Do you want to have reservations all year round? In this article we share 8 strategies to combat seasonality in tourism and guarantee revenue even during the low season.

Seasonality has a major impact on Tourism, as it increases or reduces the number of tourists depending on the time of year.

It is determined by consumer behavior and depends on factors outside the business, such as the weather, the season and the existence of holidays and special festivities.

In Portugal, this effect is observed mainly in Summer in coastal hotels and restaurants, whose tourist offer is conditioned by good weather.

This variability in the flow of tourists can be an ally for the business, or it can be its worst enemy. During the high season ensures greater demand and high revenues, but in low season represents difficulties for the return on investment, the hiring of human capital, financial liquidity and the ability to reinvest or innovate.

How to combat seasonality in tourism?

If your activity is influenced by seasonality in tourism, it is natural to ask yourself the following questions: “How can I reduce seasonality?”, “How can I have tourists all year round?” or “How can I increase revenue during the low season?”.

Therefore, here we leave 8 suggestions to maintain a constant flow of customers and combat seasonality in tourism in all seasons and seasons:

1. Invest in the “slow travel” market

“Slow travel” includes a type of tourist who prefers travel in low seasons, away from the crowds and popular tourist sites. They are looking for meaningful experiences and value connection with culture, gastronomy, history and nature.

Create an offer for this type of groups – retirees, digital nomads, young people who took a gap year – is a good way to generate demand outside of peak seasons.

And there are many activities that you can organize to involve them with the local community and the region. One idea is to create gastronomy itineraries and teach traditional recipes as a way to combat seasonality in tourism.

2. Attract local tourists

What better way to combat seasonality in tourism than capture the local population for your business?

This is a niche that is less affected by seasonal fluctuations. After all, these people live with you in the same location. Just like any tourist, they have the same desires and needs, and look for unique experiences.

But to attract this target audience you may need to think of activities that are a little different from those of your regular audience, which guarantee the satisfaction of a type of usual needs. For example:

• Birthday celebration
• Academic parties
• Team-building activities
• Family activities
• Walks or parties for pets

3. Define an audience for each season

Different audiences typically like different products. Why not combine this knowledge with a Segmented offer for each audience depending on the time of year?

Maybe in the summer you can create packages for families who go on vacation. And in the low season, in autumn and winter, when it is colder, invest in corporate audiences or in older age groups.

4. Make partnerships

Increase sales in low seasons by benefiting from partnerships with local businesses, municipal and supra-municipal entities, schools, universities, companies and tourist agencies.

This way you can develop complementary activities to your business and even promote yourself to you, for example, by offering coupons at the sports store for the next climbing challenge you are going to undertake, or vice versa. You can do something similar with event producers and discount overnight stays at your hotel, for example.

5. Invest in promotions and offers in low seasons

Promotions are a great way to attract the public and combat seasonality in tourism, and there are many ways to take advantage of them.

You can reward purchases made during high season with the offer of free vouchers to be used when the sales flow reduces.

Can offer discounts and coupons at the arrival of the low season. (However, when using this strategy be sure to set a limited time frame, for example a week, to use the time factor and urgency in your favor.)

You can also use the promotion refer a friend – for each friend or connection referred, a reward is given, such as a free guided tour, the offer of dinner or a discount.

Just use your imagination to your advantage.

6. Organize different activities for each season

Adapt activities, events and tours depending on the season or festive season.

Throughout the year there are celebrations, such as the Magusto, O Halloween, The New Year's Eve, O Valentine's Day and the Carnival, which serve as inspiration for fun events.

And until picking and growing fruit (like grape picking) can serve as the ideal excuse to organize something different.

7. Implement a year-round communications strategy

When you're not serving customers and are swamped with bookings, use the extra time to promote your business.

create a blog and start sharing articles with the benefits of the experiences you offer and lists of activities that people can do. Share photos and videos on social media of the region and places linked to your business to attract audiences.

In this way, you are generating traffic to your website and gain visibility. Also don't forget to update email database during the year. Place a sign-up form on your website, in pop-ups, sidebars, and footers, as well as on social media.

8. Take advantage of regional events

Whatever is happening around you – regional fairs, popular festivals, festivals, religious celebrations – connect to these activities and channel the greatest demand from tourists in your location into the business.

Be innovative! And, above all, don’t be afraid to try different solutions.

Why combat seasonality in tourism?

Not only to increase revenues and profits, combating the seasonality of tourism is the solution the sector needs to guarantee the stability of organizations and small businesses. Furthermore, it is a strategy that responds to one of the sector's biggest difficulties: the labor shortage crisis.

A Bolsa de Empregabilidade It has existed for over 7 years to facilitate the recruitment process for companies and reduce bureaucracy and hiring costs. We believe that the future of the economy and work will largely depend on the tourism and hospitality sector.

For this reason, we want to be by your side to face current challenges and reap future benefits. Find out how we can help your business through our job fairs, formations, networking events It is recruitment platform. Connect with us!