Responsible Tourism Response to the Anti-Tourism Surge Anti-tourism rallies and sentiment are sweeping across Europe, combined with excessive immigration pushing Spaniards, Greeks, Italians, French, British and other nationals to reject mass tourism. Even in Mexico City, the chant “Gringos Go Home” is catching media attention and adding to the growing rancor for tourists that locals…
Have you Given Up On SEO? SEO has been in vogue in digital marketing for over 30 years, before I started in 1998. And for the last 15 years, the rumors of SEO is dead were part of the buzzword narrative, to sell more SEO. In reality, the doomsday phrase should have been “SEO is…
Build Deep Insights of Your Targeted Travelers If you’re fortunate enough to have website traffic, social engagement, leads, and traveler inquiries, you may still struggle to convert those leads. It’s because they’re not getting the content experience that meets all their needs. You can improve conversions through understanding the why’s and whats via user-intent analysis,…
😎 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Choose the Travel Sector I’ve worked with clients in many sectors, but I’m most enthused about the travel sector. I’ve found real estate and the sports equipment sectors stimulating too. But there’s just something about travel that puts it front and center. It’s not just about living the good…
Navigating Challenges and Threats Through the Next 5 Years Without good insights into demand, trends, challenges and threats, it might be hard for travel agency owners, DMO chiefs, and hotel managers to feel really confident about their travel marketing strategy — whether for 2025-2026 or the long view. With the stakes high, going down the…
🧭Navigating the US Travel Landscape for 2025-2026 The US travel industry is already navigating some choppy waters this year for a number of reasons. There’s the vascillating and painful import tariffs along with immigration rules that deter inbound international travel. And many are holding off until the fledgling Trump economy begins to accelerate in 2026….
🤩 The Essence of Stellar Travel Content Arguably, the biggest weakness of most small travel companies online is shallow, mundane content. Much of it fits “best practices” in style or topics but doesn’t seem to build brand loyalty or captivate an audience enough to make a booking. And in terms of a great content experience…
Your New Theme of Efficiency, Service and Performance Many travel companies are being forced to reorganize this year as politics reduces travel demand, and travel consumers become harder to reach. Travel has changed. It’s more competitive, revenue outlooks are weaker, and consumers have new expectations about travel companies. You’ll need to improve the message you…
Canadian Travel Expenditures Likely to Decline Significantly What might be brewing as a big problem for travel and tourism businesses picked up momentum this week. President Trump was pumping his unwelcome sign to Canadians and Europeans with new restrictions on those nationals traveling within the US for more than 30 days. They’ll need to register…
The Lead Gen Problem You’ll Love to Solve Have you ever had guests you couldn’t get rid of? It’s like they’re taking advantage of your goodwill and time. That’s how it is for many travel agents who must suffer through travel shoppers who are poorly qualified leads for one reason or another. It’s hard to…
Web Design/Development Highly Underrated in Marketing Today A big trend in digital marketing has been the Facebook push of social media and Google’s enforcement of high priced search ads. They’ve been able to capture hundreds of billions in revenue, through this monopolistic engineering so they’re not disturbed that natural, authentic marketing processes have been short…
How to Attract Travel Advisors Being more proactive about recruiting quality, experienced, and successful travel agents might be the one of the productive efforts you make to succeed. Like all online companies, you need marketing techniques that attract competent new and seasoned travel advisors. The value proposition of individual, successful agents is high. They have…
Getting Faster Results for Small Travel Companies As we enter 2025, small business outlook still remains somewhat subdued. It’s creating inertia and making travel company owners cautious about investing in travel marketing excellence in 2025. However, given President Trump has won and is implementing a very strong Pro-US business agenda, with balanced trade and lower…
Travelers View a Lot of Content Expedia’s most recent travel market report is a treasure trove of insights for travel startups, travel agency owners, tour operators, hotels, car rental companies and destination marketing companies. One area highlighted in the survey that’s relevant to your business is the sheer amount of time taken and content viewed…
The Rise of Travel Growth Marketers The job title “growth marketer” is hot of late. Salaries are impressive, often above $100k. The role is created for growing visibility and reach, marketshare, sales, revenue, content, product improvement, and developing new types of customers. I like the idea of this role. The focus is on growth and…
Who’s Launching Startup Travel Businesses? With an economic revival likely for the coming 5 years, entrepreneurs are intrigued about investing in and launching a travel startup. And the people jumping all over this opportunity are millionaires and people like you and me. Starter Story’s recent post on “How profitable is a travel agency?” suggests this…
Why not Have a Dedicated, Active Brand Ambassador? One of the most common issues with digital marketing campaigns is while they’re designed to meet advertiser needs, they often fail to create the kind of compelling human connection that resonates within travel consumers. Instead of leaving a lasting impression, the ads, messaging and landing pages often…
The Power of Iconic Brand Symbols If you’re not up on branding or impressed that brands have any power, you might want to take another look at it. Because a brand is your biggest asset once you build it. Brands have many dimensions, promises, value points, and touchpoints with travel consumers. And your travel content…
Innovative Travel Marketing Channels After you’ve built the core of your marketing strategy with authentic organic content, SEO, and social postings, there are some additional channels you can leverage to promote your brand, build leads and grow revenue. In fact, the great content we’ll create is amplified significantly through them. These channels discussed below open…
What Makes a Great Travel Experience? Why do people leave the comfort of their homes to spend a lot of money, interact with strangers, to see and do things they’ve never done before? And what about you personally? What experience do you you feel is essential to any long journey you might take this year?…
Link Building Strategy for Travel Companies Acquiring links to your travel website is the most difficult marketing challenge you face. Yet backlinks are absolutely essential for rankings on Google search. Even AI LLMs use links to find resources and places travelers might book. Given the challenge of capturing backlinks, many business owners avoid the link-building…
Targeting Bleisure Travelers Every year, more travelers are fusing business and leisure travel and becoming aware that they can and should get more from their business travel. It’s a travel trend that keeps growing and a market that travel companies should pay attention to and develop products for. The business and leisure (Bleisure) customer profile…
Keys to Affordable but Strong Travel Marketing Your travel agency, tour company, or travel management software won’t market itself. Instead, you’re going to need some creative ideas (like Red Cows) to grab the attention of travelers. Build your value proposition with some great promotional messages. Create and brilliant content and publish it via affordable yet…