The presence of a huge number of travel companies allows customers to make choices, so advertising travel agencies is becoming increasingly difficult.

Travel companies must attract customers with something special and original. If advertising is done just for show, it will lead to losses, to the loss of customers, they will quickly pay attention to other companies that have carefully thought through how to make advertising messages more exciting, bright, noticeable.

For example, an unusual, attractive sign that will be visible to all passersby is very important for a travel agency. If at the entrance you post information about last-minute tours, about which countries you can go to without visas, and document this with colorful photographs, then the influx of visitors will undoubtedly increase.

How to properly advertise a travel agency. Typical advertiser mistakes

Many travel agencies make one very significant mistake. In the hope of attracting buyers, they post information with clearly reduced prices for tours. As a result, interested citizens go inside, but receive completely different offers, with prices usual for such trips. Such advertising produces backlash, disappointment and distrust of the company. Rest assured that these visitors will not return here again. One loyal visitor can turn into a source of income for your company every season, while a disappointed consumer is lost to you with his entire family and immediate circle.

That is why it is necessary to publish reliable, verified information and update offers taking into account changed prices. You can advertise tourist trips using magazines in which you can publish articles describing culture, culinary preferences in exotic countries, post reviews from vacationers, talk about possible excursions, attractions, etc. Try to cover as many topics and options for excursion activities as possible. For example, a family vacation with children involves one set of excursions, while a young family without children will prefer another. Your task is to provide templates (what must be visited) or, having predicted the buyer’s wishes, eliminate the excursion program altogether, focusing on recreation options.

It is also necessary to take into account the dynamics of changes in the market for the sale of tourism services. Due to currency fluctuations, most tours to Europe become unprofitable. It is likely that domestic tourism will begin to develop in the coming years. Requests such as “advertising a vacation in Crimea” or “advertising a vacation in Sochi” are becoming more popular day by day; travel agencies need to find an adequate answer to these requests or create a competitive offer for European countries.

Where to advertise a travel agency

On the Russian market, the most popular magazine is Tourism and Recreation, but if you plan to publish information about your travel agency, please note that this must be done regularly. One of the most important conditions for proper advertising of a travel agency is the creation of your own website, on which you can place advertisements about all current offers, tours that can be booked in advance, and prices for tours.

The majority of tourists look for information about possible trips on the Internet, so you should strive to ensure that your website is attractive, well-developed, and occupies the top positions in search engines. In addition, you need to constantly update the data and ensure that irrelevant offers are removed from display in a timely manner. Very convenient systems that help visitors enter the required data into special forms that make the search faster. On the other hand, despite the convenience of online services, the buyer understands that he is dealing with resellers of tours and tickets, so trust in such a service will obviously be lower than in a direct service provider. The website of the tourism campaign must clearly indicate its official status and all supporting documents.

This could be data on the number of vacationers, the desired dates of departure and arrival, and the amount planned to be spent on vacation. Here you can also indicate the desired star rating of hotels, the availability of certain amenities, etc. It is worth hanging banners, streamers, and installing pillars in busy places of the city, then the advertising will be comprehensive and comprehensive

Where to advertise, in what volume, how much money to spend? To answer these questions, you need to characterize the target audience of your travel agency. What kind of press do its representatives read, what online sites do they visit, what area do they live in, what services do they use, etc.

If you are new, then at first your advertising costs will be significant. Over time, the advertising budget can be reduced as loyal customers appear.

Promotional offer

Whatever advertising medium you choose, it is important to present the information correctly and attract the attention of potential customers. The main rule is that your message should not have a general image character. For example, a text such as “we invite you to our travel agency, we always have inexpensive last-minute travel packages” does not attract attention and does not stand out in any way against the background of numerous other advertisements.

• Plan your winter vacation in advance! The best travel deals with a 30% discount from the travel company "Toptravel"
• An ideal holiday at an affordable price! Last minute tours to Egypt and Turkey from the Meridian company
• Luxury summer vacation in Egypt from 15,000 rubles with the Viptrevel company!
• Last minute tours to Turkey for the coming weekend from 4,000 rubles!
• Give yourself a romantic holiday in Paris for only 7,000 rubles!
• The best holiday in Malta! Special offer from 8,000 rubles for 7 days!
• Visit Oktoberfest in Germany for only 10,000 rubles! Limited number of tours!
• Plan the perfect trip at an affordable price! Tours to Prague from 12,000 rubles!
• Spring holidays at Disneyland: special offer from 11 thousand rubles!
• Holidays in Tunisia: 20% discount on all tours during the velvet season!
• All summer tours in installments at 0% from the company “Around the World”!
• Give your loved one romance! Tours to Paris for 7 days from 12 thousand rubles!

