April 20, 2022
All year long there are opportunities to engage with travelers. From spring break to winter festivities, people are always looking for excuses to get out and see the world. Creating a promotional calendar to sync up with celebrations and holidays is a great way to stay ahead and speak to your ideal guest in a relevant way.
Kids are out of school, the sun is out longer… of course this is a great time to target families. But summer vacation is a popular time for sun-seeking professionals as well. In America, uly and Labor Day (to close out the summer before kids go back to school) tend to be popular weeks for travel.
Family reunions are another popular group travel opportunity during late spring into early autumn, spanning the entire summer season. If you can accommodate big groups, this would be an ideal audience to cater to, even year-round depending on the nature of your experience.
Other great opportunities in the summer include bachelor and bachelorette parties if that’s a crowd you’re looking to go after. Not all wedding parties are looking for rowdy, loud fun, so consider how you might position your tour & activity to the culture or adventure seeking bride/groom.
Pay attention to different cultural and occupational vacations that typically occur in the summer. For example, people in parts of Europe often get several weeks to a month off from work during the late summer, and in Quebec there is a construction holiday that begins on the second-last Sunday of July and lasts for two weeks.
Of course, spring break around the world is always a popular time for families, college students, and honeymooners. Keep in mind that there are a lot of people who get married in the spring that are looking to celebrate an anniversary in a special way.
We also see a lot of baby/bridal showers during this time as well. What if instead of sitting around at a restaurant, you could create a specialized tour or activity for showers?
Depending on your tour offering and location, spring is often a wonderful time to get on travelers’ radars. But be careful how you are positioning your experience, if you want to avoid the loud and rowdy party crowds.
As kids go back to school, you’ll see less family travel, but there are always many reasons for fall escapes. Leaf peeping as become a big excuse for people to travel more, to witness the seasonal shifts around the world.
For Caribbean boat tour operators, the slowest season is late summer and fall because of hurricanes. This means cruise ships have a low-cost season that you may want to either leverage of avoid, depending on your target market.
Families in the states will be gathering for Thanksgiving, which is always a big travel holiday. What if you could send out some marketing material about meeting together for your experience the day before or day after the holiday to keep the festivities going?
People usually have a one-track mind during winter: Christmas and New Years. The Christmas music goes on in October and the celebrations don’t end until January. As the temperature drops, warm weather escapes become top of mind for many in the Northern hemisphere. This is a great time for island tour operators to get in front of travelers if you can get their attention away from their holiday shopping list.
After the holiday haze burns off, it can be a bit chaotic with the mad rush to plan an escape. For this reason, we would suggest finding ways to encourage early planning so that you can get people reserved early in the season. If you can get ahead in this season, this will help you free up some time when things get really hectic.
If you’re new to operating a tour and activity, take time to learn your destination’s seasonal and holiday flow. When is your destination’s shoulder season? If you can, reach out to your DMO or tourism agency to see if they have numbers that can help you create an engaging year-long marketing plan.
And as always, Junglebee is here to help you all year long. We suggest Creating seasonal packages in your booking software to entice guests into booking when things are slow. And don’t forget to build in some holiday time for yourself so you don’t burn out!
