The tourism world has quickly adapted to the use of hotel drone videography and photography to market not only luxury hotels and spas but also the tourist attractions and picturesque landscapes they are located nearby. Find out how high-quality drone videos and images of your resort can create an emotional response in your target audience, the best features to highlight that can leave a lasting impression, and how this can increase your bookings.
What Is Drone Photography and Videography?
Drone photography is the use of a remote-controlled or autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), more commonly known as a drone to take still images. Drone videography is essentially the same thing but instead of still images, it can capture video clips. In fact, drone photography and drone videography are used interchangeably in most situations since the same drones, cameras, and other equipment can do both.
The type of photos or videos that can be captured depends on the drone’s size, maneuverability, and onboard camera. The skill and creativity of the drone pilot cannot be forgotten either. Drone photography can even provide a first-person point of view from the air which is very difficult for a photographer on the ground to replicate.
Benefits of Using Drone Photography and Videography for the Hospitality Industry
One of the best ways to market the setting of a luxury hotel or resort is to showcase it from the air. As a result, drone photography has become one of the most widely used tools in the tourism industry to attract customers.
A Unique Perspective of Your Hotel or Resort
Drone photography can offer an aerial view of an area or property that is difficult to obtain by a human photographer on the ground. This type of aerial footage of a hotel or resort used to be captured by getting into a helicopter or plane. While these are still in use, it’s hard to get close enough or low enough to the hotel to capture the best views. Drones can fly at the right altitude over your property that is not too far up and yet at a better vantage point than ground level. This sweet spot offers a unique perspective of your hotel that even you may not have seen before.
Not only can drone videos show off the property of your five-star hotel and its facilities, but they can also take footage of the surrounding landscape to draw in travelers that wish to explore these places. Whether it’s the tropical beaches of Phuket at sunset, or the lush rainforest located nearby, drone video clips can showcase these attractions. Tourists can get an idea of what is near the hotel, and what they can expect in terms of sightseeing if they decide to stay. Tourists will also appreciate the architecture of your hotel better from an aerial view.
Drone Video Makes Instant Impact
You can describe all you want about what your hotel or resort offers to visitors, but it won’t make half the impact of a high-quality drone video. A well-produced video clip on your website that includes stunning drone footage of your property can have more impact than a thousand words. Even a few seconds of drone video clips can communicate the scenic beauty of a location, whether it’s in the city or in the countryside, and what sort of atmosphere it gives off. Instant impact through drone videography can help a customer make up their minds faster, and increase bookings for your hotel.
Drones Are Flexible
Drones are much smaller than a helicopter, and they are incredibly flexible when it comes to the types of photos or videos they can capture. Do you want a bird’s eye view of your resort and some of its surrounding landscapes? You got it. Do you want to hover under the trees and capture the first-person view of someone approaching your hotel entrance? A drone can do that too. If it’s small enough, it can even take interior shots or capture video for a drone tour. Drones can do it all.
Drones Are Quiet
You don’t want to disturb the relaxing and serene atmosphere you have carefully cultivated for your guests by flying a helicopter over the area. Drones are quiet and don’t attract attention. They can fly in, and take the shots you need without disturbing the guests or your neighbors.
Drones Are Affordable
Apart from their flexibility and quiet operation, drones are also vastly more affordable than hiring a helicopter. Multi-rotor UAVs that have cinema-quality cameras attached are now available at a fraction of the cost of traditional helicopter-mounted equipment. With all the other benefits already mentioned, you’ll soon be uploading cinematic high-quality videos to your website that will be sure to increase bookings for your luxury hotel. Combined with the low cost of drone videography nowadays, your return on investment will be high as well.
What You Can Capture with Drone Photography and Videography
When it comes to tourism, there are a few ways drone photography can be used to showcase your luxury hotel property to the world. These can be exterior or interior depending on which features you wish to highlight.
Outdoor Video Clips of a Large Resort with a Golf Course
Hotels that are large golf resorts or have their property spread over a large area can benefit immensely from a drone video. A drone can easily fly over a golf course and cover the area without damaging the grass. This would not be possible if you were to mount a more traditional camera on a truck or other land vehicle.
Showcase Resorts Near a Scenic Location
Hotels that are next to a scenic location need to show off their tourist attractions, and the breathtaking views from the guest rooms. The close proximity of their properties to the picturesque natural environment and tourist attractions is the main selling point for these hotels. If your hotel is near the pristine sandy beaches of Chalong Bay in Phuket Thailand, you need some drone footage that shows how close you are.
Showcase Unique Architecture
If you have invested in a world-class architect to design your luxury hotel in a way that sets it apart from your competitors, then there’s no point staying quiet about it. Fly a drone over your properties and show your potential customers the unique design, and layout of your premises that may not be visible from the ground.
Indoor Drone Tour of Hotel Premises and Rooms
Drone videography is not only for exterior or aerial shots of your hotel. Many drones are now small and maneuverable enough to be used for interior areas. This can highlight the various hotel restaurants your guests can dine at, or even the conference rooms and halls that a company may wish to book for a seminar or convention. You can even create an indoor tour of your hotel through the use of drone videography that can allow your website visitors to explore online.
A Destination Wedding
Not only can you showcase your premises and why it’s the perfect romantic spot for a destination wedding, but you can also give an example that helps the engaged couple plan out and generate ideas for their own wedding video production. If your hotel is next to an idyllic setting, be sure to capture it at sunrise or sunset for the most magical photos or video clips.
Mistakes When Using Drone Photography and Videography
While drone videos have immense potential, there are some examples of hotels not fully understanding the best way to capitalize on this. Secondly, there are legal issues to consider as well.
Not Focusing on the Storytelling
First, you must understand that with how affordable drone photography has become lately, everyone is now hopping into it with minimal effort. However, customers will soon get tired of drone video clips that they can create by themselves from home. A luxury hotel that wishes to stand out needs more cinematic flair than your average YouTube video, and the use of clever editing that utilizes a mix of drone and ground-level footage.
A great video needs music to set the mood and a strong creative vision that can create an emotional reaction in the viewer. If your drone video is not giving your audience goosebumps, you need something better. Only a professional video production company that has experience in drone photography and videography will be able to handle such a project.
The Legal Aspects
Next, there are legal hurdles to consider. If your luxury hotel and spa are located in Thailand, the use of drones for any sort of commercial marketing activity will fall under the purview of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC). Both the drone and its pilot need to be registered with these government agencies before they can be employed.
If you were planning to purchase your own drone and start shooting high-quality images and videos by yourself, you first need to obtain the required clearances. Failure to abide by these rules could result in heavy fines or even a prison sentence. For more information on this topic, read Thailand Drone Laws: Are They Legal?
Hire a Professional for Drone Photography and Videography
If you don’t have the drone, camera equipment, the piloting skills and you don’t wish to get into any legal issues, it’s best to hire a professional company that can handle a video production of this type. If you’re looking for a creative video production team that has an impressive portfolio in the tourism industry and plenty of experience in drone photography and videography, then look no further than Sujo Twenty-Two! To find out more about how to plan for drone photography or video production, then read How to Do Drone Videography for Hotels.
FAQs
A drone with a camera can give you a bird’s eye view of the air that is difficult to obtain from the ground. A drone can also maneuver closer to the ground than a helicopter, as well as being cheaper, and quieter.
You need to register the drone and obtain a piloting license before you can fly it for commercial purposes. You also need to be skilled at flying a drone and have a creative vision to shoot high-quality videos that have an impact.
