By early October, holiday marketing is not only getting started . . . it’s already out in full force.
Sales. Gift guides. Black Friday previews. Lists of things people should buy before they sell out.
Travel advisors do not need to add another generic holiday promotion to the pile. A vacation is different because the value is not really in the thing being wrapped. It is in the anticipation, the shared experience, and the memories the family gets to keep afterward.
That gives you a much more useful marketing angle than “book now.”
Start with the problem clients are already feeling
Holiday gift-giving can be fun, but it can also become one more project to manage. Parents and grandparents are looking for meaningful ideas. Couples may be tired of buying each other more stuff. Families may already be talking about wanting to spend more time together.
A travel campaign works best when it begins there — with the reason someone might want a different kind of gift — rather than beginning with a destination or price.
Show them what gifting travel can actually look like
For many clients, “give a vacation for Christmas” sounds appealing but vague.
Help them picture it.
Could grandparents give part of a family cruise? Could parents reveal a spring-break trip on Christmas morning? Could a couple exchange a weekend away instead of another physical gift? Could the family contribute to one larger experience instead of buying dozens of smaller presents?
When you give people examples, the idea moves from interesting to imaginable.
Make the reveal part of the experience
One of the most fun parts of gifting travel is the reveal.
You can talk about wrapping a suitcase, creating clues, putting a destination ornament on the tree, using a scavenger hunt, or printing a simple itinerary-style announcement.
Those details make good content because they are useful even before someone is ready to book. They also help the advisor become part of the story instead of simply the person processing the reservation.
Tell a story, not just a promotion
Trip Under the Tree CAMPAIGN
Our Campaign Made Simple templates are designed around a specific marketing opportunity, with 9–12 emails that move leads from initial interest through the key questions and decisions that help them take the next step—whether that is joining a waitlist, requesting a quote, or booking the trip.
✓ easy to personalize
✓ ready to USE
One of the Trip Under the Tree emails is intentionally built around relatability and memory because this kind of campaign works best when the reader can connect the idea of travel with something meaningful in their own family.
Christina has shared a childhood story about receiving a family trip to Ireland as a Christmas gift. Her parents created a hunt through the house with clues tied to Ireland before revealing that the family would travel there in the spring. The trip became one of those gifts she remembered long after the other presents from that Christmas were forgotten.
That is the marketing lesson: the vacation itself is the product, but the story is what helps the reader understand why it matters.
Do not make the campaign depend on a discount
A holiday travel campaign does not need to be a sale.
The strongest reason to act may simply be timing. If the family wants a spring-break cruise, summer Europe trip, or winter getaway, planning early gives them more choices and more time to make the trip fit their budget.
That is a much more natural reason to start a conversation than creating artificial urgency.
Give the reader an easy next step
Not everyone reading the campaign will be ready to book a specific trip.
The next step can be simple: reply with who they are shopping for, ask for ideas within a certain budget, schedule a planning call, or request a few destination options.
The goal is to turn “that would be a great gift someday” into an actual travel conversation.
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