Recommendations for planning a travel agency advertising campaign

1. Advertising must be in a corporate style. If your logo is blue and yellow, then on all advertising media the logo should be like this, and not turquoise and yellow, blue and orange, bluish yellow, etc. Promote your company’s brand from the very beginning, teach customers to recognize your style.
2. Advertising must be comprehensive, simultaneously placed on several platforms to reach different audiences. By placing the module in a travel magazine, phone numbers in joint advertising with tour operators and on the Internet, you greatly increase the likelihood that the information will find your client.
3. Advertising must be regular. You should not expect the effect of placing a module in one issue of a magazine, the frequency of which is four times a month.
4. The more specifics and real offers there are in an advertising message, the more attractive it is to potential clients. If the advertising content does not contain specific proposals, it will only have an image character.
5. Having chosen an advertising medium, analyze your competitors’ advertising and make your own better.
6. Make it a rule to politely ask clients how they heard about you. Evaluate the effectiveness of advertising media and abandon those that do not “bring” customers.
7. Calculate the value of each client - divide the advertising costs by the number of clients and you will understand how valuable each of them is. Be sure to make such a calculation at the initial stage - this will help in assessing the effectiveness of the advertising policy as a whole.
8. Visit professional exhibitions, websites and advertising forums.
9. Experiment with methods of promoting travel agency services.

It should be noted that travel companies spend more money on attracting customers in the first year of operation, but in the second, third year and beyond, the advertising budget is approximately 20% of the profit. The longer a travel agency operates on the market, the lower the advertising budget in relation to the company's profit.

Advertising using the example of the travel agency "ARGO Travel"

General characteristics of advertising activities

To be a travel agency the need to express yourself is recognized. But in order to get the best possible results at the lowest possible cost, you need to consider how to market yourself and your products.

2 Travel catalog - they contain descriptions of tourist goods and services, illustrations, prices. Catalogs are used to present the tour program. It includes illustrated descriptions of various routes, hotels, excursions, transport services, and departure date.

4 Brochures and booklets - less voluminous publications contain a list of tourist destinations for additional information about accommodation, prices, schedules, transport and much more. Brochures are typically printed on a single page, shown, and are easier and less expensive to produce. They are the most common means of advertising.

The travel agency "ARGO Travel" uses several types of advertising: outdoor, souvenirs, computer, print advertising, television commercials and radio.

To include outdoor advertising signs located at the entrance to the travel agency; Volume is advertising that runs day and night; souvenirs - calendars, pens with the name of the trip; to the computer - advertising on websites; to the diagram - advertisements in newspapers; advertising on television and radio.

Such goals may be, for example, introducing new types of services to the market; increasing sales in already developed areas of activity. In addition to these specific commercial objectives, management also has many objectives to enhance the prestige of the enterprise with business partners and consumers. I isolated several advertising goals:

1. Neutralize asserts competitors.

2. To achieve trust in the company among potential business partners.

3. Potential buyers were asked about the services offered by the company.

4. Keep old customers from switching to competitive products.

5 Converting customers' competitive products to their customers.

6. Convince the customer of the quality and reliability of the products.

7. Reminding potential consumers to make a purchase.

8. Inform the buyer of the new prices.

Stage 2. Determining the target group is to determine the influence of the category of people to whom advertising should be directed, based on the predefined goals and objectives of promotions.

When organizing an advertising campaign, you should focus on working on this issue. Without adequate information about potential consumers, products cannot be marketed effectively. Based on the purpose of the consumer properties of the product offered, the most typical representatives of target influence groups can be determined. "Argo Travel" segmentation can be performed on various principles. But, since the product offered now is of high quality, reliability and relatively high cost, advertising should mainly be aimed at people who have a certain material wealth.

When carrying out this stage of work, each enterprise must carefully study all the properties of the products and possible areas of application in order to determine, with the greatest possible accuracy, the recipients of their future promotions.

