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Travel Advisors Leverage Photography as a Way to Increase Client Engagement and Rebuild Their Business

Travel Advisors Leverage Photography as a Way to Increase Client Engagement and Rebuild Their Business

ATLANTA – Quality product images encourage people to travel and continue to be a major force in driving business in the travel industry, to achieve greater client engagement, conversion and retention.

On World Photography Day, which is celebrated on August 18th, Travel Advisors Selling the Caribbean (TASC), highlighted how travel photography can help rejuvenate the mind and fuel the soul, as part of their National Wellness Month campaign.

TASC hosted a webinar under the theme “Create New Perspectives & Connections with Clients” to promote travel photography as a formidable sales and marketing tool during the COVID era.

The one-hour online course featured two award winning Caribbean photographers, Dave Cox and Kirk Elliott. They provided key “tricks of the trade” to help travel advisors take their photography skills to a new level, by learning how to shoot better travel pictures and secure more bookings.

Kirk Elliott is an award winning photographer and National Geographic Certified Educator, www.kirkelliottphotography.com.  Dave Cox is a co-founder of Digital Coconut and Photographer & Publisher of Caribbean Bride Magazine www.davecoxpictures.com | www.caribbeanbride.com.

This dynamic duo demonstrated how photography can be leveraged to better communicate with clients and encourage them to begin traveling again. As many Caribbean destinations have begun reopening for business, these professional photographers believe that good imagery can help to alleviate “COVID blues” and restore excitement about travel to the region.

“Good travel photography plays a huge role in driving sales, as images can motivate people to travel. Photography can help rebuild confidence and trust and is also a great tool to introduce clients to a new destination by promoting the lifestyle and culture.  Visual content is extremely powerful and is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than any other type of content,” said Elliott.

As a gesture to encourage travel advisors to leverage photography as part of their sales and marketing strategy, Elliott extended a free offer to TASC members. It includes the use of 12 images from his personal photography collection for a limited period of time.

Dave Cox also shared similar sentiments. “An image is worth 1000 customers and can speak louder than words! The average attention span of customers is 8.2 seconds and people skimming through various online platforms have limited time and patience to actually read all the text or product descriptions. Photography should not be seen as a short-term tool, but as a long-term solution that gives travel advisors more visibility in the marketplace. By posting more high quality images consistently over time, travel advisors can better communicate their brand as being professional, diverse and innovative.  It tells customers that travel advisors understand and value their preferences and are willing to cater to their needs, “ said Dave Cox.

Kelly Fontenelle, TASC Founder who is also a photography enthusiast said, “We at TASC positioned this photography webinar as another opportunity to keep our members motivated by channeling their creativity in an effective way.  As we all plan for the future recovery of travel, we want to ensure that photography becomes a key part of travel advisors’ toolboxes and that they learn how to leverage it to their advantage to increase sales.  Travel photography is like a time machine. It allows clients to freeze memories from a trip that they can look back on and enjoy for years.”  Fontenelle encouraged travel advisors to improve their skills in photography as she believes that it could help clients better document their travel memories and lead to better lifetime value of the client relationship.

In the COVID-19 era, Travel Advisors Selling the Caribbean (TASC) continue to support its members in rebuilding their business through a range of online educational sessions, designed to help them broaden their skills and revamp their sales strategies by using more effective digital tools. The Photographic Society of America defines a travel photo as an image that expresses the feeling of a time and place.  It portrays a destination, its people, or a culture in its natural state and has no geographical limitations.

Soufriere Square Saint Lucia
Soufriere Square Saint Lucia

 

South Florida Caribbean News

The SFLCN.com Team provides news and information for the Caribbean-American community in South Florida and beyond.

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