Is the travel brochure dead? – Resort Marketing and the Move to Online

As an advertising and marketing agency specializing in destination and resort marketing, there was a time where the travel brochure and vacation planner were at the cornerstone of our business. The brochure format has been a staple of resort destinations, tourism marketing associations and adventure and activity operators since their inception. Even as early as two years ago,  the travel brochure was the number one marketing tactic in our clients’ arsenals. But all that is changing (or in some cases has already changed), and the brochure has become the latest casualty in the migration to online channels.

This spring, a UK survey conducted by Total Media and reported on by the Telegraph.co.uk, confirmed what we’ve been seeing for several months: holidaymakers are now booking trips based on online travel reviews rather than glossy publications.

According to the survey, e-pinion reviews written by strangers on independent websites such as TripAdvisor, search results on Google and word of mouth advice from family and colleagues are more influential than brochures, advertising, media reviews and advice from travel agents when it comes to booking holidays.

The survey of 1,375 consumers found a quarter of potential travelers now use online reviews by strangers to determine their travel plans, compared to 13 per cent who used travel programmes and 11 per cent who used magazines and newspaper supplements. The results also found that almost 50 per cent of travelers over 45 are using websites to recommend or warn fellow travelers by posting a review of their travel experiences online. The survey states:

“The impartial online opinion of travellers who have firsthand experience of a destination is second only now to what you hear from friends, family and work colleagues. Almost 70 per cent of consumers use the internet to book their holidays, compared to 23 per cent by phone and just 8 per cent chose travel agents.”

Interestingly, we received these survey results right about the time our long-term client, Tourism Whistler, traditionally briefs us on their annual vacation planner brochure. The briefing never did come. A decision driven by a long-term and resort-wide focus on sustainability, increased pressures on marketing budgets, and anecdotal findings that supported a move to on-line channels killed the brochure that had been printed annually since Tourism Whistler’s inception in 1989. There was a brief memorial ceremony conducted in our studio, attended by a handful of staff. It lasted about a minute before our growing contingent of digital evangelists said, “Cool, let’s spend the money integrating online contesting in Facebook and do some fun video to seed in online communities.” The mourning was over. There was, after all, very little to mourn. The creative restrictions, the static images, the homogenized tourism content, the dead trees…all of it seemed so “last year.”

As an interesting side note, the report found Expedia was the leading online destination for UK consumers planning longer trips over 5 nights (25 per cent), followed by TripAdvisor and Lastminute.com (22 per cent). Lastminute.com however was regarded as first choice for short trips. – Danielle Kristmanson