This guide sets out 12 practical travel agency marketing ideas, grouped by stage: attracting new clients, converting enquiries, and keeping clients and winning referrals. It ends with a simple 90-day plan and the numbers worth tracking. If you are still setting up your business, start with our guide on how to start a travel agency, then come back to this one.

We're Xylen, a telecoms carrier that helps travel businesses add connectivity to their trips. Idea 9 shows where that fits, but most of these ideas need nothing from us.

Start with your niche and three numbers

Marketing is easier when you can finish the sentence "We are the agency for…". A niche can be a destination (Japan, East Africa), a type of traveller (families with young children, solo travellers, accessible travel), a style of trip (luxury rail, adventure, Umrah packages) or a type of client (small business travel, school groups). A clear niche tells you what content to write, which suppliers to partner with and where your future clients spend their time online.

Before you spend more on marketing, find three numbers in your own records:

1. Where enquiries come from. Ask every new enquirer how they heard about you, and record the answer.

2. How many enquiries become bookings. Count both, every month.

3. How many clients book again. Check how many of this year's clients have booked with you before.

These numbers show where effort will pay off. If plenty of enquiries arrive but few become bookings, the problem is conversion, not visibility, and ideas 7 and 8 matter more than a new advertising campaign.

Ideas to attract new clients

1. Build destination and niche pages that answer real questions

Travellers research before they talk to anyone. Pages that answer the questions your clients actually ask, such as the best month to visit, how long to spend in each place or what a trip costs at different levels, can keep bringing in visitors long after you publish them.

Use what you know first-hand: routes you have tested, hotels you have inspected, mistakes past clients made. That detail is what large travel sites cannot copy. Keep each page focused on one topic, update prices and seasonal details every year, and end with a clear way to enquire.

2. Make your agency easy for AI search to find and trust

Search engines now show AI-generated summaries for many questions, and travellers can also ask AI assistants for trip ideas. Google says there are "no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary". To be eligible to appear as a supporting link, a page must be "indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet" (Google Search Central).

These are good search marketing practice rather than Google requirements, and they help with AI search too:

• Write clear pages that answer one question well, with the answer near the top.

• Keep your business name, address, phone number and opening hours identical on your website, Google Business Profile and directory listings.

• Show who is behind the advice: named advisors, their experience and the destinations they know.

• Check that your important pages are indexed. Google Search Console shows which pages are.

3. Complete your Google Business Profile and ask every client for a review

For local searches, your Google Business Profile is often one of the first things people see. Fill in every section, add real photos of your team and office, list your services and keep your opening hours up to date.

Reviews are just as important to get right. Ask every client after they return, with a direct link that makes it easy. Do not offer anything in return. Google says offering incentives, "like free or discounted goods or services", in exchange for reviews "is considered fake & misleading content and is strictly prohibited" (Google Business Profile Help). In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority's guidance also treats reviews that hide the fact they were incentivized as a banned practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (CMA). Reply to reviews, including critical ones, calmly and specifically.

4. Pick one or two social channels and show real trips

Being on every platform usually means doing all of them badly. Choose the one or two where your clients spend time: visual platforms for leisure and luxury travel, LinkedIn for business travel and group organisers, and messaging groups for communities you already serve.

Post what only you can show: clients' trips (with their permission), hotel inspections, the planning behind a complex itinerary and short destination tips. A posting rhythm you can keep up beats a burst of activity followed by silence.

5. Co-market with suppliers, DMCs and tourism boards

Your suppliers want the same travellers you do. Hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, destination management companies and tourism boards often run agent training, joint campaigns or familiarisation trips. Ask your partners what support they offer: images and content you can use, co-hosted events, joint email campaigns or offers for your clients.

Local partnerships work too. A wedding planner, a dive school or a business events venue can refer clients to you, and you can refer clients back.

6. Run small paid campaigns around specific trips and dates

Paid search and social ads, the most measurable part of digital marketing, work best when they promote something specific: a hosted group departure, school holiday dates or a niche trip you know well. Broad campaigns on generic terms such as "cheap holidays" put a small agency up against the largest online travel companies.

Start with a small budget, send each ad to a page about that exact trip, and count the enquiries and bookings each campaign brings in before spending more.

