A website is essential for every business if they want to be taken seriously by potential customers. As an African safari tour operator our industry is no different.
As Travel businesses we need to stand out from the competition and drive sales by having a great website that lists our products and services.
Why Websites Are Important For Businesses
A business website is a digital platform that serves as the online brand of a business. A website is essentially an extension of a business’s physical store or office and allows a business to connect to potential customers and clients worldwide.
A business website showcases the business operations and services that a particular business offers.
Websites can be accessed anywhere in the world as long as the web user has internet access. This is an astronomical advantage as business websites can reach potential customers all over the world!
Having a website should therefore not be a forethought for a business but a necessity.
Types Of Travel Websites
The travel industry is large and very diverse and as a business we often have to choose to specialize in a certain industry segment.
Therefore, a single website cannot fit all, and travel websites can be divided into different types that include the following:
⦁ 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 it 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.
⦁ Review and rating websites – These websites focus on travelers’ reviews and ratings for hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, and much more.
Travel Website Essentials
The travel industry is highly competitive and is it essential that travel businesses stand out from the competition to drive potential customers to their sites.
There are essential features that a travel website needs to meet travelers’ requirements and needs.
The features every travel website should have include the following:
⦁ Responsiveness – Website responsiveness refers to the way a website is displayed across different devices mostly desktop, mobile, and tablet. A travel website must be displayed adequately across devices so that travelers can have a great user experience.
⦁ Stunning Visuals – ‘Seeing is believing’ as they say. Having great images such as vacation spots and popular tourist attractions can invoke emotions in potential customers and make them take action in booking a vacation.
⦁ Easy Navigation – Website navigation assists web users in moving from one point or page to another within a website. An easy navigation experience improves the user experience and even leads to repeat users. It is therefore critical that travel websites have easy navigation to help travelers have a smooth experience from searching to booking a vacation.
⦁ Search and booking functionality – A high-converting travel website comes with search functionality to let travelers look at different travel destinations across the world and booking functionality to let them book their dream vacation without having to go through any third party.
⦁ Customer reviews and ratings – Potential travelers want to know how other travelers feel about different vacation spots. They can do this by looking at customer reviews and ratings and this lets them make a more informed decision before booking a particular vacation spot. The best travel websites provide website visitors with customer reviews and ratings.
⦁ Maps – Having interactive maps lets travelers know the exact location of a particular travel spot and this information can let them do things like planning their flights, booking accommodations, doing more research on a specific area, and more.
⦁ Secure Payment Options – Travelers need a secure payment method when they pay for their vacation and it is critical that travel websites have secure payment methods to ensure that customer’s payment data isn’t stolen by malicious actors.
⦁ Content – Informative content is a great way to stand out and provides more value to travelers. Creating content like blogs, travel tips, travel guides and more lets potential travelers have access to invaluable information that they can use to make an informed decision.
⦁ Multilingual Support – The top travel websites have a wide reach and can serve travelers from all over the world. To cater to different customers worldwide, it is critical travel websites integrate multilingual support.
Factors To Consider When Creating A Travel Website
Now that we know how important travel websites are, the next question for travel agencies and businesses is how to get started.
Creating a high-converting website that meets the main features and requirements means working with the best and most up-to-date web creation technologies.
Choosing the best and most adequate web technology to create your travel website may be a bit daunting, especially if this is your first time.
Luckily some factors will help you get started right away.
Content Management System (CMS)
Websites are mostly created by developers who have the technical know-how when it comes to designing, coding, and deploying a website.
Hiring a developer or creating a development team for your travel business may be a challenging task. Travel businesses also have the option of going with a freelance developer. However, this too has its own pros and cons.
Luckily, there’s a solution known as a Content Management System.
A content management system (CMS) is software meant to aid users in creating, managing, and modifying content on a website without having technical knowledge or expertise.
In other words, you can create a full-fledged website without writing a single line of code!
The most popular content management system is WordPress.
WordPress has several reasons why most developers and businesses prefer to use it and they include the following:
⦁ Ease of Use – WordPress comes with a user-friendly and intuitive interface that makes managing content easy to use, especially for non-developers.
⦁ Customization with Themes and Plugins – WordPress allows users to customize their websites to match their business and brand. Users can do this through website themes and plugins which provide extra functionality.
⦁ Scalability – WordPress lets users build any kind of website from a simple blog to an enterprise-level website with millions of monthly visitors.
⦁ SEO Capabilities – WordPress is built with the best SEO practices in mind to let your website rank on search engines on Google.
⦁ Free and Open-Source – WordPress is free to download and use. Since it’s open-source, users have complete control over their websites and can modify the code to fit their needs.
⦁ E-Commerce Capabilities (via WooCommerce) – WordPress offers e-commerce capabilities mostly through WooCommerce, a popular WordPress plugin, that turns any website into a powerful e-commerce store.
⦁ Multilingual and Multi-Site Support – WordPress supports multilingual sites through plugins like WPML or Polylang, enabling businesses to reach global audiences.
