While right now is not the best time to be hopping on a plane or exploring a new city, travelers are still looking ahead, researching, and planning their next trips. As a matter of fact, a recent survey conducted Longwoods International found that 76% of travelers still have travel plans within the next six months. MMGY Global shared they are seeing a big bounce back in China at the moment. With hope on the horizon, tourism groups, destinations and influencers are in prime position to be offering advice and inspiration during these times. Fodors has even started a #TravelSomeday campaign, so we can inspire and keep spirits high. We predict that as soon as COVID-19 is under control and it is safe to travel again, people are going to be booking flights and reservations fast. Now is the time to prepare and here are some tips and ideas to get you started.
Keep pushing out content and inspire trip-dreaming.
Start the dialogue and get people dreaming about their next trip. This is a great time for influencers to dig through their camera rolls and photo albums and share those travel images that never got posted. Keep tagging hotels, cities, destinations, attractions, restaurants, etc. Keep pushing out content and keep the conversation alive! Influencer @blonde_atlas even started her own series, #whereidratherbe. Her followers wanted to keep seeing travel content despite the situation at hand, so she’s going to keep delivering. We need more of this.
Start with road trips and staycations.
There are the jetsetting risk takers and then there are those who will likely avoid large cities, airports and extremely crowded places for a while—even once coronavirus has died down. The same survey mentioned earlier also found that 18% of travelers are changing destinations to one they can drive to as opposed to fly. This is a great opportunity to encourage road trips and staycations as entry points to travel once we are able to again. Attractions that are more nature-focused as opposed to city-centric will likely have the most success and traveler interest in the beginning of life post-corona.
Begin influencer marketing conversations now.
Many travel influencers have lost gigs, work and projects due to coronavirus. The influencer community is eager to get back to work and travel as soon as possible (as we all are!). Now is the best time to begin plotting campaigns to inspire travel—and to activate them as soon as the bans have been lifted. It’s time to plan a campaign you’ve never done before and get extremely creative with messaging, perspectives, storytelling, hashtags, etc.
We hope these ideas help keep the travel industry alive through this hardship, acting as some type of catalyst for your next post, partnership or campaign. This is where we are now, so let’s make the most of it and get ahead. As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need help with your next campaign. We’re here for you!