What is Content Marketing?
From destination guides and travel inspiration to editorial strategy and copywriting – how content marketing works for travel businesses.
Travel is an inherently content-rich sector. People spend hours researching destinations, reading reviews, watching videos and consuming inspiration before they commit to a booking. That research habit creates a huge opportunity for travel brands that produce genuinely useful, engaging content.
Content marketing in travel means creating the destination guides, itinerary ideas, packing lists, expert advice and traveller stories that your audience is already searching for. When that content is well-crafted and properly optimised, it attracts organic traffic, builds trust and positions your brand as a go-to source of information – long before someone is ready to enquire.
A strong content marketing strategy delivers value across multiple areas of your business:
Like any marketing channel, content needs to be measured against real business outcomes. For travel brands this means going beyond vanity metrics like page views and focusing on what actually matters – enquiries, lead quality, assisted conversions and booking revenue attributed to content.
Key metrics to track include organic traffic growth to content pages, rankings for target destination and travel keywords, time on site and engagement rates, the number and quality of backlinks generated, and ultimately how content influences the booking journey. Google Analytics 4 and search console data together give a clear picture of how your content is performing and where to focus next.
A travel content strategy starts with understanding your customers and what they search for at each stage of the booking journey. Early-stage searches tend to be inspirational – “where to go in October”, “best destinations for solo travel”. Mid-funnel searches get more specific – “two weeks in Vietnam itinerary”, “is Bali good for families”. Late-stage searches are commercial – “Vietnam holiday packages”, “best travel agents for Bali”.
An effective strategy creates content to capture all of these stages, not just the bottom of funnel. That means editorial planning, keyword research, identifying content gaps and building a calendar that balances evergreen destination content with timely, seasonal topics. The goal is to have your brand visible throughout the research journey – not just when someone is about to book.
For travel businesses, content planning needs to account for seasonality, booking patterns and the lead times associated with your products. A ski holiday brand needs to be publishing content in late summer when people begin researching. A honeymoon specialist needs to be visible at the start of the year when newly engaged couples start planning. Getting the timing right means content is live and ranking when search demand peaks.
A well-structured editorial plan brings together topic ideation, keyword targeting, writer briefs, production schedules and publication dates in a format the whole team can work from. Consistency matters – sporadic publishing rarely delivers the compounding SEO benefits that a steady, planned output does. The roadmap keeps your content programme on track and ensures everything is pulling in the same strategic direction.
Summon works with travel brands on content strategy, editorial planning and copywriting. If you would like to find out how content marketing can support your travel business, get in touch with our team.
Choose which cookies to allow. Your choice is stored locally and you can change it at any time.
Required for the site to work. Cannot be disabled.
Helps us understand how visitors use the site (e.g. Google Analytics).
Used to deliver relevant ads on other sites (e.g. Google Ads, Meta).