As per figures provided by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the industry generates a tenth of the overall global revenues. Also international traveler numbers are set to rise to nearly a billion and a half people by the end of this decade. Such staggering numbers also bode well for far-reaching changes that have already occurred within the industry. Brands are finding various innovative ways to connect with customers. Social media has proven to be an effective means of digital marketing with Instagram leading in customer engagement. There is an excess of data now available, but marketers of tourism products must know how to use them properly. The client experience must be observed as topmost priority as they are empowered enough to share their experiences or adventures with the wider world.

Source:https://www.holmesreport.com/sponsored/article/travel-and-tourism-how-digital-participation-is-changing-customer-engagement

There are several factors which are holding back the rapid growth of the tourism industry in Africa. Tourism consulting provided at the African Travel and Tourism Conference at Lagos in Nigeria has identified some such serious flaws. One of them is that the tourism infrastructure is underdeveloped as opposed to global leader such as Switzerland, Austria and Germany or the next lot comprising of USA, UK, Spain, France, Sweden, Singapore and Canada. Air travel between the major African cities is also inadequate. In spite of the abundance of tourism products, there is no comprehensive marketing strategy to promote them. One such major untapped market is Uganda while one such complete segment is religious tourism. In spite of the best efforts of the African Union in developing a common visa, travel restrictions still abound for foreigners across the continent. Most African countries receive minimal support from government treasuries to develop tourism infrastructure. Finally the brand image of Africa has unfortunately been one of poverty, hunger, war, strife, epidemic diseases and other such negative perceptions.

Source:http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/viewpoint/the-challenges-facing-the-growth-of-tourism-in-africa/176502.html

Some travel startups have been shortlisted which are exceeding expectations in photography and videography support. One of them is Flipagram which lets travelers develop stories using their photos or videos while traveling for sharing on their social feeds. Where the giant YouTube lags behind, the startup Pommtree allows travelers to publish travel videos so specific aspects of all these new areas can be tagged. Tinflur is an ideal tool to conduct digital marketing as it matches brand influencers with bloggers based on interest. These bloggers are further matches with those requiring content and it helps in creating the ideal customer profile for tourism boards. Ascape curates travel content and images for Virtual Reality (VR). Alleys provides crowd-sourced local street maps to travelers when they get lost in a city. The maps are interactive and replete with directions.

Source:https://skift.com/2016/09/06/5-new-travel-startups-taking-photos-and-videos-to-new-heights/#1

A lot of major tourist destinations get besieged by hordes of travelers leading to resentment by the locals. This trend can be found across popular places such as Amsterdam, Venice, Berlin and Barcelona. Inconveniences such as over-crowding, noise and unruly behaviour have been commonly cited. To solve this problem, the concept of walkable urban tourism must be encouraged implying that the major destinations can all be walked along. This needs a drastic change from the current trend of preferring automobiles to concepts such as using cycles or ride-sharing. If executed successfully, favourable opinion will be built on disruptive business innovations such as Uber, Airbnb or Pokémon Go. Some examples of such holistic tourism planning can already be seen. Examples of such can be Downtown Atlanta, commercial areas in Brooklyn, suburban town centres at Pasadena in California and urban universities such as those in New York City, Philadelphia and Cambridge in Massachusetts. Such planning comes under Business Improvement District (BID) that acts on governance at the local level.

Source:http://www.travelweekly.com/Articles/promise-walkable-urban-tourism

In spite of growing inbound tourist numbers to Greece, the revenues accruing from the industry are on the decline. A record seventeen million visitors have crowded Greece which is an 8.8 percent increase from the same period last year. But the revenues collected have gone down from more than nine billion Euros to less than eight and a half billion. Tourism consulting provided by the Association of Tourism Enterprises (SETE) claims that decrease was due to increased taxes. Tax privileges have been cut this year on popular islands such as Rhodes, Naxos, Paros, Santorini and Skiathos. The VAT has now gone up from seventeen to twenty four percent. Another reason stated has been the fact that lots of tourists are making last moment reservations in order to take advantages of lowest accommodation or transport prices.

Source:http://www.tourism-review.com/greece-tourism-faces-decreasing-revenues-news5175

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Prado in Madrid and the Acropolis in Athens have long been Europe’s most visited single destinations. Yet that has changed now with a new site registering with the feat for the year 2016. As per tourism research conducted, that honour has gone to the Titanic Attraction in Belfast, Northern Ireland as acknowledged at the World Travel Awards. This site was inaugurated in 2012 as an ode to the thousands who perished when the then world’s largest ship sank. The James Cameroon directed movie created the branding for the story but it is this attraction that has finally done justice to the monumental engineering achievement. Belfast had earlier failed to attract enough visitors to its churches and monuments, primarily due to the civil war that raged on till the 1990s. The ensuing peace of the last two decades coupled with the massive popularity of the HBO series “The Game of Thrones” shot near Belfast, has projected the city as a top tourist destination.

Source:http://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/belfast-titanic-europe-attraction

The travel market is ever increasing and a substantial part of this increase may be attributed to the use of smartphones. It is expected by some estimates that in 2017, mobile phones will be responsible for nearly a third of travel bookings. For this a mobile optimized website is an essential need If the mobile sit is not well optimized, on nearly three-fourths of instances, enquirers will seemly move away. However beyond that other requirements also exist such as a local Search Engine Optimization (SEO). So while Google lists pages according to relevance, geographic optimization can help sites to be listed higher up when user is based closer to base. Digital marketing needs to be conducted using social media platforms. Content to be delivered has to be personalized as much as possible. Oft – derided, but text messages still hold relevance, as studies have proven that of all users who opt-in for a texting service, ninety five percent of them will open and read through the message within three minutes of receiving. It is necessary to keep track of usage patterns using data backed business analytics to constantly study market trends.

Source:https://www.luxurydaily.com/travel-brands-poised-to-grow-exponentially-with-mobile-marketing/