This is an exciting time for travel businesses.
We’re talking about:
- Cities
- States
- Parks
- Restaurants
- Sights
- And More
Did you know that more than one billion people have smartphones?
That is huge news for the travel industry.
Why?
When people are traveling they’re using their smartphone. It’s easier to carry around than a laptop. It’s a little bundle of information that helps people that are away from home looking for food, shelter and entertainment.
Your goal as a travel business is to provide that information to travelers and to do it in a way that makes it useful for them while they’re using their smartphones.
Here is one tactic that can increase engagement in your travel business while getting you more business.
Taking Travelers On Treasure Hunts
All this is on a smartphone now. It’s your job to provide the digital information.
You’re visiting Seattle for a business meeting.
You and the team get done with meetings in the late afternoon. The meeting went great. You won over the client. You’re hungry and looking to celebrate.
You grab your smartphone, navigate to your hotel’s website and find a list.
The list is structured like a treasure hunt that will take you out for drinks, an amazing dinner, two must-see sights in the city and to one of the hottest clubs.
That’s a treasure hunt and it can work for many different travel situations and for different travel businesses.
There can be treasure hunts for families.
Hotels can organize treasure hunts and so can restaurants, B&Bs, chamber of commerce organizations, parks and more!
You can make your treasure hunt as technical as you want or you can make it simple.
Technical would involve exact GPS locations and directions. People can use the location systems on their phones to get to the next spot on the treasure map.
Or you can simply list out the steps by telling people to leave the restaurant, walk three blocks to the right and ask for Jim at the auction house down the street.
Here is what a treasure hunt does for your travel business:
1. Increases Your Value
When you provide this service and information to your visitors you’re increasing your value. You can keep your prices the same and win more customers because you’re doing more than the competition or you could even increase your rates to fit the added value.
2. Gives Customers Something To Talk About
Word of mouth has been a marketing staple for a long time and it’s even more powerful today with social media and all that online chitchat going on. A treasure hunt is something people can talk about. They might talk about your hotel room or delicious food, but it better be really good to get people talking. A treasure hunt is different and it’s something people can tell family and friends for a long time.
3. Provides A Vessel For Key Partnerships
Partnerships are great for travel businesses. When a B&B has a partnership with a restaurant, the two can send each other business. They’re complementary businesses and together they can raise each other’s profiles and grow each other’s businesses.
So that’s why you should consider a treasure hunt for your travel business.
Here are some steps for making it reality.
Step 1: Put Together A List
The content comes first.
Before even thinking about design and programming you need to put together the list of activities that will make up your treasure hunt (or treasure hunts).
Take some time to think about your city, state or whatever. You know it better than anybody. Talk to your contacts and ask them about the must-see and must-do things in your area.
Put together the list and try it out yourself. See if it’s fun.
Step 2: Make The List Accessible On A Smartphone
The smartphone ties this all together.
Your guests are using their smartphone for everything while they’re traveling.
To make your list accessible to travelers you’ll need to use responsive design for your website or a mobile app. This will probably require a designer that knows how to do these things.
Conclusion
The smartphone is changing the world. With more than a billion people using smartphones today (and even more in the future), travel businesses have a huge opportunity to win more business.
Setup a treasure hunt for your travel business and start winning customers. It’s something fun that can increase your revenue and allow you to grow.
Images: Moyan Brenn, Sheila Scarborough and Thomas Leuthard
