Today traveling is one of the main components of every person’s life. The quality of the rest mainly depends on the travel agency that organizes it. Therefore, users carefully pick a tour operator – they consider several companies at once, compare their offers, reviews, and so on. Under such conditions, website development is a necessity for any travel agency.
The travel and tourism website is an important Internet source for people planning their vacation. Its main goal is to acquaint its customers with hot offers and to lure them into purchasing this or that tour. Hence, when working on a travel website design, it’s crucial to think over all the details: from a platform to user experience.
Travel sites are a part of a huge niche with a pronounced specificity. It includes websites of travel agents, travel blogs, portals, and communities. They all have different target audiences and approaches to the design as well as to the selection and presentation of the content. In this article, we will reveal the nuances of creating travel and tourism websites.
Features of developing travel websites
To make the resource to be of interest to customers, increase their trust, and desire to cooperate with the travel agency, it’s crucial to approach the issue of its creation comprehensively and cover the following aspects:
- Tasks
As we’ve already mentioned, tourism is a fairly wide niche that can include (besides direct sales of travel vouchers) assistance in processing travel documents, selection, and booking of tickets and hotels, etc. Therefore, before creating a website, you need to determine the type of services you’d like to provide.
- Design
The visual tourism website design should evoke positive emotions, immerse visitors in an atmosphere of relaxation. It can be achieved through the application of bright colors, vivid thematic images, etc. In this case, you shouldn’t use intricate fonts that impede the information perception.
- Content
A potential customer should receive the most exhaustive and objective information about the tour, hotel, and other travel details. For illustration, it’s better to use your own exclusive high-quality images (photos) since they will show your uniqueness and creativity.
- Convenience
The website visitor should be able to find answers to all the questions of his/her interest as quickly as possible. It can be achieved through utilizing clear navigation, search, and filtering tools that will make the users’ interaction with the website smooth and flawless.
- Technical characteristics
For such a website, its adaptability is of great importance as long as the biggest part of Internet users use mobile devices. The speed of loading pages is no less crucial since no one wants to wait for a long time to get the information required.
To make visitors choose your agency and make a purchase, the website should be informative and trustworthy. Therefore, you need to consider a logical and user-friendly page structure.
What should a website include
- Travel destinations
Provide information about the main countries, destinations in which the company specializes. Tell about their features and optimal seasons for visiting.
- Special offers and last-minute tours
To encourage as many website visitors as possible to make a purchase, add a section with special offers and discounts. It will be a great push for those who were not totally ready to buy but don’t want to miss out on a great offer.
- Services and prices
The service block should provide full information about what exactly the company offers. Highlight the services that set you apart from the competitors. For instance, payment by installments, free airport transfer, and so on.
- Selection of tours
Users are often not sure what type of vacation will suit their needs and expectations or will be right for them. Therefore, offer an online consultation or a small online test to help them to choose the tour desired.
- Online booking and payment system
Website visitors will appreciate the opportunity to book a tour and pay for it online, without the need for a personal visit to the office. In this way, the company will not be limited to working hours or the location of their branches.
- Travel blog
Users frequently look for travel information online. They are interested in the process of obtaining visas, the possibility of traveling with small children, new destinations, and so on. An expert blog will both answer their questions and help companies to promote their websites.
- Contacts
In addition to the address and working hours of the agency, add other possible ways to contact you. Except for an email and phone number, you can provide links to messengers and social networks of the company.
The list of elements to be included in the travel and tourism websites is not exhaustive, therefore, any other information or features you can and want to add will be also of much help. Just be consistent.
