What if all travel marketings are fake?

What if all travel marketings are fake?

If you are wondering the one who wrote this blog might have a trust issue or some sorts of distrust in life, you might be right! 😀 

As a web user who spends hours in a day switching from Facebook to Instagram and probably ending up with countless videos, what one sees on social media appears much more beautiful than it could be in reality from my viewpoint. It is likely to be true that it is just my assumption and there is no concrete argument for that. Hence, with the available curiosity and the possibility to work in the hospitality sector in the future, I have an enormous motivation for finding out what is travel marketer’s trick to catch all the “prey” to their strategy.

The article I read today is “Social media and the travel sector” published by Expedia Media Solutions. Going through 3 main parts, the writer group wants to convey some insights or tips for travel marketers to maximize their work productiveness through different social media platforms. Choosing this article because of the “easy-to-read” illustration, I am impressed, however, by how social media can make a business become more engaging and appealing than ever. I would say social media is a part of our life, and it would continue to become an indispensable part that connects all people from every corner of the world and helps to share all good moments. So, social media and travel, why not?

1. Everything posted on social media sets expectations for readers

Have you ever wondered why social media is so charming? Sometimes it can keep us scrolling on the screen without knowing our behavior. We suffer the newsfeed, we see new things, we like or react to posts, we interact with people who share that. I would say it can be because of its newness. Social media opens a new window for us to see the world. Since its creation, humans first time in their life have seen how beautiful it is in a place that is far from them thousands of kilometers. Every single day it brings new things to surprise and motivates you to see another land. However, the more popular and familiar social media to travel users, the more challenging for tourism marketers to keep it real but still appealing and attractive.

Excellent photographing or video editing skills are needed in this section, but it should be taken into consideration that everything posted on social media can set an expectation for customers. what if, the things we saw on social media and the thing we feel in reality are completely different? Hence, the number of “likes” or “follow” is no longer a metric to evaluate how the success of a travel marketing campaign (ExpediaMediaSolutions, 2022). It is more important to have a better understanding of the relationship with your customers: how to balance between planning an attractive marketing campaign and meeting customers’ needs in an honest way.

2. Strategy vs your true beauty

Obviously doing marketing needs strategies. However, instead of feeling obligated to have a presence on every social platform out there, it is worth investing in the quality content and how it can engage more customers. The group of writers has given some examples of how successful of utilizing the strength of every platform in practice. After all, if traveling is considered to be healing, it should come from its true beauty and exoticness. The best trick to “catch your grey” in tourism marketing is inspiring them with your true beauty. Here is an example of how the beauty of nature can motivate you to travel more.

3. “From dreamer to doer”

Finally yet importantly, every step needs a start. Having plenty of ideas to attract your customer could not be compared with jumping into doing it, “from dreamer to doer” (ExpediaMediaSolutions, 2022). The article somehow inspires me to learn more about social media and look for new insights about it. Everyone can start trying doing marketing, it is not necessary for the purpose of tourism marketing practice, but it could also aim to build your personal branding as a try.

 

To answer the question in the title, not all travel marketings are fake. It is more about how we acknowledge about it. Take it all as inspiration and reference, be wise 🙂

P.s

You can find another viewpoint of how to utilize social media to maximize tourism marketing work from here.

Bibbliography

ExpediaMediaSolutions. Social Media And The Travel Sector. Accessed by 22 March 2022 https://tinyurl.com/4apfukd4