It’s Time to Reorganize your Travel Business
It’s a fact of business life that the market changes along with our target audience. Travel agencies, hotels, airlines, DMOs, and tour companies are seeing valued long-time customers disappear while new ones become available.
Will we be resigned to our fate, or adjust? As your profits slide and costs rise, it’s so important to be realistic and thoughtful to begin reorganizing your staff, goals and priorities. You could redraw your business strategy to serve the actual market and their view of the ideal travel experience.
Change is Certain, but How do We Do that?
It means travel companies will need to create a new business on the fly. Reorganizing your company “old school style” won’t work. Times have changed, and it’s better to redesign your firm according to your reach to travel consumers and the brand experience they want.
It does mean evolving into a marketing-first company and capturing customers live, where they are to be always be front and center to them.
The how, what, and why of change management is discussed below, and you’ll find a list of consulting businesses that might help you capture your specific change opportunity. I see it as a quest that brings lasting success. The converse to that is a sales strategy for an old customer list that keeps disappearing. Building your company to serve ghosts is frustrating. We’ve all been there!
Digital Tools Give You that Awesome Flexibility
Companies that use digital tools are able to flex and adapt to reach and persuade travelers. They’re front and center all the time, grabbing up more market share.
If your company has grown naturally, you may have reached a point where your staff doesn’t quite match the opportunities coming. Whether it’s AI Chatbot-based customer assistance, working with videographers and micro-influencers, or working with AI travel planners which integrate your digital marketing content, you need a team with amazing skills and versatility.
Right now, tens of thousands of businesses in Canada are in a tender period where US trade is disappearing, and new markets need to be explored. In the US, the economy is undergoing a less severe slowdown yet is perhaps embarking on an exciting new era where US small businesses will sell more domestically to increasingly affluent Americans. This American audience segment is likely your biggest target going forward.
A New Business Model for Your Company
You can call this reorganization strategy anything you want. The point of it is that you’re always focused on creating the best customer acquisition opportunities, impacting and engaging them in their travel dream, making it oh so easy to book now, round the clock 7 days a week.
Yet, before that party can begin, small companies in travel must reorganize and evolve. It’s a new opportunity with new competition and if this is your situation, you’ll be reorganizing your staff. 2024 was a big year for staffing reorganization for cost-cutting and acquiring new talent for the new road ahead. With digital marketing and AI-assisted sales, a lot more can be achieved.
Sure, you’ve heard the automation talk, but that could still be getting ahead of yourself. Because if you have limited web traffic and leads, AI automation really isn’t solving that void. If you manage a travel agency for example, you’re in the business of reaching travelers and immersing them in their travel dream. Whatever cruise, tour, all-inclusive, hotel accommodation or trip itinerary they will buy, you’re selling them the joy of travel they want to experience. The joy is the picture you present of intense fulfillment that compels them to book a trip.
Automating mediocrity doesn’t make it better.
If you agree that this is what you’re selling, then your travel business should be built around reaching them and immersing them. That means digital marketing is the priority. Digital travel marketing creates a customer and keeps them engaged and unaware of competitors. That creates that “only travel company for me” status that delivers sustainable bookings and revenue. This creates the consistency you can build a business on.
Here are a few ideas to help you envision your custom solution:
1. Restructure your Team Around a Marketing-First Strategy
🔹 Shift away from a traditional sales-first model to a marketing-powered operation.
🔹 Make content, social media, and SEO core functions—not just side tasks.
🔹 Hire a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or Digital Marketing Lead to drive the vision.
2. Position the Agency as an Industry Thought Leader
🔹 Publish a weekly travel newsletter with trend insights & expert tips.
🔹 Launch a travel podcast or video series featuring inspiring travelers & insiders.
🔹 Speak at travel conferences & online summits to build credibility.
🔹 Get featured in media by pitching unique stories about emerging destinations.
3. Recruit Travel Marketing Specialists & Content Creators
🔹 Bring in travel content creators who can tell visually compelling stories (video, photography, blog writing).
🔹 Hire an SEO & travel content strategist to help your agency dominate target keywords and attract large volumes of traffic, and get your brand message out to audiences.
🔹 Invest in AI-powered marketing specialists—experts in conversion optimization, chatbot engagement, and data-driven campaign scaling.
