With more than 8 million people taking a flight somewhere every day, there are people vacationing and traveling constantly. If you’re trying to compete in the tourism industry, you need to find new ways to brand your company. A few simple branding tips can set you apart from your competitors in an important way.

Here are five ways you could set yourself apart from everyone else in the tourism industry.

1. Be Authentic

When you’re starting a business, you need to deal with the fact that you’re the number one ambassador of your brand. If you’re unhappy or uncomfortable with being out in the public, it’s going to show. If you’re not 100% on board with an idea, people will know.

You need to love the idea of being a travel agent and take your position as the face of the brand seriously.

Use your personality as something to attract people to your company. Show off who you are and what you’re about on Instagram and people will want to go on tours with you for the chance of hanging with you. If you use yourself as one of the attractions for your brand, you get the added bonus of not having to hire another ambassador with also knowing yourself.

If your authentic excitement for tourism comes off in your social media and online profiles, you’ll attract an audience ready to line up for your business.

2. Stay On Message

Every brand needs to have a message and a guiding principle arguing for who they are and what they’re about. When it comes time to give an interview, meet a new client, or talk to a group, you need to always be consistent and on message. If you’re on social media and digital platforms, you need to have the same logo and the same message wherever you go.

It can take years for a brand to take off so don’t be surprised if you need to work hard and repeat your message tirelessly. People may need to see your name and your brand a few times before they’re completely sold on what you’re about.

Every brand on the planet has an ideal customer and an ideal audience. There’s one very specific type of person who your brand is perfect for, and that ideal audience may not be as easy to find as you think. When you stay consistent with your message, you can attract your ideal audience.

Once you’ve attracted them, they will remember you next time they want to travel. They’ll tell their friends how great you are and help to spread the word.

3. Stand Apart From Others

When it comes time to define your tourism business compared to other travel companies, you need to show your uniqueness. It’s essential to show ways that you can impact your clients in a unique way. Your method of doing this should focus on what sets you apart and not what makes you look like every other business.

Give your customers a reason that they should value your brand over others. Figure out what skill you have that other tourism companies don’t have or don’t have time to focus on.

Some tourism companies have a lot of information to offer on their site or while setting up their tour. They might be able to entertain their customers better than other companies by putting together packages that excite and inspire customers.

Think about what you love and what you want from your next tourist trip and offer that to your customers. It’ll be easier for you to communicate with your customers about something you sincerely care about than something you’re still learning about.

4. First Impressions Matter

Remember that in any business, you only get one chance to make a first impression. While you might later decide that you want to rebrand your tourism company, you can only really roll your brand out once. It takes years to build a clientele and if you want to pivot, you’ll have to do so without alienating customers.

If you’re not ready to roll out your brand, take a step back and critique what you want to change. You can’t constantly change your brand without confusing your clients or throwing off your potential clients.

Branding is as important as anything else in business and no changes or movements should be made lightly. Brand yourself once by doing so with a clear message of who you are with a guiding principle, look, and attitude that you’ll feel proud in good times and bad times.

5. Think Two Steps Ahead

Growth is important to any business. When you’re putting together a tourism business, focusing on New York City, Paris, and Jamaica might be the bread and butter of your approach. However, as times change, different cities will meet the needs of a growing audience.

If you’re going to show them Paris, make sure they discover more on your trip.

You need to be constantly looking out for new places your clients will enjoy. If people enjoy working with you once, they’ll want to work with you again, so long as you can always teach them something new.

Stay two steps ahead of your competition by thinking about where your brand will go over time.

Providing every customer with a gift is a great idea so long as you can sustain that cost. If you’ve got 30 clients now, that might not be a big deal. But with 100 clients, you might struggle to keep up with those growing costs.

If you see your competitors tweeting and promoting trips to an emerging locale like Juarez or Berlin, they might have a special deal cut there. Don’t try to compete with them in Berlin. Find your own Berlin deal somewhere where you have connections.

Branding Tips Require Execution

You could have all the smartest branding tips on the planet but they all come down to the unique way you execute them. Without proper execution, you won’t achieve what you want in the industry.

If you want your clients to understand your brand personality starting with your logo, follow our latest guide.