By encouraging user generated content, operators can not only gather valuable feedback and insights from their customers, but also use it to showcase their offerings, attract new visitors and increase bookings.

Tourpreneur’s own Chris Torres provides some insights into why you must implement this now to grow your bookings in future.

Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Visit our website: tourpreneur.com

The post The Power of Consumer Generated Content to Boost your Bookings appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

With so much discussion in the Tourpreneur Community about the good, the bad and the ugly of AI, Chris Torres advises on why he feels a lot of operators are missing the revenue opportunities it brings.

AI is transforming the tourism industry by offering personalised experiences, hybrid tours, and self-guided options that can increase revenue and profits for businesses.

00:00 💰 AI is a game-changer for tourism businesses, that can drive revenue and profit while transforming society as we know it.

01:47 💻 🌍 Hybrid tours can boost brand exposure and profits by providing both digital and in-person experiences throughout the customer journey.

02:25 🤖 An AI Avatar guide offers personalised travel experiences from booking to insights during the trip.

04:54 💻 🌍 Hybrid tourism experiences that blend digital and in-person elements with the help of AI can increase revenue.

05:35 💰 AI-delivered self-guided options for customers unable to book in-person experiences.

06:36 🌍 Mac Adventure’s switch to a fully self-guided model shows the exponential growth potential of the fast-growing self-guided travel sector.

07:30 💡 Understand the impact of AI on business and embrace its potential for generating revenue.

Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Visit our website: tourpreneur.com

The post Why You Should Embrace AI, Not Be Frightened Of It appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

We asked the Tourpreneur community what marketing topics they would like to see us cover next; targeting high-wealth luxury consumers was high on the list of priorities.

In this episode, Chris is going to provide my top 8 strategies to attract this demographic.

• Photos
• Create a Website that focuses on Style and Exclusivity – The VIP Treatment
• Be Personal
• Use Facebook Ads to Reach a Luxury Demographic
• Email Marketing is Huge
• Create Exclusivity… or at Least a Sense of it
• Use LinkedIn to Raise your Profile
• Produce a Podcast

Read the full list here:

https://tourismmarketing.agency/chris-top-8-strategies-to-marketing-to-the-luxury-consumer/

Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Visit our website: tourpreneur.com

The post Chris’ Top 8 Strategies to Marketing to the Luxury Consumer appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

Just about every operator who I come across has a horror story about working with a marketing agency. This has left them with a bitter taste in their mouth and wary of trusting another to do the job they want them to do.

Believe me, as an agency owner, this makes my job so much harder, but as an Agency owner, a lot of this ‘bad experience’ comes down to how an agency educates its customers and clearly manages expectations. In some instances, it also comes down to out-and-out lying on the part of the agency.

So many agencies out there will offer guarantees and promises they simply can’t keep because it is simply impossible for them to do so. If agencies could guarantee number one on google rankings or x10 increase in bookings then we would all be doing it, but there are so many nuances that make these promises impossible.

In this episode of Tourpreneur, I want to debunk three myths about working with a Marketing Agency and tell you some home truths, some of which you may find surprising.

Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Visit our website: tourpreneur.com

The post 3 Things Some Marketing Agencies Won’t Tell You appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

Chris provides some Facebook Ad Basics you must follow to make sure your ad campaigns are hitting all the right notes with your audience and your business.

Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Visit our website: tourpreneur.com

The post Facebook Ad Basics: 5 Top Tips appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

Chris is joined by Marica Brewster of the Von Mack Agency shares 5 top social media marketing tips on how to grow your social presence and staying true to your brand.

Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Visit our website: tourpreneur.com

The post 5 Social Media Marketing Tips with Marica Brewster of Von Mack appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

Chris offers five quick take-aways that you can implement today to make sure your website is optimised correctly for your Google rankings.

He covers:

• Site Speed
• Why you should stay clear of link farms
• Content Optimisation
• Why you should ignore SEO scoring in Yoast
• Voice Search

Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Visit our website: tourpreneur.com

The post Chris’ Five Quick SEO Dos and Don’ts appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

In this episode, Chris Torres, Mitch Bach and Pete Syme talk with author Joe Pine to discuss The Experience Economy and how this can help deliver transformational experiences in tours and activities.

We discuss…

• What the Experience Economy is
• How to design an experience
• How to deliver an experience at every stage
• Delivering transformational experiences in day tours and multi-day tours
• How the Experience Economy fits in with the digitisation of tours and activities

Join the Tourpreneur community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Grab a copy of The Experience Economy:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633697975/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_MHM65SGJTGJK6TK4CF49

The post The Experience Economy in Tours and Activities with Joe Pine Tourpreneur appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

Welcome to what will be the last ever Digital Tourism Show… but not the end of me producing even more videos, podcasts, articles and marketing advice! Stay tuned to find out more.

