The competition available in the business of tour and travel is growing rapidly. Due to the advancement of technology, the use of the internet has increased a lot. It has streamlined the procedure of tour and travel bookings. With so many tours and travel agencies available in the market, the travel agencies’ competition is confined to clicks and revenues and airlines and hotel chains. Both are playing a significant role in expanding your small travel agency.
Here are the business growth tips for a travel agency owner:
1. Create an engaging travel website:
Create a good travel website that makes you stand above your competitors. It must be attractive and user-friendly. When you design your website, make sure that the photographs you are putting on the website, be it of places, or hotel rooms, must be of high quality. According to the image mentioned, your website should talk about each of your services like flight bookings, hotel bookings, or car rental criteria.
To make your website look unique and different, always use a photograph clicked through a professional photographer to help your website give an attractive and pleasant look. You can even ask for a customer's opinion in designing the website. It will help you write a good description of the travel services you are offering to the customer. All the services are properly linked with the relevant travel service page.
2. Use pop-ups on the website to attract your audience.
It is the easiest way to expand your small travel business. You can flash on the side panel of your travel agency about deals and offers as it will gain the attention of your target audiences when they visit your website. To increase the visibility of pop-ups, adopt SEO strategies that include good keyword planning and choosing a good domain. It will drive traffic to your website. It is an essential business growth tip to be followed for expanding a travel agency and reaching the target audiences.
3. Social media engagement
One of the most popular ways to expand your travel business is to boost up social media engagement. Travel tours and agencies work more on online platforms to make an active social media presence. It will help your business to appear on the top in all the search engine results. Creating a good website is not enough to boost the business and expand the reach. You should have a business account on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, etc. These social media networks play a crucial role in increasing Google rank networking.
If you are thinking about content to be uploaded on social media or ways to expand a small business? You need to understand that being in the business of a travel agency uploading videos and photos is a must. It is the best way to reach and influence the target audiences.
4. Learn to create affordable tour and travel packages
Your tour package customers get a unique experience in offering packages like airline deals and hotel deals at an affordable cost. When you are designing a package, make sure that cost is affordable, with no quality compromises. The use of the ‘added value offer strategy’ in your package makes it unique and different. If someone is travelling to celebrate any occasion, offer the customer that makes their occasion special. If you are giving good deals on your travel packages, they will surely come again to make bookings for their next trip. This business tip became a trend that every travel agency is following for increasing the business revenue. There has been saying of Warren Buffet “Price is what you pay, value is what you added”
5. Upload videos both on the website and on social media platforms
According to the research of Forrester, 60 percent of the traffic drives to the website through watching travel videos. Many people are fond of sharing their journey experiences by uploading videos or photographs. You can request your customer to share their video with you as well. You can showcase all the images and videos on your social platforms, and websites like hotel stays, sightseeing, or candlelight dinners are of great help to make a social media presence.
6. Create a review section on your website
You can request your existing customers to give ratings or share their travel experiences. A person at the time of choosing any travel agency or a tour operator continuously reviews the online reviews. Sharing reviews will make your business grow up to 5X. So, keep on encouraging your customers to share their travel reviews by uploading the best travel pictures. You can even offer them a reward or some discount on the next trip for sharing a good review. Following this travel agency marketing idea will make you stand definitely above your competitor.
7. Request for referrals from past customers
Customer referrals nowadays have become one of the most effective marketing strategies to expand a small business. You can offer the customer reward points as cashback or discounts for giving referrals to their website. It will help you in getting a good client and expand the reach of your business. The main factor to keep in mind when asking for referrals is that your customer should be aware of your target audience. You can use emails or social media channels for requesting referrals from your past customers. The other option is publishing a travel blog post and asking your followers to repost, retweet, or share with their social networking.
8. Don’ts for a Travel agency owner
- Never offer the same deals to your customers as your competitors are offering. Try to be different.
- Never compromise on the quality of travel offers. Don't make partnerships with low-class or low-quality hotels. Having a comfortable stay and journey are the main requirements of the customer.
- Never go with short-cuts to expand your business. Always believe in working hard, making business strategies, and think out of the box to stand above your competitors. Don’t keep many expectations in terms of profit with your small business.
- Avoid ignoring suggestions given by the competitors and well-wishers. By doing this, you will never make the right improvisations and know how to grow your small business.
- Never make business decisions without researching and analysing its pros and cons.
Conclusion
The travel industry is a sector where people are always looking for good value, the best deals, safe journeys, and a comfortable stay. The people trust a reputed and branded travel tour operator for bookings. We are having an expert team that can help you follow the travel agent tips, and success will surely touch your feet.
We hope the above tips will help in getting ideas of how to grow a small business?
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FAQs
Q. Can people who just recovered from COVID 19 be allowed to travel?
Ans. Suppose you had a deal with the symptoms of COVID 19 in the past three months. As per the travel norms, you must show documentations like the negative report of COVID 19 when making international and domestic travels. But keeping into mind the present situation of rising cases in India, it is advised to postpone travel if necessary.
Q. How can an agency tour operator stand above its competitor?
Ans. To become a good agency tour operator always offers quality services to customers that keep them happy. Give the customers a unique value-added offer that touches their hearts and makes a memory for their whole life. Creating empathy is a must for an agency tour operator to get success.
Q. Can you give some tips for running a successful travel business?
- One-page business plan creation
- Research about the competitors and market strategies they are following
- Choosing of specialisation or niche
- Building up of strong social media marketing strategies
- Joining of travel hosting agencies
- Creating a strong website
Q. How does a travel tour agency operator make money in this business?
Ans. The corporate travel agencies are earning mainly from the service fee and through commissions. The commissions they are getting from airlines with whom they have tie-ups. Based on the contract with a travel agency, it is up to 5%, and on international travels, it is up to 22%.