts. 

3. Define your USP

The travel agency business is highly competitive, making it difficult for smaller businesses to survive without a niche or differentiating characteristics. Identify what sets your business apart from others and further develop this USP (unique selling proposition). 

Your business USP must be the focal point for digital marketing messages, branding development, and advertising efforts. 

4. Understand your competitors 

Now that you know your audience and USP, look for competitors providing services similar to your target audience. Understand what makes them work and what issues customers have with them, analyze their reviews and ratings, and monitor their marketing campaigns on social media. 

A complete understanding of competitors will help you outshine them easily. 

5. Identify potential marketing channels 

The last and most crucial step is to choose the marketing channels you can explore to grow your travel agency business. This would depend on your marketing budget, competitor analysis, resource availability, and target audience. 

Choose five to six marketing channels, analyze the results, and tweak your marketing campaigns accordingly. 

How do you market your travel agency? 12 strategies and ideas to launch today 

Travel agencies can market their business via popular channels like social media, email marketing, SMS marketing, paid ad marketing, travel listing websites, and influencer marketing. 

Some of the top travel agency marketing strategies to follow are: 

• Build a solid social media presence 
• Optimize for organic search
• Level up your website 
• Leverage review marketing with Birdeye Reviews
• Build a referral network
• Run specialized discount campaigns 
• Invest in video marketing 
• Experiment with influencer marketing 
• Connect with customers via SMS 
• Run paid campaigns
• Build partnerships with hotels and destinations 
• Use a travel agency promotion software 

Let us explore these marketing ideas for travel agencies in detail. 

1. Build a solid social media presence

Travel agencies must note that their potential clients actively seek travel inspiration recommendations for destinations and agencies on social media. A recent survey shows that 87% of millennials use Facebook for travel booking inspirations, while 50% use Pinterest and Twitter to inspire them. 

This makes it critical for travel agencies to build a strong presence on social media and influence potential clients to choose them. 

Some tips for travel agencies to accelerate the impact of their social media presence are:

• Post niche-specific content regularly with photos, videos, and customer experiences. 
• Use a social media scheduling tool like Birdeye Social to post often without having to log in every day. 
• Share customer reviews and testimonials to boost social proof.
• Use trending hashtags content formats, and follow viral trends to gain momentum and acquire followers. 

2. Optimize for organic search

According to Google , they saw an all-time high search volume for “fun activities” in 2021 across the U.S. Google has introduced attractions, ticket booking, blogs and links to experiences, and Google flights to help customers find easy ways to travel. 

Showing up for these search queries is very important for the growth of your travel agency business. And, you can make it happen  by investing in organic content marketing. 

• Travel agencies must create blogs, guides, and exclusive experience curations to rank higher in organic search results. 
• Target high-profile travel destinations, popular tourist attractions, and offbeat experiences that people seek when they look for fun experiences. Create authoritative, helpful, and unique content to guide clients to your travel agency. 
• Create, update, and monitor your Google Business Profile so local customers can easily find you. Requesting customers to leave reviews, responding to reviews, and regularly posting updates are a few things that can help you feature in the top search results. 

3. Level up your website 

Most of your advertising campaigns, including Google Business Profile and sponsored ads, focus on driving traffic to your website. So, it becomes critical that your business website lives up to its promise and delivers an exceptional experience to the customer. 

Simply having a basic website with just the packages or travel information is no longer sufficient. Your website needs to offer more to engage and attract potential customers.  

Level up your travel website by:

• Featuring Google reviews with a widget to showcase positive reviews and overall ratings.
• Showcasing video testimonials by customers.
• Sharing informational content on trip planning, budgeting, and popular destinations. 
• Creating individual pages for each location you serve. 
• Creating dedicated landing pages for popular travel destinations and flights. 
• Implementing a conversational AI chatbot like Birdeye Webchat to interact with visitors, collect information, and turn visitors into leads. Conversational AI chatbots can mimic human interaction and convince customers to engage with your business. 

4. Leverage review marketing with Birdeye Reviews

Review marketing means leveraging the power of reviews across your marketing campaigns to boost social proof, build trust, and improve the conversion rate of your business. 

Research shows that 83% of travelers read reviews before finalizing a booking. Online reviews play an essential role in the reputation of a business and are a significant factor in a client’s travel decision, too. 

Social proof elements like reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content on social media can help you gain the trust of potential clients. But securing client reviews isn’t enough; you must actively promote them. 

Some easy ways to leverage reviews for a travel agency are:

• Using the Google Seller Ratings program and including your Google Reviews star rating in your Google Ads. 
• Sharing recent reviews on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram Stories, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). 
• Running contests and giveaways to motivate clients to share their travel experiences on social media. 
• Including reviews in your email marketing newsletters. 
• Monitoring popular travel review sites to find and share positive reviews across platforms. 

5. Build a referral network 

Word-of-mouth recommendations from family and friends go a long way in convincing potential clients to choose your travel business. You can actively grow your business by investing in a referral program. 

Don’t put the onus on clients to bring you leads via referrals. Instead, take proactive steps to build a referral network for your business with Birdeye Referrals . 

Travel businesses can:

• Build a customer-centric environment that elevates customer experience , improves customer satisfaction, and boosts loyalty. 
• Send automated referral emails to clients who leave positive feedback via surveys and reviews. 
• Share custom referral codes with clients to encourage them to recommend your business. 

