Nadezhda Makatrova
How to attract tourists and become a travel brand in Russia
If you want the world to change, become this change.
Mahatma Gandhi
Any obstacle is overcome with persistence.
Leonardo da Vinci
Foreword
How do we attract tourists? How not to get lost amid thousands of offers from other cities and countries? How can you convince Russians that you can rest comfortably in Russia too, and that a small town far from Russian capitals is not necessarily a "hole"?
As the practice of recent years shows, these questions can be heard at all conferences, round tables and forums dedicated to the development of tourism in Russia. They are also heard during our conversations with representatives of local and regional administrations from different parts of the country. And these issues concern not only officials, but also heads of travel agencies, owners of hotels and restaurants, directors of museums, sanatoriums and even local residents who rent out their living space to vacationers ...
So what do you do? "Take an example from Myshkin!" - this dangerous advice is repeated like a worn-out record, all sorts of "gurus". Myshkin is a wonderful city, but, firstly, its strategy will not suit everyone (there are about 6 thousand inhabitants in Myshkin), and secondly, it is pointless to copy the tip of the iceberg without seeing and understanding everything that is hidden from the eyes in thicker than water.
Three or four years ago, participants in tourism exhibitions representing Russian cities and regions said: "We would only have money for advertising, and people will come to us!" The money was allocated, the tourists did not go ... Today there is a more professional understanding that attracting tourists is not so much an advertisement as a whole system of tasks, which need to be addressed at the territorial level. And this book is a story about who and how should solve these problems, what mistakes and pitfalls can be here, what resources can be used in work and how to highlight accents. And of course, examples of success.
The book “How to attract tourists and become a tourist brand in Russia” is based on an analysis of the experience accumulated in Russia and the CIS, both successful and unsuccessful, as well as the experience of some foreign countries in the development of tourism and promotion of the territory in the tourism market. In addition, the material for the book was some observations and conclusions made while working on the projects of the consulting company "Konkretika".
This book is methodical, sometimes unpleasant and even offensive, because it tells not only about the possibilities and hidden potential of Russian cities and regions, but also about their typical mistakes and shortcomings. But the main value of the book, in my opinion, is concrete practical recommendations explaining WHAT need to do and HOW to do, as well as 420 real-life examples that provide rich ground for your own ideas and solutions.
I hope this book will be your assistant in your work. Enjoy your reading!
Nadezhda Makatrova,
director of the consulting company "Konkretika"
Travel brand: to be or not to be?
Fate leads the one who wants to go, but the one who does not want to go, it drags him.
Cleanthes, ancient Greek philosopher (IV-111 centuries BC)
In the Soviet Union, they did not hear about brands. But at the same time, all the citizens of our vast and multinational country firmly knew that:
If you want to go to the sea, then you have to go to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus or to the Crimea. With small children - to Anapa or Evpatoria;
If there are no vouchers to the Black Sea, then - to the Azov, to Yeisk;
The intelligentsia preferred the Baltics;
If you need to heal, the direct road to the sanatorium of the Caucasian Mineral Waters;
For fans of excursions and cultural and historical values - Moscow, Leningrad, the cities of the Golden Ring and, perhaps, also Pskov and Novgorod;
Military-patriotic education - Volgograd with its famous Mamayev Kurgan.
All Soviet people also knew about Baikal and Kamchatka, but they did not even dream of getting there - the flight was too expensive, a simple Soviet family could not afford. These are the real travel brands, created, by the way, with the powerful support of the state ...
Of course, there were many other interesting places and routes in the USSR - "hits" of the district and regional scale, where excursion groups from schools, universities, enterprises and institutions were continuously sent, but they could not compete with the all-Union "giants".
25 years have passed since perestroika ...
Today, looking at the MITT or Intourmarket exhibition in Moscow, you can see hundreds, if not thousands, of new tourist sites and routes throughout the country at the stands. One is better than the other, with intriguing descriptions and amazing photographs. It would seem that new times are new names.
No matter how it is!
