Michelle Baran
Within the last month, both Globus and Trafalgar have released marketing videos they are hoping will help agents sell tours.
Globus has three videos on its website, which document the group-tour experiences of two parents and their child, two sisters and a couple. Similarly, Trafalgar has produced a video, available on its website, that documents a couple on a Trafalgar tour.
The videos aren't bad. The production quality, and the combination of sit-down interviews and footage of the tour, is a very realistic, documentary-style format that works and is surprisingly engaging.
The problem with promotional videos is just that: They are promotional. And people are all too clever when it comes to being sold on something.
But whether they are effective in the marketplace, whether they help agents stir positive emotion in clients that can be converted into sales, the fact is that tours are not a two-dimensional product.
Tours are difficult to illustrate and explain properly with the traditional paper brochure. That fact comes across vividly in the videos, in which, at the very least, agents and clients can get a better sense of some of the emotions, experiences and reactions people have while touring.
And clearly, the videos are also intended to combat some of the stereotypes about touring, like that tours are for elderly folks (the couple in the Globus video appear to be in their 30s), that tours aren't family-friendly (another Globus video portrays a family with what appears to be a teenage daughter) or that tours aren't romantic (the Trafalgar couple appear to be rekindling their romance).