Sounding Off: Social media shouldn't sugar-coat the mid-crisis travel experience

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered on our site that week.

There is an increasingly delicate approach needed by travel brands when considering their marketing options in a mid-pandemic period.

Those few words there are the most important to consider - as infections rise and fall, lockdowns and quarantines are imposed again on regional or national levels, it is clear (or should be) that the travel industry is probably not in a so-called recovery phase.

This virus is here to stay for some considerable time and, therefore, anything related to it should be positioned as being "mid-pandemic".

Marketing during this time is a tough job.

Text-based pay-per-click doesn't particularly lend itself to aspirational creative copy, which in this current time is arguably the correct approach.

Promote what is open or available and push the health message, if needs be.

Social media channels such as Tik Tok and Instagram Stories, by their very nature being more optimistic and promotional, are in a difficult spot here.

Sure, outline what is available and create that desire to visit a destination but the difficult element to win is doing so in a way that is realistic.

The travel experience is going to be disruptive (health checks) or weird (everyone wearing masks) for a while so ensuring the message does not ignore those facts will be beneficial in the long-run.