Internet Marketing for Tourism

Successfully marketing tourism on the Internet can only be done by understanding how people use the Internet. Many people who plan travel using the Internet, use search engines to ask questions and plan their journeys. When tourism marketing on the Internet matches what people are looking for, tourism products get more visibility by people who are looking for what is being offered.

Many people mistakenly list their tourism experiences on the Internet without understanding what buyers are looking for online. Tourism products must be designed in a way that matches what people are looking for on the Internet.

There are tools available which can help those responsible for Internet Marketing of tourism understand what is being typed into search engines. This simple process can guide your successful tourism marketing on the Internet:

• consider your capacity: what resources do you have in your business and/or community
  
• decide who you want to sell to
• research what keyword searches these people are using: http://inventory.overture.com is a good start
  
• research the market online to see what travel options exist accross the Internet by conducting your own searches
  
• create packages that are designed as answers to search engine questions.
  
• decide what value-added resources you can offer to encourage Small Yes! newsletter subscriptions by searchers
  
• write tourism package Web pages using the same keywords that internet users are typing into search engines.
  
• purchase keyword ads where appropriate.
• Track inquiries and sales using Web stats, newsletter stats, and telephone tracking