The Ultimate Guide to Launching, Promoting, and Selling Out Your Dream Group Trip

Congratulations – you’re hosting your dream group trip! Preparing to launch is an exciting moment, and whether this is your first adventure or your tenth, having a clear plan is the secret to filling spots confidently and successfully. Below is a simple guide to help you launch, promote, and sell your group trip like a pro.

Why a Promotional Strategy Matters 🚀

It’s easy to assume that great trips simply sell themselves or that having a big audience guarantees instant bookings. In reality, even the most impressive itinerary needs structure, momentum, and multiple touchpoints to convert interest into actual sales.

If you don’t have a large audience, don’t worry – smart strategy beats size. And if you do have a big following, a strong plan ensures you make the most of it.

Step 1: Expression of Interest (EOI) Campaign

Build Your Email List Early

Start gathering interest well before your trip goes live. Surveys and EOIs help confirm demand, guide your planning, and most importantly, build your email list ready for early bird and launch campaigns. We recommend promoting EOIs multiple times during planning – every reminder gives your audience another chance to put their hand up.

We can help set this up for you – click here to check out our guide to planning your trip, and below to check out our sample survey and EOI forms:

👉 Example Audience Survey
👉 Example EOI Form

Offer Extra Value

Encourage sign-ups with perks like early bird access, first dibs on spots, or exclusive discounts (agreed with us during pricing discussions – click here to learn more about the pricing process).

Promote Your EOI Everywhere

Use Instagram Stories with link buttons, share it on Facebook, drop it in your bio – anywhere your audience spends time. The more email addresses you collect, the better your chances of getting the numbers you need to confirm your trip!

🔥 Hot Tip: You can even run an EOI directly inside Instagram using the question box. Just remember you’ll need to manually transfer the emails later.

Step 2: Creating Your Trip Pages 🌍

Your Best In Travel trip page is the beating heart of your launch. This is where your audience turns into guests and your dream adventure becomes real. Think of it as your digital storefront – a beautifully designed space filled with stunning images, key details, irresistible highlights, and everything travellers need to fall in love with your trip. It’s the place you’ll be sending people to over and over again during launch, so making it shine is essential.

And to give you maximum flexibility in how you launch, tease, and build demand, you now have two powerful page types to choose from:

Bookable Trip Page

Your official, public trip page once bookings are open. It includes pricing, inclusions, live availability, and a booking button ready to go. When you’re fully launched, this is the page you’ll promote everywhere – in your stories, posts, emails, DMs, and collaborations.

Preview Trip Page

This is your secret weapon for early bird hype. It looks and feels like the real trip page (full itinerary, images, details, everything) but with one important difference – there’s no booking button yet.

Instead, the main button can link to either of the following:

• Register Your Interest
  Perfect for collecting names and emails during early bird campaigns. It links to your EOI form so you can continue building a warm, excited waitlist before bookings open, but now with actual trip to show your audience.

• Request to Join
  Ideal if you want to screen or approve guests before inviting them to book. It links to a form that captures whatever details you need to vet your potential travellers.

This gives you a polished, professional trip page to promote even before the trip is bookable – meaning you can keep building hype, share details, tease experiences, and fill your early bird list long before launch day arrives.

Step 3: Pre Launch Promotion ✨

Before early bird or public launch, use this warm-up phase to build excitement and get your audience ready to act.

Create Excitement with Teasers
Share sneak peeks of the itinerary, destination highlights, and behind-the-scenes moments. Teasers spark curiosity and help drive more EOI sign-ups.

Start Telling the Story
Talk about why you’re hosting this trip, what you’re most excited for, and the moments you can’t wait to experience. This helps your audience connect emotionally.

Use Hype-Building Content
Mix in countdowns, polls, planning clips, trending reels, and photo previews to keep engagement high and interest growing.

Drive Early Sign-Ups
Always point people to your EOI link. Mention it in stories, captions, and bios to build a strong early bird list.

Create Mini Reveals
Reveal the destination, dates, hero experiences, or guest limit gradually to build anticipation.

Generate a VIP Feel
Highlight that EOI subscribers get first access and first choice of rooms, plus any early bird pricing.

