Marketing to tourists: Tips for small hotel owners

What is marketing to tourists?

Marketing to tourists is the process of getting a hotel or travel business in front of a relevant target audience, with the aim of increasing brand awareness and securing more bookings.

Hotels can use a range of strategies – advertising, social media, search engine optimisation (SEO), email – to market to tourists, and can do so in-house or through a dedicated tourism marketing agency.

In this guide, we’ll explore the importance of marketing to both domestic and international tourists, and investigate how small, independent hotels can do so effectively.

Why small hotels should market to tourists

Small hotel owners can no longer rely on listings alone. The level of competition on OTAs is becoming so great that your hotel risks getting lost in the noise, particularly with bigger players simply paying to push their listings up the results page.

The solution for your independent hotel is to lean into your strengths, using strategic hotel marketing (ads, social posts, website content) to let potential guests know about the authentic, local and personalised experiences you offer, helping you to cut through the noise.

Ultimately, an effective tourism marketing strategy can drive incredible ROI for your hotel business, which you can then convert to long-term success through ongoing efforts like guest loyalty programs.

The growing importance of marketing to tourists

Travellers today are no longer simply looking for a bed for the night. Most crave meaningful, personalised hotel experiences – accommodation that is every bit as memorable as the area they’ve chosen to visit.

This is precisely what makes marketing such a valuable tool for a small, independent hotel. It offers you the opportunity to tell the world about the unique experiences you offer, and the allure of your area at large.

The internet has also democratised marketing. Advertising was once price-prohibitive for small hotels. Now it’s completely free to post on socials or create a Google Business Profile, and grant yourself access to the entire internet-connected world.

It’s a shift that opens up the potential for small hotels to more effectively compete with the biggest players. You just have to commit to the effort.

Tourism marketing: Strategies for small hotel owners

How might a small, independent hotel begin marketing to tourists in an effective and sustainable way? These quick tips are a great place to start.

1. Know your audience

Before you get marketing, you need to know exactly who you’re marketing to. You need to identify your target market, the type of guest you’re looking to attract, and who you can aim your marketing and advertising efforts towards.

You might use your CRM to identify general groups you currently attract, whether families, couples, 20-somethings, business travellers or high-income earners. Alternatively, you could be more targeted, identifying very specific examples of individuals (buyer personas) that you want to attract.

A more specific tourism target market example might be “Recent retirees, with high net worths, looking for memorable accommodation experiences”.

2. Highlight local attractions

Realistically you can only attract the guests who are looking for accommodation in your area in the first place. As such it’s wise to devote a portion of your marketing efforts to highlighting the charms of your local area.

Blogs and social media posts are effective ways to share the allure of your area with the world. By including some subtle advertising within this content, you can win the business of any visitors you create.

3. Market your hotel

Marketing is a big subject, which is why we created a complete marketing guide for small hotels that walks you through every step. But in simple terms, the main weapons in the marketing arsenal of an independent hotel are:

• Social media marketing: Share engaging content, build brand awareness and connect with travellers on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
• Search engine optimisation (SEO): Optimise your website to appear in relevant Google searches, like when someone types in “hotel [your location]”.
• Paid advertising (PPC): Use Google Ads, Facebook Ads or OTA ad tools to drive targeted traffic and bookings.
• Email marketing: Nurture leads and past guests with promotions, updates and personalised offers.
• Local SEO and Google Business Profile: Claim your place in Google’s business directory to come up as a result in Google Maps and “near me” searches.
• Content marketing: Create helpful blog posts or guides about your area to attract organic traffic.
• Networking: Work with complementary travel service businesses or your local travel board to gain more exposure.

4. Respond to reviews

81% of travellers frequently or always read reviews before booking a hotel, which makes online reputation management absolutely critical for your business. 

Encourage reviews from happy guests on sites like TripAdvisor, Facebook, Google and whichever OTA they booked through.

Showcase your customer service by responding to guest feedback. Prioritise negative reviews, responding to them in a measured and fair manner.

5. Manage your tourism marketing plan

Creating a marketing strategy is one thing. Implementing and managing it is quite another.

Technology is your friend here. An all-in-one tool like Little Hotelier can help to centralise and self-manage your marketing efforts, by giving you control over your website, OTA listings, metasearch management and more.

You should carefully track and analyse your marketing performance, optimising it over time. A/B tests can help you refine the content of everything from emails to PPC ads. Google Analytics can give you incredible website insight. Use these tools to identify and invest in your most effective marketing efforts.

Little Hotelier has given me more freedom because I have the app on my phone. I can pick up any of the bookings and manage it remotely. We can relax, take a step back, and let Little Hotelier run our business.

Elaine Milne,

Owner

Calder House

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Marketing to tourists examples

What does good marketing look like? Examples include:

• Caldwell House Bed and Breakfast (New York): This independent property introduced and advertised a unique “Pie on Your Pillow” service, where guests were offered homemade treats like pecan or cherry pie as part of their turndown experience.
• Lennox Hotel (Miami Beach): Lennox stood out from the crowd by installing a champagne vending machine stocked with Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée, a fun and ultra-luxurious amenity that appealed to high-end travelers and was highly shareable on social media, which exploded their marketing reach.
• The Observatory (Australia): This carbon-neutral 4.5-star hotel knew that earning more direct bookings would allow it to keep the 15%-25% commission fees that were otherwise taken by the OTAs, so it used a range of clever tech and marketing tactics to direct more guests to their website.

Speaking of tech, the right software can help you supercharge your marketing efforts, particularly when it’s designed specifically for small, independent hoteliers.

Case in point: Little Hotelier.