Do You Need Pretty Pictures to Sell a Travel Product?

I’ve just spent the best part of an hour wanderlusting at all the gorgeous websites in this roundup of inspirational travel website designs.  They are beautiful websites.  Some are more effective and usable than others, but all definitely easy on the eyes.

I couldn’t help but notice the comment “Frederica” left:

I noted that these hotels and resorts are almost all luxury hotel: it’s far more simple to design a beautiful website if you have awesome pictures!

Hmm.  I don’t think that is true.  Yes, pictures say a thousand words, as the cliché goes,  and if you don’t have any photos on your website, people will wonder what you are hiding.  Yes, they need to be professional photos – not expensive, but not lousy off-the-cuff shots with a blurry cameraphone.  (Side point:  It might just be me, but I would rather see photos that look like a tourist took them – instead of the overly glossy marketing photos.  Perhaps it is just me.  Personal preference.)

But no way do you need to have a million dollar facility to have great photos.  Here are some photos I just found from visitors to budget hotel properties – these visitors have shared these photos to their friends on Flickr.

Hotels

Here’s a nice shot of the “fasthotel” by Wolfgang Staudt.  It looks “pretty” and professional to me:

Or how about this lovely exterior shot of a Holiday Inn by Uggboy?

Tour Operators

You need ‘em too – pictures of people enjoying your tours.  This is a no brainer, and so many operators seem to think that I can just imagine on my own all these lovely places you want to take me.  Not the case.  You don’t need to spend a fortune though.

Look at this gorgeous shot from Lauren Kates of her tour guide in Jamaica:

Or how about Marcin Wichary’s photo of his tour guide of the Seattle Underground – an action pose:

The Seattle Underground is kind of dusty and dank.  It’s not photogenic.  But this is a great shot, no?

The Answer is Yes

Do you need pretty pictures to sell a travel product?  YES.

Do you need to spend a fortune on getting them?  NO.

Your customers probably have great ones you can use.  Just ask – more often than not they’ll be happy to oblige. Otherwise, there are photography students and amateur photographers – heck, even semi-professional photographers are very reasonably priced and can do a bang up job for you.  But you need good, quality photos.  No matter what kind of travel “thing” you are selling.

To Learn More

If you are feeling like your website is lacklustre and not converting browsers into buyers effectively, we can help.  Have a look through our resources, including our popular website review service.