Digital Marketing for Tourism

As a speaker at the recent Tech & Tourism Conference in Johannesburg, I had the privilege of shedding light on a crucial aspect of modern tourism marketing: leveraging big data analytics to empower travel businesses. In an era where data reigns supreme, the key lies not only in the abundance of information but also in its interpretation.

In this month’s blog, we review the effectiveness of Reels as part of our social media marketing strategy for three different clients. This is how Facebook and Instagram Reels boost our clients’ brand visibility to increase their overall ROI—and how you can do it, too.

In our previous blog post, we covered 3 methods to optimise your marketing budget and increase ROI with a collective marketing strategy. Now, we delve deeper into how to make this work in practice with a case study on one of our agency’s most successful clients.

In a nutshell, a collective marketing strategy in tourism entails pooling your budget and resources to ensure both your umbrella brand and individual offerings gain mindshare with your target audiences.

When it comes to optimising your marketing budget to increase ROI, there is no shortage of DIY guides on the internet. The only catch? Most of them either offer generic one-size-fits-all approaches to marketing regardless of industry or get so technical that you need an MBA just to decipher the content. We’re here to help.

Read on for our definitive guide to increasing ROI through smart marketing, specifically made for the tourism industry and translated from jargon to real talk.

The Salene, nestled amidst Stellenbosch’s best wine farms in the heart of the Devon Valley, needed a brand refresh. Having recently changed owners and rebranded from Zarose, we knew it was important to differentiate this luxury accommodation offering from the many other options in the area. When your competitors all boast stunning scenery, luxurious stays, an incredible location and wedding venues to boot, standing out of the crowd can be a challenge. Our solution? Tell the best story.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of optimising your website for search engines. It is important, because it lies at the bottom of every single successful tourism booking that will ever be made on your website. Why is SEO so important? Because a website that is optimized for the Google Search Engine, will help the search engine to index your website much easier. And when it is properly indexed according to your most relevant products, the search engine can successfully match it with your most suitable potential guests.

This indexing happens according to “key words” that describe the product you offer and which enables the search engine to match your website with a keyword entered in your potential guest’s search.

As leaders in African tourism marketing, Eco Africa Digital researched and compiled a document that highlights the most important travel trends for the African tourism industry for 2021.

These include:

1. Smaller Groups & Privacy
2. Regenerative Travel
3. Bye-Bye 9 to 5: Work Wherever You Want
4. Vital Value: Maximising Travel For Less
5. Flexible Cancellation Terms & Safety
6. Travel Bubbles
7. Preference for Outdoor Experiences
8. Rise in Popularity of Local Travel

2020 looked to be the start of a new decade where tourism would grow exponentially and the industry as a whole would have one of its best years yet, however, nature and COVID-19 had other plans. While we could create, strategise, and put our tried-and-tested tourism marketing methods and skills to effective use and plan for the future, nothing could have prepared us for what lay ahead. Luckily, we found opportunity and a space to test new ideas and push the creative and innovation boundaries. We took something as simple as selling vouchers and turned it into a travel restrictions success story for our client, Mount High Luxury Country House, which is based in Mpumulanga, South Africa.

Where do we go to find guidance during a crisis? Especially one we have never been through before? It’s simple, we revert to our tried-and-tested principles and apply those to our new – temporary – reality.

Running a tourism business can be very challenging. You have to create awareness of what makes you unique, drive bookings, manage resources, and keep guests happy – all while staying true to your vision. No one knows these challenges better than Lizanne du Plessis, founder of Eco Africa Digital.