Everyone loves to travel – making tourism a multi-trillion dollar industry. But competition is tough – how do you win your fair share, profitably?

The differentiator is marketing.

Or rather the 14 Ps of travel marketing. Unravelled in this book by Ajay Jain.

The 14Ps: Positioning, Passion, Pitara, Products, Promise, Partnerships, People, Picture, Promotions, Public Relations, Price, Place, Proactive, Preserve

WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?

This book is for everyone within the travel industry to include tourism boards, government and regulatory authorities, tour operators, hotels, airlines, transporters and marketing agencies (including PR, advertising and social media). And it is a book for everyone within these organizations – not just the marketing teams. Because, as explained in this book, marketing is a role to be played by everyone working in the tourism sector.

BY THE AUTHOR - AJAY JAIN

GO DISRUPT

How do you stand out in the travel industry?

On the one hand, you are up against the big guys bombarding the market with deep pocketed advertising spends. And then you have a long tail of small and medium operators out to secure customers with their guerrilla tactics. It’s a flea market out there, with players shouting themselves hoarse peddling their wares. How do you make a mark in this scenario, profitably?

You disrupt the game.

Your firepower are your products – to dazzle your prospects. Build stuff they have not known before, something they do not want to miss out on.

And then invest in marketing.

The digital tools and platforms available to us in a hyperconnected world enable you to zero in on leads anywhere on the planet. You may not need big budgets to succeed – incremental spends on social media and search engines enable anyone to build their business steadily, one customer at a time.

And then ensure you own this customer. Forge strong relationships with them. Be their friend and advisor. Get into their hearts and minds. So you are their vendor of choice whenever they seek wanderlust.

You can outflank both the big guys and the small. With personalisation of product development and marketing strategies they would be hard pressed to match. You can drive trends in the market. Be the pacesetter – leaving the industry gasping as they try to catch up.

This book will show you how.

I am a traveller; a consumer of what the industry has to offer. I have a background in branding and entrepreneurship too. The book has thus resulted from a confluence of perspectives from both ends of the spectrum – the buyer end, and the seller end. And broken down into 14 Ps to make for easier understanding and implementation of my take on travel marketing.

The 14 Ps of Travel Marketing

If marketing seems like summiting the Mount Everest, then you will also know one thing as a travel professional: It is not impossible. If you break the challenge down into a series of steps and processes backed with the right training, tools and advice, you will get to savour the moment when you plant your flag on the peak.

This book cannot get you atop the Mount Everest, but it can demystify and simplify your path to the pinnacle of your business goals. If you follow the 14 Ps of Travel Marketing.

Occupy the mindscape of the customer with Positioning. But do realize you and your teams need high doses of Passion to do well in this industry. Avoid going into the field without your battle chest, the Pitara, fully loaded and ready. Build Products for your market, but do keep to the Promise made to them. Partnerships are your enablers and force multipliers, even as you need to train and motivate your People to give it their best in what is clearly a highly demanding job.

Travel marketing is mostly the Picture you paint – the stories and the imagery enable people to visualise and be inspired with what you have to offer. Of course, you need to back it with Promotions and Public Relations so the word reaches the intended audiences. Your Price strategy will have to be carefully thought through – if you want to make good profits, create a perceived value for your products to sell at a price you deserve. All this will come to naught if you are not at the Place where the customer can find you and buy from you – distribution becomes vital. In all this, have the patience to be Proactive with  qualified prospects and customers on an ongoing basis. But don’t lose sight of being a responsible business so you can Preserve this planet before even more stringent regulations kick in.

Isn’t the travel industry a wonderful space to work in? And now you have the 14 Ps of Travel Marketing to take you places.