Your ideal group customer may be someone you’re not reaching yet.

Your ideal group travel customer may be one you’re not currently reaching.

The term “group travel” means a lot of things to a lot of people. Some people hear it and think of tour busses. Others think of destination weddings, and still others think of meetings and conventions.

If you’re responsible for promoting your destination, attraction or experience to the group market, understanding who the players are and where to find them is critical to your success. Pursuing the wrong people in the wrong place could be a waste of your efforts — and your money.

Here are four main categories of group travel decision-makers and some tips on how to reach them.

Travel Professionals

A significant portion of group travel is booked by professionals at for-profit travel businesses.

There are thousands of tour companies around the country, taking millions of people on domestic and international trips. And there are thousands more travel agents and advisors who plan and book group trips as part of their larger travel planning careers.

These travel professionals have the potential to bring large volumes of business to your destination. Because of this, they’re in high demand, and there is extensive infrastructure in place to help you reach them.

You’ll find travel professionals at events hosted by major travel trade organizations, such as ABA, NTA or IPW. Top travel advisors attend similar events in the agency world.

For consistent marketing outside of the trade show environment, the best way to reach these travel pros is in our magazine The Group Travel Leader and our podcast Gather and Go.

Affinity Organizations

Many people’s first exposure to group travel happens when they take a trip with an organization they’re affiliated with.

There are thousands of affinity organizations like this that offer group travel as a community-building perk. Schools and churches often take group trips. Many community banks have travel clubs. Chambers of commerce often offer trips for their members, as do university alumni groups, museums and other cultural organizations.

The people who plan travel for these groups aren’t travel professionals — they usually work directly for the organization. So while they aren’t often found at major tourism events, they are incredibly influential in their members’ travel decisions.

These planners can be hard to reach, but we have spent decades building relationships with church and affinity group travel organizers. They are huge fans of our magazines Going On Faith and Select Traveler.

Independent Group Leaders

Sometimes, the best way to take a trip is with a bunch of friends.

Across the country, there are thousands of people who plan trips for their friends, family members and others. They’re not travel professionals. They don’t do it to make money. Instead, they do it because the love travel and they love people.

In tourism jargon, these travel planners are known as “group leaders.” They’re the pied pipers who motivate their friends and followers to take trips with them. When they choose to visit a destination, they may bring a few dozen people along with them.

Like affinity travel planners, group leaders don’t often attend major events, and they can be hard to find if you don’t know where to look. Fortunately, we reach thousands of them in every issue of The Group Travel Leader and The Group Travel Minute. In fact, new group leaders opt in to our email list every day.

Meeting Planners

For many destination and hospitality marketers, the word “groups” really means meetings. When an event comes to town with hundreds or thousands of attendees, the amount spent on hotels, food and activities can be enormous.

Though there is a bit of crossover in places, the people who plan meetings are not the same as the people planning group tours. Instead, they tend to be either professional meeting planners or association executives tasked with coordinating the organization’s events among their other duties.

Like travel professionals, meeting planners are in very high demand, and there are numerous major events and publications that cater to high-end and high-volume meeting organizers.

The downside to these major events and brands is that they can be very crowded. And for anyone but the largest (and best-funded) destination marketers, it’s hard to stand out in the crowd.

That’s why we created Small Market Meetings. The magazine, and its accompanying weekly newsletter Meetings at a Glance, is read by more than 10,000 meeting planners looking for destinations and venues in less crowded places.

Ready to target the group and meeting planners who will be most receptive to your message? Reach out to our sales team for expert guidance.