Stage 3. At the third stage of advertising work, it is necessary to select means of advertising influence, develop a strategy and tactics of advertising work, and plan advertising events. This step is the most important in organizing all types of advertising of goods, products or services.

The main task of specialists involved in company advertising is to create comprehensive advertising activities that ensure maximum coverage of representatives of the target group at the lowest possible impact of (more optimal) material costs.

Based on the classification, to analyze how different types of advertising media and promotional materials, events can be perceived by representatives of the reverse target group. Select all of them the most suitable for completing this task.

Make a preliminary estimate of the costs associated with their production and sale.

Comparative analysis of the cost (production) of each of the selected promotional activities (materials) with the degree of possible feedback from the target group. Compare the results of this analysis with the overall economic performance of the tasks solved by the advertising campaign.

Using the method of elimination, finally, select the most effective means of advertising influence (with limited allocations for advertising, taking into account the actual availability of funds).

For ARGO Travel firms, priority agents include events in the media; as well as outdoor advertising in the form of billboards installed in the most crowded places.

The most effective means of selling products is direct mail advertising; Printed advertising in the form of advertising catalogues, prospectuses and brochures; advertising publications and articles in specialized magazines (calculated for members of the target group), as well as various “public relations” events.

After completing the selection of the optimal means of advertising influence, one creative strategy is planned for future advertising campaigns, the order is determined by various tactical actions, specific plans of advertising activities in terms of their behavior.

If in determining the goals and objectives of an advertising campaign, in order to identify groups of target effects in the first and second stages, which will be carried out by the travel agency "Argo Travel", no one can perform them better than he usually does, the choice of optimal means of advertising and another third phases should be carried out in close contact with representatives of specialized advertising organizations. Since the introduction of the choice of advertising media and advertising materials and activities, these representatives are a party, to a certain extent, objectively interested in receiving as many large orders as possible; to perform such work may also include independent consultants from among highly qualified specialists of advertising services companies and associations with extensive experience in advertising.

Stage 4. Issuance of orders, contracts with specialized advertising agencies - and, finally, which stipulates all the details of future complex promotions.

In its orders (letters of guarantee to the addresses of specialized advertising organizations), the authority:

1. clearly formulate a precise list of goals and objectives that she must share;

2. Specify the target group of influence;

3. submit your proposals for a creative solution;

Unfortunately, few advertising agencies in the city can offer this kind of partnership or their services are unaffordable. Thus, the company often uses the experience gained in previous advertising campaigns and thus tries to reduce the cost of advertising campaigns.

Savings at the moment in the organization of advertising companies "ARGO TRAVEL" have suffered, but the timing of the production of advertising materials and the implementation of ideas as a creative enterprise. If possible, establish long-term cooperation with advertising that can adequately implement the ideas of the enterprise.

Orders must be accompanied by the following materials: photo printing - original elements of the text of branding projects, parts of advertising materials, the project plans can be illustrated with photos, slides and other things.

After working orders from an advertiser, a specialized advertising organization usually sends him to sign a draft agreement on the production of advertising materials and the implementation of advertising activities in accordance with orders. These contracts can also be accompanied by corresponding calculations and estimates, which already reliably determine the price of the ordered services.

In signing the contract, the company must provide for their protection of their interests, which, of course, must indicate them in possible fines for poor performance or failure to comply with the conditions of production (of) Promotional materials (activities). Therefore, before signing, they should be worked out in detail by an experienced lawyer and consultant.

Stage 5. Joint preparatory work with specialized advertising organizations (suppliers) and monitoring the timely and high-quality implementation of orders and contracts for advertising materials and activities begins after issuing orders and concluding agreements on the creation of the necessary advertising materials and promotional activities.

For the successful implementation of all planned promotions during their preparation, there is a need for close cooperation between the creative representatives of the Union of Argo Travel Firms and their direct institutes - experts, specialized advertising organizations.

Often, during the preparatory work, only representatives of the customer company can determine the most favorable shooting angle of the advertised product, in order to select the best photo slides on the necessary topics, to give direction for the future of advertising films or the necessary advice and recommendations in the development of ideas for the design of advertising materials. It is in the joint creative activity of representatives of customer enterprises with the editorial staff of specialized advertising organizations that a good copy of advertising and original advertising slogans and headlines are born.

