Travel websites are like a backbone in today’s travel and tourism industry. Customers across the globe surf the web to search for their next travel destination, how to reach, where to eat, and with whom to book their tour! All these questions are searched and planned through travel websites these days! Not in my nearest memory, I have seen someone booking a tour by actually visiting a travel agency office. Travel Websites are a savior as they offer better price comparisons, detailed information about the tour, hotels, flights, and more. Such a universe of information makes a tourist’s experience immersive and experiential. Modern day travel websites are full of information related to destinations, experiences, tour packages, upcoming festivals, events and more. The better the presentation on the website, the more the tourist trusts the travel company and hence, is likely to book with them.
If you are a travel agency without a website or with an outdated website, this article is for you. Here we have discussed why a travel website is of utmost importance for a travel and tourism business. Additionally, we will discuss how you should plan your travel website that serves your target audience, drives conversions and increases your business revenues.
Steps to planning a travel agency for your travel business
Define your purpose
Travel and tourism websites offer different solutions to diverse needs. For instance, there are travel information websites that share information related to top destinations to visit, top hotels to book, best cuisine to try and more. Secondly, there are tour package websites where a user can navigate through tour itineraries and send their queries requesting for quotes. Third, there are websites where a user can go through tour packages, read itineraries and book their tour by making payments.
Last, but not the least, there are travel aggregator websites where different travel agencies list their tour packages and users can compare and choose suitable tour packages as per their needs.
Hence, it’s imperative to identify the purpose of your website. What kind of a website would suit your business needs? For most of the travel agencies, websites with tour packages listed are of maximum benefit. Users can easily go through tour package offerings, read itineraries, inclusions & exclusions, and more.
Choosing a Catchy domain and trusted Hosting Service
Domain refers to the name by which your website will be called. We have (nuevadigital.co.in) as the domain of our Digital Marketing agency. In the same vein, you need to select a suitable Domain related to your travel business. Keep it short, crisp and easy to remember. Second, get a good hosting service that keeps your website loading fast.
Think about good travel websites like Booking.com, MakemyTrip.com, Treasure Trip India, India Travel Plans, Travel with Vasco, redbus.com These brands have appealing domain names and people can easily remember them with their names even when they are not surfing the web.
Choose your website technology
It is important to choose the right technology when planning your travel website. The better technology you choose, the better it will be for your end user. Along with your users, the website should be easily usable and customizable from your end as well. Some of the worthy website technologies are WordPress, PHP, and React. These offer highly customizable features that will enable you to do more things on the website and will also provide ease to the users.
Plan your website pages and structure
A travel website should have a clean design with all the information easily accessible to the user. Based on years of experience working with travel agents, here are some of the must have content and pages on your website –
- Contact details and contact page – Keep your contact details on the header bar and footer on all pages. It is very important as a user can easily reach out to you during a query. Also keep a dedicated Contact Page with message box, all contact details including your Address, Email Id and Phone Numbers.
- Affiliations and Certificates – Tourists prefer to book with businesses that look trusted and have some credibility. Hence, display your Government or Ministry of Tourism certificates, Nidhi Affiliation or whichever is relevant. Also include certificates of Aggregators such as TripAdvisor, TourRadar, and GetYourGuide.
- About your ‘Company’ page – Have an ‘About’ Page on your website and include all possible details about your business. Have a Founder’s profile, Industry experience details, and tour guide profiles. Make this page thoughtfully so the user feels ease to book with you.
- Tour Category Page – Create a sitemap and list all your tours category wise. You can group your tour according to categories based on –
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- Type – Group Tour, Private Tour, Women Only Tour
- Destination – Golden Triangle Tour, Jaipur Tour, Rajasthan Tour, etc
- Orientation – Same Day Tour, Weekend Tour
See example: Golden Triangle Tours by Travel with Vasco
- Itinerary Pages – Itinerary pages are pages that have standard tour itineraries. These pages are created to give an idea to the customer about the tour. Include the following details in your tour itinerary pages –
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- Introduction about the tour
- Tour highlights
- Complete itinerary in detail
- Inclusion & Exclusions
- Query Form
- Call to Action
- Contact Details
- FAQs
- Destination Pages
Do include Destination pages on your website and have complete destination information for your prospect. The more detailed information you provide, the better it will be for the prospect to plan and make their travel booking. You can include the following details on your Destination pages –
- About the Destination
- History and Heritage
- Timeline of Events
- Places to see
- Underrated places to see
- How to reach there
- Must have experiences in that area
- Related tour packages
Make sure to have sufficient call to action on this page. A prospect while reading about the destination can have a query that you can address when you have the right call to action on the page.
- Unique Experiences
A tourist of today wants to have experiences of a lifetime. Just monuments and tourist places don’t do all the justice! You need to offer unique experiences for your guests that will make them feel alive and wonderful. It can be basic old city walks, live art exhibitions, nature walks, or wildlife excursions. Adding such adventures will elevate their experience with you.
List them as separate web page on your site and provide all the details. Also add if such services can be add on services that are payable separately from standard tour package.
- Blog Page
Every tour booking begins with a search. Search about the best destinations, places to visit, food to try and more. Have a solid Blog page on your website and write travel stories, travel guides, destination guides and more.
Sample Blog Page: Travel with Vasco Blog
- Create your own Tour (CYOT)
Have a ‘Create your own tour’ for your online users. This page can include all the details which a user can opt in or opt out. This page can be very descriptive where you provide all the details for the customers to choose.
Check Create your Own Tour Page by Treasure Trip India
- Terms, Conditions, and Policies
During travel, factors such as Booking amount, Cancellation Fee, Payment Schedule, and other conditions are important and should be well mentioned on the Terms and Conditions page of the website. Further, any other company policies shall be mentioned on the website. Also, add contact details or call to action on the Terms and Conditions page so the user can easily reach out to you.
Summary
Having a travel website comes with enormous benefits for both, the business and the customers. It provides ease of information, travel planning tips, tour packages, and contact details through which a customer can make a booking with you. The details mentioned above are based on our experience working with more than 50 travel agents.
