The world will never be as we knew it before the pandemic. The travel industry has no doubt suffered and taken longer to recover from the impact of lockdowns and travel restrictions. Although borders opened across Europe in 2022, the industry is recovering from job losses during the pandemic, the effects of inflation across Europe and various other challenges. What do the figures say?
The European Travel Commission (ETC) publishes a quarterly report that provides insights and forecasts for the European tourism industry. According to the latest Report, international tourist arrivals in Europe are expected to return to between 80% and 90% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, a significant increase compared to the 584,90 million arrivals in 2021. Pre-pandemic arrivals were plus-minus 740 million in 2019.
Everybody is waiting with bated breath to see how the ongoing recovery in Asia and the Pacific will affect inbound tourism in Europe this season.
Hit the ground running this Summer
The travel industry is back in business, from booking hotels and activities to buying travel-related products for more convenient trips. Well-known brands like Away and Alleyoop have launched TSA-compliant products to fill a niche that will give them a competitive advantage. If you want to stand out from the crowd and be successful in this competitive marketplace you must ensure that all the basic functionality on your ecommerce website is in supercharge mode and that you excel in experiential and aspirational marketing. Top that with dialled-in, personalised messaging on your site, and you’ll be well on your way to delighting your customers and bank manager.
Destination: Sales! Not quite…
The most important journey for your ecommerce website is the one customers take once they discover your brand. Too many brands focus on touchpoints in the sales funnel and aim to convert interested browsers into immediate sales. They forget how human relationships work. It’s a slow process of someone appearing on your radar in the most unexpected places to slowly edge your way closer and finally make your move. You don’t go from zero to hero in five Hollywood seconds. Brands are the same. Make an impression on people likely to travel, and then hone them until they convert and beyond.
To do this, you must track each person and know where they are in their customer journey. Tools like Google Analytics and paid social media campaigns allow you to target specific demographics and interests and track most of their activity. But let’s take a step back and look at how media mentions and publicity traffic can contribute to sharpening your radar for potential customers.
Target publications like Travel Weekly with content and create campaigns on your ecommerce site dedicated to visitors from the articles. It’s a good idea to feature the publication’s logo with a quote/stat from the article in your promotion. It will add clout to your brand’s credibility and boost shopper confidence.
Think of things travellers would like to know. Which suitcase is the lightest? How to pack to travel around the world in 80 days? Which currency, in which country, to buy what? The sky’s the limit. Just keep in mind that it has to circle back to your brand.
Passport to perfect promotions
Geo-Targeting
Nothing gets rid of loyal customers like forgetting about them when you’re experiencing an upswing. Remember, these clients have converted, booked and perhaps promoted your services/products over time. They’ve kept you alive when the going was really tough. Stay loyal to them. Even if they have not used your product/service in the past, if they are local travellers, acknowledge it with a set of price points, especially for them. Use geo-targeting to identify these customers and serve relevant discounts and promotions.
In-page carousels on blog pages
Provide content on your site that helps shoppers decide why your brand is the best and your products are perfect to meet their needs. Blogs will do that. You can also include carousels with product recommendations featuring the products you discuss in the blog post so that readers can easily add them to their carts. It will have a magical effect on your cart abandonment rates!
Payments on steroids
The moment of truth for all your marketing efforts comes at checkout time. Travellers have one thing in common. They don’t like queues. Who does? And if your checkout process is not seamless, they’ll choose another site, even if it’s more expensive. Optimise your checkout process with a payment partner that processes payments globally, fast.
Speak to Truevo. We make money flow by delivering simple, secure online processing that just works. Speak to us if you want to give your travel ecommerce site wings this Summer. We can’t wait to take off with you.