Add something your clients will use on every trip. With Xylen's Travel eSIMs, your agency can offer mobile data with your branding, through a co-branded eSIM website, a wholesale portal or an API integration. See how travel partners work with Xylen.

Ideas to turn enquiries into bookings

7. Reply quickly and follow up with a plan

Some travellers contact several agencies at once, so a fast, personal reply helps you stand out. Set a response time your team can actually meet, and use templates for the first reply so speed does not depend on who is in the office.

Enquiries can go quiet simply because nobody follows up. Agree a simple sequence, such as a check-in after a few days and another a week later, and record the outcome of every enquiry so you can see why trips are lost.

8. Send proposals that sell the trip, not just the price

A proposal is a marketing document. Instead of a list of prices, show the itinerary day by day, explain why you chose each hotel and experience, and make clear what is and is not included. Add the details that show your expertise, such as the best side of the train for the view or the quiet time to visit a busy site.

Where it makes sense, offer two or three options at different levels. This helps clients compare and gives them a reason to choose you rather than shop around on price alone.

Ideas to keep clients and win referrals

9. Use the time before departure

The weeks before a trip are a natural time to be in touch, because clients are preparing and looking for advice. A pre-departure email or checklist can cover documents, entry requirements, what to pack and how to reach you while they are away. It is also a good place to offer practical extras such as transfers, travel insurance and mobile data.

Mobile data is one of the simpler extras to add, because it is useful on almost any trip. With Xylen's Travel eSIMs, travel businesses can offer mobile data to their clients through a co-branded eSIM website, a wholesale portal or an API integration. Our article on why seamless connectivity matters for modern travellers explains more.

10. Stay in touch during and after the trip

A short message on the first day ("Did your transfer arrive on time?") shows care and catches problems early. When clients return, send a welcome-home message, ask for feedback and, if the trip went well, ask for a review.

Then keep the relationship going: a note on the anniversary of their trip, ideas for their next holiday based on what they enjoyed, or an invitation to a client event. Record what each client liked, so every future conversation feels personal.

11. Build an email list you are allowed to use

Email is one of the most direct ways to reach past and future clients, but the rules on consent vary by country. In the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) explains that you can send marketing emails to individuals who have specifically consented to them. There is also a "soft opt-in" for existing customers who bought, or negotiated to buy, a similar product or service from you, where the marketing is about your own similar products or services, provided you gave them "a simple way to opt out both when you first collected their details and in every message you have sent" (ICO). The soft opt-in does not cover new contacts, such as people on bought-in lists. The ICO notes that this guidance is under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act, so check the current version before you rely on it.

If you market to travellers in other countries, check the local rules or take legal advice. Whatever the law requires, make unsubscribing easy and send emails people want to open: useful destination guides, early access to group departures and genuinely good offers.

12. Make referrals easy

Happy clients are often willing to recommend you; they just need a prompt. Ask at the right moment, such as after positive feedback, and give them something easy to pass on, like a short message or a link to your enquiry form. Let clients share it themselves rather than asking for their friends' email addresses, which would bring the email consent rules into play.

Some agencies thank clients for a successful referral, for example with a credit on a future trip. Keep this separate from review requests: Google prohibits rewarding reviews, and UK consumer law restricts incentivised reviews too. If a reward is involved and clients recommend you publicly, check the disclosure rules in your market.

A 90-day travel agency marketing plan

You do not need to start all 12 ideas at once. This plan spreads them over three months for a small agency. Adjust it to the time and budget you have.

How to measure what is working

Track a few numbers every month rather than many numbers now and then. Between your booking system or CRM, Google Business Profile and Google Search Console, you should be able to cover most of these.

There are no universal targets for these numbers. Compare each month with your own earlier months, and give new activity time to work before you judge it. Content and search in particular take months, not weeks.

Key points

• Know your niche and your three numbers before spending more on marketing.

• Put as much effort into converting and keeping clients as into finding new ones.

• Follow the rules on reviews and email consent. Shortcuts put your reputation and your mailing list at risk.

• Track a few measures every month, and keep what works.

For more ways to grow revenue from the clients you already have, see our guide to travel business ideas. If you want to offer your travellers mobile data before they fly, see how Xylen's travel partner solutions help travel businesses add connectivity.