Launching a travel start up
Case study
TravelLocal is a Bristol-based global B2C online marketplace for tailor-made holidays, established in 2016. The company connects clients directly with hand-picked travel experts based in each of its 50+ destinations worldwide.
Challenge
TravelLocal organises a fully-personalised holiday directly for each client, bypassing the traditional middleman (whilst retaining ABTA and ATOL protection), and contributes more to local economies by working with locally-owned travel companies.
Travel PR was brought in as the PR agency to launch this start-up travel company in the UK market.
We were tasked with establishing the company as an innovative new player, shaking up the tailormade holiday sector, sharing a playing field with the likes of Cox & Kings and Audley Travel, as well as setting it apart from similar start-up competitors operating in the same sphere, such as French-based Evaneos.
Strategy
With affluent 40+ travellers being the target market, we needed to demonstrate TravelLocal’s broad product offering of a twist-on-a-classic and off-the-beaten-track trips, the website’s ease of use, and its innovative positioning as a “buy local” travel company.
Over a three-year period, we set up over 30 one-to-one media briefings, introducing the company to key UK media, organised 20 solo and group press trips, and provided a 24/7 press office service issuing press releases, short form content and direct pitches to the UK media’s most influential travel editors, staffers and freelancers. We also announced news of the company’s three successful funding rounds to travel trade, business and tech press.
Impact
Coverage was achieved in The Daily & Sunday Telegraph, The Times & Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Financial Times, The Mail on Sunday, Metro, independent.co.uk, i News, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Nat Geo Traveller, Lonely Planet, Wanderlust, Good Housekeeping, Escapism, Suitcase Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Yahoo, MSN and many more.
Travel PR has brought the TravelLocal brand to the attention of the key UK travel media and many millions of consumers. With a massive boost to its profile, the company enjoyed three successful rounds of investment, bringing total funding raised (to date) to over £8 million.
I have worked with Travel PR for almost 20 years - during which time they have helped to facilitate access to a wide range of clients, tourist boards, destinations and tour operators. While the contours of travel have inevitably changed during that time, Travel PR have been a constant. I have always found them to be professional, helpful, and easy to deal with.
Chris Leadbeater, The Telegraph
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Travel PR, established 25 years ago, is a leading specialist PR and communications agency specialising in the travel, hotel and lifestyle markets. Want to create a PR strategy for your brand?