Great post by Kelsey Tonner of Guest Focus, so am reposting it here :)
Online Marketing for Tourism
Online marketing blog by Stuart Gow aimed B2B for small to medium operators looking for a cost effective and measurable way to use their marketing funds!
18 Jan 2024
31 Dec 2023
Learn the power of Google 'Things to do'.
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.
16 Dec 2023
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.
29 Mar 2023
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=
28 Mar 2023
SPTO SME Recovery Toolkit - now in Video Form!
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28 Sept 2022
Radical Regeneration: A New Look at Sustainable Tourism #VIS2022
25 Sept 2022
How Erik built a tour operator business from scratch (and how he sold it.)
24 Sept 2022
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.
“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/