If your travel brand isn't taking advantage of face-to-face marketing by partaking in a travel expo, you are losing business. Step in front of your target audience in real life rather than communicating through a computer screen or telephone. Here are 5 truths about travel trade shows:
1. Travel Expos Can Save You Time and Money.
Print and broadcast ads are costly. Internet marketing requires a lot of time to reach a decent-sixed audience and frankly, both deliver extremely low results. Travel expos give you the opportunity to deliver your sales message and interact with a large group of pre-qualified travelers gathered at the same time, in one place.
2. We Do the Prospecting FOR YOU!
Fact: 89% of Travel & Adventure Show attendees looking to book a trip, booked with an exhibitor they met at the show. These shows deliver tens of thousands of consumers, and each of these consumers are:
A) Travel Enthusiasts (AKA the exact target market you’re looking for)
B) Active travelers in the planning stage of the travel purchase process (they want a vacation and they want it soon.)
C) People who love to travel so much that they paid and gave up their free time for the privilege of meeting you and spending above average amounts of money on travel – meaning each attendee is a pre-qualified prospect.
So, what’s the difference between marketing at a trade show and marketing in an ad? You can spend more money on a newspaper ad, where you can only hope some travelers will even notice it, OR you can place your brand in front of travelers who are eager, and ready, to buy your product.
3. Travel Expos Build Confidence
Not only do travel expos build confidence, but also a great deal of trust between you and your customers. Meeting people in your target market in person is crucial for building and maintaining strong relationships. If you take the time to market your brand by exhibiting at a trade show, you are “legit” in the consumer’s mind.
4. Expos Create Instant Visibility
This is a huge different between face-to-face marketing and other outlets. Your presence at the trade shows is a display for support for that target market.
Attendees find ideas for not only their next vacation, but future dream trips at a travel expo. So, if a traveler is interested in taking a trip to Korea, and Korea travel company A is exhibiting and Korea travel company B is not, guess which one they’ll choose? (The picture below is a hint.)
Simply stated, by not being involved in America’s #1 series of travel shows, you are losing bookings.
5. Expos Deliver YOUR Message
The value of meeting your prospects and customers face-to-face is that you gain the benefit of verbal and non-verbal communications, allowing you to clarify the details of your sales message. By using face-to-face marketing, you have the advantage.
The main reason why attendees love the Travel & Adventure Show is because they have finally found what they cant find online: expert information from REAL LIVE, legitimate, trustworthy humans who have a voice and a willingness to sell them the vacation tailored to their specific interests. If they could find all the answers online, do you really think they would take 5 hours out of their day to come to the show?
There isn’t another marketing strategy out there that allows you to talk to, listen to, and customize information for a traveler who is ready to buy. Put down the phone and stop typing away at that keyboard. Market your travel brand in a way that actually works. Before TAS attendees buy a ticket to their dream destination, they buy a ticket to the Travel & Adventure Show. What does this mean for you? In order for future TAS attendees to book a vacation with your brand, you ought to book a show with the nation's #1 travel show brand.
Before They Went Here:
They Came Here:
Travel & Adventure Show
The Nation's #1 Series of Travel Shows
-Place Your Brand in Front of a Live Audience
-Meet Over 140,000 Ready-to-Book Travelers
-Watch Your Business Succeed
