Seen. Everywhere.

Social for travel brands, two audiences in one feed

Travel is the most visual category there is, which is why social is where most trips start being imagined. The complication in this market is that a UAE travel brand is talking to two completely different people from one account: a visitor somewhere else deciding between countries, and a resident here deciding where to escape to.

Clutch reviews Clutch reviews Google reviews Google reviews Trustpilot reviews Trustpilot reviews

Get Your Free Travel Social Media Audit

See which of your two audiences the feed is actually serving, how your assets compare with the brands you are being measured against and where the paid budget is going. Send us a few details and our team will put together a free, no obligation audit.

    Award-winning, independently judged See all our awards
    European Search Awards UK Digital Excellence Awards UK Paid Media Awards European Agency Awards UK Agency Awards UK Digital Excellence Awards UK Search Awards European Search Awards UK Digital Excellence Awards European Agency Awards UK Digital Excellence Awards European Agency Awards European Search Awards UK Digital Excellence Awards UK Paid Media Awards European Agency Awards UK Agency Awards UK Digital Excellence Awards UK Search Awards European Search Awards UK Digital Excellence Awards European Agency Awards UK Digital Excellence Awards European Agency Awards
    Why a specialist

    Travel social media is not generalist social media

    Social for a travel brand is demand creation rather than broadcast. Nobody is in the market for a holiday until something makes them want one, and in this category the something is almost always an image or a short piece of video. So the craft sits in the asset library and in how specific the storytelling is, rather than in a posting schedule. It is one of the disciplines on our social media offer, run for the brands in our travel work.

    What makes it a UAE problem is the split audience. One half of the feed is talking to somebody in a source market who has never been here, does not know the geography and is comparing this country against several others, in their time zone and often in their language. The other half is talking to a resident who knows exactly where everything is and wants to know where to go in August. The same library of assets has to serve both, and it is usually also the library doing the work inside the booking platform listings, which means a thin set limits every channel at once.

    2008In regulated search since
    175+Industry awards
    97%Client retention
    28 moAverage client tenure
    Adm insights
    How the work runs

    Decide who you are talking to, then buy the reach

    The order is deliberate. First the audience split, because a feed trying to serve a first time visitor and a resident at the same time mostly serves neither, and separating them is usually the single biggest improvement available. Then the asset audit, since in travel the library is the limiting factor and it is worth knowing what is missing before another month of posting around the gap. Then the calendar, planned against the season rather than the month, with Ramadan and Eid moved to this year’s dates.

    Only then paid, which is where a shoulder season or a soft month gets its reach, measured on enquiries and direct bookings rather than on followers. Talk to our team about what your feed is currently asking a traveller to do.

    Adm insights
    Questions

    Travel social media, answered

    What does travel social media cover?

    The organic presence that makes somebody want a trip they were not planning, and the paid social that puts it in front of enough of the right people, both built on genuine imagery and video rather than on stock.

    It also covers the parts most travel brands leave loose, which are the asset library, the comment and review replies and the seasonal calendar.

    Can one account really serve both inbound and outbound?

    It can, but only if the split is deliberate, because a visitor in a source market who has never been here and a resident looking for somewhere to go in August want almost opposite things from the same brand.

    Some brands are better off with separate accounts entirely. We would rather tell you that than run a feed that quietly serves one audience and bores the other.

    How much does the photography and video really matter?

    More than anything else in this category, because a traveller is comparing places on how they look long before they compare them on anything else, and the same assets are doing the work on your site and inside your platform listings too.

    A thin library caps every channel at once. It is the investment we most often recommend before anything is spent on reach.

    Which platforms matter for a travel brand here?

    The visual ones do the discovery work, because a trip is sold on how a place looks and feels, and the paid formats on those same platforms are also the quickest way to fill a soft month or a shoulder season.

    Which two depends on your source markets rather than on a general ranking. We would rather run two properly than six badly.

    Do we need content in other languages?

    English carries most commercial travel search in this market, so it is the right starting point, but social is where a source market language earns its place fastest if a meaningful share of your inbound visitors arrive from one.

    Our own delivery today is in English. Where another language is central we will say so at the outset rather than treat it as a translation job.

    How do Ramadan and Eid change the social calendar?

    They change the tone, the timing and the offer, and because the dates move each year against the ordinary calendar, a plan copied from last year will land its content in the wrong weeks.

    Eid is a short, intense travel window. The creative has to be ready before it opens, not assembled while it is happening.

    Should we start with paid or organic?

    Both, weighted to what the season needs, because paid social is the lever that fills a soft month while organic is what makes somebody choose you over the operator posting the same destination.

    Social pairs directly with our SEO for Travel work, since social creates the want and search catches it.

    Get started

    Talk to a travel social media specialist

    Tell us what you sell, who you are trying to reach and what your asset library looks like. We will come back with which audience your feed is actually serving, where the gaps are and what the first ninety days would cover. Our Dubai office is at Meydan Grandstand in Nad Al Sheba, on +971 4 251 8056.