Thanks to the Internet, travel-savvy companies are using myriad desktop publishing techniques to create files that transmit easily and download fast, yet they never skimp on the rich detail and color that distinguishes a travel brochure from less exotic cousins. Whether you’re a travel professional in need of an online brochure to drum up business, your organization is planning a trip or you’re planning a family reunion, this article can help you create a unique piece. Work in a standard 11″ x 8.5″ format and before you know it, your online travel brochure will be winging through cyberspace while you pack for the trip.
1. Boot your computer and open a new Microsoft Word document. Keystroke all of the brochure text that will be included on the brochure: a compelling headline, an itinerary, travel dates, short descriptions of each tour stop plus pricing, room occupancy guidelines, disclaimers and a call to action so readers know who to contact for answers to their travel questions. Get at least one other person familiar with the tour details to proof all of the information.
2. Obtain photographs to accompany the copy. You can use copyright free images from stock photography studios for a modest amount of money because low-resolution pictures — no more than 72 dpi – are the most inexpensive files to purchase. Alternately, use your own travel photos or images borrowed from friends, tourism bureaus and travel agents. Always give the owner of each image credit for loaning you their photo by including a caption. Resist the temptation to “borrow” pictures that are copyright protected.
3. Open a second document measuring 11 x 8.5″ in either a page layout program like InDesign, Publisher or QuarkXpress or create a second page in Word if you have no page layout program. Import the photos you have chosen for the brochure first. Take a tip from professional designers: Make one photo larger than the rest to achieve a more harmonious layout and if you cluster pictures, make it an odd number: 3 or 5 are ideal. Create a second page if you need more space for photos and copy.
4. Experiment with background colors. Photos pop on black, but dark backgrounds can also be harder to read on a computer monitor. Reversed type (white on dark colors) can slow reading comprehension. Keep this in mind: every time you use a color, add a photo and change copy, your online travel brochure file size will expand, making it harder to download, so don’t get carried away. And use a little psychology. A blue background suggests ocean and sky while red and yellow make great picks if your brochure promotes a tour that’s anywhere south of the border.
5. Drag or insert one or more text boxes into the layout to hold the copy you generated when you completed Step #1. No worries about re-keystroking all that text: copy/paste the text from the Word file into the new layout. The reason it’s best to do this in two steps is to safeguard the copy. Should your system crash or should you forget to save and lose the layout, your written text will remain unharmed. Don’t forget to sprinkle the copy with action words to excite readers about the travel adventure that awaits.
6. Pick a font. If you like some variety, pick two fonts or go for three, understanding that the more fonts you use, the less professional your online travel brochure will appear. Once your text has been transferred to the layout and adjusted for size, select all of the copy and change everything to the same typeface. Don’t get too clever. Sure, your China travel brochure can look exotic if you use a typeface like “Rickshaw,” but if the details are too hard to read on a computer monitor, you may lose more travelers than you gain. Instead, use an exotic font for a headline and an easy-to-read typeface for body copy.
7. Spell check everything once your layout is complete. Once your travel brochure is set in stone, make a PDF of the brochure so no matter how the piece is transmitted over the Internet, it will arrive with fonts, art and layout intact. Distribute your online travel brochure to interested parties in the following ways: Attach it to e-mails, post it to a sponsoring website, link it to your favorite social media source or print it out if you want to distribute it as hard copy.
