How to create content in the tourism industry? Check out these eight super exciting examples!

Leo Tolstoy once said, “All great literature can be divided into two stories; a man on his way to a journey, or a stranger arriving in a small town.”

Compared to vertical industries, the tourism industry is full of rich stories. As Tolstoy said, stories are about leaving one place and arriving at another.

Travel marketers have taken full advantage of this opportunity by using content to tell their brand stories and have gradually diversified into other areas, such as apps, Weibo, magazine publishing or interactive videos. In the mobile Internet space, consumers can find travel-related content anywhere, in offices, cafes, airports, etc. From this point of view, the development of content marketing in the tourism industry cannot be underestimated.

So, how can different content marketing strategies be applied in the tourism industry? When a traveler becomes a buyer, his “ buyer’s journey ” can be represented by a funnel graphic like this one, with different content marketing strategies attached.

Inspiration → Inspiration

1. Inspire travelers to engage with broader, shareable content

To riff on its slogan, Australia is a place “not just to visit, but to experience.” The official Tourism Australia website has created a series of stunning, authentic 360-degree scrolling videos that simulate an adventurous journey through the country's iconic locations. Picture yourself snorkeling with a pod of playful dolphins on Tasmania's Great Barrier Reef and feeding kangaroos on Kangaroo Island. Each video is designed to entice visitors to explore Australia's exotic coast for themselves, first by shocking them on the senses and then by experiencing it for themselves.

2. Set your goal to build long-term relationships, don’t overemphasize your brand or drive conversions

Tortuga Backpacks, also a travel website, uses their words: "We are a weekly podcast at the intersection of travel and entrepreneurship ." The show is hosted by Fred Perrotta and Jeremy Michael Cohen, who are also the founders of Tortuga Backpacks. Their podcast shares travelers’ favorite travel gear, products, websites, apps, and more.

Traveling and starting a business don’t always go hand in hand, but these amazing entrepreneurs often work on the road with a backpack. Power Trip podcasts have opened up a new, deeper way of communication. It not only maintains communication with existing customers, but also uses content that is different from traditional marketing to tap into potential customers.

Research → Discovery

3. Help your customers plan specific destinations and related content

TripAdvisor is a website that provides travelers with advice and options to help them plan a perfect trip. The majority of the site focuses on traveler reviews of hotels, destinations, and activities, with other types of travel advice also scattered throughout the site.

For example, when you search for “must do things in Paris,” the main results will show topics that travelers love, including links to activity selections, reviews, and rankings. It will also include other links: weather information in Paris, hotel reservations, activities to attend near the hotel, etc. Others include free downloadable guides to Paris and sightseeing tips for tourists.

4. Booking websites are overloaded with pressure. Understand audience needs before publishing relevant content

Hipmunk is a travel booking website that became popular with its travel guides. Hipmunk uses rich content to answer customers' common travel questions and problems. There is a blog post called: Traveler's Guide - Practical strategy resources that have exploded in countries around the world, which includes restaurant guides, taxis and hotels.

Other excellent blog posts include: How can travelers see Star Wars two days early? 48 things to do in Asia. How much does a Disney vacation really cost? The conclusion is simple: understand your “entry point” and then answer their questions. None of this content is interactive or flashy, but it provides relevant information that the audience needs.

The flight search they launched in 2011 was also a content trigger point.

Booking → Preferences

5. What makes your brand/company unique? Grasp the core and tell a valuable story

Case Study: Expedia and St. Jude Hospital’s Dream Adventure

Expedia is the world's largest online travel company. Their survey found that travel has a great impact on a person's worldview. Children with cancer receiving treatment at St. Jude Hospital were unable to experience the inspiring effects of travel firsthand, and Expedia found a way to bring the world to them.

The video above shows an interactive live video feed presented through virtual reality camera technology in a carefully decorated panoramic viewing room. Expedia's Dream Adventure takes St. Jude patients to explore jungles and exotic seascapes, expanding their imaginations and helping them transcend the physical limitations of their illness.

Content marketing doesn’t have to be about high-tech ways of furthering your marketing goals. But you need to associate your brand with unique, memorable, even life-changing experiences that only you are qualified to provide.

6. Consider UGC, users will "speak for you"

A landing page and a well-planned call to action, interactive content can help you engage potential customers and encourage them to build a more meaningful relationship with your brand.

Orbitz, a travel site, created a quiz to find out how satisfied business travelers are with their travel service providers. The results showed that Orbitz would send a specially tailored message to dissatisfied users, addressing the pain points they raised and some encouragement that Orbitz would consider as a solution to enrich their travel planning experience. This not only provides marketers with valuable insights into their user base, but can also be used in the process of building consumer relationships.

Retention (user)

7. Interactive content is the best way to communicate with travelers

At the time, the Queensland Tourism Board was working with a marketing company to plan a project to build Great Barrier Reef islands - a paradise for holidaymakers, with a budget of more than $1 million. However, what they were about to face was the Great Recession was in full swing.

So they created an ad for " The Best Job in the World " - guarding the Great Barrier Reef islands, and spread it around the world: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace. It didn't take long for international media to catch on to the story, including CNN, BBC and TIMES. Finally, this activity mobilized more than 34,000 job seekers from 197 countries to apply for jobs in the form of one-minute videos, and at least one job seeker from each country was hired.

The winner, Ben Southall from the UK, took the job with a six-figure salary to document his island tours through blogs, videos and photography. At the end of the campaign, the website received 8 million visits, with each visitor staying an average of 8.25 minutes.

8. Social media is the most effective channel, but it needs to be used flexibly with different content

Even more serious about content marketing is Marriott, which hired a Disney executive to run its in-house content studio. They shot short films, launched interactive magazines, and even used virtual reality glasses to realize virtual content.

From their control room, Marriott also has a dedicated editorial team that constantly monitors the social media activity of its 19 brands, ready to amplify successful content with events and media collateral.

With the upgrading of consumption, people's demand for the tourism industry is no longer just a cookie-cutter guide or the same packages on every website. When content becomes a new consumption entrance, from inspiration to stimulation, research to discovery, booking to preference, and finally to the user retention stage, different content marketing methods are needed to make people feel that traveling can become more interesting.