Social media is an important aspect of any company’s marketing plan. The photo-centric platform Instagram is one-way operators of tours, activities and attractions can stay in touch and connect with their customers, announce new products, and stoke excitement around existing product sets. This helps contribute to greater sales and improved growth.
We resourced Arival’s own social media expert Shawn Teasley to share examples of in-destination businesses who are using Instagram effectively and creatively to help their brand grow, gain more customers, and have a larger digital presence. And think again if you believe social media is all about the followers—there are other metrics that are meaningful, too. “It’s important for operators to not get stuck in the vanity metrics such as likes, but rather focus on creating an engaging account that encourages commenting, tagging and sharing,” says Teasley.
Emulate the posting strategy of these nine tour brands to grow your social media presence.
Cozy cafe tables on magical streets, bridges hovering over secret canals, the tastiest-looking gelato we’ve ever seen. These are just a few image examples City Wonders include on their carefully curated Instagram feed.
This multi-destination food tour not only posts images of food customers can sample on a Devour Tour, but also images of mainstay food producers who are keeping the culinary culture alive in cities across Europe. “Devour Tours does a fantastic job balancing beautiful images that rotate between delightful simple close-ups of food and the people that make the tours special,” says Teasley. “In their feed you see them spotlighting talented guides and featuring vendors that are essential to the success of their curated experiences.”
This multi-destination bike tour company posts bright, engaging images of cities they operate in. Followers will identify what they may spot on one of Fat Tire’s tours: quaint streets, famous sites, ivy-covered architecture, and must-visit bakeries.
Fat Tire also posts new products and offering updates on the stories section of Instagram to keep potential customers in the know.
This operator is based in Kazakhstan, a destination that is just starting to become more popular. While Friendly Tours is building a following, we love the unique style of the images, which showcase Kazakhstan’s beautiful landscapes and almost look like an old-fashioned Polaroid.
Known for its clear-bottom kayaks, Get Up and Go Kayaking has seen success by posting beautiful, striking images and videos of Florida’s coastline, and encounters with curious manatees. Having high-quality videos and images even helped this operator go viral.
Teasley loves how this nature-focused operator posts real, in-the-moment pictures of travelers having a fun, restorative, and memorable time on tours. One of our favorite posts? A picture of a group hiking through a snowy forest with their yoga mats in tow—an unexpected, fun image that also received a lot of engagement from Namaste In Nature’s followers.
The conservation-minded Natural Habitat Adventures reposts images their tour guests took while on the operator’s wildlife-focused adventures, which shows how up-close-and-personal travelers can get to these incredible animals. From butterflies to blue-footed boobies, animals are widely featured on this Instagram account. “If you are looking for a great example of how user-generated content can be republished, this account will provide that inspiration. They do a fantastic job giving the traveler and tour-taker the appropriate photo credit,” Teasley describes.
Riverlife Brisbane not only posts informative and fun images showing all that Brisbane has to offer (such as river kayaking, cycling, rock climbing, and more), but also the operator includes smart and witty captions under each photo. A recent rollerblading image, for example, contained a caption that read, “Wind in your hair and Wheels on your feet!”
Teasley shares, “The image is what draws fans or future fans in, and an amusing caption like this creates the entertaining balance between image and copy.”
Every image posted by Urban Adventures is bright, colorful, and invites exploration. From wanderlust-stoking street murals to candy-hued mosaics, Urban Adventures showcases the myriad trips and experiences travelers can have with the operation. “Color is an important element in your social media presence, your use of color should be on-brand and consistent. This helps your fans identify your brand quickly,” says Teasley.
