TravTalk India Online Magazine
In B2B distribution business, one cannot ignore digital platforms for promotion in the present day world. You are not considered serious about business if you are not visible on social media platforms.
Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head – Marketing, Service Quality, Value Added Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook (India) and SOTC Travel
We are facing an unprecedented demand surge and the resultant improvement in marketing efficiency due to reduced cost of acquisition– currently at almost 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Our current ad spends have already increased by about 40-50 per cent over last year, and we aim to further increase them by 100 pe cent versus 2022; bringing it close to our ad spends of 2019. We have been focusing on digital post-pandemic with 40 per cent of our marketing spends being on social media, primarily on YouTube, followed by Facebook and Instagram, with brand level messaging like best price guarantee, no cost EMI holidays, and forex in under 2 hours to create top-of-mind recall. Thomas Cook’s campaign on the significant shift towards customised holidays was promoted across all digital and social platforms across regions. Additionally, a 24×7 on-tour assistance has been extended to all customers.
Neliswa Nkani, Hub Head – MEISEA, South African Tourism
In a country as diverse as India, a well-rounded marketing strategy becomes essential to engage with potential travellers. A holistic approach enables any tourism board to increase brand awareness, target a specific set of audiences, differentiate its offerings, and establish a meaningful relationship with their travellers. At South African Tourism, our marketing spends have been proportionate with respect to the growth and development of the market. Further, to actively engage with millennials and Gen Z consumers, we have recognised the importance of integrating social media into our digital strategies. This not only helps us in leveraging available platforms effectively, but also presents us with an opportunity to increase inbound tourism.
Bernadette Willemin, Director General, Destination, Marketing, Tourism Seychelles
Our strategy is more hybrid; we don’t only rely on in-person touchpoints or online platforms. We also maintain contact with our trade partners. Given the importance of digital marketing in our promotional dynamics, we have strengthened our approach to digital marketing. A significant portion of our strategy is to employ more new measurable outlets, such as our websites and social media. In India, majority of our audience increasingly spends time on digital platforms, particularly social media, which is why our digital team is working to deliver the information that today’s global consumers want. This big move to digital marketing was crucial for reaching our target audience and providing new information and updates on what the destination has to offer.
Guldeep Singh Sahni, MD, Weldon Tours & Travels and Founding President, OTOAI
At one time, our company Weldon Tours & Travels used to have a lot of advertisements in daily newspapers. I remember we reached to even four advertisements per day sometimes. However, as the times are changing, we are doing more social media campaigns on various platforms these days. While digital promotions cost much less, we must find the right campaign partners for spreading the word on what we need to offer. Choosing the right channel is difficult as they all claim to have the best data, and making a decision is not an easy task in this regard. Hence, at the end of the day, you have to take a risk. I believe that social media campaigns are part and parcel of modern ways of reaching to new clients and boost business.
Manoj Saraf, Managing Director, Gainwell Travel & Leisure
Our company, Gainwell Travel & Leisure, has been a consistent spender on marketing and promotions for the last 30 years. We have a set budget for the same. After all these years, we are seeing that the pattern of marketing strategies has changed significantly. We have observed that it has gradually moved to digital mediums and currently about 50 per cent of our budget has moved to social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter. I believe that the return on investment on social media platforms is faster and is more effective these days. The traditional methods that used to be there earlier, are largely aimed at branding, which small and medium companies are not looking for.
Noshir A Marfatia, Senior VP – Sales & Marketing, The Fern Hotels & Resorts
We have wholeheartedly embraced social media as a crucial part of our marketing strategy. In recent years, we have allocated a significant portion of our marketing budget to digital platforms, including social media. This has enabled us to effectively reach a wide audience, engage with potential customers, and promote our brand. It has allowed us to connect with a diverse range of customers, from tech-savvy millennial to seasoned travellers seeking personalized experiences. Through social media platforms, we showcase our unique offerings, share compelling content, and engage in direct conversations with our audience. Overall, marketing spend has embraced digital platforms, data analytics, and a focus on sustainability.
Ajith Nair, Resident Manager, Radisson Blu Resort Goa Cavelossim Beach
The trend has shifted more towards digital platforms than the traditional marketing means, as the same is more commercially viable and also has got boundless reach. It allows focussed activities such as targeting the right audience, be it age or region specific. ROI could also be better measured. Our marketing spend ratio has been allocated with 60:40 for 2023-24 viz-a-vis 40:60 in 2021-2022. We are very active on social media platforms with daily interactive engagements. Customer inquiries for our hotel through social media platforms have gone up by 24 per cent, mainly from leisure and the weddings segments. Apart from the hotel stay promotions, we also do extensive coverage of our F&B outlets and offerings and the traction is encouraging from both incoming guests and resident guests.
Dipti Pradhan Thakoor, Director, ETAA – Event Head
Marketing is the most important pillar of a business. You may have a good product but if you don’t package and promote it well, how will people know about it. In the past, advertising was the main tool to inform customers about products. Now, customers can get detailed product information from a variety of sources. Marketing has changed overtime mainly because of access to larger audience and markets due to the digital revolution. Marketing is no more about just selling a product; it is about connecting with the audience, educating them and sharing knowledge, this way you engage your customer. Social media marketing is no more an option, it is a need of the hour to reach your customers and grow your brand. Digital platforms can connect you with the right audience.