Ask an ordinary Russian what cities or resorts in our country he considers the most popular with tourists, and you will most likely get the same list. True, Crimea and the Baltic states (as abroad) will have to be deleted from it, and St. Petersburg will take the place of Leningrad. Let the interlocutor include foreign resorts in the list, and Turkey and Egypt are guaranteed to get into the first line. I'm talking about mass routes. Alpine skiers will habitually call Elbrus, fishermen - Astrakhan.
"How so? Why? The tourist potential of Russia is not limited to 10-15 popular routes ?! We have two orders of magnitude more! " - one of the readers will be indignant. The potential may not be limited, but the perception of the tourist, according to the laws of marketing, alas, is not rubber. The law states: the number of bright, memorable images on the market is limited. I recommend that you re-read the highlighted phrase two more times.
It only seems at first glance that it is enough to come up with "something original", and you will be noticed. You can think of anything you want, but here's the question:
- Will they remember this (against the background of competitors' proposals)?
- Will they buy it (by comparing different offers)? And buy more than one season, but at least ten years in a row.
For clarity, here are two useful analogies.
1. Each class has its own "excellent student", "poor student", "clown", "sportsman", its own "beauty". And sometimes - his "outcast" (remember the movie "Scarecrow"). It is very problematic to characterize all other children in terms of their role in the classroom.
2. In the 90s, many different shops and shops were opened in Russian cities, and today most of them "died", giving way to network players. By the way, in Europe, about 80% of goods are sold through chain stores.
What is the conclusion in relation to tourism?
In five years, a new pool of travel brands of all-Russian importance will be formed in Russia. It is clear that Moscow and St. Petersburg will automatically retain their leading positions due to their exceptional starting opportunities (just as there are three main TV channels in the country and ... all the others). Resorts on our warm seas will also be in a privileged position (unless a sharp climate change occurs). And who else will be included in the list of the strongest is still in question ...
If the heads of the city and regions mentioned at the beginning had been actively developing during the 25 years of perestroika, and had not relied on the tourist resources accumulated over the previous decades, then everyone else would not have been destined to catch up with them in the foreseeable future. However, the development was remembered only 5-7 years ago, thus giving a chance to their neighbors.
The importance of getting into the leader pool is illustrated by the Zipf (Zipf) curve
Picture 1
Zipf (Zipf) distribution
Those cities and regions that find themselves in the tail of this curve may not count on anything serious ... Perhaps they do not need this, and tourism for them is like birch sap in an ordinary grocery store: they hardly take it, but for the assortment there is ...
At the same time, our conversations with representatives of local and regional administrations indicate that in many parts of Russia they take tourism seriously, hoping with its help to give a new impetus to the development of the territory and replenish the budget. For this purpose, short-term and long-term programs are being developed everywhere, new travel brands are announced, advertising catalogs are printed, exhibitions and presentations are held, journalists are invited, etc.
Why can't many cities and regions make a leap forward and significantly increase the tourist flow? What needs to be changed at work? A detailed answer to these questions will be devoted to the subsequent chapters of the book, and here I will only outline the key points.
During the excursion, tourists are distracted, stop listening and look around, and not at all where you are showing? This situation is not uncommon, so each guide needs to master the techniques of attracting attention.
1. Adapt the material for a specific audience
This advice is often taken one-sidedly: only age differences are taken into account. Accordingly, they build a story for a child and an adult in different ways. However, it is worth making adjustments to the narrative also related to professional activities or hobbies of clients. The site for acquaintance of tourists and guides will help to find out this information: when agreeing on an excursion, not only answer the traveler's questions, but ask him your own.
2. Use acting and public speaking techniques
Nothing contributes to the dispersion of the tourists' attention more than the monotonous speech of the guide and the absence of gestures. Therefore, use a variety of expressive means from the arsenal of speakers and artists:
- play with intonation and tempo of speech: go from cheerful tongue twisters to a sincere tone, emphasize important phrases with your voice, etc.;
- talk about sad and joyful events with appropriate emotions;
- pause between the semantic blocks of the narrative, otherwise the listeners will stop absorbing what has been said;
- support speech with gestures: express emotions with them, point to interesting objects.
