Travel and leisure marketing: Do your guests need help prioritizing their free time?

This book could help you grow your share of market.

The book 168 Hours makes a convincing argument that Americans lack the skills to manage their free time. Could you help them find more time for your travel or leisure brand?

Helping prospective enthusiasts prioritize their free time.

Is your travel and leisure marketing targeted to people who say they are just too busy to add one more activity to their life?

Laura Vanderkam’s fascinating book 168 hours: You Have More Time Than You Think shows you exactly how much free time people really have. And how they can prioritize their lives to get the most out of their free time.

168 Hours shows people that they aren’t short of time.

They just choose not to prioritize their time to fit in all the activities that are important to them.

Laura’s point is simple:  Everyone gets 168 hours a week to fill with whatever they see fit. If you subtract time for eating, sleeping and working, there are still about 50 hours a week left.

And it’s everyone’s job to manage their own time according to their own priorities.

Laura offers her readers 5 ways to get control of their time.

1. Figure out where your time goes.

• She makes this easy by giving people a PDF time-log at her blog  My168Hours.com.

2.  Determine what you’re good at.

• If people invest their time in what they’re good at, Laura says they’ll use their time more efficiently, and feel more satisfied.

3.  Choose work that makes you happy.

• When people like what they do, Laura says they can get into a zone, enjoy themselves and get more done.

4. Cut back on TV.

• The latest Nielson figures confirm people watch 35 hours of TV a week. But studies show people get more enjoyment out of spending quality time with friends and family.

5. Take control of your calendar

• Laura suggests people find time to do the things that are important to them by looking through their time diary cutting out time wasted on urgent but unimportant tasks.

If you’re the marketer of a travel or leisure brand, use this book to build your market.

• Discuss the book with your customers  via your facebook page, discussion boards on your website and other social media tools.
• Create a contest to encourage your users to track their free time and find ways to spend more of it with your brand.
• Give away the book to contest winners, along with your products.

What are you doing to help people find the time to enjoy your travel or leisure brand?  Tell us about it.