Global tourism generates about $7 trillion a year and if you want a bigger piece of that pie you need to step up your game and build a bigger and better client base.
But how do you do that?
Keep reading for 6 tips to take your tourism business to new heights of success and more clients than ever.
1. Customer Service is Everything
Your business is essentially nothing without stellar customer service. It doesn’t matter how many visitors you get to your website or people come into your office if you don’t provide them with good customer service. You want customers for life, not just for one disastrous experience.
Providing customers with professional, honest, helpful, and friendly service can do more for your business than any other thing you do. Word of mouth marketing (positive referrals from family, friends, and past customers) is trusted by consumers more than any other form of marketing.
Customers only remember you and the experience you provided if you provided them with service they aren’t used to getting anyplace else.
You need to keep fresh in their mind and give them something to talk about.
2. Be a Social Butterfly
Social media and the internet have provided you with a global audience and the possibility of connecting with people you’d never be able to reach in another way. In fact, you now have the potential to reach more than 4 billion internet users.
There are over a billion websites trying to get their attention. So how do you get customers to pick you or even notice you?
Social Media Profiles
Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are an incredible resource for businesses to reach new consumers and build a relationship with your customers.
These platforms also give you an opportunity to attract consumers to your website, help them become familiar with your brand, and share your content with their friends and followers. This will send even more traffic to your website.
It’s not enough to just have a profile though. You need to work it and grab the attention of consumers. Several brands harness the power of social media to interact with consumers and skyrocket to success.
Every post you make on your brand social media page should include a link to your site. You want to give them a reason to learn more about you and the services you have to offer.
User-Friendly, Fast Website
It’s almost impossible to do business, especially in tourism, without a website. But you need that website to be working for you, not against you.
A site that is confusing, loads slowly, or doesn’t load properly on all devices could be chasing your business away before they even get to see what you have to offer.
You can’t win them over and close a sale if they don’t even wait for your website to load. Even a delay of a few seconds in loading can cause visitors to bounce and never come back.
Search Engine Optimization
One of the best things you can do to help more consumers find you is to search engine optimize all of your content, profiles, and listings.
Search engines algorithms use hundreds of factors to rank the results they provide to users.
When you take these factors into consideration when building your online presence, you can rank higher and be more visible to search engine users.
3. Go Above and Beyond
You want to be a client’s go-to tourism business, not just one of several options. This means you have to give them an experience that goes above and beyond what they’ll get from your competitors.
This can be achieved in many ways:
- Incredible customer service
- Customer payment and account options
- Promotions and customer loyalty programs
- Knowledge, expertize, and trust
Customers want you to anticipate and cater to their needs. This includes when they are online. They want to know you’re there for them, have their best interests and wants as your top priority, and that every interaction is done with integrity.
Offer services and products that go above and beyond to enhance the customer experience.
Things like transportation upgrades, a complimentary meal or offering tours of various destinations or noteworthy attractions. Wireless tour guide systems like the ones at www.plant-tours.com could give you an advantage over other businesses who don’t offer similar services.
4. Personal Touch
Customers don’t like to feel as though they are just a number or sale to you. They like to feel special and like you care about the experience they have.
Small things like sending a card in the mail to thank them for their business or remembering their anniversary because they took a cruise last year can turn a sale into a life long loyal customer.
5. Create a Blog for Your Tourism Business
If you don’t have a blog already, you need to start one. A blog is a great way to build your customer base and gain exposure on the internet.
This will allow you the opportunity to create and share unique, helpful industry advice or discuss tourism topics. You also have new opportunities with every post to rank in more search engine results, gain more social media shares and to drive traffic to your website so you can make that sale.
6. Be Involved and Always Networking
You can’t just create a website then sit in your office and wait for consumers to come to you. You need to be networking all of the time whether online or in your day-to-day life.
There are some simple ways to do this:
- Attend networking events
- Always carry business cards with your website address and contact information
- Be involved in community activities, festivals, and events
- Join local business associations
- Join online communities and message boards
- Guest post on other blogs in your local community or industry
Everyone eventually needs to travel. Whether it’s your bank teller that you see every week or your child’s high school teacher. Always make sure they know what you do and how to get in touch with you when they’re looking for tourism information.
Give Them More
You don’t have to have huge giveaways or spend millions on advertising during the Superbowl to get more clients and be more successful with your tourism business. You just need to give consumers more than they were expecting and offer service they can’t find anywhere else.
Be sure to bookmark our website for easy access to all our resources and knowledge to help your business grow.