3. Make "lyrical digressions"
Allow yourself to periodically be distracted from the topic: tell us about some everyday details, love stories, fascinating incidents. Of course, digressions have to be related to your story in one way or another. Such "sketches" maintain interest in what is happening.
The personal attitude technique works well. Tourists will remember your admiration, rejection or surprise about some historical character or event for a long time. Just do not use this method in a story about modern realities, so as not to provoke a conflict.
4. Ask questions
You should not turn the excursion into a lecture when only the "teacher" speaks. In such a situation, listeners get distracted very quickly. Encourage clients to discuss, and to do this, ask questions about what they know about the events, structures and characters in your story. This will make people get involved in what is happening, activate their memory, which means that no one will look around and ignore the guide.
5. Joke
Do not be too serious while walking with clients: please them with historical anecdotes, curious cases from practice, and funny comparisons. Laughter allows you to relieve tension and listen to the guide with renewed vigor. And humor "on the topic" helps to remember information: tourists will soon forget the dry facts, and the joke will remain in their memory for a long time.
6. Use electronic technology
Modern gadgets will help you maintain interest: tablets, netbooks, smartphones. The most fruitful work with them is obtained on personal excursions, because in a group of 30-40 people, hardly everyone will consider what is happening on the screen. And when communicating "tete-a-tete", this method is effective.
Today in every city there is enough many travel companies and the competition between them is quite high. How to make sure that customers turn to you?
When opening a travel agency, pay great attention to its name and location. Original but catchy name will be a small advantage. Place, where the travel agency is located, also often influences the choice of tourists. It's good if you can get to it both by personal and public transport. Do not be afraid of competition and you can open an office where there are already travel agencies. As a rule, before the vacation, people look at several companies to find a profitable and interesting offer.
The simplest and at the same time well-working method of advertising is word of mouth... When opening a travel agency, tell your friends and acquaintances about it, they can use the services. If customers are satisfied, they will recommend the company to their friends, because, as a rule, people turn to travel agencies for the first time based on the reviews of friends. Do not expect a large flow of tourists right away, but in a few years your own customer base can be formed.
Do not forget about business cards and flyers... It is not expensive to make simple flyers, and distributing them where a large number of people gather can interest customers. The main thing is that the leaflet is interesting and original and can interest people.
Before traveling, many tourists look on the Internet, and Internet advertising can be effective and inexpensive. It would be nice to create your own website, which will host not only the offered tours, but also the reviews of tourists about their vacations and hotels. Reviews must be true.
contextual advertising can also attract clients to travel agency. This is one of the fastest and most effective ways to attract customers. If, when typing keywords, the company's website appears on the first page, then many will definitely look at it. This means that in the future they will be able to become clients of the company.
You can order the creation of a website and its promotion in our agency, see the services section.
Don't forget about popularity. social networks... It's completely free to create a group or blog. But you need to keep an eye on them. Be sure to post interesting and profitable offers, answer questions and comments. It is easy to invite to a group, it is often in the interests of you who is interested in tourism, such people are your potential clients.
To attract customers for the holidays, you can organize special, unique tours... And newlyweds, for example, can offer discounts and give gifts. Discounts always attract customers, but a good and exciting vacation is often more important than price.
Many travel agencies reduce prices due to great competition, but you can go the other way. Necessary offer really interesting and unique tours... Be sure to inform about new attractive routes on the website and in the group. Prove that the price is not the main thing in the trip, the content of the trip is more important. Then the clients will be interested, and having received a lot of positive impressions on vacation, return to your travel agency again.
Video marketing
Using video is one of the most powerful ways to attract customers. And you don't have to buy expensive TV airtime to do that. Placing videos on the Internet is no less effective, for example, on the most visited video hosting youtube.
The video can be made interactive, with reference to a specific tour, for example:
At the end of the video, a special navigation block is placed with the help of which potential customers can get acquainted with the most striking places of your tour.
There are more and more people traveling in the world every year. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 1.3 billion people traveled from the world's seven billion people last year. And this figure is increasing every year. And income from international tourism exceeds $ 1 trillion. The question is what place Russia can take in this system. There is potential, but its disclosure in practice is lame, experts say.