Recommended read: 11 steps to craft a referral program  

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6. Run specialized discount campaigns 

Most travel businesses are seasonal and face trouble attracting clients in the off-season. That is the ideal time to deploy specialized discount campaigns to attract potential clients looking to travel. 

You can promote off-beat destinations, offer discount codes for peak-season travel with a pre-booking facility, and reward clients with special promotions. 

These campaigns are only effective when you know your target audience well and have an established online reputation. That way, clients can trust you and book your packages even if the travel dates are far off. 

Recommend read: Online reputation management guide  

7. Invest in video marketing 

Videos dominate all major marketing channels, from Google search results to social media. Marketers have also found that you can increase the open rate of an email just by including the word video in the subject line.

These facts show us that intense, engaging, and informational videos are significant assets to travel businesses, especially when people choose destinations based on how “photo-worthy” they are. 

Investing in video production, creation, and publishing can be expensive, but you can leverage many tools such as Canva, Adobe Suite, or Vimeo. 

Some video marketing ideas that travel businesses can leverage are:

• Video itinerary of popular tour packages. 
• How-to videos on packing, flight arrangements, visa application, etc. 
• Travel tips from previous clients. 
• Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts for launching new discounts or tour packages. 

8. Experiment with influencer marketing

Instagram and Facebook are influential solid channels in the travel industry. In fact, 84% of social media users said that they rely on travel influencers for recommendations. They trust their opinions and make purchase decisions accordingly. 

Investing in influencer marketing can be one of the most profitable decisions for your travel business. Millennials and Gen Z follow at least one travel influencer, and millions of accounts post about travel across channels. 

Find the right influencer for your travel business by evaluating their target audience, engagement rates, travel niche, and budgets. 

Choose the right person and engage them with free trips, exclusive discount codes for their audience, sponsored posts, and more. 

9. Connect with customers via SMS

Social media channels are great for engagement but have a significant drawback – they own the customer data. One day of downtime, and you can lose millions in engagement. Businesses should build a lead database with paid campaigns and lead magnets like exclusive offers. 

Once you have that information, you can directly engage your potential clients with SMS marketing. 

SMS has one of the highest open and response rates across channels. Clients prefer getting discount deals, important alerts, and engaging messages from businesses they like. SMS offers convenience to clients and allows them to talk to your business when they are on the go. 

You can leverage this channel to send flash discounts, engage customers once they visit your website, stay connected with the client, and improve your conversion rate. 

10. Run paid campaigns 

In highly competitive industries like travel, organic marketing alone is not enough to stand out. To build brand awareness and ensure that every potential customer knows your brand, travel businesses must invest in paid campaigns. 

Some famous advertising channels for travel businesses include Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and online travel agents (OTA) such as Expedia. 

Choose an advertising channel that allows you to start with a smaller budget but reaches your target audience for the best results. Run a survey to see what sites your audience uses the most and plan accordingly. 

Most travel businesses see good results in advertising on Google, Facebook/Instagram, and OTA sites. 

11. Build partnerships with hotels and destinations

Networks and partnerships can come in handy when you are a growing business with a small footprint in the market. You can benefit from the hotel and destination’s popularity and secure clients from their referrals. 

Clients often trust the recommendations from their hotels and are more likely to work with you coming from a trusted source. 

To build partnerships with famous hotels and destinations, travel agencies can: 

• Appoint an exclusive liaison for their clients and provide exceptional customer experience.
• Provide services at an affordable price to improve the likelihood of securing the client. 
• Offer exclusive tour packages and improve customer delight. 

Your online presence will also benefit from these partnerships as you can host the logos of prominent players on your website, social media, and other marketing channels. 

12. Use a travel agency promotion software 

Running a travel business is challenging. It demands your full attention  and resources for client satisfaction. Fortunately, a variety of  travel agent marketing tools are available to help you achieve that.  

Specifically, travel agency promotion software can help enhance customer experience, boost online reputation, and effectively promote your travel agency. 

Birdeye is the top-rated customer experience platform that offers review management, listing management, referrals, surveys, social media management, payments, and so much more to businesses. 

With Birdeye, you can take control of your business’s online presence on Google, social media, and many other platforms. 

Check out the tool’s pricing today for more details!

FAQs on travel agency marketing 

The key to growing your travel business is to invest in online marketing strategies across Google, listing websites, business website promotion, and building partnerships with hotels, influencers, and premium destinations. 

You can advertise your travel agency on Google, Facebook, Instagram, travel websites, and other free advertising sites like Foursquare. 

Travel agencies can promote customer trust and loyalty by actively managing customer reviews, taking steps to boost online reputation, requesting customers for feedback, and running a loyalty program for repeat customers. 

You can market your travel agency business online with Google Business Profile, Google Ads, social media marketing, listing on online travel agent websites, influencer marketing, and promoting customer reviews online. 

Birdeye – the top-rated customer experience platform to grow your travel agency business 

In the highly competitive  travel industry, travel agencies must consistently put effort  to survive and thrive. It’s crucial for travel businesses to  invest in extensive online marketing strategies, networking, and partnerships to gain a competitive edge in the market. 

Additionally, travel businesses must ensure they provide the best customer experience, build a solid online reputation, and take proactive steps to act on customer feedback. To do this effectively, they need an automation tool that can take over and help them focus more on operations and individual clients. 

Birdeye provides comprehensive tools that aid your travel business’s processes, from lead generation to customer satisfaction. It is a must-have in your arsenal. 

About the Author

Sunitha raghunathan.

Content Marketing Writer

Originally published Nov 30, 2023

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