HOME » FOR TOURISM ORGANISATIONS » Open Lessons on Smart Tourism » Internet Marketing in Tourism
Lesson 2
INTERNET MARKETING IN TOURISM
There are at least 10 reasons why you need a basic knowledge of online tourism marketing:
A product in tourism, unlike physical goods, cannot be touched before purchase. Therefore, the search, selection and comparison of tourist products is carried out mainly through the Internet.
A potential client of travel agencies, museums or destinations is always at a distance. Therefore, the Internet is the only way to convey information about your offers and services to him.
The main sales tool in tourism is trust, and people trust little in direct advertising. Earn the loyalty of tourists and create a good reputation these days can be mainly on the Internet. Before buying, people are increasingly using the Internet to understand: what kind of company offers a product, how many years the company has been on the market, how serious the company is.
Ordinary offline advertising like printed materials, TV, magazines works less and less effectively, despite the high cost. Consumers go online.
Competition among providers of tourism products is growing, including online. Therefore, those who do everything right on the Internet get a huge advantage over their competitors.
More and more companies, especially large ones, are using online marketing and social networks, conducting scientific research in this area.
Only Internet marketing provides insight and opportunities for in-depth analysis and allows you to compare advertising channels in order to understand which advertising is most effective and brings more customers.
Nearly 100% of tourists arriving in a new place prefer to use their smartphone to search for a travel service at their destination rather than printed maps, travel guides, etc.
About 25% of queries on Google are somehow related to tourism and travel.
In the near future, almost all advertising and information work in tourism will move online and all tourism organizations will have to meet the increasing demands of tourists for the quality of information they find on the web.
In the next chapter, you will find statistical confirmation of the influence of Internet marketing on modern tourism.
Author: Dmitriy Tin – founder of Center Smart Tourism GmbH
Editing and translation into English: Leonid Andrianov