Travel websites are essential for travel businesses and agencies as they are the first thing potential customers interact with.
Businesses and agencies must get their website right as it could determine whether they can convert visitors into customers. There are features every travel website should have to provide the best user experience.
This blog post will go through the features every travel website should have to stand out from the competition.
Types of Travel websites
The travel industry is large and very diverse, meaning that one website cannot meet the needs or specifications of every traveler.
Therefore, travel businesses and agencies can specialize in a particular niche.
The different types of travel websites are as follows:
- Review and rating websites – These websites focus on travelers’ reviews and ratings for hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, and much more.
- Travel Blogs – Travel blogs are meant to share personal experiences, tips, and insights on the travel industry.
- Booking websites – These websites are meant to help travelers find and reserve accommodations. They provide a vast list of hotels, resorts, vacation rentals, and more.
- Flight Booking websites – These websites provide information on finding and booking flights.
- Adventure and outdoor travel websites – These websites cater to adventure seekers and provide information on outdoor adventures such as hiking, trekking, and extreme sports.
- Cruise Booking websites – These websites provide information on cruise vacations. Cruise websites allow travelers to explore cruise options, look at destinations, book various cruise packages, and much more.
- Local Travel Guides – These websites are more tired to showcase hidden gems and tips on local attractions for a particular area. They are mostly created by local experts or even travel bloggers.
- Travel forums – Forums provide a platform for people to discuss topics they are interested in. Travel forums facilitate discussion around travel topics and news. People can ask questions, seek advice, share experiences, and much more.
The Must-Have Features For Every Travel Website
For travel businesses and agencies, a WordPress travel website requires specific features to enhance user experience, functionality, and business goals.
The main features a travel website must have include the following:
Responsive Design
Web users today access the internet across a wide range of devices mostly through their smartphones.
Modern websites must adjust to screen sizes, mostly desktop, mobile, and tablet. Website responsiveness aims to allow websites to adjust appropriately to a web visitor’s device.
Travel websites must be responsive to provide a better user experience and help convert potential customers.
Travel businesses can use a wide range of tools to create responsive websites such as Elementor, which provides the drag-and-drop live editor.
Booking Systems
The main aim for most, if not all, travel websites is to convert web visitors into customers. When potential travelers find something they might like, the next action is to book the trip.
The best travel websites must provide the most efficient booking system to facilitate the booking process. A horrible and insufficient booking process may make or break a travel website and deter potential customers.
Some of the things travel companies should consider when setting up a booking system for their website include:
- Online Booking Engine – allows users to book trips, accommodations, or activities directly on the travel company’s website.
- Calendar Integration – Show real-time availability for tours or accommodations.
- Payment Gateway – Integrate secure payment methods like PayPal, Stripe, or WooCommerce Payments.
Travel companies can employ multiple WordPress booking plugins such as Crocoblock JetBooking to create sufficient booking systems within minutes.
Destination Pages
Travelers want to see and have an idea of where their potential destination might be, which might determine whether they book a trip to the identified destination.
The best travel websites display destination pages that provide the most accurate information, allowing travelers to make the most informed decisions.
Some of the things travel businesses can do to make the best destination pages include highlighting popular destinations with high-quality images, videos, and detailed descriptions.
Additionally, they can include things to do, places to stay, local guides, and travel packages.
Travel businesses can employ WordPress website builders like the Elementor website builder to create responsive and beautiful travel destination pages.
Reviews and Testimonials
Reviews and testimonials are important for travel websites as they provide social proof from other travelers about the trips they’ve taken.
Reviews and testimonials are important as they help build trust between businesses and customers.
Travel businesses should prioritize putting reviews and testimonials on their websites to create trust with potential customers.
There are numerous WordPress plugins for travel agencies to use in implementing reviews within their website such as the Crocoblock JetReviews.
Interactive Maps
Maps are essential for travel websites after all, travelers are looking for various destinations all over the world to travel to.
Travel businesses can utilize maps appropriately on their websites by using tools like Google Maps or interactive plugins to highlight destinations, routes, or landmarks.
They can even go further by incorporating filters for activities, accommodations, or attractions on the map.
Travel Blog
Blogs are a great and popular source of information for websites as they give essential information to web visitors are looking for.
Travel businesses can leverage this important asset by creating travel blogs that share travel tips, itineraries, destination guides, and customer stories to engage users and boost SEO.
Customizable Itineraries
Websites continue to make the web browsing experience easier and more personalized by adding interactive features.
One such feature is providing customizable functions that let users alter the websites to match their needs.
Travel websites should provide tools for users to customize their travel plans by adding or removing activities.
This improves the web browsing experience and leads to higher web visits, increasing traffic.
Social Media Integration
Social media has grown to become the largest form of media on the internet, and its influence continues to grow.
Businesses and companies worldwide have leveraged social media to their advantage to attract eyeballs to their products and services.
The travel industry is one of the areas impacted by social media, as travelers can document and share their travel experiences with potential travelers worldwide.
Travel businesses can integrate social media into their websites by adding sharing buttons for blog posts and tours and including Instagram feeds or galleries for visual appeal.
SEO Optimization
SEO is important for every website today, as its main purpose is to make the website visible to search engines for web visitors to discover a website.
Travel businesses need to be discoverable online to showcase their services to potential travelers.
Travel businesses need to prioritize optimizing their websites to be SEO-friendly to have a strong online presence.
Gallery and media management
Pictures are worth a thousand words as they say and when it comes to the travel industry, nothing could be further from the truth.
Having rich media, such as images and videos can influence the decisions of travelers.
Travel websites should showcase visually appealing images and videos of destinations, activities, or accommodations.
They can go further by using sliders or carousels for an immersive experience.
Weather and Time Zone Information
Weather and time zone information is one of the most important, if not the most important that travelers look for.
Travelers can determine whether or not to visit a particular destination based on the weather.
It is essential for travel websites to include weather and time information, which will assist travelers in putting together their travel itineraries.
Multilingual Support
The top-performing websites reach web users worldwide. Most of these web visitors are from different countries and access websites through their native language.
The best travel websites reach travelers worldwide, and it is essential that they have multilingual support to cater to travelers who speak various languages.
This is important as it will enable travelers from all backgrounds to plan their itineraries without worrying about which language the website will be displayed in.
User Account and Profiles
A user profile is a collection of information that represents an individual’s identity and preferences within a particular system or platform
Travel websites should allow users to create accounts to save itineraries, make bookings, or manage preferences.
Security Features
Websites are susceptible to attacks from malicious actors who are always looking to steal web users’s sensitive information.
Therefore, travel websites must implement security features to protect their website and their customer’s data. Mishandling users’ data could have catastrophic consequences for travel businesses, such as a lack of trust or reputational damage.
Travel businesses should, therefore, implement the most up-to-date security features on their websites, such as SSL certificates, secure payment options, and user data protection measures.
Analytics Integration
Businesses need to track their website’s activity and get the best and most up-to-date information in order to make the best-informed decisions.
Travel websites are no different. Travel businesses need to track user behavior and website performance and they do this by using tools like Google Analytics.
Conclusion
Websites can make or break a business. A great user experience can drive more traffic to a company’s website and lead to customer conversions.
A bad website browsing experience can lead to a decrease in web traffic and drive away potential customers, affecting the business’s bottom line.
Travelers want to visit a website that offers all the necessary features they need to plan their travel itineraries without having to visit multiple other websites.
The best travel websites come with the latest features needed to assist travelers in planning their trips.
