Riviera Travel, a leader in the travel industry, offers bespoke trips, tours, and cruises, focusing on excellent, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Given this, site visibility and conversion rate are crucial. Salience was tasked with improving visibility in key areas, ensuring Riviera Travel remained one of the most visible brands in the business.
Salience were an absolute pleasure to work with, their personable approach, professionalism and extensive expertise across technical content ux and digital pr has helped elevate the brand, increase visibility and support brand awareness. Their creative and fast response to media trends has put riviera at the forefront of travel. Highly recommend and would love to work with you again in the future
Riviera’s site structure was the main issue. Tour and Destination pages weren’t aligned with user intent, often repeating content aimed at different audiences.
Keyword research confirmed this. Customers searching general terms like “Italy holidays” were at the research stage, while those searching “Italy tours” were ready to buy. Both groups landed on similar pages, causing confusion and weak engagement.
Intent analysis revealed two competing pages per destination. Once identified, the fix was clear — each page type needed its own goal. Destination pages would attract and inform; Tour pages would convert.
We began by tackling authority through Digital PR. Using link intersects, we found high-value publications linking to competitors but not Riviera Travel.
We reviewed backlink quality, prioritised travel-relevant categories, and created a refined target list. We then focused PR activity on high-volume travel periods to push coverage and awareness where it mattered most.
Our data-driven campaigns delivered strong results. The Safest Holiday Destinations Index generated 172 coverage pieces and 26 backlinks – even shared by the Croatian Tourist Board, earning Riviera visibility in national and travel press.
Content Strategy
We restructured Destination pages into navigational hubs linking directly to Tours. These pages offered useful content on food, culture, and attractions while guiding users to key commercial pages. For Tours, we built content around user queries and prepositions identified in keyword research, aligning headings with customer concerns and intent.
The goal was simple: make it easy for users to self-select based on their needs — inspiration on Destination pages, booking intent on Tour pages, while strengthening internal linking between them.
Once the structure worked for land-based tours, we applied the same logic to River Cruises. The same principles of clear intent, improved headers, and keyword alignment were used to refresh and standardise content across major category pages. This consistency improved user experience and created a joined-up content hierarchy across the site.
The Challenges We Faced
We had over 20 priority destinations needing rewrites and layout changes. To move fast, we developed a repeatable content template and briefed Riviera’s internal team to roll it out efficiently.
Digital PR presented its own hurdles. Anti-tourism protests made journalists cautious, so we pivoted with a Least-Visited Destinations in Europe campaign — a timely data-led hook that reignited media interest. Mid-campaign, Reach PLC introduced a “no link-out” policy, cutting off major outlets. We solved this by auditing competitor backlinks and targeting active publishers outside Reach PLC, regaining coverage momentum.
By redesigning site architecture to match customer intent, Destination pages became navigational hubs addressing general country questions. Tour pages were rewritten to answer questions for customers more invested in the specific location.
We layered these changes with creative PR, turning sector headwinds into opportunities. When anti-tourism protests dominated headlines, we flipped the story with “Hidden Gems” and “Safest Destinations” campaigns, earning over 70 high-authority links per month.
organic revenue
River Cruise catagory visibility
pieces of linked coverage per month
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