Many of you are probably aware that myself, Pete Syme and Mitch Bach took over the Tourpreneur community and podcast from Shane Whaley as he starts a new career over at Fareharbor.

The three of us are about to launch an obscene amount of content that will help every Tour Operator understand many aspects of their business with one aim: to increase their profit margins. Because of this, it makes no sense for me to continue with The Digital Tourism Show as this, and more content, will be recorded for the Tourpreneur community and under the Tourpreneur brand.

This is somewhat of a bittersweet moment as my podcast and videos have helped many over the last 5-6 years. But rest assured my thoughts and advice will not stop and will actually increase… it will just under a different name.

Now if you are wondering about all the existing Digital Tourism Show you do not need to worry as all existing content will remain online so you can always refer back to past episodes.

I do have one ask of you…

So you can continue to receive lots of free advice, not just from myself, but from Pete Syme, Mitch Bach and the many speakers and operators in our community, please do join the Tourpreneur Facebook Group. This will be my new home as my Digital Tourism Show Facebook Group will also close in the coming weeks.

So thanks to all of you for helping make the Digital Tourism Show a success and hope you continue to join me at my new home on Tourpreneur.

The post The Last Ever Digital Tourism Show? appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.

Anyone who deals with sales and/or marketing has known for a while now that tracking the consumer journey from start to finish is becoming nigh on impossible because of the changes from platforms like Facebook and companies like Apple.

It is now impossible to track across domain names, which means tracking over a booking widget or separate booking URL is no longer possible. But there is a simple solution to this problem that Res Tech and booking platforms MUST implement if they wish to aid their customers and partners in generating more bookings through their systems.

What is the current issue?

Most operators who use the likes of Fareharbor, Bokun, Trekksoft, Checkfront, Rezdy, PeekPro or any of the other popular booking platforms will be familiar with the widget that is added to a website. This works by adding a button and/or a snippet of code through a piece of Javascript. When clicked, an iFrame containing the booking widget launches on the operator website or a calendar loads on a page that itself launches a separate window so the consumer can complete the booking.

Now the issue is, Facebook now needs you to verify your domain name to make tracking website interactions work properly. It also has to be a main domain name and not a sub-domain name.

Without getting too technical, the widget loaded from most booking platforms is from a URL on the res tech side within a container called an iFrame. As this is seen as a separate URL – one that you cannot verify on your own Facebook account – Facebook can no longer track your customers’ interactions once they start the booking stage. This makes it impossible to know if they completed a purchase or where in that booking journey they may have dropped off.

Currently, it is mainly Facebook that has this issue. But this will eventually be implemented by the likes of Google and other platforms as global pressure on data tracking becomes more and more strict.

Facebook, and other platforms, have launched a way to track conversions using server side tracking. This means a server you set up, say on Google Cloud, can help claw back some of that missing data. But it will still not be as it was before, and still not entirely help with how most booking platforms are currently set up. Server side tracking is also a lot harder to set up for the non technical folks and may cost you a small monthly fee (or large if you get a lot of traffic).

There is an easy solution

Some platforms, like TourCMS or Rezgo, offer an API solution, so a developer can build you a bespoke, on-site booking process that would get around this issue. However, this can be an expensive endeavor to build and maintain. We did this back in the day for companies like Gray Line and Macs Adventure, amongst many others, when we used to develop bespoke websites. However, this solution is not viable for the vast majority of operators.

The easy solution, from what I can see, is if these booking platforms allowed operators to add a ‘payment complete’ URL that redirected the consumer back to a booking confirmation or thank you page on the operator website. Now, while this may still not allow you to track the full journey, it would allow you to track if that customer who visited a product page completed a purchase on your site.

Some res tech may say this could stop any upsell opportunities, but another simple solution is to embed an iFrame into the thank you page that could still pull in upsell experiences and add-ons. By going to this page, the Facebook Pixel may have the opportunity to even pull in the sale price of that booking.

This simple solution would allow for more insights into the ads or content that inspired that consumer to make the booking. That means marketing agencies like mine could create more of this content to create even more bookings and revenue for the operator and the res tech. For me, it is a no brainer that brings many benefits.

The likes of PayPal, Stripe and most other payment platforms allow you to set a “payment complete” URL and it is high time booking platforms followed suit. Those who do will find themselves being recommended by agencies and other partners, more so, than those who don’t.

If there is a good reason why booking platforms don’t do this, please do tell me, but from where I am sitting, this solution, at least, must be implemented by all.

Join the Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitaltourismshow

The post The Ongoing Issue with Sales and Marketing Tracking and Why Res Tech Must Change! appeared first on Tourism Marketing Agency.