4. Hire Master Level Skill in SEO & Content Marketing
🔹 Focus on SEO-driven blog content (real travel experiences, stories, destination guides, itinerary ideas, insider tips).
🔹 Use AI to analyze what travelers are searching for, how they interact with your content, and create content that is more impactful, engaging and persuasive.
🔹 Run Google & YouTube ads targeting travelers researching specific destinations.
🔹 Build a pillar content strategy—owning key topics in travel searches.
5. Train or Reassign Staff to Strengthen Marketing & Digital Sales
🔹 Upskill current staff with training in AI-driven personalization, automation, and analytics.
🔹 Shift roles—turn some traditional sales agents into travel content ambassadors.
🔹 Cross-train existing employees to write better content, engage in social media, and optimize digital campaigns.
6. Build a Content & Media Team That Owns Travel Storytelling
🔹 Hire a lead SEO/content strategist to oversee video production, blog content, and social media.
🔹 Hire a freelance videographer or video editor to produce high-quality travel reels & destination features.
🔹 Work with freelance writers, photographers, and influencers with experience in your key markets if possible to constantly fuel marketing efforts that deliver value to prospects online.
7. Hire an AI & Data-Driven Conversion Expert
🔹 Hire a freelance specialist in analytics AI-powered personalization to increase booking rates.
🔹 Use AI-driven chatbots, predictive analytics, and dynamic ad targeting to bring more travelers into the funnel.
🔹 Have a CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) expert refining landing pages & booking flows.
8. Make Social Media Engagement a Dedicated Role
🔹 Appoint a community manager to interact daily with travelers, answer questions, and build brand trust.
🔹 Develop platform-specific content strategies—Instagram for aspirational travel, TikTok for viral inspiration, LinkedIn for B2B partnerships.
🔹 Run a social media-first marketing strategy—not just use it as an afterthought.
9. Use AI & Marketing Automation to Scale Personalized Travel Selling
🔹 Integrate AI-driven personalization so visitors see travel recommendations tailored to their browsing behavior.
🔹 Automate lead nurturing with email sequences based on where a traveler is in the decision process.
🔹 Deploy AI chatbots & virtual assistants to answer common travel questions 24/7.
10. Rethink Sales as a High-Touch, Marketing-Led Process
🔹 Instead of cold-selling, train the sales team to be travel guides & advisors who convert content engagement into bookings.
🔹 Use lead scoring & automated follow-ups to identify high-intent travelers.
🔹 Align marketing & sales efforts so the two work seamlessly together.
11. Build a Flexible, Scalable Team with Specialists & Freelancers
🔹 Maintain a small but high-impact core team and supplement with freelancers, agencies, and contractors.
🔹 Work with travel influencers, niche bloggers, and remote content creators to keep marketing fresh.
🔹 Scale based on demand—expanding marketing resources before hiring more traditional staff.
12. Align the Entire Business Model to Marketing-First Thinking
🔹 Instead of focusing on just offering packages, the agency should sell an aspirational lifestyle.
🔹 Every new hire should add to the agency’s ability to attract and inspire travelers online.
🔹 Every decision should be made with one question: “How does this help us reach, engage, and convert travelers better?”
Your Key Reorg Takeaways:
- Yours will no longer be a traditional travel agency— instead a travel content and experience brand that flexes to appear and convert travel audiences where they are, to maximize impact, engagement and bookings.
- Marketing is not just a department—it’s the core of the entire business model.
- The team must be built for the new era—train staff you think are worth it, and hire dedicated, freelance experts in AI, content, SEO, video, and data-driven marketing to scale success.
Change Management Consulting
If the challenge of change is too much to bear, a change consultant might be a good choice. This is not a recommendation, but here are a few consulting firms’ websites to give you a start on your reorganization plan:
Canada: https://www.bdo.ca/services/management-consulting/change-management
https://consultport.com/consultants/business-restructuring/
https://www.egencia.com/en/travel-management-consulting
https://www.bain.com/consulting-services/transformation/
https://www.pwc.com/jp/en/services/consulting/
In the end, your reorg might only be a new attitude and focus, where you add key personnel to turn your firm into a marketing-first travel business.
With that new focus, all the pieces of the puzzle begin to come into view.
Check out more helpful travel business marketing articles to help move you into a profitable evolution.
Check out travel management software, travel marketing software and destination marketing software you might be using, and get up to date on AI travel planners to see what they can help you with.
