COVID-19 Impact: Travel & Tourism

COVID-19 Impact: Travel & Tourism COVID-19’s Impact on the Travel and Tourism Industry and How Marketers Can Continue to Engage with Travelers In a recent report from Oxford Economics, analysts anticipate a $355 billion deficit for the travel and tourism industry as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19). The current climate is showing a similar trend, as more than half of U.S. adults have canceled travel plans for the next few months in response to the COVID-19. These estimates are forcing brands in the travel and tourism industry to completely shift priorities around their marketing roadmaps.

While bookings at hotels and airlines are down, interest in post-COVID-19 travel still exists. During the 20082009 recession, many public travel companies were trading at all-time lows. Coming out of that period, some of those same companies saw rebounds of 500% within six months, according to Yahoo Finance. While the current situation is primarily a health crisis (versus purely an economic crisis), consumer behaviors are likely to follow similar patterns seen in the past. So, there is reason to believe that following a big decrease there will be a significant rebound for these industries.

Bolstering this belief, GlobalWebIndex recently published a survey detailing what it would take to persuade people to book travel during the pandemic. One out of five U.S. respondents said they would consider booking travel in this environment if their travel insurance policy covered any disruption from COVID-19.

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Where to focus today for the greatest impact later?

It’s still unknown exactly when airline, hotel and hospitality industries should start to re-engage customers to drive bookings and revenue. In anticipation, brands wishing to capitalize on share of voice in the future should focus their efforts on preparing now by thinking about how eventually they can most efficiently reach customers.

At Goodway, we believe there are three key areas where travel and tourism marketers should be focused at this time: Data Hygiene: Right now is the ideal time to be focused on your first-party data – both its hygiene and your strategy for putting it to use. Modeling audiences and gaining insight into your highest lifetime value customers will give you a strong POV on who you need to reach first when travel resumes.

Human Connection: People remember how brands make them feel, and this in turn powers brand loyalty and overarching customer lifetime value. Take this time to understand the emotional connection you have with your customers and build a go-to-market strategy that redefines your marketing communication and advertising efforts in the wake of COVID-19.

Re-Engagement Strategy: According to eMarketer, nearly half of travelers with canceled trips, plan to rebook domestically at some point in the future. As important as it is to find net-new customers, start collecting data on those individuals who have canceled or postponed their trips so you can implement a thoughtful re-engagement strategy immediately out of the gate when COVID-19 ends.

Goodway Group is the digital partner advertisers trust to drive campaign performance and media efficiency. Proud to be completely independently owned and operated, Goodway provides trustworthy expertise that meets its clients’ needs — and no one else’s. Using predictive intelligence, Goodway helps advertisers get the most value out of every impression across all paid digital media. Through the combination of employing the smartest technology and the most experienced people in the industry, Goodway delivers authentic results. © 2020 Goodway Group. All rights reserved.

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