These joint preparatory work should also consist of a business meeting in which to discuss, negotiate and approve preliminary designs and the order of layout of the decoration of advertising materials, scripts for future films and solve many other, various organizational and technical issues.

Clarity, efficiency and business atmosphere in the process of preparatory work, as well as constant monitoring of the enterprise for the progress of concluded contracts in order to ensure the successful and timely implementation of all planned promotional activities at a high level of quality.

At this stage, you should try to determine the effectiveness of each of the promotional activities carried out separately to determine its performance. A business will find it quite easy to find out the effectiveness of advertising through discussions with new business partners and clients involved as a result of the advertising campaign.

Studying the impact of specific advertising campaigns will allow the company, if necessary, to make adjustments to the strategy and tactics of advertising work in general and for each advertising campaign in particular; provides the necessary background information to carry out its most effective organization in the future.

After completing the last stage of a new cycle of work; determine new or revised old goals and objectives of advertising campaigns; clarify the previous one or identify a new target group of influence; develop new or strengthen the old set of advertising effects (based on the actual execution of the first cycle, the most effective types of advertising materials and activities should be selected and more actively used); issue new orders, enter into new contracts, and so on.

It just so happened that every self-respecting city should have had stereotypical names of streets, cinemas and shops. This is probably because those who do not often leave their native Alapaevsk do not feel lost and alone in the foreign Krasnopartizansk.

Busts of famous personalities had to be watched blindly by district executive committees, city councils and, later, city halls. If it happened that he was passing through the city of A.S. Pushkin cursed for five minutes “why in vain” a horse unshackled on potholes, then a memorial plaque dedicated to this event had to decorate the half-decayed little house of the station.

A very famous domestic film, at one time, told us that every self-respecting city must have a “third street of builders.” What self-respecting riverside city could afford not to have a monument to the boat-skonka-submarine-sailboat of Ermak-Peter-Nakhimov-Benzhausen on the city embankment? How else?!

All this has been replicated, is and will be, and one hundred to five hundred cities of Russia will challenge each other for the title of Russian Saxony-Silesia-Pomerania-Sardinia and Russian Athens. And there is no escape from this!

Ugh! Banter, of course... let's talk about marketing. The latter diligently tells us through the mouth of the founders that being different is for the good! To be different means that if last year a trip for the whole family was awarded to the budget of a neighboring city, then this year you can kindly buy refrigerator magnets from us, especially since we make the magnets ourselves and our city is completely different.

In fact, there is a recipe for “being different” without changing any of the above. And this recipe doesn't cost a lot of money. It is enough to erect in a crowded city place without a pedestal a monument to “Chizhik” (Chizhik-Pyzhik, where have you been?), “Hachiko”, “Yuri Nikulin”, a sailor who waves a handkerchief towards the sea, Crow from Krylov’s fable and hundreds of tourists, through years, according to photographs from the family album, will unmistakably distinguish Verkhoyansk from Verkhotursk.


But being different is not about marketing, just like erecting a monument to the “boiler” (see photo above) and not about sociality and not about territory. How to make sure that all this footage is not just stored in photo albums or posted on Instagram? How to make sure that in all this there is some kind of marketing component that contributes to the active promotion of the territory?

So, how to make a marketing campaign, or better yet, a whole long-term program to attract tourists?

A few introductory notes:

1. A marketing campaign comes from the word action. That is, what we plan should have some kind of drive, excitement, intrigue and adventure.

2. Marketing needs to be done by the tourists themselves and at their own expense... preferably!

3. We will entrust the promotion of the marketing idea of ​​attracting new tourists to the same tourists.

4. If there is a monument to something wonderful in the city, then we will play with this monument, otherwise it is worthless and “eats up” the budget.

So, here is a step-by-step outline of a territorial marketing campaign to attract tourists through their efforts and at their own expense.

1. There should already be a wonderful monument in your city. If it’s not worth it, then put it in, otherwise you will immediately begin to differ from the neighboring city and not for the better. Moreover, the more wonderful it (the monument) is, the better for marketing. In no case, no pedestals, no monumentality or resemblance to tombstones.

2. With the help of hotels, tell the guests and tourists of the city that the city government is announcing a competition for the best photo with this monument. For one thing, in this leaflet, tell us what other monuments are worth visiting.

3. Distribute the leaflet, or better yet, print it on the basis of share participation: local authorities - hotelier entrepreneurs. If they don’t want to participate, we’ll “turn off the gas”!

