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