Driving Travel Bookings: 10 Effective Lead Generation Strategies

According to Bloomberg, the global travel industry is projected to reach a market value of $15.5 trillion within the next decade. Its size presents massive opportunities for travel companies worldwide, from tour companies to hotel groups.

Those looking to develop or grow a business in this industry must get serious about lead generation.

In this article, we will teach you some of the top techniques travel companies can use to generate qualified leads. We will start by discussing some basic principles of lead generation for travel companies before diving into actionable lead gen strategies that you can use for your business.

The Basics of Lead Generation for Travel Companies

Lead generation is a marketing or sales initiative intended to find customers for a business.

As we discuss lead generation techniques for driving travel bookings, bear in mind that the value of leads is broad within this industry. For example, a lead for a kayak rental might cost $25, but a lead for a week-long hotel stay could cost thousands of dollars. 

As you look at the techniques and consider the investments you want to make in lead generation, consider the value of leads for your specific business and the communication channels that are most relevant to your audience.

10 Strategies for Lead Generation in the Travel Industry

Now that you know the basics of lead generation in the travel industry, let’s discuss some of the most effective tactics for generating leads for your travel business.

1. Run Paid Ads

One of the most popular ways to drive travel bookings is through paid ads. You can run paid advertisements on Google, YouTube, social media platforms, and other websites.

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What’s nice about ads is that you can configure the audience settings to align closely with your target audience. Most ad platforms, such as Google Ads and Meta, are intuitive and assess your campaign analytics to iterate and improve your success rates. 

2. Tap into Existing Contacts

To develop effective lead-generation strategies, companies must leverage their existing resources. 

Hotels, for example, may not realize that they are a huge source of travel data. Information about booking trends and preferences is stored in their PMS systems, allowing hotels to make decisions based on real data and design specific marketing campaigns.

Depending on the contact information in your database, you can reach these contacts with email and SMS campaigns. You can use these communication channels to promote your services or offer special discounts. 

3. Optimize Your Website

An easy way to drive leads passively is to optimize your website to rank well on search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) involves choosing keywords your target audience is searching for (i.e., keywords must match search intent) and creating content around those keywords.

You can optimize both landing pages and blog posts with your target keywords. If you’re not sure where to start, use landing pages to focus on keywords that are very specific to your services and blog posts to brand out to related topics.

Part of your website optimization should include optimizing it for mobile. Mobile optimization is important because it enhances the experience for mobile users and helps improve SEO. 

4. Tap into Local SEO

Local SEO is very important in the travel industry, so you must ensure you’ve set up the proper channels for your business to appear in local search results.

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The primary way to tap into local SEO is to set up a Google My Business (GMB) profile. This will put your business on the map, making it easy to discover in search.

Beyond registering for a GMB profile, you should optimize your website with local keywords. For example, if you have a party boat company in South Florida, you should optimize for terms like “Miami boat rentals,” “Fort Lauderdale boat charters,” or “South Florida party cruise.”

5. Dial in on Social Media

Another great way to reach prospective clients and foster relationships with people interested in your services is to use social media.

The primary way travel businesses use social media is to publish content related to their brand to capture the attention of potential buyers. Depending on your go-to social media platform, leverage various types of online content to convey your message, ranging from text posts to video posts.

You can take this further by using social media for outreach. You can DM your followers or people who follow similar accounts to yours to develop a deeper relationship. Your direct outreach can include promotional offers, invitations to events your business is participating in, or a survey to see how you can better serve your clients.

6. Leverage Content Marketing

Leveraging content marketing is a powerful tool for lead generation, especially for travel services. Companies can captivate their audience’s interest by creating engaging and informative travel blogs, producing high-quality videos, and consistently publishing travel guides. 

For instance, Cruise America, a leading provider of RV rentals in Florida, regularly publishes travel blogs that inspire readers on destinations to visit, activities to do, and essential travel tips. These blogs not only engage potential customers but also position Cruise America as a go-to resource for travel planning. 

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This consistent and valuable content helps attract and convert readers into leads, ultimately driving more bookings for their RV rentals.

7. Tap into Influencer Marketing 

Influencer marketing is an increasingly popular technique for reaching potential leads. If you’re unfamiliar with it, influencer marketing involves paying an online creator or public figure to promote your business to their audience. 

When hiring an influencer, you should find somebody whose following aligns with your target audience. There is no cut-and-dry answer to how many followers they have, so you should consider how engaged their audience is.

There are two simple ways to approach influencer marketing to gain travel bookings. 

1. You can hire a local influencer who regularly creates content for things to do in the area and position their promotions as “staycation” content.
2. The other option is to comp a trip for a popular influencer to use your services.

8. Partner with Other Tourism Companies

A great way to generate leads for your travel business is to partner with other local tourism companies. This allows you to tap into likely qualified leads who are already traveling to the area where your business is located.

For example, an adventure company that does skydiving, ATV tours, parasailing, or similar activities could partner with hotels and short-term rental hosts to offer their guests a discount on their services.

It’s also wise to partner with travel agents who book trips to your area so they can recommend your services or accommodations to their clients.

9. Host a Giveaway

Who doesn’t love the opportunity to win something for free? Hosting a giveaway is a great way to gather potential leads’ contact information. Typically, a business like yours offers a prize in exchange for entry to a giveaway. 

This typically involves following a profile, liking a post, and leaving a comment to enter on social media. However, you can take this further and require participants to fill out a form with their email address or contact information. The social media giveaway approach has lower friction when entering, but requiring participants to submit a form provides more valuable information for your lead generation initiatives. 

Giveaways often pair nicely with influencer marketing. You can host a giveaway with an influencer you hire to promote your brand. This will boost your chances of generating leads from their audience since it offers the opportunity for a conversion that is a lesser commitment than a purchase. 

You can also partner with other local travel companies to create a bigger prize, which would give people a greater incentive to enter.

10. Make it Easy to Purchase

Driving travel bookings can be challenging, especially when the goal is to capture the interest of potential customers. 

To overcome this, businesses use many different lead-generation strategies, such as engaging content, targeted ads, and email campaigns. One effective method is using CTA buttons that lead to forms. 

For instance, Beaches of Normandy uses multiple CTA buttons on their Band of Brothers tour landing page. After providing detailed tour information and dates, they place CTA buttons for each tour date, directing visitors to a form to fill in their personal information and trip preferences.

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This approach makes it super easy for potential customers to take the next step, boosting lead generation and ultimately driving more bookings.

Final Thoughts

There are so many ways to generate leads for your travel business. Thanks to the accessibility of the internet, most of these methods are easy to implement, test, and iterate. That means you can easily experiment to find the best strategy for your business.

Which lead gen strategies will you test?

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