Feeling a lag in sales? Great post by Kelsey Tonner > Guest Focus

Great post by Kelsey Tonner of Guest Focus, so am reposting it here :)

 

Learn the power of Google 'Things to do'.

Tourpreneur is excited to partner with Google to provide you with this free course on how to harness the power of Google ‘Things to do’ for your tour & activity business.

The goal of this short course is to introduce you to ‘Things to do’, help you enroll, and harness its power to grow direct bookings for your business.

We’re launching this course in coordination with the announcement of Google’s new Ticket & Activities Editor, a way to list your tours on ‘Things to do’ directly through your Google Business Profile. 

Even if you’re very familiar with ‘Things to do’, this course will help you get up to speed with the latest developments.

Are you using your Google Business Profile to the fullest?

 Yesterday Google held a fantastic event focused on small business owners harnessing the power of Google's tools to grow your travel businesses.

Here are a few takeaways and updates you should think about in relation to your Business Profile on Google (and if you don't have one, claim yours immediately!):

• Do not “set and forget” about your Business Profile. Tend to it regularly—adding posts, updates, new photos, responding to reviews, adding or updating your tours. This matters a lot.
• Use the new features of Business Profile, including "Business Posts" to announce discounts and product updates. These posts show up on your Business Profile and in search results. (50% of customers look for promotions and discounts when searching for a business online.)
• Create an FAQ in the “Questions and Answers” section of your profile to save you time and help your customer.
• You can now add links to your social media accounts. Up to 7 accounts, and they'll display 5 of them.
• Update your photos at least monthly, and make sure they’re authentic—not staged, not overly edited.
• Load your individual tours on your profile using the new Ticket Editor! Do it now, it's so easy. If you're using booking software, chances are they might be connectivity partners with Google Things to do. But if not, simply go into your Business Profile, click on Activities and load your tours, with links to the individual tour pages. Now your Business Profile becomes a one-stop shop for the customer, linking directly to your tours.
• Mobile, mobile mobile: make sure your site is fast and friendly for phone users. Several Googlers brought this up, so it's clearly on their minds.
• Use the analytics from your Business Profile! It's actually quite powerful. Google shares a lot of useful analytics with you, such as where your guests are coming, highest activity times and days, search queries that led them to your profile, and much more.

If you want to learn more about loading your tours as part of their 'Things to do' program, take our free course we've created in partnership with Google.

Getting Faster: Know Your Website, and Know What’s Slowing It Down

 

The numbers don’t lie: Users prefer faster websites and applications.

There are many factors that impact the speed of your website.

Some you have control over; others you do not. This paper examines the various factors that impact web performance,

and the steps businesses can take to assess and improve the performance of their web properties.

https://content.cloudflare.com/NzEzLVhTQy05MTgAAAGKx7CkjnMPGM1-Z5FgXiUYqMcWKRiFboLmxWRUkdLQx2S3poh1bFswSmNp1xzdRbiEwm0y5qw=

SPTO SME Recovery Toolkit - now in Video Form!

 

SPTO SME Recovery Toolkit Videos   Warm Pacific Greetings,   We are excited to announce that the SPTO SME Recovery Toolkit is now available in video format! The Toolkit was developed to support the recovery of small, medium, and micro-sized tourism enterprises in the Pacific. It provides guidance on the entire product development process, from understanding market trends to online sales and marketing. We thank the SPTO member countries, industry and partners who contributed to this initiative and we hope you find these videos informative and helpful.   Best regards, The Division of Sustainable Tourism Pacific Tourism Organisation

These videos are a great way to gain insight into the toolkit and its chapters. We encourage you to watch each video to fully grasp the concepts and principles presented. Let us walk you through each of the videos and their corresponding chapters:

This chapter supports users to understand the evolving market trends. It provides guidance on different types of tour operators and agents before introducing key evolving consumer trends and how to apply these trends to your particular destination and business.

This chapter provides tips on adapting your product to ensure it appeals to the right target market. It presents important considerations that must be made in designing your tourism product. Learn how to refine your ideas for adapting or enhancing your product or creating a new experience.

This chapter provides you with essential information about international standards for health, safety, and security, as well as information on health and safety guidelines for COVID-19 safe operations.

This chapter guides users on pricing principles to ensure that your products are priced competitively while providing a profit. It walks you through the different steps to calculating prices for different types of products and how to allow mark-ups to be added with different businesses you might work with.

This chapter provides guidance in preparing your businesses for this new normal and re-evaluating how your business connects to customers, considering the importance of digitalization.

This chapter provides a clear understanding of the role played by staff, particularly tour guides, in the delivery of quality service and what practices to adopt to build reputation and trust.

In this final chapter, users will learn the different digital marketing options they can explore for their businesses. It introduces the different types of online sales and marketing platforms to promote your business, generate sales, and build relationships with your targeted audience.

Access the SPTO SME Recovery ToolKit here

Access the full SPTO SME ToolKit Videos Playlist here

For more information, please visit https://southpacificislands.travel/ or contact us at sustainable@spto.org

Radical Regeneration: A New Look at Sustainable Tourism #VIS2022

Tourism is an important economic driver for islands.

The sector is actively shifting towards becoming more sustainable in the face of environmental degradation caused by climate change - but what exactly are the options being developed?

Find out in this session!

How Erik built a tour operator business from scratch (and how he sold it.)

San Francisco tour founder Erik Hormann started with one Volkswagen bus and built a thriving vintage van tour business. 

After 5 years, he sold it to new owners, bringing the business full circle. 

This is his story and it is packed with lessons and advice for tour operators.

Women in Travel: The Highs and Lows of Changing your Career into Tours &...

All Things Legal! - 199

Airbnb to Kickstart Experiences After 2-Year Pause

 Airbnb mothballed its experiences business — and ceased investing in hotels — at the beginning of the pandemic, but CEO Brian Chesky said earlier this week that Airbnb will begin to invest in its experiences business again in 2023 after a two-year pause.

A file photo of an Airbnb host greeting participants in a bread-baking experience. Source: Airbnb

“It’s ready to invest like significantly in this business again,” he said.

Trotting out another e-commerce buzzword after discussing funnels, namely “flywheels,” Chesky argued that Airbnb’s homes and experiences businesses would invigorate each other.

“We have some really exciting things in the roadmap,” Chesky said, including for 2023. “And I think that experience is a great flywheel for homes because, again, the number one thing in travel is you want to have direct traffic, booking something unique that you can’t find anywhere else.”

Booking.com: Attractions Won’t Be a ‘Huge Money Spinner’

Booking Holdings Chief Financial Officer David Goulden, speaking at an Evercore technology conference September 8, noted that the company transitioned from a “homegrown acquisition strategy” for tours and activities — when it acquired Fareharbor in 2018 — to a partnerships model, such as through deals with TUI Musement and Viator.

He added that the market size and transaction values for attractions are not as substantial as for accommodations or flights.

“So I don’t think it will be a huge money spinner for us, but it’s certainly something that will create, I think, a lot of value for our customers, therefore, something we want to continue to focus on,” Goulden said.

Dennis Schaal, Skift

September 15th, 2022 at 1:47 PM EDT

https://skift.com/blog/airbnb-to-kickstart-experiences-after-2-year-pause/