Travel PR Firm Shares Spotlights Key Destination Marketing Trends

The World Tourism Organization reports “international tourists’ arrival grew by 6.8 percent in 2017, making it the biggest increase since 2010.  U.S. travelers accounted for $211 billion dollars in terms of money spent on vacation.”

This is why, many countries, states and cities invest heavily in destination marketing to inspire first-time and repeat travelers to uncover the one-of-a-kind experiences to make their region the first choice among savvy travelers.  Tourism, after all, stimulates local economies by having visitors spend money at hotels, attractions and restaurants and by providing employment for those in the tourism sector.

Allen Marketing Communications, a boutique NYC PR and marketing agency, often recommends an integrated marketing campaign for countries, states and cities to capture their share of market and share of wealth in this lucrative tourism industry.  Our destination marketing campaigns are based on solid research to identify invaluable insights about current and potential customers, as well as identify new triggers for travel to make our clients area the first choice among consumers.

Our savvy travel public relations pros use media relations as the foundation for our campaigns to tell our clients stories, often tapping into key travel trends to generate credible third-party stories.  Our team also implements consumer promotions, multi-city media tours, and trade shows to distinguish our clients from our competitors.

Our travel public relations agency is aligned with boutique advertising and digital marketing agencies to offer services for traditional print and broadcast advertising, as well as display and search engine marketing to ensure there is synergy in terms of all destination marketing channels.

Here are key insights as it pertains to destination marketing.

• Virtual Reality is an emerging technology for destinations to showcase the key attributes for their country, state, or city.  Consumers, who are in the planning stage of their vacation, can simply VR headset and do a ‘test drive’ before their travel to a destination.

 

• Instagram is a very influential social media platform for travel marketers.  Millennials and generation Y often book their dream vacations simply by the stunning photos.   Instagram is turning out to be “Insta-passport” to stimulate bookings to destinations, hotels, spas and wellness retreats.

 

• Smartphone vs. Desktop – Research shows more people are conducting their research on smartphones, more so than on a desktop laptop or tablet.  It is important for destinations to have their content “mobile friendly” since more and more travel research start on a smartphone.

 

• Travel Videos – According to Jenny Thomassian, Google’s head of industry and travel,  “We've seen travel videos that have become some of the most viewed content on YouTube. And we've seen interest in any travel-related video up about 60 percent in the last couple of years.”  Research also shows travel videos are one of the highly viewed on YouTube.

 
Our team has extensive destination marketing experience having represented Britain, Montreal, Ontario, Puerto Rico, Québec, Singapore, just to name a few countries.    

We are here to help.  Give us a call.
 
 

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