Staying abreast of marketing trends is crucial for any business. Travel and hospitality, especially resorts and timeshares, are experiencing a range of trends that can enhance their ability to attract visitors.
This year, in particular, promises to introduce exciting trends that can significantly enhance your marketing efforts. By adopting these trends, you can ensure your business remains competitive and achieves the desired results.
AI
Even though Google updates saw sites with mostly AI-generated content take a hit, updates prioritizing a people-first approach, AI is still useful for marketers. All this means those relying heavily on AI content without making sufficient edits, fact-checking, or adding in human-written sections fared worse than others who used AI as part of their content creation, not the entire creation. However, it’s important to note that AI tools are not a ‘flash in the pan’ despite not having had the same impact in hospitality as other sectors. They can be harnessed effectively within marketing campaigns to boost results, save time, and increase output without compromising rankings or success. This presents an exciting opportunity for resorts to leverage AI in their marketing strategies, sparking innovation and potential growth.
User Generated Marketing
Trends are indicating that consumers trust genuine customer reviews and feedback over carefully crafted content by brands to highlight only the things they want to be highlighted. You will likely see an influx of this with big brands already, and this trend is set to impact travel and resort marketing, too, and will likely continue this year and likely the next. What’s reassuring about user-generated content is that it allows resorts to share real-life content over polished outputs of real people using their products. This shows real-life rooms, dining experiences, facilities, locations, and more from people staying there. To encourage user-generated content, resorts can run social media contests, offer incentives for sharing experiences, and actively engage with guests to share their experiences.
Short Form Content Is King
With the runaway success of TikTok and Instagram reels, marketers are now focusing on short-form content to capture people’s attention when scrolling online. They are making quick, informative content that is eye-catching and engaging. For resorts, this could mean creating short videos showcasing the best features of the property, sharing quick tips for a great vacation, or posting brief interviews with satisfied guests. Wistia’s State of Video report found that videos under 60 seconds have an average engagement rate of 50% compared to those longer than 60 minutes, which was just 16%. The effectiveness of short-form video content is undeniable. It’s easier to consume, and the site does not require people to focus for long periods. In a world where people can get what they want at the tap of a screen, you need to provide the content people wish to fast, motivating you to adapt to this trend to show off your resort in bite-sized pieces that leave people wanting more and encourage them to book to discover what you have to offer.
Niche Specific Marketing
Niche-specific marketing is when you target a specific market sector to market out. This can be invaluable for many industries, but for resorts, it can help you tap into previously undiscovered sectors. For resorts, what this means is you need to pin down who you want to attract to your business and show them why they need to choose you. It could be you are selling timeshares to retirees, you want to target the luxury wedding market, or you are a fully all-inclusive family-orientated resort and you want to target parents who need a fun-filled vacation.
Working with a niche-specific marketing agency such as timeshare and resort marketing can enlighten you as to the best options for marketing to your intended audience, how to track the guest experience form before they arrive at your resort, and how to tell an enticing story that captures people’s imaginations and allows you to secure those all-important bookings. The benefits of niche-specific marketing for resorts include increased brand loyalty, higher conversion rates, and a more targeted approach to marketing, leading to a better return on investment.