What is a travel bubble?

Travel bubbles allow for specific groups of people to move between countries where COVID-19 has been contained. They are also referred to as “travel bridges” or “corona corridors” and were set up to limit travel.

By strategically opening borders with countries that are mutually considered low-risk, destinations have been able to slowly rekindle tourism. Though this concept is a temporary fix to the challenges brought on by the pandemic, the industry had to adapt and turn this into an opportunity for their businesses to survive.

Things change quickly, and countries and enterprises are learning to adjust and become nimble. By focusing efforts on activities that produce short- and mid-term results, you will see profitability return to your business. Here are our top 10 tips to help you make the most of the travel bubble opportunity:

1) Revisit

Revisit your feeder markets on a regular basis and ensure you know which ones are still valid and appear set for the next few months.

2) Reposition

Focus your marketing efforts on channels that are quickest to adapt. In the online world, this means paid traffic, specifically target markets that have just reduced restrictions or opened borders. Use this information in your messaging.

3) Customize

Create custom offers that are specifically tailored to a travel bubble. Go deeper by geotargeting your customers; you can adjust your online activities multiple times despite different travel bubbles for the same language. For example, though English-speaking countries like the US, the UK, and Australia are all in different bubbles, you can use the same English site but can create specific elements that are shown to each target market based on the user’s IP.

4) Localize

Localize the full customer journey as much as possible, as long as the materials can be adjusted easily and quickly on the fly. Start with sales landing pages, property content, booking pages, and email confirmations.

5) Update

Provide as much up-to-date information as possible, or at least links that are maintained constantly. This is truer for airlines than any other travel segment, since most bookings start with flights. Travelers will be hesitant to book flights until they are comfortable with the rules, restrictions, and entry requirements. However, once they have booked flights, they will be much more at ease with the remaining travel services.

6) Accommodate

Continue to offer flexible rates. Consumers have become weary of shifting travel bubbles, for example, when the UK shifted its classification for Portugal to requiring quarantine upon return for UK citizens and residents, travelers had to scramble to return before the shift date.

7) Advise

If your business offers services that could be affected by certain lockdown measures, advise potential customers of these changes as much as possible. They will feel more comfortable and you’ll have a better conversion rate.

8) Identify

Identify new inbound markets and customer preferences, particularly regarding booking methods. For example, the vast majority of Chinese users do not use Visa, Mastercard, or American Express, so unless you offer Union Pay, PayPal, or booking without credit card/prepayment, you will not gain any traction in those markets. This could also result in less direct bookings to your partners as travelers go instead to OTAs who are already offering their preferred payment method.

9) Record

Leverage tools to track demand, including Google’s new Travel Trends and Demand tool, to understand how travel demand is shifting in real time.

10) Adapt

Build out campaigns for markets that can be switched on when a new route opens up. Demand spikes as soon as the news hits, so you need to be able to switch campaigns on and off as quickly as possible.

If you would like a more in-depth view into travel bubbles and how to create an effective data-driven strategy, download the full-length white paper here.