Counting difficulties
They have not yet learned how to reliably count the incoming tourist flow in Russia. According to the Federal State Statistics Service, in 2017, Russia came to Russia for tourism 24.4 million times, and in 2016 - 24.6 million. These figures, however, also need to be believed with caution: we just count the facts of crossing the state border, without distinction as to whether a person is traveling, say, on business or sightseeing. Therefore, officially the most "tourist" countries in terms of entry are Ukraine (8.7 million trips) and Kazakhstan (3.5 million). But in fact, the leaders of the inbound flow are China (1.4 million) and Finland (1 million).
“For the last 10-15 years, nothing new has happened in inbound tourism. As we have received 2.5-3 million people a year, we accept them, ”says Alexey Krylov, General Director of the UTS Group, and adds: Paris alone is visited by 60 million tourists annually, the number of tourists in the United States exceeds 100 million people, and in China - 130 million. And four years ago, the flow of tourists to Georgia was exactly the same as to Russia, although these countries are difficult to compare in terms of territory and tourism potential.
Typical tourist
A traveler going to Russia usually comes here to get acquainted with history and sightseeing. Beaches and skis are of little interest to him. Usually groups come, there are few individual tourists in our country. The geographic set is standard: Moscow and St. Petersburg are compulsory points of the program. "Golden Ring", Baikal or the Far East - additional. As an unusual thing, experts noted the unexpected interest of foreign tourists in Moscow and St. Petersburg Christmas fairs. This means, in all likelihood, Russia has potential as a destination for event tourism.
“It happens that wealthy tourists go, but as a result, the income from them is less than from the insolvent. For example, St. Petersburg received about half a million "cruisers". These are, as a rule, elderly rich people. But they live in a cabin on the ship, eat there, do not go to shops. So their contribution to the industry is minimal. And the budget group on the bus, which still uses internal transport, walks a lot and enters the shops, will bring much more income to the industry, ”says Ivan Vvedensky, chairman of the commission for the development and support of inbound tourism of the Public Council under Rostourism.
The geography of "suppliers" of foreign tourists is quite diverse. Although there is also an undisputed leader in terms of dynamics here - this is China, which is gaining 30-50% annually, while Europe has been showing a decline for several years in a row.
“For the last two years, we have seen an increase in volumes after a recession. Europe is not as active as it used to be. But we receive a lot of Japanese, tourists from Southeast Asia - these are mostly middle-class people from Malaysia and Vietnam. They have recently begun to travel very actively. They come from Australia, New Zealand. But in this case, they combine tours with Europe, ”adds Marina Levchenko, general director of the Tari Tour tour operator.
Tour operators note: foreigners come to Russia, as a rule, for a week. This tour includes visits to Moscow, St. Petersburg, ground handling. Often foreigners buy a flight to Russia from a tour operator. The average cost of a weekly tour in this case varies from $ 1000 to $ 2500.
There is no stability in the world
What hinders the development of inbound tourism in Russia? Experts are sure: the whole point is in the numerous and multidirectional phenomena that occur not only in the industry, but also in the country as a whole.
“Entry in 2014-2018 is characterized by turbulence. It [the market] was shaking, it was happening in unpredictable conditions. These are political moments, the depreciation of the ruble - on the one hand. Major events - the Sochi Olympics, the Confederations Cup, the FIFA World Cup - will certainly have an impact, too. There is reason to believe that in 2019 the industry will achieve stable performance, ”says Ivan Vvedensky.
In addition to the political situation, the flow of tourists is affected by security and the presence of a developed infrastructure, continues Alexei Krylov. Moreover, these two points can often be intricately intertwined.
“For many foreign tourists, Moscow and St. Petersburg are cities that are on their own list of things to see at least once in a lifetime. Therefore, they want, for example, to visit the Kremlin museums or go to the Hermitage. They book these tours six months in advance. And then on the day of the visit, it may turn out that the museum is closed, because the rehearsal for the Victory Parade or the inauguration of the president, and no one even said about it. I understand that there may be such situations, but warn about them in advance, publicly, ”says Krylov.
