Low-Cost Marketing Tools for Tourism Promotion

There are an endless amount of tourism tools for marketing professionals out there that can help you achieve your marketing goals. In this age of technology, we have access to excellent marketing tools for tourism promotion that can help DMOs of any size make the most of their time and efforts. This list is full of free or inexpensive tools and technology that I use almost daily.

1. More AI Tools

Love it or hate it, AI is here and can be useful when used properly. Most everyone knows the standard tools dominating this space:

• ChatGPT (by OpenAI)
• Google’s Gemini
• Microsoft’s CoPilot
• Jasper
• Claude

However, there are tens of thousands (if not more) tools built with AI just waiting to be discovered. Here are a couple others our team uses:

• Lovable.dev for website mockups
• Perplexity for research (try comparing Perplexity results to ChatGPT Deep Research)

Visit our workshop library to get started with AI or take your skills to the next level

2. Automation for Tourism

Why spend hours on things that computers can do for us? With just a little bit of forethought, we can save ourselves so much time throughout the year – especially in the busy season.

Automation goes beyond scheduling an email on Constant Contact or MailChimp. It’s about connecting the tools you use to create efficiencies. This does get involved on the setup side, but once it’s set up and tested and working well, it relieves a huge lift.

API Tools

The connector tool we use for ourselves and our clients is Zapier. It has affordable entry pricing that you can actually use. It connects with the majority of cloud-based apps and programs I’ve ever needed. And it has a guided setup tool with testing built in that makes everything go smoothly.

What do I use Zapier for? Most often, contacts are being moved from one system to another, actually. Whether they’re coming in from Facebook ads or Google ads or webinar sign ups – then they move to the email marketing platform or CRM. It can send an email or alert – our website contact form feeds directly into a Slack message channel. Another great use is moving data from a system into a cloud-based reporting tool. I love automating as much as possible, making things easier for our clients and my coworkers.

The other main API tool is called Make. It appears to cost about the same, although the pricing models are different. Where Zapier is based on the number of tasks per month and the level of apps you’re connecting, Make has a credit-based pricing system and a robust free level. The best way to go is to pick one system and learn it well. It’s amazing what you can connect with these tools!

3. Creating Visuals

Photo Libraries

One of the most important marketing tools for tourism professionals is visuals. Stunning visuals are key to inspiring travel. While you can’t get away with stock photos for everything, there are great free and royalty-free photos available for free on sites like Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash.

Using a photo isn’t just about having the right one, though. It often needs to be a certain size, or you’ll need to use it for something on a website or other promotion. Very few offices have a dedicated graphic designer who has the time to make a ton of little graphics for social media on the fly. And not everyone knows how to use fancy editing software, let alone the time and energy and know-how to make it look beautiful within minutes.

Canva

Enter Canva, or design-for-dummies as I like to call it. It’s a great tool for creating your own graphics. You start by selecting the size of your project. Use a pre-made size like a poster, Facebook post or email header – or type in a custom size. Then choose from pre-made layouts complete with fonts. The free version will take you far, they have integrations with Pixabay and Pexels, or you can upgrade for more collaboration and more stock photos. The best way to understand it, is to see it in action:

4. Social Media Automation

When it comes to social media, there are a few tools that can make life easier. We outline content calendars in a spreadsheet to align messaging with strategy, and then schedule out the posts.

Meta Business Suite

Facebook’s algorithm penalizes posts (read: lessens the reach) scheduled through other tools, but their Business Suite Content tool has all the features we need to schedule posts in advance for Facebook and Instagram.

Tailwind for Pinterest

Tailwind offers scheduling for Pinterest. This channel has been left out or underrepresented in scheduling platforms, so we were thrilled to find this. It allows you to schedule posts out months in advance. Once you have posts scheduled, Tailwind automatically uploads them to Pinterest for you, taking away all the hassle and time of planning and uploading. The platform has a free forever plan that could be workable most destinations, and the next step up is an affordable next step if you need it.

Multi-Channel Social Media Automation Tools

• SproutSocial is a tool for social listening, reporting and managing all your social channels in one place.
• Publer‘s starting plan is free for up to 3 social media accounts.
• Buffer‘s free plan also includes up to 3 social media accounts.
• We’ve used MeetEdgar for a few clients over the years. This tool is a little different in that you can schedule evergreen posts to reappear at a certain cadence.

5. Random Tech Tools I use a lot

I can’t fit the rest of these into one category, but I saved them in my bookmarks for a reason:

• Google’s Campaign URL Builder for creating UTM codes on links for better tracking
• Built With to see how a website is made by looking at the tools installed on it
• WayBackMachine to look at a website or page as captured on a certain date
• Hemingway Editor for content proofing
• Color Hex for web color codes and related hues and shades
• Image Extractor to easily collect logos or images from client websites as needed for projects
• Map Radius Calculator to look at drive markets in a given radius (for a 6-hour drive I use a 200mi radius)

Organizing lots of contacts? A CRM might be the next tool you need

Try out some of these marketing tools for tourism to help you save time and take your marketing to the next level. Looking for a solution that’s not mentioned here? Let me know, I’d love to help you find a tool!