The Real Reason More Photographers Can’t Break Into The Destination Market

The forecast calls for two feet of snow. You’ve been stuck inside because of snow and cold for weeks with no end in sight. Instead of snow, wouldn’t sand and beaches be a refreshing change right about now?

Many photographers feel that way, and happily include one little sentence on their websites:

“Work in and around [insert your hometown here] or will travel to your destination.”

Then they sit back and wait for the phone to ring, making the offer of a lifetime to travel to the Caribbean, Hawaii, Fiji, Greece, – okay, you get the picture.

The trouble is that phone call never comes for most. It never comes because the last thing a bride ever goes on the hunt for is for a photographer that “will travel to your destination”.

destination weddings

Instead, if a bride is getting married in Antigua, she searches for a “wedding photographer in Antigua”.  If she’s getting married in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, she searches for a “wedding photographer in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.”

And so the two never meet.

Creating The Plan
Let’s say you are a wedding photographer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In order to photograph weddings, you probably do a variety of things to advertise your business: