Travel is all about the experience, the visual stimuli and the feeling of ‘escape’ – and sharing this with your friends. So how does this translate to relevant content marketing?

Ultimately, the majority of travellers that are active on the web form part of a larger community that focuses on collectively sharing experiences, inspiring others and discovery. Travel brands in turn should encourage this and educate these users on relevant topics, trends and reward them with unique and engaging content.

Effectively, there are two distinct elements to a successful travel marketing campaign – the individual and the brand.

The Individual – Sharing, Creating and Engaging

According to a 2014 study by Chase Card Services, the tech savvy generation of millennial travellers are keenly dependent on the ‘sharing economy’ of social media and content. Essentially, new travellers want to be given information in an informal setting online, whilst simultaneously sharing experiences and imagery from their travels with the wider landscape.

This is strengthened by the following findings from the report:

• Millennials are more likely (44%) to ask for travel opinions on social media
• Virtually all millennials (97%) post on social networks and share experiences with friends while traveling
• Almost three in four millennials (73%) post to social media at least once a day when traveling

This demonstrates that content marketing in the travel sector should encourage and reward user-generated content (UGC) and interaction, build a community and inform these users on their next holiday in a non-aggressive and socially-integrated environment.

One such example of asking the user to directly engage and create content was achieved by Skyscanner with its #24hPeriscope campaign…

In April 2015, Skyscanner utilised new technology offered by Twitter called ‘Periscope’, which allows users to livestream from their mobile to huge audiences. The premise of the campaign asked travel bloggers around the world to broadcast from their location for an hour throughout the day, using a unique hashtag of #24hPeriscope to provide a consistent theme for the content.

However, an over-reliance on UGC has a number of risks, such as lack of participation and loss of creative control. For this reason, the individual is not the only gateway to successful travel marketing.

The Brand – Inspiring, Educating and Encouraging

So if we know that there is an active community of travellers on the web, already sharing and discussing adventures and destinations, how can we encourage them to interact with your content?

Travel is a long-form proposition – it’s not about instant conversion, it’s planting the seed of desire to travel and think about their holiday. And this can be achieved through one key message underlying the content - ‘aspiration’, and more often than not, it’s not just about talking about the product. By discussing exotic themes or mentions of sunnier skies, the user will subconsciously develop the desire to travel.

Reactive and topical visual content informed by social listening, addressing what the audience actually wants from an online travel brand will show the brand as relevant, intelligent and rewarding to its followers.

An example of this was created by tour operator Hayes and Jarvis with its exploration into the ‘UK’s Top Cocktail’. Through seasonal linking with ‘World Cocktail Day’, blogger partnerships and educative and interactive content, the brand asked the UK what their favourite cocktail was and presented it in a lightweight yet compelling infographic format.

In turn, bloggers were asked what their favourite cocktails were and sent out a care package of ingredients and a mixing kit so that they could share their chosen recipes with followers.

This marriage of user-generated content as well as informative data also proved that travel content marketing does not always have to be purely focused on the product.

Summary

Any successful content marketing campaign should tie itself neatly into social and user-centric mechanisms, and the travel community is perhaps the most effective and engaged. However, this also makes them the most knowledgeable and judgemental.

Ultimately, a successful travel marketing campaign should:

• Be visual
• Be long-term, adaptable and unobtrusive
• Strengthen the brand
• Be informed by trends and audience conversation
• Have a reason to share or talk about it
• Educate the customer on destinations and possible holidays
• Empower the user
• Encourage user-interaction or user-generated content
• Instil a sense of community
• Integrate easily into social media channels and engagement

With each of these elements, the long-term accessibility of content ensures that it is an ongoing resource that attracts users, encourages conversation and ‘inspires aspiration’.