Burjis Mehta, CEO, Skyworld Tours & Travels
Day by day, social media is becoming increasingly important involving blogs, microblogs, social networking platforms, reviews, and interactive sites. In recent years, social media has emerged as a new commercial communication tool. It provides better targeting and plays an essential part in marketing operations. Social networking helps you link and improve your brand awareness and maximise the productivity and profitability of business. Billions of people access social media platforms monthly, and users and loyalty continue to grow. Facebook, Insta, and Twitter have all influenced travel and tourism in a big way. However, traditional marketing such as billboards, posters, print media, TV, direct mailers, tele-marketing, are still impactful and useful, and will continue to be so.
Siriges-A-Nong Trirattansongpol, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand New Delhi Office
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is allocating increased resources towards collaboration with partners and social media initiatives as part of our marketing strategy. While the specific amount spent remains undisclosed in accordance with our policy, we are actively engaging with numerous partners under the theme “Amazing Thailand, Part of Your Life”. Our marketing efforts primarily revolve around the 5Fs: Food, Flight, Fashion, Festival, and Film. With these aspects, we aim to showcase the diverse offerings of Thailand to a global audience. Collaborating with various agents, TAT leverages our partners’ social media platforms and channels to promote tourism experiences. By working closely with partners and leveraging social media, we seek to amplify reach of our marketing campaigns.
Zach Fyne, Global Markets Specialist, Utah Office of Tourism
The Utah Office of Tourism are relative newcomers to the India market, as the approval and allocation of budget for marketing funds came about less than two years ago. For the Millennial and Gen Z audience, we have hosted content creators to produce highly visual as well as engaging video and testimonials of their experiences road tripping the southwest region of Utah to showcase the transformative wealth of experiences and opportunities a road trip in winter can be from an Indian perspective. India has generated the highest engagement rates than all of our other top international markets combined, so social media has been an important tool in increasing the awareness of our destination with this market. Social media takes up 40 per cent of our total budget for the Indian market each year.
Akmal Aziz, Acting Director, Tourism Malaysia, New Delhi
We are now focusing on ROI-based campaigns with Travel Agents, Online Travel Agencies, and Airlines in order to spend our marketing budget wisely, target the correct audience, and increase arrivals to Malaysia. We opened our border on 1 April 2022, and constantly organizing roadshows in metro cities, as well as Tier II and Tier III cities to re-establish our connection with the travel fraternity and encourage them to actively promote Malaysia in their respective areas. Travel content is one of the most popular on social media. Every tourism board is doing its utmost to emphasise the highlights of its destinations. To engage millennial and Gen Z travellers from India, we are also distributing our material in the form of articles, vlogs, reels, and stories about popular and unexplored Malaysian places.
Samar Chokshi, Country Manager – Destination, New South Wales
Due to recent elections and a change in government, we don’t have limited visibility of the exact marketing budgets currently. However, we can assure you that we will have substantial budgets allocated to promote Sydney and New South Wales as the leading destination in Australia. While the specifics remain uncertain, we are confident in our ability to maintain our marketing efforts effectively. Social media will play a crucial role in our promotional plans, encompassing various platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and collaborative campaigns with our partners. Integrating social media into our strategies has become a default practice. We are committed to utilizing ample resources to reinforce Sydney and NSW’s position as the premier destination.
Reena Sachdev, Founder, Travel Arena
Our marketing strategy has completely changed, especially since September 2021 when we incorporated social media, client engagement events and many more offline marketing activities for our patrons, which have resulted in much greater bonds and deeper connections with people. We had 800 followers on Instagram in 2020 and as on today our following has increased to 21.6K organic followers. Our spends are heavy on social media, as it is one of the best platforms to connect with the subconscious mind and create awareness. From collabs with celebrity chef Ranveer Brar showcasing Finland through a culinary journey in summers to co-ops with multiple tourism boards and hotel partners, the marketing spends are surely soaring.
Sandeep Arora, Director, Brightsun Travel
As digital technologies gained prominence, we recognised the need to shift our focus towards digital marketing. Today, we have increased our investment in digital marketing channels, including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and email marketing. By leveraging social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, we are able to share engaging travel content, promote our latest offers and promotions, and interact with our customers directly. Social media allows us to showcase stunning travel destinations, provide travel tips and inspiration, and engage in real-time conversations with our audience. Our total marketing spend dedicated to social media varies depending on various factors.
Valmiki Harikishan, Founder & Managing Partner, Valmiki Travel & Tourism Solutions
Marketing and communications in travel and tourism industry has changed drastically after the influence of social media. Particularly to promote travel, tourism and hospitality, we too started using online tools to make noise about our offers and packages. Even though we are not Online Travel Agency (OTA), by running offline agencies too, penetration can happen through online tools. Our marketing budget has surpassed 60 per cent towards online marketing right from WhatsApp offers to social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google and YouTube. As the users are spending more time online, digital marketing picked up very quickly and lead generation progress is satisfactory for companies like us.
Chirag Gupta, Founder & CEO, Deyor
I can confidently say that our marketing spend has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, with a strong emphasis on performance marketing and digital media strategy. We have strategically allocated resources to channels that allow us to track and measure the performance of our campaigns. This approach enables us to optimize our spending based on KPIs such as return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per acquisition (CPA), and conversion rates. We have invested heavily in platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and programmatic advertising. These channels offer precise targeting capabilities, allowing us to reach specific demographics and interests relevant to our offerings. We have incorporated social media into our marketing.
