To say that the past year has been a turbulent one for the travel industry is an understatement. Hotels around the world have temporarily closed their doors, flights have been grounded, and everyone’s travel plans have been paused. Statistics indicate that global tourism suffered its worst year on record in 2020, with a 74% decrease in international arrivals (one billion less than 2019). But over the past few months, optimism about travel has been re-ignited with the global roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines, and the travel-hungry desperate to make up for lost time. According to the World Tourism Organisation earlier this year, “the gradual rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine is expected to help restore consumer confidence, contribute to easing travel restrictions and slowly normalize travel during the year ahead.”
There is no playbook to tell us exactly how we will be continuing our lives as globe trotters, but resilience and innovation will help us power through. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), it’s baseline forecast for 2021 predicts a 50.4% improvement on 2020 demand, bringing the industry to 50.6% of 2019 levels. But no matter what the exact percentages, it’s imperative that travel brands lay the right groundwork as they navigate a long-term path of recovery.
Our core team of travel experts at Action Travel, recently launched by Action Global Communications, are currently focused on adapting marcomms strategies for clients in the travel, tourism, aviation and hospitality industry, implementing the best solutions to help ensure that brands not only endure the pandemic intact, but also, bounce back full force. Whether you’re a PR pro working alongside travel clients or are part of a travel brand’s comms and marketing team, here are four best practices to adopt right now as you prepare for the ‘revenge travel’ phenomenon.
1. Understand the new customer journey
There is no time like the present to rethink old ways. How consumers felt about travel pre-COVID-19 has changed dramatically, and now, brands must better understand different ways of behaviour and the new customer journey in order to capture the little demand that’s out there, and ultimately, drive conversions. Be sure to use all available real time consumer data – especially behavioural analytics – across various microsegments (the more niche the better) to really tune into potential traveller needs, concerns, demands and priorities.
A study on the changes in tourist consumer behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia – conducted by Action Travel in collaboration with the Russian Tourism Authority between 15 January and 31 March 2021 – indicates clear shifts in tourist preferences when considering early booking package tour offers. Not only do tourists nowadays pay closer attention to the terms and conditions of the offer, but they also choose offers with the most lenient terms, with no significant booking prepayments and the chance to carry out all calculations as close as possible to the arrival dates. Tour operators note that the demand for trip cancellation insurance has increased significantly – from 10% to 40% compared to 2019-2020. Flexibility and the ability to cancel a trip or hotel stay, may be more important to your target audience than price or brand status. A good strategy right now, and especially a good digital strategy, is one which takes all user-centred insights into account and understands that the customer journey is far more complex than before. Messaging needs to be more personalised, more adaptable, and above all, far more sensitive to emerging and evolving traveller needs.
2. Prioritize a sense of security & protection
Once we acknowledge that the customer journey has now changed, and doesn’t often begin with a confident push of a ‘book now’ button, then we are also acknowledging that it’s time to boost consumer confidence. An effective comms strategy needs to empower the customer. When communicating that it’s time to travel again, every brand or PR professional must remember that excitement about travel again is also intrinsically linked with scepticism or fear. Action Travel’s recent study of changes in tourist consumer behaviour indicates that travellers fear another outbreak of the disease and are also afraid that their flights may get cancelled and they will end up ‘stuck’ in a foreign country. They are also negatively influenced by changes in entry requirements and unclear money return policies in case there’s a sudden closure of a country.
Be sure to highlight how your brand can safeguard travellers, making them feel protected and in control of the situation. The Etihad Wellness programme is exemplary, with the airline having introduced Wellness Ambassadors to support travellers with their health and wellbeing needs, online, at the airport, and onboard. Now is the time to really accelerate the flow of information to communicate any new tactics your brand is implementing, especially via videos and live chats on your social media channels, targeted newsletters, webinars, blog posts and infographics. Spread the word and make it loud and clear!
3. Maximise user-generated content
While most of us stayed put this past year, we all noticed that images were still circulating on social media to spark our wanderlust. Dubai Tourism cleverly tapped into the power of top influencers when the #ReadyWhenYouAre digital campaignkicked off last July, spreading the word that the city had reopened to tourists. TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms have been flooded with photos of celebrities and influencers enjoying the Dubai glitz, glamour and sunshine ever since. And chances are, you wanted to be there too. Any travel brand right now should be sharing user-generated content, while collaborating with travel influencers who lead by example, helping generate a social media buzz about a specific destination/airline/hotel/service. This should motivate your audience to follow suit, inspiring them to jet off to a specific destination or indulge in a travel experience you are promoting.
4. Carefully examine your competitive landscape & market changes
The impact of Covid-19 has been so widespread and intense that the competitive landscape will naturally look very different now to what it did a year ago. What brands are evolving, and how? Where are the gaps? How is your brand competing in this new landscape? And very importantly, what signals are there that your travel brand is picking up in certain markets? Regional differences mean that certain countries are recovering and opening up to travellers faster than others, so be sure to keep track of these changes to tweak and roll out your comms strategies accordingly, with a dynamic and targeted segmentation of your messages. Aside from relevant targeted messaging – fine-tuned to the nuances of each market – make sure you truly investigate the most impactful comms channels for content distribution in each specific market in question, especially given the diversity of today’s social media landscape across the globe.
Headquartered in Moscow, Action Travel is part of an independent global agency and works with some of the most renowned travel brands in the world, creating game-changing creative campaigns for an ever-evolving industry. You can find out more about Action Travel and its services here.