In March 2018, Facebook launched a new tool destined to change the Social Media Marketing strategy of any tourist industry operator forever. Remember this name because we are sure that you will hear it very often: Trip Consideration.

Many people don’t really know where to go when they decide to go on vacation. All they know is that they want to go to the beach, or to the mountains, or that they want to visit an historic city in those few days away from work or study which they managed to carve out. But they need to be inspired, because they still don’t have an actual destination.
Whilst not intending to generalise,many travelers already know where to go, but Generation Y has proven to draw inspiration from Social Media to pick their next destination. In fact, 68% of millennials found interesting ideas for their trip on Facebook, while 60% of them on Instagram.

Now, with Trip Consideration, you can show offers and popular destinations to encourage people to book their next holiday in your location!
For example, let’s say a university student has shown interest in Spring Break by browsing pages related to travels, and would like to spend this time at the beach, but hasn’t yet decided on a specific location.
Advertisers operating in the travel industry can now post ads that promote flights or hotels to inspire students to book their trips and intercept them when they’re still examining their options. Thanks to campaigns created ad-hoc and targeted towards a specific audience, it’s even easier to be found by the right people: those who are looking for inspiration for a trip.

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With Facebook Dynamic Ads it was already possible to intercept the right target audience at the planning stage. If a user looks for hotels in a particular location or flights to reach a destination but does not book immediately, Dynamic Ads gives you the opportunity to target that user and post ads based on the dates, the destination or other information that the user provided during his own search.

Thanks to Trip Consideration, you can reach people before the planning process of their journey even begins! This new feature works with existing targeting options to help advertisers publish ads for the right people at the right time and it’s available for Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network.
This option has also been extended to Facebook marketing partners, including Adphorus, Koddi, MakeMeReach, Smartly.io, and StitcherAds. But Team Zuckerberg won’t stop here! They already announced that they seek to further extend the features of Trip Consideration later this year.

How can this feature actively help your hotel?

Think about it, you’d have a great competitive edge if a guest found you before the competition. Forecasting your guests’ wishes would give your hotel a clear competitive edge.
Some may even call it an unfair advantage!
If, as in the example above, a university student is looking for inspiration for beach holidays but still doesn’t know precisely “where”, let them find you with a targeted ad in which you describe a student discount, or showcase all the cool activities and venues that are close to them from your hotel. If they were still undecided on the location, they’ll surely be enticed to prefer your location, with a hotel that offers an opportunity too good to pass up, in such a great location for fun. What more could they want?

How does Trip Consideration work?

To set up Trip Consideration, you must create a campaign with “Conversions” objective and enable the “Delivery priority to people who are planning a trip” entry. Once you’re through with this step, you can easily continue with the standard creation of your advert.
Facebook is taking the lead in the travel industry. We therefore believe that it is a tool to keep an eye on in the near future for the Social Media Marketing strategy of tourism experts like you.
In addition, during the last quarter of 2017, Facebook has collected 2.5% of all the reviews on the web, scoring more and more points in the ranking of platforms most used for reviews.
For this reason alone, it should be considered an excellent ally for your brand reputation and you should take full advantage of all the tools available to make the most of it.