⦁ Third-Party Integrations – WordPress integrates seamlessly with third-party services for different functionalities from email marketing to website automation.
⦁ Community Support – Due to the popularity of WordPress it has a vast global community who support each other through forums, blogs, YouTube tutorials, and meetups.
⦁ Regular Updates – WordPress is constantly evolving with updates that introduce new features and address security issues, ensuring it stays relevant.
Website Hosting
Website Hosting is an online service that makes a website accessible to Internet users.
When you purchase a hosting plan, you’re essentially renting space on a server for all the files and data related to the website.
Travel businesses must choose the right hosting plan that offers all the essential features they need to meet their business’s requirements.
Some features travel businesses should consider when choosing a hosting service provider include:
⦁ Type of Hosting – There are different hosting services such as shared hosting, dedicated hosting, cloud hosting, and much more. Travel businesses should choose the best service depending on their needs.
⦁ Security – The best hosting companies should provide top security features like SSL certificates to ensure their customer’s websites are safe and secure from hackers.
⦁ Scalability – Hosting services should be able to scale when traffic increases to meet the needs of the business.
⦁ Performance and Speed – The speed of a website can determine how a travel website ranks on search engines and influences the user’s experience.
⦁ Customer Support – Customer support is important for businesses, as they can contact the hosting service provider for assistance in case they run into issues.
There are many other factors to consider when choosing a hosting provider.
Numerous companies offer hosting services like Siteground, Hostinger, and more.
Elementor Hosting has emerged as a great website hosting service as well.
Website Builder
Website builders assist web developers to design and create websites without having to write a single line of code.
WordPress website builders enhance the website-building experience by speeding up the web creation process while providing all the features needed to create a full-fledged website.
The most popular WordPress website builder is Elementor. Elementor is the number 1 WordPress website builder that WordPress web developers use to create beautiful and responsive websites.
Elementor’s leading feature is the live-drag-and-drop editor, which lets users design and create their websites using website element widgets while providing live editing.
Elementor’s Pro version has all the tools and features needed to create a high-converting website like WooCommerce Builder, Popup Builder, Landing Page Builder, and more.
WordPress Website Themes
A WordPress theme is a pre-designed template that determines the look, feel, layout, and style of a website. Themes control the visual appearance, typography, color schemes, page layouts, and even some functionalities.
WordPress themes are pre-designed which means they are intended to assist web developers kick start their website creation process within minutes.
One of the most popular WordPress themes is Astra. Astra offers web creators a vast array of WordPress website themes that are meant to serve different industries.
Astra offers web creators the Starter Templates where developers can choose the website theme that fits their industry and brand.
CSSIgniter also offers travel businesses stunning themes for travel and hotels that they can customize to fit their brand.
Some of the features travel businesses should consider when choosing a website theme include:
⦁ Speed and performance
⦁ SEO compatibility
⦁ Customization options
⦁ Security updates
⦁ Support and documentation
WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins are software add-ons that extend a WordPress website’s functionality.
These plugins integrate seamlessly with the WordPress core to provide extra features or capabilities, such as SEO tools, eCommerce platforms, contact forms, security enhancements, and more.
Plugins can be free, freemium, or paid, and they are installed directly from the WordPress Plugin Repository or other third-party sources.
As mentioned earlier, the Elementor website builder works seamlessly with numerous WordPress plugins, which is why it’s so popular.
Ultimate Addons for Elementor offers users widgets to create stunning and responsive WordPress websites while using Elementor website builder.
Crocoblock comes with a large array of plugins, known as JetPlugins, meant to solve different website needs.
Some of the Crocoblock JetPlugins that work perfectly on a travel website include:
Crocoblock⦁ ⦁ JetBooking – a booking plugin for websites with booking functionalities.
Crocoblock⦁ ⦁ JetAppointment – an appointment booking plugin that works well for booking services like car rentals and other services.
Crocoblock⦁ ⦁ JetReviews – a WordPress plugin for reviews and comments.
The Pros and Cons Of A Travel Website
Pros
⦁ Travel websites can reach potential customers worldwide.
⦁ They extend a business’s brand.
⦁ A travel website’s multilingual support can broaden the business’s reach and appeal.
⦁ Travel websites can simplify the booking process for customers.
⦁ Travel websites help businesses manage customers’ data like booking information and more.
Cons
⦁ Setting up a website can take a bit of time if businesses lack the technical know-how.
⦁ Businesses may be overwhelmed by the numerous web creation tools.
⦁ Websites could be targeted by hackers and provide a security risk.
Conclusion
Websites are a must for any business, as they open up many possibilities and can help companies to attract customers.
Travel businesses should prioritize creating a website to assist them in promoting their brand, attracting customers from all over the world, and driving sales.
Numerous tools make building a website easy and efficient and travel businesses should choose the most adequate tools when creating their websites.
Travel businesses should therefore take advantage of websites, especially in this digital economy.