Also, in Russia, it is not at all possible to find a suitable hotel that suits a foreign guest. This problem is often faced by tourists going to the Far East or Baikal. But sometimes it occurs even in the most popular directions.
“There are few high-quality hotels in St. Petersburg, you cannot lure foreigners with mini-hotels. But for some reason, investors don't go to the hotel industry. Yes, and the city's leadership is of the opinion that tourists go to St. Petersburg only in summer, and do not go in winter. But it seems to me that if there were enough hotels, we would travel all year round. There will be few hotels in St. Petersburg, ”says Marina Levchenko.
Finally, the difficulties in promoting the country as a tourist destination (and Rosturizm has repeatedly said that the marketing budget is much lower than that of other states) also does not contribute to the growth of its popularity.
Complex visas
Russian visa rules also make life difficult for foreign tourists, experts say. Chinese organized groups do not need visas, with South Korea, visas have been canceled, and a similar regime applies to a number of other countries in Asia and Latin America. But at the same time, the majority of traveling citizens need entry documents. To get a visa, you need to get an invitation, fill out a form and pay a round sum. Consideration of documents can take a long time.
“The procedure is quite lengthy. And besides, obtaining visas leads to an increase in the cost of the tour by $ 100-120. If they are not canceled, then it is necessary to introduce at least electronic ones ”, - believes Marina Levchenko.
A colleague from the UTS Group agrees with her. “If visas were canceled, even though what is being done in inbound tourism now, the flow of tourists could be doubled,” says Aleksey Krylov.
Ivan Vvedensky of the Public Council under Rostourism also notes that the abolition or simplification of visa procedures would lead to a significant increase in tourist traffic. He recalled that a free port regime began to operate in Vladivostok, which provides for the simplification of visa formalities for tourists. This practice should be extended to other coastal regions, the expert said. In addition, it is necessary to simplify the processing of visas for tourists visiting other regions of the country.
“In order to obtain a visa, we need an invitation from the host. I believe that this is a rudiment, it should be ruled out. We are working to ensure that the law on entry and exit is amended so that foreigners can obtain a visa for a hotel reservation, as in Europe. You need visas to be electronic. In addition, we are lagging behind progressive humanity in the sense that other countries issue multivisa for a longer period than travel dates. We need political will to change this situation, ”Vvedensky believes.
Weak ruble and professional tricks
However, Russia has great tourism potential and good opportunities to unleash it. Oddly enough, the consequences of economic difficulties will contribute to this. In particular, the depreciating ruble, which makes spending of foreigners in Russia more and more enjoyable.
“In the 2000s, many good hotels for business were built in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2014, the business ended, and the occupancy of 4 * and 5 * hotels fell by 50%. Hoteliers have reduced prices, and it has become very profitable to stay with them. At the same time, the price corresponds to the quality, since these are, as a rule, objects of international networks. Add to this an inexpensive taxi, tickets to museums at competitive prices, a check at a restaurant - in foreign currency, all this is very attractive now, ”says Krylov.
In addition, experts remind that transport in Russia is also developing. High-speed rail links bring the main tourist centers closer to each other. And the expansion of the flight programs of Russian carriers helps to interest in Russia tourists from the most remote corners of the Earth.
A fairly large proportion of our regular customers are various travel agencies operating both in large cities with a million inhabitants and in small provincial cities in Russia and beyond. Regardless of the scale and specifics of the agency's work, for all, without exception, the primary task is to attract customers and desire to see them as loved ones.
In this article, we will try to highlight some of the important points in our opinion, without which the success of travel companies in a super-competitive environment is almost impossible. We hope this information will be useful for beginners in agency activities or simply adopted.
