“Stay Home Today, Travel Tomorrow,” certainly isn’t typical messaging from the tourism industry. But this certainly isn’t typical timing.
NB: This is an article from Screenpilot
The fact that the World Tourism Organization recently adopted this tagline says a lot. Familiar brands’ inclusion of the #TravelTomorrow hashtag encapsulates the current sentiment of travel aficionados: we must stay home today to preserve the potential to travel in the future.
As reported by Hospitality Net, the goal of the World Tourism Organization’s campaign is to call for the “…shared responsibility among travelers and the tourism sector around the world to deal with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.”
#TravelTomorrow is a reminder that we’re all in this together — hotels, restaurants, tourism boards, convention bureaus, and travelers alike.
Over the past few weeks, our Social Media Team has tracked similar hashtags like #DontCancelPostpone – which has also seen widespread adoption across the hospitality industry. This supports our research and findings, specifically that people are eager for travel content but are holding off on traveling because it’s the responsible thing to do.
In the same vein as #TravelTomorrow, the #GoLater hashtag is emerging as a specific message in the hotel/tourism industry with a 100% increase in mentions from March 1 to April 8 compared to the previous period.
So how can your hotel stay relevant and top-of-mind as people plan—but are hesitant to book—their next vacations?
Create A #GoLater Content Hub On Your Site
- La Cantera Resort & Spa created “La Cantera Connected,” a section dedicated to providing their past and future guests with a virtual resort experience. Users can peruse recipes from the resort’s restaurants, discover at-home wellness tips from Loma de Vida Spa, and even enter a cooking contest to win a gift card to Signature Restaurant, a four-time James Beard Award nominee. This hub also contains a gallery of “#GoLater Travel Inspiration” highlighting nearby San Antonio attractions for guests to add to the “must-see” list for their next stay.
- The goal is to stay connected to past and future guests by providing consumable and relatable content, all while keeping the property top-of-mind. This content hub will continue to expand and will be promoted via email, organic social media, and paid social media efforts.
Host a #GoLater or #TravelTomorrow-Themed Giveaway
- Short-term rental company Frontdesk is on-trend by hosting a #TravelMoreLater giveaway on Instagram. This contest has the dual functionality of a brand awareness campaign (you have to tag your friends to enter), while also inspiring travelers to start thinking about where they will go if they win the contest.
- If you work for a larger hotel management group, consider highlighting the different properties guests could choose from as their prize.
- Pro tip: The carousel post format is great at showcasing different hotels and amenities! If you run the contest post as an ad on Facebook, you can even see which carousel card people click on the most, and that intel can inform the content of your future posts.
- Individual hotels can put a spin on the contest by asking people to enter via comments with their favorite attractions in that city.
- Pro tip: Ask users to go a step further and tag the local businesses on social media that they look forward to visiting on their vacation. Tagging other businesses will show potential guests that your hotel is part of the larger community and might open up the potential for new partnerships with local businesses.
Incorporate #GoLater Messaging In Your Organic and Paid Social Posts
- If you’re still posting on social (here’s why you should be), you should acknowledge that your fans can’t visit right now, but urge them to consider your hotel for their next trip. The example below from JetSetter deftly communicates that concept with “@GuanaIsland embodies a unique kind of serenity in the Caribbean…it’s temporarily closed, but the perfect place to #GoLater.”
- Pro tip: A great KPI to measure the effectiveness of this “add to wishlist” type of messaging is Post Saves, a metric available for both organic and paid on Facebook and Instagram.
While we ride out this wave of uncertainty, it’s as important now more than ever to keep communicating with your audience.
By adding new content to your website or communicating on social media (preferably both!), hotels can show messaging relatability and authenticity, remaining top-of-mind with their audience so that when they’re ready to #TravelTomorrow, they know just where they want to go.
