There?s a big wide world out there – just waiting to be explored. Travel companies are well aware of the desire to daydream al desko. Flicking through flight prices and dreamy Instagram feeds full of azure oceans and sweeping sunsets. It?s a tough market and standing out from the crowd is more important than ever, especially on visual mediums such as Pinterest and Instagram. We?re keen to uncover exactly who is doing travel social media well, and what lessons we can take from their Instagram feeds.
STA TRAVEL
Masters of tantalizing gap year adventures and cheap flights for students, STA Travel veer?away from in-your-face Club 18-30 style images of booze cruises and full moon parties. Instead, they curate their Instagram grid to be an explosion of action-filled adventure shots, using a cascading colour scheme which scrolls through the rainbow. High-quality photography and plenty of scenic shots give a taste of global adventures to make even the most seasoned traveller’s feet itchy.
Travels in St Lucia
Run by the St Lucia Tourism Authority, Travels in St Lucia is a fascinating insight into the beauty and culture of this popular Caribbean island. Every detail has been covered, from their jungle-style story highlight covers to their use of stories which explore the elements of culture in more detail, such as the use of local ingredients such as coconut milk and oil. Photography on the grid flows well, with a colour scheme centred around blues and greens to mirror the natural feel of the destination.
Topdeck Travel
Offering action-packed tours across the world for the 18-30 market, Topdeck Travel have utilised the stories feature on Instagram which seems to be taking over the grid in popularity. Handing over the reigns to travellers on their tours, viewers can get an inside view on what actually goes down on one of their trips and the short snippets of video convey the fun atmosphere created by their small group trips. Warning! If you?re thinking of running a story takeover, ensure your team are briefed on any guidelines you wish to be followed. Alcohol + video = potential disaster!
Queensland
The official Instagram feed for Queensland tourism, the marketing team capture the friendly spirit of the region by making good use of the interactive features on Instagram stories, accepting questions from fans and using emojis and GIF?s to bring them to life. Each week they get involved in #traveltuesday via their stories, asking followers to guess where an image was taken and interacting with their audience. Most of their posts are built in the stories app itself but occasionally they style it up – probably using Canva a free design tool perfect for Instagram posts.
Visit the Bahamas
As if you needed an excuse to visit the Bahamas, their tourist board Instagram page will make it mighty difficult for you to resist booking that trip. Sticking to one main colour palette helps the visuals flow, and animated posts are used to bring the page to life. Overlaid text on images highlights individual locals such as ?The Lady of the Pineapple Fields?, bringing the audience closer to the culture and vibe of island life.
When thinking about standing out from the crowd on social consider things such as colour, Q&A’s and takeovers. These are great ways to grow engagement quickly. Being a social media expert starts with your brand, there is no one-size fits all approach.
