Influencer marketing in tourism
Tourism is one of the industries developed by influencers. Bright photos on Instagram or videos on Youtube, stories about their impressions and choices — these are the things, attractive to followers.
More and more travelers prefer influencers’ opinion to advertisements. This is clear to tour companies, which offer cooperation to influencers.
We collected 4 primary trends of influencer marketing in tourism:
Followers trust influencers’ choice more than advertisements
Surveys showed that more than 80% of tourists believe opinions of the leaders. They chose agencies, hotels, airlines and even travel directions based on the advice of influencers.
Influencers are honest to their followers
The times, when companies offered to give predefined descriptions of the products are long gone. Today influencers manage the information themselves. Spontaneous and real-life stories influence followers choice more effectively. The most popular are Insta-stories, where influencers share their experience, gained in different places.
Content values more, than followers’ quantity
Micro-influencers can gain more engage the followers, than celebrities.
Micro-influencers are more trustable than celebrities, who might be paid for any advertising activity. That is why the trend to engage micro-influencers into tourism is becoming more and more popular.
Followers’ engagement as the measure of efficiency
Recent statistics show that the influencers ROI are 11 times higher than ROI of traditional digital advertisements instruments. The campaign might be considered as successful if it involves audience more loyal to the brand. Followers engagement and interaction with them are the key indicators for effective and successful campaigns.
How to cooperate with travel-bloggers?
There are no rules, according to which you can cooperate with influencers, though we found several examples of how to make this partnership effective.
Companies and influencers interaction
A good example of companies and influencers interaction was observed during Coachella world-famous festival. AirBnb offered accommodation to influencers during the time of the celebration. It was made for brand awareness, and this is also the case of how companies and influencers cooperation may be mutually profitable.
Audience extension is social networks
TripIt created monthly #TripItChat in Twitter, where influencers shared their experience and gave advice to travelers. Due to exciting and honest content, the quantity of TripIt audience was increased.
Content visualization
Expedia launched a blog named Viewfinder. There are many travel articles in the blog, as it was created by travelers for travelers, where they share the experience and show visual content from unique places.
Authentic market formation
Millennials trust the content, created by their agemates. That’s why many tour companies cooperate with influencers to create value from the point of view of the different audience. In such a manner, an interesting for diversified groups of users, niche market, is created.
Content creation cost cut
It is a common approach to involve influencer for Instagram or SnapChat stories about this or that issue placement. In this way influencers advertise companies without costs on content creation, and, at the same time, it leads to audience extension for the influencer.
The forecasted is that till 2021 the number of social networks users will exceed 3 billion. It means that influencers will be more popular and new ideas in tourism will be created. It is interesting to see the brands increase their potential with the help of influencers. And it is interesting to guess whether such way of promotion will be even more effective.
