Tweet

Alternative ways to market your tourism business

Guest post by: Rene Truter

Article Overview: As the owner of a small tourism operation, you have to ensure that your lodge/transport service/recreational activity is the option of choice for local and overseas visitors. Partnering with a related organisation may be an effective way to get your name out there and do good business throughout the year.

Alternative ways to market your tourism business

There is more than one way to reach your target market and forming partnerships with other service providers in the industry can increase awareness, build your reputation and ultimately, broaden your customer base.

Don't look too far

One way to get to the end user is by partnering with other tourism ventures that may be targeting the same people you are. By teaming up, you can offer a more competitive, "all-inclusive" holiday package.

Examples of vendors you may want to approach are:

Tour operators often contract services from a variety of sectors such as accommodation, spas or golf clubs, transportation and site-seeing activities. They package these services and then resell them either directly to the consumer or through travel agents and other tour operators.

Tour operators are generally paid a commission based on the retail price of your product. It means you're making a little less money for your service, but this is probably preferable to doing no business at all.

Travel agencies operate by selling a destination. Many agencies are part of a franchise that spends a lot of money to market and promote products and destinations, through colourful brochures and advertising across various media.

Some travel agencies specialise in a specific type of travel, such as luxury or corporate travel, while others focus on a particular destination. Depending on what your business offers, developing relationships with travel agencies could bring in a lot of business.

Travel agents are there to advise customers on their travel plans and make travel bookings. A good agent who likes your product can be a great source of business. You could even give him or her the opportunity to experience your product and if they're impressed, you can't ask for a better sales person.

The media is extremely important when it comes to tourism marketing. Travellers are influenced by what they read in the news or in their favourite magazine, for example. Invite a respected travel journalist to experience what you have to offer. A good article in the right publication is much more credible than just placing an ad. And you can suddenly find yourself inundated with requests for your services.

Local Event Companies: Your town or city may be hosting certain sporting, business or other events during the year. Find out where and what these are and how your business can get in on the action.

A good place to start looking for potential partnership is by making sure your business is registered with your local or provincial tourism authority. You may have to invest some money into obtaining some sort of tourism grading, but it will definitely be a worthwhile investment.

Don't become complacent just because you're doing good business right now. Go beyond the "usual" channels of attracting business and stay busy, no matter what the season.

Copyright © 2010 Business Partners Ltd. All rights reserved.

Related Articles
  Garber on Business: Can YOUR business benefit from the boom in Culinary Tourism?
  Tanzania launches first ever US television campaign on CNN
  TOURISM WITHOUT EVEN HAVING TO BE THERE!
  What Exactly is Ecotourism?
  Shining Star-the Africa Report
  2.2 Sectoral performance IV: Economic Report on Africa 2007
  Are There Alternative Treatments for ADHD?
  Reasons to Invest in Hotel Industry Franchises
  In our Quest to Fix a Mess
  Internet Business Coaching And Marketing For Travel Professionals – Effective Travel Website Designs
  III.d. E-Commerce in the Service Sector: E-COMMERCE AND SMALL ENTREPRENEURS
  A-Z of Ecotourism
  Resorts Going Green
  How to Dodge the Obamacare Bullet to Save Money and Have Better Healthcare
  Best Alternative Student Loans
  Become A Home Based Travel Agent And Help People To Discover The World Around Them
  Still Can’t Get A Business Loan?
  ALTERNATIVE ENRICHMENT
  Detecting Your Niche
  Alternative Student Loans

Article Tags: hotel, lodge, motel, overseas visitors, tourism, visitorstourism business



Related Forum Posts
Re: Hi every1 - actually my original business started with a retail chain but I guess there are new ways to do it because the internet. So I imagine there are many ways to improve this function in my business. I’d like also to know your advices but right now I’d appreciate some more info about how to improve this business by the online way. Will
What to charge - I suppose there are two ways to look at it, depending on what business you are in. If you charge less, you get all that customers that don't have the funds to go with those who charge more. So you put it into your advertising that you beat everyone else's prices. That should result in people flocking to your door! If you're in a business where everyone has money...and where how much is spent gives the spender a "cachet" - then you charge as much as the market will bear and 10% on top of it!
Expeirmentation in Marketing - [quote="Ashish":3velc49x]Hi Samin, It's a very prominent question these days and I feel rather all the new ways of marketing these days are getting older very soon. Yes, SEO is a good tool but I also feel social net, blogging and using videos to market proofs to be handy. You can try your hands on them and ofcource you have to be careful, to make it successful you have to do it right by lot of experimentation. Hope it helps you.[/quote:3velc49x] Experimentation is definitely necessary and recognizing when you need to make adjustments to the ways you're promoting. I use social networking, social bookmarking, blogs and some videos. Still working on finding better ways to use videos. Shri
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Selling advertisements on a website is one of the most efficient and easiest ways to make money online. Many bloggers and webmasters utilize ad networks like Text Link Ads and ReviewMe, both of which take a huge 50% cut of all your ad earnings. These third party ad brokers dominate our monetization strategies because of the strength and trustworthiness of their brand as well as their advertiser reach , which gives them the leverage to demand a cut of our ad earnings. Alternative profit schemes are not often considered because of the lack of know-how when it comes to direct advertising sales, which simply refers to the selling of ads directly to advertisers without the assistance of middlemen. Do you really need to sign up with as many advertising networks as possible in order to make some decent money from your websites? When was the last time you actually sold a link or review through these brokers? More importantly , why not supplement or replace these ad brokers with direct advertising initiatives? I’ll start things off with a brief introduction to the pros and cons of direct advertising before going into suggestions on creating an advertiser sell page , which should be the first step you should take............................
Re: How to promote business online? - Ark, There are several ways to promote business online but what matters is how effectively you place your business before the market. One has to plan the steps carefully and must take a test effect in order to get the best results. A promotion of a product/service or anything else affects your market only when it could effect you and so the seller is the first customer itself. For promoting online you can write articles related to the service/product that you are providing but then you need to write about the benefits of the product not your site. You need to first make your target market understand the effectiveness of the product/service. Try to be informative and professional with all your approach, and when you direct the user through a link/hyperlink in your article/blog content make sure that they are being directed to the desired page. Promote your content through social medias, social bookmarking sites and your email. Social media is only single market place i feel where you could get your target at one place. Try to build your leads and client network through social networks, interact with them effectively, don't present yourself as a seller you must promote your business but present yourself as a adviser. Try to attract them by posting offers and discounts and always be prepared to explain them regarding that. Note one thing that it is you both the side and so it is not difficult to impress yourself but then you need to develop strategies. Remember one thing, If there not a Need then Generate the Need! -- Thanks


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)

Fear Factors in Small Business: Sales & Marketing

Small Business Internet Marketing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.