So, a little about the most important thing:
1. Website of a travel agency
The website of a travel agency is today one of the indispensable tools for attracting customers and promoting travel services. If a few years ago it was enough to have a business card site with information about a travel agency with directions and contacts, today technologies have gone far ahead. Business card sites, or even more so the absence of it at all, no longer attract the mass consumer, when all kinds of online services for searching and booking tours, tickets, hotels, excursions, in general, various tourist products are already working around. In fact, the main task of the site is to actively participate in search systems, visually and in as much detail as possible to show the future tourist all kinds of offers of the company, and be sure to provide the opportunity to leave an order or book a tour you like. It is important that the site itself is user-friendly, informative and easy to navigate. Each of the tourist destinations in which the travel agency operates, it is desirable to colorfully decorate with photographs, routes, hotel descriptions, additional services, and, of course, true prices. Striking holiday promotions and special offers on the main page of the site will always be appropriate and must be studied by visitors. Don't forget, for many site visitors, reviews and recommendations from other tourists play a role. Visible active participation of travel agency clients, as a rule, evokes a feeling of trust and openness. If the site contains various Online services for the selection of tours, air and railway tickets, hotels, car rental and any other auxiliary services with the registration of an application or reservation, this gives the site the advantage of round-the-clock 24-hour work, automatic support for the relevance of offers, an integrated approach to serving your potential customers. Be sure to be in the most conspicuous place and an element of quick feedback with company employees, for example, in the form of a call order form or an online consultant. Today, a certain proportion of tourist clients do not want to call up or go to a travel agency at the stage of selecting a tour or paying. Do not exclude such tourists from your future clients.
A good website often encourages a purchase. And how to bring more customers to this site is the second and very important task. There are many methods of promoting travel sites now, the only question is the size of the advertising budget. Let's consider the main advertising mechanisms, from expensive to free:
· Search engine optimization
The so-called search engine promotion as an online advertising tool is generally responsible for the visibility (rating) of the site in the process of searching by clients and for increasing the traffic of the site by clients through transitions (clicks) to it from search engines. The higher a site is ranked on the search results page for key client queries, the more likely a user will be directed to that site for the information they are looking for. As a rule, the first 2-3 pages of the search are the most viewed. And then either the user formulates his request in a different way, examines the returned results on subsequent pages, goes to cross-references or to other search engines. The site is optimized both from the inside in the admin part of the site, where you can prescribe keywords for search engines. Also, various black and white optimization methods have some popularity. This is the exchange of links with sites of similar subjects, registration in directories, distribution of company news, posting articles, participation in forums, etc. As a rule, the result of the work done is not immediately visible, but only after a few months. It is laborious and, therefore, quite costly. Without special training or dedicated specialists, it may not bring the desired results. The main thing in this question is to correctly approach the process itself or the choice of the performer. For clarity: in order to correctly build the optimization criteria, take into account and study the statistics of key queries on any search resource: wordstat .yandex .ru(from Yandex), adwords.google.ru from Google, adstat.rambler.ru from Rambler.
· contextual advertising
Contextual advertising is another type of travel agency text advertising on the search results page in search engines and various thematic partner sites. Submission of advertisements in search engines is carried out above and to the right of the results, indicating "as advertising" or within the partner sites themselves. Again, choosing the right keywords and paying the search engines for them play an important role. This method is much less expensive than search engine optimization and does not require high professionalism of the performer. The advertisement will be guaranteed to be shown the number of times you need, and the payment for its placement will be debited gradually and not so expensive. Contextual advertising is suitable for promoting hot tours, promotions, special offers, as well as hotels and complex tour packages, promoting a travel agency or advertising a tour operator. The most popular services of contextual advertising now are: Yandex.Direct, Yandex Advertising Network, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, Begun.
· Tourist sites (forums, reviews, articles, reviews)
Placing master classes, expert articles, thematic interviews, presentations of new directions, contests with prizes on tourist sites, of course, will be a significant plus for a travel company that is actively promoting its brand. You can also attract the attention of visitors using banner ads. The main thing is to track its effectiveness. An effective way to advertise a travel agency, promote tours, build loyalty and image of a travel company is to participate in travel forums. Nowadays, there are many sites and portals of a tourist orientation, where visitors leave reviews, photos, share impressions of their trips, learn information about countries, resorts, cities, culture and customs of the visited country, etc. A travel company can use and demonstrate their professionalism by leaving useful articles and recommendations on various travel topics. This format of direct communication allows you to talk about the benefits of a particular type of recreation, increase confidence in the company and its employees. Of the most popular in the tourist environment and the most visited tourist sites, one can single out: Tonkosti. ru, Tourdom. ru, Tourprom.ru, Travel.ru, Tourbus.ru, Votpusk.ru, Travel.mail.ru, Travel.rambler.ru, Turizm.ru, Otzyv.ru, Turpravda.com, Tourinfo.ru, Svali.ru and many other regional portals. Be experts in your field.
