How Can You Still Drive Engagement For Your Travel Business In Middle Of Pandemic

The economic situation globally is quite dismal due to the ongoing pandemic surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19).

With so many countries shutting down schools and businesses, in hopes of stopping the spread of the highly contagious virus, the livelihood of so many people has been impacted negatively.

One of the most affected business sectors has been travel and tourism. With social distancing being the norm, and restrictions of domestic as well as international travel, travel businesses are floundering about what to do next.

Where last year, people were eager for summer to arrive and jet off to destinations spread all over the world; this year, there is not a peep in the name of summer travel.

But business can still operate as usual with the use of strategic online travel marketing tactics.

Here are a few tips travel businesses can utilize to remain relevant in the global scenario.

Tips to Drive Engagement for Your Travel Business in The Middle of Pandemic

1. Embrace the Current Scenario

The worst thing you can do in such a difficult situation is to try to avoid it or try to gloss over reality. Your audience is already in the thick of it. They know the impact of the pandemic on a personal level.

The best practice for you to follow would be to acknowledge the impact of the pandemic on your business. Empathize with your audience and strike the right chord in communicating with them. Reassure the audience that you plan to be back with more options for them as soon as the pandemic situation lightens, and life goes back to normal.

2. Let Your Customers Know You Value Them

Social distancing has placed a lot of restrictions on how people are interacting with each other. Going for outings to pubs and restaurants is now a long distant dream until the situation normalizes.

At this time, when fear is still driving them, people would appreciate a kind word asking after their health and the well-being of their family and close ones. Calling directly or sending a personalized mail leaves your customers will make them remember you when times were tough.

3. Use Innovative Emails

You have, at your expense, many free services you can use to perfect your emails. Email marketing remains one of the most prominent forms of digital marketing to date irrespective of the many predictions that mentioned it would go out of use. Emails can use any images as well as videos to reduce bounce rates.

Using a free video editing software, you can make attractive emails that would urge your customers to open your emails and follow any links you provide in them. Get completely proficient in these services and utilize them; once the overall situation stabilizes, you can see the impact of these emails on your business.

4. Create a Virtual Plan

Now that actual travel has stopped, you need something that satiates your audience’s thirst for travel. If you can’t take them to their destination directly, you can try to bring the destination to them.

Virtually, connect with the locals at various places and connect them with your audience through online tutorials on making a particular local delicacy or teaching them a local dance. The first session could be free, and depending on its popularity and success, you can create an effective business plan.

5. Audit Your Online Process

You can take this time when the pandemic has interrupted your business services to carefully audit your website and apps to see if it is visually appealing to the whole audience.

You can even assess your online presence to see the elements which are bringing in traffic and those that are not. You can try various new elements to see which has is more effective in converting traffic to your website.

6. Keep Your Audience Informed

Your audience and customers are stuck at home with no way to go out for any vacations. With work from home becoming the norm, they crave an escape from the four walls of their home.

You can provide comfort to your audience by sending them photos and videos with some obscure facts about various places around the world. Providing consistent information can have the added benefit of assured sales once the situation normalizes.

7. Streamline Your Post Pandemic Routine

Once the pandemic situation stabilizes, there will be an influx of new businesses coming in. The quantity of the influx depends almost entirely on how you conducted your business operations during the crisis.

If you don’t want to be overwhelmed by a sudden boom to your business, you need to strategize a proper process for your post-pandemic sales.

Your new normal might include masks and other sanitization processes that need to be streamlined so that you don’t interrupt the actual travel plans of your customers.

8. Use Social Media Effectively

Not only can you use the various social media platforms to connect with your existing audience, but you can also plan and reach new audiences. This can be done with new, tasteful ads promoting your business and also with the help of social media influencers.

Influencers have a unique ability to convert a majority of their audience to any product they endorse with their highly engaging content. However, you need to ensure that the influencer you choose to collaborate with has the right kind of audience you want to engage with.

Key Takeaway

The tips given here can be embraced into your existing business practices, to feel no dip in your engagement with your audience.

Health and cleanliness may take a more critical role while crafting travel plans. Travel businesses may join hands with their associated hotels and restaurants to provide the best ‘contact-free’ services they can come up with. No-touch payments have been in use for several years now. Other such services will only be a boost in providing customers with the best service.

The pandemic may have disrupted the economy as a whole. Still, with effective marketing techniques, you can stay afloat and survive to see the end of the current scenario.