Using PR to Increase Awareness of Travel and Hospitality Destinations

Keeping tourist destinations hot and relevant is the where tourism and hospitality meet public relations. PR can raise the profile of emerging destinations and enhance the prestige of established ones. In either case, having a PR professional position a destination will make or break bookings and attendance.

Here are seven Public Relations tips to increase the awareness of your destination within the travel and hospitality industry:

Intent and Origin

The internet has played an important role opening ways for communities to group themselves based on their interests, and this grouping has given rise to the development of niche destinations for travelers. The use of traditional demographics is no longer applicable in the online space, and in its place is new demographics where identification of customer intent has emerged.

Leaning how to identify customer intent is absolutely vital for any player in the travel space. Additionally, where travelers are coming from has changed radically. In the past one saw visitors primarily come from Europe and North America, but with rising wealth tourists are increasingly coming from Asian nations.

Leverage Unique Opportunities

In order to increase awareness and visits to a destination, leverage events such as a royal visit and enhance the image of the location as a tourist destination for travelers. Celebrity photographers can upload photos and microblogs on a dedicated site, all of which are then linked to the area that should be visited. The coverage will generate pickups from other news sites, and this will help create a massive response and a strong following by visitors. Take every advantage to position your destination as indispensable.

Perfect Partnerships

Creation of multi-strategy partnerships will play a key role in raising awareness of a particular destination, establishment or brand. A type of location familiar to most visitors target is a wedding venue. A drop in the traditional visitors to the venue can be offset by establishing partnerships with relevant firms. For example, a popular wedding destination might consider collaborating with a company that designs diamond rings.

A campaign to make diamond rings will be synonymous with weddings conducted in that area, and this partnership will generate interest and awareness. Other partnerships that can be formed may involve companies that deal with accommodation and transport. Giving consumers access to a better organized and inclusive experience through smart partnerships can dramatically change your destination’s desirability.

Opinions from the Crowd

The majority of travel destinations are chosen online through opinions formed from review websites. However, these opinions are less reliable because consumers now harbor suspicions that the reports are misleading. Currently, travelers can refer a tourist destination or a hotel by Facebook, though they may also turn to experts and other credible sources. Bloggers have also been influential and act as trusted sources of information, and this has made them specialize in topics and niches related to tourism.

Use of Social Media to Create an Impact on Hotels

Luxury hotels have currently been using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter for years. Even though many people do not participate in social media actively this is changing rapidly.

People and companies are realizing the potential to build a brand and generate revenue through the use of social channels. It can be used for client service, to create and encourage interactions, and to showcase the different travel destinations. Customers can share their travels with friends and on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites.

Medical Tourism

Many people are also traveling for health reasons. Historically, the wealthy in developing nations have traveled to western countries for medical needs. Today, however, developing countries also provide high-quality medical services at low costs.

To meet their medical needs, consumers will travel for cosmetic reasons, detoxification programs, and dental hygiene, among others. This has made many destinations popular that provide high-quality service at low cost, including Malaysia, China, and Thailand, among others.

Use of Social Media to Reach New Heights

PR initiatives should encompass partners from different industries such as travel, television and entertainment, fashion and lifestyle media. In order to change the tastes and origin of visitors, the media should focus on stories that are a theme. Fashion and lifestyle media that currently include travel in their agendas go far towards this goal. In the era of social media, Public Relations should help push a location’s story to new prominence. After all, the goal is to manage public perceptions.

With smart positioning and that generates impact, PR can revolutionize a tourist destination’s relevance.