Tourism, hospitality and photography – what is the link to selling your space?
Tourism, hospitality and photography go hand-in-hand. You cannot sell your destination or accommodation without the right photographic images.
Images are very important to present your online and offline message and to sell your location. A good image will help your business to gain more interest, more customers and more profit.
To invest in a professional photographer is the best return on investment you will get. Your images must reflect the beauty of your space. It must be an accurate representation of your property.
Tourism depends on accommodation and accommodation depends on photography. The one can’t go without the other. The success of your accommodation depends on it.
The only view a tourist will probably have of your accommodation, will be online. Good images will sell your property.
Tourism is hospitality, hospitality is tourism and photography is the engine that keeps it running.
Tourism, hospitality and photography: The perfect trio.
Here is a good read from PHOTOWEB
The world is saturated with images. Every website, advertisement, and Instagram post comes with a picture. In marketing, photography can make or break your campaign, especially on your most vital branding tool, your website. In the business of hospitality (accommodation/property) photography, poor quality photos that fail to express the property or the brand do nothing for their efforts, and in fact, do more harm than good.
As photographers in an industry that demands we communicate their worth through imagery, we must ask “what do our clients need from us?” The answer is innovation. In order to be a leader in the hospitality/accommodation/property photography market, or really any market for that matter, you must be an expert in presenting forthcoming ideas.
Online first
Accommodation shoppers look online first and this trend just continues to accelerate. Your photography is your viewer’s first impression. If they don’t believe your photos are first-rate, then they will click the mouse and move to the next provider.
This is why hospitality photographers consider three key elements. How the accommodation positions itself to their customers, how can they convey quality, and how can they express uniqueness? The eye automatically drifts to photographs first. However, what is more important than having good photography is not having bad photography. A flawed or cheap looking shot can bring down the opinion of your property. Even if you spent a lot of money on your website and the other graphic details are top notch, unsightly pictures can ruin the impression.
Photography must embrace a story
To do all of this and still portray the exclusive story of the property is a real art. The hospitality industry all over the world has a narrative, and photography must embrace the story of the property. It is known that people buy on emotion, and if there is a compelling story that draws people in, your business becomes even more desirable.
In the hospitality industry, photography must be a principal focus of the marketing strategy. The shots need to create a feeling and connect; expressing what kind of experience they will have during their stay. A study conducted by Hotels.com stated that about 70% of respondents agreed that the photos of the hotel and hotel rooms were influential to their decision-making process. This proved true when several years ago, one of our clients did a test to see how photography influenced their customer base.
They set up two websites. One contained poor quality and monotonous shots, while the second site displayed exceptional images throughout. It came as no surprise that the difference in bookings was enormous, with the visually appealing website having much more success.
Uniqueness that spark a connection
A trained photographer will understand the culture of the location, the value that guests place on travel, and find the uniqueness that will spark a connection. Maintaining it should be a priority, especially in photography.
Why Great Photography May be the Best Investment You Ever Make
HOTEL BUSINESS REVIEW
By Gary Leopold President & CEO, ISM | May 19, 2010
If you believe “a picture is worth a thousand words” then you can only imagine how exponentially more valuable a really great picture is worth, especially as you think about a networked society that’s taking these images and effortlessly distributing them to every corner of the world and sharing them on mediums ranging from computers to PDA’s to phones.
Important role of photography in tourism and hospitality
How you depict your hotel/property has never been more critical and the role that photography plays has never been more important. Yet it’s surprising how poor the general quality of photography is as you leaf through brochures and surf across the internet. Given the investment owners, developers and management companies put into their hotels/properties, it’s amazing that there doesn’t seem to be an equally significant investment being made in creating imagery that shows off the property in the most engaging and compelling way possible.
According to a study done by Hotels.com nearly 70% of respondents agreed that seeing photos of the hotel and hotel rooms are key to their decision making process. Why? Because in the customer’s desire for immediate gratification, photos are the easiest and fastest way to absorb something about that hotel/property, and when combined with customer ratings, descriptions and maps, they are the best way to convey the ambiance, quality, service, features and style of your property.
Given the way travelers research and access information today, the single most important marketing expenditure your hotel/property will ever make will be in the visual images that you use to tell your story to the marketplace.
Not by accident
But getting great photography doesn’t happen by accident. In reality it’s part art and part science and Through the years I’ve seen million dollar spaces made to look dull and uninteresting, and simple guest rooms at budget hotels made to feel cosy and comfortable. While digital photography and automatic features on cameras has improved the quality of most picture taking, capturing the spirit and flavor of your property requires far more than snapping a few images as you walk around the hotel. As my friend Robert Reck, an accomplished photographer whose work is regularly featured in Architectural Digest constantly reminds his clients, great images are “made” not “taken”.
