Christmas Markets are back! Yes, after a quiet couple of years, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s looking like all of the popular European Christmas Markets are back with a bang for 2022. And with travellers keen to make up for lost time, get into the festive spirit and enjoy a glass of mulled wine in the most enchanting of settings, now’s the optimal time to boost your airport’s destination marketing campaigns!
Join us as we share our top tips for promoting European Christmas Market breaks with your airport.
Which European country has the best Christmas markets?
Right now, travellers are busy planning last-minute Christmas Market trips. The more organised of them may even be booking their Christmas market holidays for next year. With this in mind, it’s well worth creating new travel content (or updating your existing content) about the European Christmas Market destinations your airport serves.
Some of the most famous European Christmas markets include:
Strasbourg, France
Strasbourg is home to one of Europe’s longest-running Christmas markets. First held in 1570, the market stretches over 10 locations with 300 stalls. So travellers could enjoy a week in Strasbourg just by visiting the market!
Viennese Christmas Market, Vienna, Austria
First held in 1298, the Viennese market features more than 20 events. The city really embraces the festive spirit with a giant ice skating rink, 150 stalls, reindeer rides for children and a classic Nativity scene.
Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square, Prague, Czech Republic
Open every day until January 6th, including Christmas day, the two main markets are only a five-minute walk from each other and can easily be explored in a day.
Budapest Christmas Fair and Winter Festival, Hungary
The Budapest Christmas Fair and Winter Festival is Hungary’s oldest and most popular festive market. It takes place from early November to the end of December each year. Alongside Hungarian delicacies and Christmas gifts, there’s plenty of entertainment in the form of folk dancing, light shows and live music.
Piazza Santa Croce, Florence, Italy
Alongside the market, which consists of 50 stalls in front of the Franciscan Basilica, Florence also boasts a traditional nativity scene and Christmas tree in the Piazza del Duomo.
Krakow, Poland
This market usually sees a heavy dusting of snow in December, making for a magical Christmas experience. Local specialities include hand-painted Christmas baubles, and stalls feature everything from seasonal gifts to cheap antiques.
Frankfurt Christmas Market, Birmingham, UK
Not the most obvious destination for a traditional German Christmas market, but this is the largest example outside of Germany or Austria. The neighbouring craft market offers regional beers and food and work by local artists.
Other well-known festive markets include:
- Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt, Nuremberg, Germany
- Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin, Germany
- Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Winter Wonders, Brussels, Belgium
- Skansen’s Christmas Market, Stockholm, Sweden
- Fira de Santa Llúcia, Barcelona, Spain
- Basel Christmas Market, Switzerland
- Advent in Zagreb, Croatia
- Tallinn Christmas Market, Estonia
Which is the best? Well, it all comes down to what exactly the traveller is looking for. Each European Christmas Market has unique selling points, so identify them and use them in your airport marketing campaigns to match the right customers with the right destinations.
8 Tips for Promoting Christmas Market City Breaks in Europe
According to Business Insider, the number of travellers flying this holiday season is expected to meet, if not surpass, 2019 levels and searches for holiday travel for Christmas have increased by 35% from last year. With demand for Christmas travel soaring, it’s an excellent opportunity for airports to promote their flights, hotels and holiday bookings to a captive audience.
1. Plan your European Christmas Market travel campaigns early
Decide on the European destinations you will promote in your airport’s Christmas Market travel campaigns. Then, spend time creating and updating content about these destinations. Travel guides are a popular format you can easily share on your airport website, blog, marketing emails and social media. It’s also wise to perform keyword research to ensure your Christmas marketing content is SEO-friendly and use user-generated content within your campaigns to build customers’ trust.
2. Make your travel content stand out
When marketing European Christmas Market destinations, your airport will face tough competition from other airports, airlines, online travel agencies and hotel booking websites. With this in mind, you must find a way to make your travel content stand out from the crowd.
Personalising content for your audience is key and something we discuss more in our section on segmenting your customers. Beyond that, think about the emotions, feelings and values associated with the festive period. What should travellers try when they’re visiting a Christmas Market in Europe? Create a bucket list of festive foods. Or why not use story-telling to captivate customers and share the stories of some of the families that run the European Christmas Market stalls? Just a couple of ideas to get those creative juices flowing!
