Integrated Online Marketing For Wildlife Lodges & Tour Operators

Online Marketing is the utilization of all platforms to promote brands and create a reputation through website/blogs and unique content. While many Digital marketers offer services as SEO experts in the topic there is one difference between just experts and those very familiar with an allied field.

Lodge Courtyard House Kanha National Park

Understanding Diverse Topics

Marketing becomes a potential weapon for traffic generation and brand promotion if an SEO has an understanding of diverse topics. I have!

Well, this comes about with long-term involvement with search engine optimization and social media marketing. Specialization in some fields accrues due to deep involvement in the subject on the ground as well. The added advantage of involvement in SEO is obvious. Hence I can provide a cohesive effort to promote the lodge website and tour operator website.

I have been associated with Indian Wildlife for many years as a freelance naturalist. I have accrued knowledge of lodge operations and management naturally after freelancing for more than ten years. I  am well aware of customer behavior, needs, and expectations from lodge owners and tour management. Well, this means I am perfectly geared up for providing online marketing services to the wildlife sector. I create my own content.

Indian Wildlife 

Get Bookings!

Exciting Safaris with Naturalist Interpretation & Heavenly Lodge Experience spells success! There are a few aspects of wildlife experience in India:

Focus on Tiger or Apex Animal 

Quality Birding  

Destination Experience 

In-depth Interpretation at Lodges

Tiger

If you are not willing to invest in these virtues then stay within budget...keep minimal tariffs and reduce package tour costs.

With Lodge Owners and Tour Operators, the need is to get bookings and recommendations that increase referrals. This happens whence you have a reputation online.

Hence a cohesive approach using integrated marketing is essential. Using various platforms a cohesive strategy can be chalked out using well-written content as the main tool.

Lodge/Tour Operators Website

In online promotions (mobile friendly) websites play a major role now...unlike earlier. Good link architecture, solid contents, and attributes with aesthetic design. But this is not all developing a good website with an appealing design is not enough for conversions. 

Interactive Approach

You need to converse with the visitors and be contemporary. The former can be done using a chat window or an email but this will not be enough. You need to publish the latest happenings on the website. So create an interactive window to publish the latest tours along with photos and safari experiences as they were executed on weekly basis.  All this has to be real-time besides the testimonial page. If you do this you will rid of being a static or cardboard cutout website which discourages conversions.

Integration of a blog is an ideal tool to converse with online visitors by highlighting recent tours and safari experiences.

Accreditations

It is important to register your company with a known association or Government if possible. These and other accreditation will increase your conversions tremendously.    

Social Media

Being Active on Social Media and creating a reputation is also a prerequisite. SM can provide with immense reach and enhance conversions and inquiry levels.   

Advertisement

If you have the resources to enroll in PPC like Google Adwords with a fixed budget for greater exposure.

If you have a good database highlight your activities and new introductions using Email Marketing. Or keep in touch with past clients as well for future business and convincing referrals...

Online Marketing requires constant involvement and resource planning. The best is to hire an Online Marketing Service/Content Writer and Quality Web Designer.

Are You Serious About Your Business?

Survival would be difficult without an online presence.  

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Tour Operator Website

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Uday works as a freelance naturalist/birder in India. He also provides SEO (Online Marketing Services) and Website Content.

Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com

Mobile: 9755089323 

Tiger Tourism: The ADD ON Racket - Online Booking

Ever since the Government or rather the NTCA capped entry into the tiger reserves in India its impact on the tourism industry has been disastrous. The unplanned expansion of accommodations in the tiger reserve precedes the implementation of the cap. Almost all tiger reserves overflow with a number of lodges and many of them are on the verge of closure.  

With the rise in tourism post-nineties, a mad rush to set up lodges in the outer confines took place. The cap came much later whence a PIL was filed in the SC calling for the ban on tiger tourism. The ban was supposed to be in totality hence perpetually placing the big cat out of the eye of the public. 

The ban if implemented would have had a disastrous impact on our tourism industry. Already under pressure, the tourism industry cannot bear the impact of such bans on prime indicator species and destinations. This is not all, after flourishing for decades the ban would have thrown a large number of the populace out of work. The local industry would have been the sufferer as well - directly or indirectly. 

Thankfully wiser counsel has prevailed and we are able to see the tiger in daylight. Nevertheless, as an enhanced conservation measure a cap was placed on the entry of vehicles into the park.     

The cap meant limited demand for accommodation and it also meant limited permits that would have assured the arrival of tourists. Without permits no tourist would book accommodation...that is obvious. 

Destinations that do not have alternative recreational places or opportunities are the worst hit. At these places the only way to run and profit from the lodges is to ensure tiger safari in the park for the guests. An unlimited alternative lies in the buffer but the buffer zones are habituated and do not yield any fruitful sightings, hence the tourist does wish to partake in a buffer safari.

The tiger safari bookings in Madhya Pradesh are carried out at the MP Online Site as well as at the current windows in the reserves. Both are subject to availability albeit there is no hue and cry about the availability and management of the tickets at the current windows the online booking system is like a storm in the eye.  

It is at the online booking portal where most of the anomaly exists. Taking advantage of the add-on system where you can add tourists forty-eight hours before the entry many lodges are into proxy bookings in name of their employees. This assures that whence tourists make a booking the add-on procedure is utilized and the tourists are added to the safari. Another charge that is being promulgated is that a hefty sum is charged from the tourists. This practice is being put in place by lodges that can afford to bear the cancellation charges. Obviously, these could be lodges with a hefty tariff.   

There was simmering contempt regarding this practice for a long time but no one paid heed. Now since a complaint has been filed with the authorities attention has been drawn toward the lacunae. 

How the authorities foolproof this system of ADD On or strike it out completely has to be seen. A lot of booking for the coming months have already been cornered and will be used to Add on future bookings.  

Pensive Tiger By Teerath Singh