4. Conditions for participation of photographs in the photo competition:

• the weirder and more unusual the photo, the better
• the greater the number of people on social networks and in the office. the event page will vote for this photo - the better
• The more descriptive the photo, the better.

• marketing coupon for accommodation in the best hotel in the city for the next year at the hotel’s expense (if the hotel does not agree, see clause 3). The coupon can be transferred to other persons, family members.
• a cruise on a local river with dinner with the mayor (a local synchronized swimming star and retired film actor).
• a story on local television (a story on central television, subject to very creative photography and the activity of PR people and (or) activity on social networks will be ensured).

And continuing the topic, read

Advertising a travel agency, as well as promoting the services it provides, have become especially relevant in the last decade. What causes this? The fact is that today there are a huge number of companies operating in the leisure industry. And each of them needs to stand out from the crowd of its competitors in order to make a profit. How to do this? It is necessary to declare yourself as brightly and loudly as possible.

Of course, such actions will not be difficult for major players in the tourism market. After all, having the necessary budget, they are able to launch a large-scale advertising project. As for newcomers to this business, they have to look for effective, but at the same time budgetary ways of promotion. And therefore, the most frequently asked question from owners of companies working in the entertainment industry is: “How to promote a travel agency?”

Classic method

Advertising of a travel agency, as well as any other organization, is, as we know, the engine of trade. And you shouldn’t forget about this. You can use different methods to promote a company. The most popular of them is posting information:

• in print media;
• on TV;
• in the Internet.

There is an opinion that advertising of travel agencies in print media has already lost its popularity. This is why many business owners try to use other types of “promotion”. But, nevertheless, in promoting a travel agency it is necessary to use all available methods without exception. And they should not be divided into effective and ineffective.

Advertising of a travel agency in the media includes free newspapers and glossy magazines, a commercial on the radio and a ticker on TV. This method is the easiest in terms of time spent. After all, this kind of advertising is done by professionals. So, designers create a slide show and develop a layout. Copywriters compose the text. Announcers voice advertisements. But this method is also the most expensive. After all, the services of highly qualified professionals, airtime and newspaper space are far from cheap.

In order to save money on advertising in magazines, you should first select thematic publications that cover issues of leisure and travel, as well as city news. Information about a travel agency in all other similar media will not give the desired effect.

It is worth understanding that such travel agency advertising reaches the maximum audience. However, only the businessman who invests a considerable amount of money in his event gets the real effect. After all, only constant flashing of the brand will attract a large number of customers.

Own website

Online advertising of a travel agency is currently considered the most effective way to promote a company. It allows you to attract customers due to the fact that at the moment most people are trying to find the information they need on various sites on the World Wide Web. After all, here you can find out about everything at once - about prices and hotels, about flight options, about excursions and attractions, visa issues, as well as about the customs and traditions of the country you choose for your holiday.

For a good travel website you need:

1. Clear navigation and clear structure.
2. High quality informative content that is designed to encourage a potential client to purchase. Some “clues” in the text will help with this.
3. An easy to remember domain name.
4. Special counters that will track site traffic. This will allow you to analyze the effectiveness of advertising.

After completing the preparation of the site on which the travel agency will be advertised and determining its goals (for example, attracting traffic or selling tours), you must select one of the tools through which the information will be transmitted. Let's take a closer look at them.

contextual advertising

Information about a travel agency can be found on the search page of Rambler, Google or Yandex. It is contextual (text advertising) of a travel agency. Similar information may be posted on various search engine partner sites.

Advertisements are placed to the right and above the search results. What needs to be done for such advertising to appear, for example, in Yandex? To do this, you will need keywords that users enter into the search bar when searching for a tour or package.

In order to assess the potential of such advertising, you should view the statistics of user requests. For example, entering the phrase “tour to Egypt” into the search engine during the month amounted to 99,000, “Moscow travel agencies” - 9,000. Contextual advertising is ideal for selling last-minute trips and getting potential clients interested in special offers.

Search engine promotion

This is one of the online advertising tools that helps increase traffic to travel agency websites by potential clients. Search engine promotion allows you to get into the TOP 10 results that Yandex or Google produces for keywords entered into the search bar. However, in order to achieve such results, significant time investment will be required. And this, in turn, will not allow providing instant information to potential consumers.