Advertising of a travel agency on social networks is a fairly effective and still free way to promote travel services, the travel product itself, support the travel agency's image and brand awareness. According to travel companies themselves, which have their own pages and groups in social networks, the proportion of clients who contact them through social media increases every day. As well as on the web-site, it is quite possible to inform clients on the social network about their promotions, special offers, hot tours and discounts, to accept applications and requests for tours. It is important that social networks are an effective tool for studying the opinions of their consumers, their preferences and wishes, satisfaction with the services received. Don't forget about comments and helpful blogosphere articles. Form a social image, try to be closer to your customers.
3. Loyalty programs
For the sale of tours and special offers, the travel company can cooperate with various coupon services. According to the reviews of tourists and travel agents themselves, this service, which is just starting out, is gradually gaining some popularity and bringing the desired sales. Of these, the most popular services include biglion .ru, groupon.ru, kupikupon.ru, kuponkin.ru and so on by analogy. You can also interest clients in all kinds of joint promotions with tour operators with advertising both on their website and on other partner websites (the so-called cross-marketing promotion). To support the client base of regular customers, you can organize the issuance of certificates and loyalty cards with discounts and open source software on the travel agency's website. We must not forget that there is a category of customers that will always and under any circumstances look for discounts and special offers. Make a tempting offer to your customers.
4. Selling tourist product
When it comes to advertising, one cannot but mention the tourist product itself. After all, most of the advertising campaign is always aimed at selling tourism products. Choosing the right tourist product and your target audience is generally the # 1 task before starting all tourist activities. The range of travel services is quite wide: inbound and outbound tourism, mass and individual destinations, VIP tours, health resorts, business and study trips, etc. Each line of business has a number of features and requires its own special approach for advertising on the site and promotion on the Internet. Selling last-minute tours to popular visa-free countries is certainly easier, but the competition is also higher. And vice versa, having exclusive tour packages you will not have to be scattered and work clearly in your segment. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the direct choice of tourist products and additional services. There should always be something that sets you apart from the competition.
5. Corporate culture
This is another of the important points in our opinion in the process of attracting customers. When even every potential client is on the account, the work of a travel agency does not seem to be without maintaining a corporate customer base. The advantage of such intra-office programs should be precisely those tools that will allow you to more effectively build relationships with clients. The most popular tools in automated software systems include e-mail and sms-informing services, selection and booking services, task planners and organizers, remind systems, guides by countries and completed customer tours and various crm-elements. Since the effect of word of mouth has not yet been canceled in tourism, it is imperative to take care of pre-sales and after-sales ethics and the manner of communicating with customers. When attracting potential tourists to the site, one must always be ready to professionally answer any of their questions, quickly select options for requests and explain the advantages of this selection. All this gives the work of a travel agency manager irreplaceable professionalism. The main thing is that more than one visitor to the site and the client who has turned for the services does not go unnoticed and not taken into account. And the proof of high-quality and professional work with clients can serve as various independent ratings, in which the travel agency can be assessed. Examples of such ratings can be found at http://firms.turizm.ru/firms_rating/, travel- top. ru... Take advantage of your experience.
This topic is, of course, much broader than what is described in this article. Print media and other offline customer acquisition methods are not covered here. It is also important not to forget about the seasonality of demand and the corresponding adjustment of the used advertising mechanisms. Adjusting to your main target audience, be it VIP vacations or mass destinations, is also important when choosing promotion methods. Form a positive image of your company, improve the quality of work and loyalty to the company, do not forget about the recognition of your brand.
If readers are interested, we can, with a certain frequency, develop a series of publications on topics that are most relevant in tourism. It is enough to indicate your questions in the comments to this article.
