The challenged - Part 4
This is what E-mail marketing in the tourism and travel industry looks like in the days of COVID-19. Carolina Bauer shows you how the challenged act in the crisis
In part one, two and three of the blog series we have already given you an insight into email marketing during the Corona crisis and introduced you to the communication winners, as well as the quiet and the striving of this time. In part four we would like to address the challenged ones during the time of COVID-19. Similar to the winners of this crisis, the challenged are the same. There are not only the ones who are economically the hardest hit at the moment, they have also been frozen in communication with their customers: the companies in the tourism and travel industry.
Among the companies to which we subscribe are Swiss Air, Condor, Lufthansa, Air Austria, Aldi Reisen, Eurowings, KLM and a few more flight and travel companies. At the beginning of March, they were all still offering relatively carefree bargain trips, cruises and cheap flights to extraordinary places.
This changed a few days later when the first entry stops were imposed. From 5 March onwards, Condor and Eurowings offered free rebooking for all flights. In the days that followed, KLM and other flight providers also followed suit.
In mid-March the situation changed completely. KLM and Eurowings sent out information newsletters explaining how they were complying with hygiene standards on board and what entry stops meant for their passengers. Two days later, Austrian Airlines announced that they would completely stop flying until further notice. Aldi Reisen, on the other hand, wanted to send its customers on a cruise as late as March 14:
That's it. After that we did not receive any more newsletters. One day after the cruise faux pas, Aldi Reisen had sent out a newsletter, which also offered the possibility of rebooking already booked trips free of charge, but after that we didn't hear anything more from Aldi Reisen either.
As described at the beginning, the travel industry is the counterpart of the food industry in this crisis. They are the losers, who are currently suffering a great deal of economic damage. This is also noticeable in e-mail marketing. But is this necessary? Haven't these companies developed a communication strategy for times of crisis? At the latest the outbreak of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 should have actually led to an answer to the question "What do we tell our customers if we cannot offer our service? It does not seem so.
Our expert tip for you:
Even if your company is economically affected by the situation, try to keep E-mail marketing alive and be there for your customers even in difficult times.
Stay tuned! Stay safe!
Your Caro
