The future of the travel industry

In this episode we speak with Quentin Long, co-founder and managing director at Australian Traveller Media and one of the foremost travel experts in Australia. So, let’s get into it.

SHOW NOTES

• 00:00:04 Quentin’s introduction to the Growth Manifesto Podcast
• 00:00:43 How Australian Traveller Media came to be
• 00:03:07 What is the landscape looking like right now in the travel industry amidst the coronavirus situation?
• 00:05:12 There’s been a lot of tone-deaf responses to this crisis and the correct messaging has just started to pick up
• 00:06:31 As a brand, you need to stay true to who you are but realize that people are in very difficult places
• 00:07:42 Great content is a “feather touch”
• 00:09:00 What’s happening with all the hotels, cruise liners, and travel agencies that are affected by the overnight stopping of the travel industry?
• 00:13:05 From a consumer’s perspective, if I go into a deal now with the travel industry, how do I know they’re going to honor that deal? What can travel companies do to establish that trust?
• 00:16:36 What stage of restrictions can hotels open again?
• 00:17:36 Quentin’s team set up a product called “COVIDtelligence” which tracks consumer channel sentiment
• 00:19:40 How will domestic travel in Australia be looking like in the near future? | “If ever you’ve had anything on your bucket list that you’d like to do in Australia, this is the year to do it.”
• 00:22:20 The domestic recovery of the travel industry will be a “V” not a U” which means it will shoot straight back up
• 00:23:15 The huge battle for the tourism industry after this will be that since so much of the aviation industry relies on business travel, the current situation might show them that they don’t need to travel for business as much
• 00:24:20 How do you think international travel is going to recover with all that’s going on?
• 00:27:56 How long do you think people will take to feel comfortable to travel internationally again?
• 00:29:43 The cruise industry has probably been set back for about 10 years
• 00:30:25 From a human behaviour perspective, people want a good deal even if it’s from the travel industry
• 00:31:25 The money that people would usually spend for their business class trips to Europe could be spent here to increase their Australian experience
• 00:32:20 If I’m a travel marketer for holiday destinations or accommodations, when’s the right time to start? How do you stimulate it without cannibalizing the yield too much?
• 00:34:25 The race is on to be the right person to time when to come back into the travel market. But right now, it’s just not yet.
• 00:35:15 You can’t just rely on social media to do the hard work in getting attention for you when the travel market starts back up again.
• 00:36:30 What’s Quentin’s opinion in doing partnerships effectively in the travel industry right now?
• 00:42:25 Quentin’s approach to partnerships is to be really reactive, transparent, and honest about all the scenarios with the partner.
• 00:45:00 Partnerships should be approached with the mindset of “What I can do for you.” instead of “What can you do for me?”
• 00:47:00 The biggest piece of advice that Quentin has received for startups is “Look at your business plan: It’s double the time, double the costs, and half the revenue.”
• 00:48:30 Quentin has a marketing conundrum for Alex
• 00:52:00 React, Rethink, Reimagine your strategy
• 00:53:16 We also need to spend time on thinking how receptive the audience is

LINKS

• Quentin Long on LinkedIn
• Australian Traveller

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You’re listening to the 2020 Marketing Series on The Growth Manifesto Podcast, a Zoom video series brought to you by Webprofits where we talk about how to drive business and marketing success through the rest of 2020.

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