With solid pre launch promotion, your audience will be excited, informed, and primed to join the moment you launch.

Step 4: Early Bird Launch 👀

If you collected EOIs, this is where the magic happens, and you send out the bookable trip page link to your subscribers!

Early Bird Email Launch

We can help send a designed Mailchimp email to your subscriber list. However, sending from your own inbox is far more effective as personal emails drive higher engagement, and bulk Mailchimp emails sometimes end up in either spam or promotions inboxes. Your launch email should include:

• Dates
• Destination
• Key experiences, and what makes the trip unmissable
• How to book (deposit amount – also mention that subsequent payments are in instalments)
• Date for public launch (so they know they have a limited time with exclusive access, to create urgency)

🔥 Hot Tip: After sending the email, post a story reminding people to check their inbox or spam. You can also DM people who registered interest – this is incredibly effective. If you get people responding to the story that weren’t on the original list, great – send them the link straight away!

Note that you don’t have to do an early bird launch – you can skip straight to the public launch if you want – but we highly recommend it as a great way to get things kicked off.

Step 5: Public Launch 🎉

Your public launch is where all your pre launch excitement and early bird momentum pay off. Now it’s time to go big, be bold, and convert all that interest into bookings.

Make a Clear, Exciting Announcement
Share the essential details – dates, destination, highlights, inclusions, and how to book. Keep the energy high and your message simple.

Highlight Early Bird Success
If your early bird campaign performed well, use it. Let your audience know if spots have already been taken or, even better, if the trip already has enough guests to be confirmed. This builds instant trust and urgency.

Reinforce What Worked Before
Everything from pre launch still applies – teasers, countdowns, behind-the-scenes clips, polls, and Q&As. The only difference now is your call to action: book now.

Focus on Stories and Repetition
Show up on stories frequently. Share booking updates, talk on camera, drop the link often, and remind people they can secure their place with a deposit and pay in instalments.

Stay Personal
Keep the DMs flowing. Follow up with warm leads, answer questions, and reach out directly. Personal communication is still the single strongest way to convert interest into bookings.

Step 6: Content Strategy and Ongoing Promotion 📸

Show Off the Trip and Location

Use stories, reels, and posts to highlight the destination, experiences, and overall vibe. Personal content works best, but stock footage is great too and we can help supply it.

Use trending audio, add clear calls to action, and keep rotating which parts of the trip you highlight. Instagram Stories still perform best for hosts – great reach, great algorithm, and easy one-click links.

🔥Hot Tip: Tag us so we can share your content. For feed collaborations, send us the content for approval first, and plan when you want to post so we can grab the collab straight away (this results in the best response from the Instagram algorithm. Stories we can share more freely as long as they align with our brand. We have a large audience and you may well pick up extra bookings from that, but the biggest advantage from us sharing and collaborating is the effect on the algorithm, stimulating more views and engagement from your own audience.

Share Behind-the-Scenes

Give your audience a peek into the planning, your excitement, or even the challenges you’re overcoming. Authenticity builds connection.

Showcase Testimonials

If you’ve hosted before, share reviews from previous guests. Social proof is one of the strongest booking drivers.

Keep Following Up

Check in with people you’ve spoken to, and keep already-booked guests updated. They love knowing how close the trip is to being confirmed.

Step 7: Expand Your Audience 🌐

If you still need more bookings, it’s time to widen your reach.

Facebook Groups

There are thousands of active travel communities where people look for group trips and adventure buddies. Many hosts have filled entire trips this way.

🔥 Hot Tip: Join groups early and start engaging with posts before promoting your trip. When you do share your trip, keep it vague, use a few photos, and ask people to message you for details. Avoid external links. The goal is to move conversations into DMs.

Your Best In Travel consultant can give you a list of recommended groups.

Step 8: Your Adventure Awaits ✈️

Launching and selling a group trip is all about strategy, momentum, and personal connection. With smart planning and consistent engagement, you’ll give yourself the strongest chance of filling your group and creating a community of travellers who can’t wait to join you.

Is your trip confirmed and happening? AMAZING – congratulations! Click here to for tips on preparing to host your dream group trip.