How to change your travel agency niche

You’ve decided it’s time to change your travel agency niche.

Maybe you’ve been booking all kinds of travel, and now you want to specialize.

Or maybe you’ve specialized in something and you want to get even more specific.

You may even want to change your niche completely.

All of those are fine reasons to make a change.

Actually, niching down is one of the best ways you can grow your business and find more clients. Many of the most successful travel agents have a specific niche.

But how do you actually do it?

This is where a lot of travel agents can get stuck.

You don’t have to, because we’re going to walk through how to do it together.

Decide what you want to be known for

It’s time to get specific.

Don’t try to cram as much as you can into the fewest words possible.

Think very clearly about what it is you want to specialize in. 

Is it river cruises for retired couples? Or family cruises with school-aged kiddos?

Do you want to plan adults-only all-inclusive resort vacations in Mexico, or family-friendly Caribbean island vacations?

Are you thinking about niching down to gluten-free or accessible travel in Europe? Perhaps sustainable travel or eco-tourism?

Whatever you choose, be specific.

It’s more than “FIT in Europe”. Maybe it's family vacations to Ireland. It could be food and wine experiences in Italy, or accessible travel through Europe.

If your travel agency niche could describe a big chunk of the travel industry, it’s probably still too broad.

What you choose as your niche becomes the foundation for the rest of your decisions.

Don’t worry about choosing the “wrong” niche. If you get into it and figure out it’s not what you thought, it can be changed! No decision that you make has to be a “forever” decision.

What do you still want to book?

Your niche doesn’t have to be the only thing that you plan and book.

If you’re looking for better calendar control, only booking your niche is a good start.

But what if you’ve been booking all-inclusives in Mexico, and want to start booking more Europe FITs for retired couples?

You can absolutely continue booking those all-inclusives if that’s what you want to do.

It helps to decide ahead of time if you want to continue booking outside your travel niche for your current clients, or if you want to only book your niche.

Making a decision ahead of time will make it easier (and faster) when a current client calls or emails to ask about their next trip.

Niching down means changing your marketing, so you aren’t going to be marketing the all-inclusive resorts that you did previously. 

But it doesn’t mean you can’t book them when you’re asked for it.

You don’t have to stop selling one thing because now you’re specializing in something else. The decision is completely up to you.

Start talking about your new travel agency niche

Before you start changing everything in your marketing, start by talking about your new niche.

Are you focused on luxury cruises? Maybe it's adventure tourism, or unique travel experiences?

“Talking” means focusing on your travel niche in your emails and on social media. It can mean writing new travel blog posts too (which can be done long before you change your website). 

Talk about your new niche as you network and during everyday conversations.

Instead of just posting a pretty picture of Scotland, you can talk about why that specific location is worth a trip. Or why you recommend one castle hotel over another. Even a hotel you don’t recommend staying at.

Maybe it’s the biggest mistakes clients make when planning their first trip to Scotland, like trying to cram too much into every day.

The goal is to help people start to associate you with your new niche.

And you do that by talking about it, not just posting pretty pictures.

Update the things people see first

After you’ve started talking about your niche, then it’s time to start updating the things that people see.

The order you do this in really depends on where you’re being seen the most.

If you’ve got great traction on social media, then update your social media profiles first to reflect your new niche. 

If you get lots of website traffic, your website (and writing more blog posts) should be prioritized.

When it’s all said and done, your website, About page, social media profiles, and any network/directory listings (Virtuoso, Travel Leaders, etc.) should be updated to show what you’re now specializing in.

You don’t need to do them all at once. Make steady progress and eventually everything will be updated to show your new niche.

Keep learning

You’re going to learn more as you go. It’s tempting to jump in with both feet, do all the learning you can find, then start marketing.

The opposite actually works better.

Start marketing with what you know of your new niche. It may not be much, but that’s ok.

As you get more accustomed to marketing your niche, it gets easier, and you’ll find there are some gaps in what you know.

You can increase your specific destination knowledge through training and building supplier relationships. You learn through actually planning trips (even if they’re mock ones). And it’s the perfect time to get on-the-ground experience through a Study Tour or self-planned FAM.

As you learn more, you can use your new knowledge to market more specifically.

Your niche will end up growing and changing as you learn more. And that’s a good thing!

Create something for people who are interested

This sounds a little cryptic, but it’s not as complicated as it sounds.

Think about what you want someone to do next.

At some point, people are going to be interested in what you’re sharing and want to learn more without going straight to planning a trip.

If they’ve come across your social media, how do they get more info (not just a “DM for more”)?

Or if they’ve read a blog post or two on your website, how can they stay connected with you?

The most common way for someone to stay connected without jumping straight to a DM or consultation call is by joining your email list.

And it’s important to have a good way for them to do that, meaning it’s more than just “join my email list”.

Maybe you create a lead generator like a guide, packing list, or helpful checklist that’s relevant to your niche. It could be a QR code to join your private Facebook group.

Or if you do more localized events, perhaps it’s an invite to your next coffee meeting or cruise night.

The goal here is to give someone a way to stay connected without taking the leap of saying “I’m interested in planning now”. Because they may not be!

When you give someone a way to stay connected without feeling like they’re being sold to, you develop that know, like, and trust factor that’s absolutely vital when they’re ready to think about their next trip.

What not to do

It’s easy to get excited and want to run off and start niching down. But before you do, here are some things that you shouldn’t do.

Don’t disappear while you change your travel niche

It can be really easy to stop posting or emailing when you’re trying to change your focus. And it’s tempting to want to stop marketing until you feel like it’s all “ready”.

But it’s ok to show people where you’re heading, without having it all finished or perfect.

Don’t expect one post to change your business

When you start posting something new on your social media (or writing new blog posts or talking about a different niche) it’s tempting to think that things will change quickly.

That’s not how it works. 

People start thinking about you differently after they hear it over and over and over again. And then some more. 

It’s not a once and done thing, as much as we wish it was!

Don’t change your mind every few months

Every time you second-guess yourself and change your focus or your specialty, you’re asking your audience to start over too.

It’s going to take time to find your footing, just like it does when starting anything new.

Your marketing is going to need time to work. Give it enough time before deciding to change again.

Don’t compare your start to someone else’s middle

Maybe you know other advisors who specialize in Scotland or river cruises, or whatever you want to specialize in. 

Remember, they’ve put in the time and effort to build their niche. And you will too.

Just because you aren’t getting the results you want right now, doesn’t mean it isn’t a good or profitable niche. 

It doesn’t happen overnight.

Give it time

It’s frustrating when you do all the work to change your niche, adjust your marketing, and have changed all of your digital and physical collateral (website, profiles, business cards, etc.) but then it feels like nothing happens.

Marketing takes time to work.

Your existing clients don’t disappear. They may want you to keep booking the trips for them that you always have. And it’s your choice if you want to.

Getting new clients that match your niche takes time.

If you’re known for one thing like all-inclusives or cruises and are changing your niche to focus on Scotland, there’ll still be plenty of people who think of you in terms of your old niche.

And that’s ok.

Be consistent as you market your new niche, and most of your clients will adjust to it.

The bottom line: Changing your travel agency niche doesn’t happen overnight

The process of changing your niche is more a series of small decisions and things to do instead of one big “once and done” thing.

And you don’t have to finish one part before starting on the next.

Those small decisions and small changes add up.

That’s how you gradually change what you want to be known for.

Want to learn more? Don't miss the first post in this 2-part series about making a niche change harder than it really is.