360DigitalInfluence

A 6 a.m. flight to NYC, the redeye home from a Vegas trade show or even an overnight, international flight to meet new clients. PR professionals, travel-focused or not, have their fair share of trials and tribulations with delays, hotels and rush hour traffic. If you’re one of the lucky few, you will have learned about how to best parlay travel experience into opportunities for existing clients and ideas for potential new ones. It’s our chance to be the audience we target on a daily basis - the traveler, the consumer.

In four years in PR and airports, I’ve traveled to Las Vegas, Arkansas, Ouro Puerto, Miami and North Carolina to name a few. My travels provide insight into what a destination, hotel and airline should highlight.

One thing I focus on now more than ever is niche travel programming. Last week I had the opportunity to travel with tour operators, meeting hotel managers and destination promoters.  In taking some key insights and tricks of the trade from them and from my ongoing conversations with media, I’ve learned tailoring programs to meet a specific audience’s need is how to best create actionable messaging, creating results for clients.

More often than not, tour operators are planning trips that talior to specific requests according to The Travel Zone.   So we, the people who share messages, should be offering more specific adventures - ecotourism, gastronomic, nightlife of otherwise (Check out this site for a variety of niche travel ideas: Niche Travel: The Full Report).  These are the stories that inspire once-in-lifetime trips near or far, unique memories and ultimately, the effective word of mouth that increases similar visits.

So here’s to the places we go - delays and all - here, there and everywhere!