Remember to use the Rezcomm Website CMS to create, edit and publish content on your airport website with ease. Our user-friendly content management system enables you to add text, images, videos, GIFS, illustrations and more, with easy tools for non-developers.
3. Create an appealing offer
One of the best ways to boost bookings for Christmas Market breaks with your airport is with an irresistible offer. Decide what it will be and promote it within your Christmas Market marketing campaigns. For added effect, make it a time-limited deal or exclusive to a limited number of bookings. Fear of missing out is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal to convert website visitors into paying customers.
4. Build emails and landing pages for your Christmas Market Breaks
Email is still one of the best marketing tools for airports to engage with customers and drive conversions from European Christmas Market break bookings. Create a series of festive-themed emails to promote your Christmas Market destinations in Europe and nurture customers through your airport booking journey.
It’s also wise to build dedicated landing pages for each of your Christmas Market destinations that include the following:
- A captivating headline
- Engaging SEO & user-friendly content about the destination and why people should visit
- User-generated content to build trust
- An enticing offer
- A clear Call to Action to book with your airport and link to your travel booking search widget
Rezcomm’s Drag & Drop Email and Landing Page Builder enables you to design emails and landing pages for your airport marketing campaigns at speed. Access and customer templates or build from scratch – it’s digital marketing made easy!
5. Remember to segment your customers for greater personalisation
Segmenting your airport’s marketing email subscribers is a surefire way to boost conversions by sending the right content and offers to the right customers. There are numerous ways you can segment your customers, such as by:
- Demographics (age, personas, gender, location, etc.)
- New and loyal customers
- High-order value customers and price-sensitive customers
- All-year-round customers and seasonal buyers
- Customers who have previously booked a Christmas Market break
- Customers who haven’t interacted with your airport recently
Remember to draw on data from your CRM system, such as previous booking data and use dynamic content to personalise your email marketing campaigns and increase your chances of getting those all-important bookings.
6. Share your Christmas Marketing content on social media
So far, we’ve highlighted the importance of using email marketing to promote Christmas Market destinations to customers. But it’s equally important to work on your airport’s social media content.
Share visually appealing and valuable content to encourage people to visit your airport landing pages. Video is now an integral part of every social media platform, so it’s worth creating clips featuring your Christmas Market destinations to boost your airport brand’s visibility and increase engagement. Remember, video content doesn’t have to be ‘big budget’ to make an impact. See what other travel brands and influencers are doing on TikTok and Instagram Stories for inspiration, and use our handy Social Media Scheduler to plan, review and publish content across your networks easily.
Your airport might also want to create a hashtag for its European Christmas Market campaign to encourage user-generated content and reach an even bigger audience. Consider running a contest where you ask people to share their Christmas Market photos using your airport’s hashtag to be in with the chance to win a prize (like free Fast Track on their next flight booking with your airport or an airport lounge upgrade.) Doing so will also increase awareness of your products and services.)
7. Boost your destination marketing efforts with paid advertising
Another way you can drive more conversions from your airport’s destination marketing campaigns during the festive season is with paid advertising. There are many types of paid ads, but the most common are:
- Pay-per-click adverts – where businesses can bid to appear as the top result on search engines (above organic results) for specific keywords
- Social media adverts – where businesses create an advert or ‘boost’ an organic post on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, targeting it at a specific audience
Set a budget for paid advertisements when planning your European Christmas Marketing campaign, monitor it carefully, and continually modify your adverts to ensure you achieve the best outcomes.
8. Monitor your European Christmas Market campaign results
Last but not least, it’s essential to monitor your airport’s Christmas destination campaigns to see which content is performing well, where your website traffic is coming from and what’s generating the most conversions. This data will prove extremely useful when it comes to planning airport marketing campaigns in the future.
Build better airport marketing campaigns with Rezcomm
We hope these tips have inspired you to jump on the Christmas Market break bandwagon and use this growing travel trend to drive more bookings to the European destinations your airport serves. Download our Marketing brochure to learn more about our powerful marketing tools and Book a Meeting to access expert marketing support for airports.
As Chief Digital Officer at Rezcomm, Victoria specialises in Digital marketing, CRM, digital design, UI, UX, email marketing, airports, innovation, technology, travel, parking, and ecommerce.
