The travel industry continues its upward trend, which also means an increase in travel businesses, choices for customers, and competition in the industry. Are you looking for a way to stand out from the competition? It pays to take some Marketing tips from the travel industry: hotels, car rental agencies and airlines who are able to increase their bookings and profits year after year.

Today we are sharing some creating Marketing ideas from the travel industry experts to promote your outdoor business and increase bookings.

Looking for a Way to Stand Out from the Competition?

Promoting Your Business

Before you can increase your sales, it’s essential to increase customer brand awareness. Promoting your business using strategies like advertising, increased connections, and incentives is effective, but it can only do so much. The travel industry knows how important it is to market their businesses on multiple platforms.

To reach your target customers wherever they are, here are some of our recommended strategies:

First, Get Listed

Online travel marketing is tough – but it’s one of the best ways to reach out to more potential customers. How can you stand out from competition? Get listed.

Hotels and other accommodations have many ways to list their rooms outside of their own website. There are literally dozens of different marketplaces and aggregators that hotels use to increase their bookings. From well-known names like Hotels.com and Airbnb to regional players like Agoda, hotels have the exposure game figured out.

In this technology-driven industry, it’s important to get your business listed in major directories like Google, Google My Business, and Yelp. Many business owners know that getting listed on big platforms is important, but may not realize how important local directories and specialized marketplaces can be as well.

One effective way to promote your business is to get listed to as many local directories as possible. Think local visitor bureaus, chamber of commerce sites, and city/state websites. These are some of the first sites that come up when a customer researches a destination. With your business information featured on these directories, your business will not only get more traffic, but your businesses’ SEO value will also increase.

Outdoor-Focused Listings

You will also get a big advantage when you get listed on specialty websites that tailor to outdoor customers. TripOutside.com is an outdoor adventure marketplace that makes it easier for customers to book outdoor adventures. TripOutside helps you get exposure to new outdoor audiences already on the hunt for outdoor adventures and increase your bookings. Getting listed on TripOutside can increase your sales, optimize your business for search platforms, and expose your business to new customers with little to no effort on your end!

A TripOutside listing also goes beyond the ordinary because it won’t just show your business name, address, and contact details. Your business will get the chance to tell its story and get direct bookings! TripOutside features only the best gear rental shops and activity providers, so customers can be assured that when they book through the website, they will get the best experience. When you’re listed on TripOutside, it boosts your business’ trust factor as well. That already spells “two steps ahead of competitors!”

Increase Social Media Presence

People tend to trust pages with more likes, followers and reviews. Looking into top-rated hotels, travel agencies, and car rental companies will quickly show you how much they value their online presence with reviews, eye-catching promotions, and posts that give value.

In fact, a whopping 86% of people said they become interested in a destination after seeing family, friends, or peers social images. Make social media a big part of your marketing campaign ideas – it not only helps establish your product and provide exposure to your services, but it’s a great way to share your customer’s content and promote your business at the same time!

Use Booking Software

Booking through a phone call is old school, and it can really be time consuming (for both customers and shops!), turning many customers away and on to the next shop or activity provider that offers online booking.

Upgrade your business with the help of online booking solutions like Fareharbor, BRM, and Checkfront. These booking software options take handling bookings off your shoulders and help you fully focus on what matters most – your customers. Software makes it easier for you to accept online bookings, let 3rd parties resell your services, and eliminate the hassle of manual bookings.

At TripOutside, in 2023 and 2024, we saw 50% of the bookings come in after typical business hours. 

TripOutside Integrates Easily with Leading Software

Added bonus: TripOutside integrates seamlessly with most leading industry software options to send bookings directly into your system!

No software? No problem. TripOutside has created a booking request process personalized for every website, even if you haven’t added a booking software to your site yet.

The best part is, you can start out with our free beginner package, where you don’t pay a dime until you get a booking. Then you can decide from there if you want to spruce up your online booking game with our advanced content packages.

Focus on Customer Convenience

In business, the customer is not just always right – the customer is king. When planning marketing campaigns and strategies, customer convenience should be a priority.

Offer Peace of Mind to Customers

Customers love extra perks – including flexibility! The hotel and travel industry has made bookings more convenient through offering flexibility in their booking policies, which gives customers peace of mind and improves conversion rates.

Offering benefits like book now, pay later is becoming more and more popular in the travel industry. Bookings that don’t require a credit card have a higher conversion rate, because it’s easier for customers to book. Any steps you can take out of the booking process will help convert more customers.

Customers don’t just want easy transactions, they want flexible ones too. Offering free cancellations can be just the benefit to make them click “book”. Customers don’t want to cancel their dream outdoor adventure, but giving them the peace of mind that if situations arise, they can cancel for free will help improve your conversion rate. Many outdoor businesses offer a cancellation policy up to 48 hours before the booking date, so they can plan their inventory and availability appropriately.

Follow Up With Customers (with Promotions!)

Following up with customers after their activity or adventure is an important after-sales service for both the customer and your business. Following up with an email to gather feedback on their experience is the best way to identify and address any issues before they become negative reviews, reward employees that get compliments, and improve your business in ways you may not have thought of before.

Even better: offer a promotion to recent customers to come back for another activity or refer another customer – word of mouth is one of the best ways to increase your bookings!

Why recreate the wheel when you can use the travel industries’ learnings to really help you ramp up your sales and bookings? Don’t miss out on your next big business success – follow their lead and implement some of these easy online solutions and Marketing tools today!