How video changed the travel industry and why your business is missing out.
What was the last trip you booked online? There’s a good chance before you hit the “book” button you did some research. “Where are the travel hidden gems? Best family resorts? Where are the best places to eat? Top golf courses? Best nightlife?” That vacation you’re planning isn’t just a few days away from work, it’s an experience that will leave you refreshed and inspired for months to come.
So, how do we find the best place? We spend our hours searching blogs, social media, and youtube, and watching tons of video content. This is the new travel era.
Research shows us that Millennials and Gen-Z favor a travel experience over consumer goods, and they aren’t afraid to pay for the experience if it gives them what they need – Inspiration.
So, how do you get in front of these buyers? How do you show the experience? Major tourism brands have turned to travel video content and they couldn’t be happier with the results. Why video? Let’s walk through a few ways video is changing the travel industry
#1: Video is Reaching Every Screen
Why is video so important? Regardless of industry, video content has taken the top seat due to its ability to reach every screen. Over the past 10 years screen time has increased by 50 mins per day each year. The average American spends about 7 hours per day with Gen-Z topping out at 9 hours per day. Because video is favored by most media outlets, we’re left with the average viewer watching 17 hours of online content per week.
Why so much video content? According to Hubspot, the top reason is to “help me relax or unwind”.
Viewers are looking for an escape, they’re looking for new experiences, and they are looking for inspiration. How can you give them this experience? Video.
source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-video-consumption-is-changing
#2: Video Gives The Full Experience
We see the value of video in social media, where a video gets 1200% more shares than text or image-based content. Why such a dynamic increase? We favor video content due to it’s ability to clearly explain what we’re interested in, tell a story, and capture strong emotion. Because video is capturing our auditory and visual senses it’s affecting our brain in a deeper way.
When it comes to tourism content, video allows the viewer to clearly see the benefits of their destination. They see the sights, sounds, and emotions of individuals experiencing what they desire. Because tourism brands are selling inspiration, they need to show the feeling and emotions of booking that dream trip.
Here are some of our favorite examples:
Royal Caribbean - Blogger Perspective
Statistics show us that these types of videos have a positive impact on conversion. According to a study performed by Google, 45% of travelers booked instantly after watching a video of travel activities. —- they we’re inspired. –
#3: Millennials and Gen-Z are Experience Buyers
Video is reaching every screen, it’s showing us the full experience, and the individuals spending money on the experience are the biggest generations of travelers we’ve seen yet - millennials and Gen-Z. Both of these groups are focused on the experience, and they are willing to sacrifice consumer goods for the feeling. In their latest travel trend report American Express Present of Travel, Audrey Hendley, stated the blow.
“Travelers are getting inspiration from a number of places. Whether it’s engaging with local communities, recreating favorite onscreen moments, or planning an entire trip around a specific restaurant, one thing that’s clear is that people continue to value and feel passionately about travel. As demand for travel continues, we know our customers on a deep level and can use our expertise to plan all types of trips.”
AUDREY HENDLEY - President of American Express Travel”
Some key statistics from the study include:
75% of respondents have been inspired by social media to travel to a specific destination
64% of respondents agree that they have been inspired to travel to a destination after seeing it featured on a TV show, news source, or movie
48% of respondents say they want to travel somewhere they can show off on social media
So, how do we get them to click “book now”? We show them the experience and give a mini dose of the inspiration they will receive from that next trip, dining experience, or attraction.
How could this affect your business?
So, what does this mean for your business? Regardless of whether or not your business is directly related to travel or not, without a video content marketing strategy your business is going to miss out. As we discussed above, video content is outranking image and text-based content on nearly every platform. Your viewers will have high engagement, higher retention, and high conversion with video, which makes most marketers agree this is a no-brainer for their businesses.
What types of videos should you be using? We will talk through these in more depth in future blogs, but for a start:
Experience / Overview (360 Videos) — these are great for showing the full experience.
Inspiration Video — show the emotion and what the viewer will feel when visiting their destination
Testimonial — Show what others have experienced on their similar trip / destination
“Things To Do” Video — Give the travel planner a list of “things to do” while planning their destination trip.
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