Hosting a travel show to promote your tours is a great way to create a buzz and encourage travelers to book with you.
Whether in person or online, a travel show can spotlight the most exciting experiences of each of your tours and give travelers a preview of what’s to come. A travel show is a fun way to kick off your travel season and bring all your travelers and their friends into one venue for the night. They help you create excitement for the coming year and introduce members to your upcoming tours. And they give your travelers the opportunity to discuss tours with their friends or travel companions and decide what interests them. Often, travelers get excited about a tour by hearing about others’ interest in that tour.
Here are some tips for planning successful travel shows.
Pick the Right Time
A good rule of thumb when planning your travel show is to provide information about the trips you have planned for at least the next 12 months. Many program directors plan their travel shows for the fall or winter to highlight tours for the coming year. In my experience, Christmas travel shows have always been successful. Christmas brings excellent options for decorating and gift options.
Invite Your Partners
If you are partnering with tour companies on your trips, invite them to the travel show. Many can send a representative to speak about your upcoming tours. Some representatives can offer door prizes or even provide goodies as extra incentives for people to book that night.
Get Creative
Your travel show is meant to be exciting and fun. As you plan your event, brainstorm with your team to think of new ideas to engage your travelers in a way that leaves them all impressed. Reach out to other travel planners or your vendor representatives to ask them for ideas on how to create an engaging atmosphere. If you get excited about your event, so will your travelers.
Build Your Following
As people arrive at your travel show, make sure to gather their information and have them pull up your Facebook page or other social media platforms and follow you. When they do so, enter their name into a drawing or credit them toward their next tour. Increasing your followers on social media with travelers who are genuinely interested in your tours is a great way to market upcoming tours. It will also allow potential travelers to see how much fun everyone has on your tours.
Come Prepared
If your travel show is in person, print and have plenty of brochures for each tour. Whether it’s a tour you built yourself or one you sell through a vendor, make sure travelers leave with plenty of information. During your presentation, PowerPoints and slideshows are a great way to dive deeper into what a tour looks like. Prepare a slide deck to promote your tours or ask a representative from one of your vendors to bring one.
Plan for Fun
Your travel shows should always be fun. Do giveaways, play games and offer handheld foods. It also helps to walk around, greet the attendees personally and encourage them to mingle with others. Make this an enjoyable event for everyone, with a set time for a short presentation that doesn’t go too long or take over the evening. Try setting tables around the room, each one with info on a different tour. Spread your giveaways throughout the night to encourage people to stay for the entire event.
Incentivize Bookings
Travel shows can supercharge the booking process, because the people who attend them are likely very interested in traveling with you. Make sure you give them an easy way to sign on the spot with a one-night-only discount. Giving early signup incentives is a great way to help travelers decide and commit. It also gives you a better understanding of your numbers for each tour and gives you plenty of time to market more or expand the tour’s capacity. If a tour sells out, it might indicate you should think about taking a second bus or offering a second date for the same tour.
Follow Up
Follow up with your travelers after the show. Thank everyone who attended the event. Email them each individually and provide links to your tour information and itineraries. If someone attended the event but didn’t sign up for a tour, try calling them and asking them if they had any questions about a specific trip. Some travelers just need a little extra attention and nudging to sign up. If you have yet to receive the number of signups you were hoping for, try extending the early signup incentive, but make sure you set a deadline. When you send the thank-you emails, make sure to tell people you’re extending the promotion window. Post pictures of the event on your social media account to create interest for those unable to attend.
