Excitement about travel is in the air! Leveraging the increased demand and enthusiasm for travel, the operators in the tour and activity industry can make a great comeback and get more bookings this summer season.

It’s time to whip out the full marketing arsenal to supercharge your bookings this summer. 

Top Tips to Get More Bookings this Summer Season

And if you’re unsure of where to start, we’re here to help you make this your best summer season ever. Here are a few strategies and tips for tour and transport operators to make the best use of pent-up demand among locals to explore their own backyard and international travellers to visit reopened sites.

1. Incentivize Guests with Promo Codes

Promo codes have proven their strategic role in a successful marketing campaign. From retargeting your old customers to attracting new guests, promo codes can give an extra boost to your summer bookings. 

Promo codes with an expiration create a sense of urgency and tempt guests to make use of them immediately. It’s also useful in generating sales early on to get the momentum going.

Reward your potential guests with a fixed price discount or percentage discount. You can get your customers hooked up by offering them discounts for their revisits. You can even provide promo codes if they refer or share the experience with their family and friends. Incentivize your audience to spread the word about your business, and in turn, grow your summer bookings.

Providing unique offers and targeted messaging is a great way to thank them for being loyal customers or frequent guests.

Get the word out by spreading your promo code campaign on your social and email channels, and track its usage in your booking system.

However, before embracing an effective promo code campaign, be sure to crunch the numbers during the campaign planning stages to ensure your profit margins are sound.

2. Promote Gift Cards

Gift cards are a year-round source of income for operators in the tour, activity and transport industry. This summer is no exception.

Everyone appreciates exploring out, meeting people and making memories. So make the best use of it by promoting gift cards on your website, social channels and mailing lists.

The best thing about gift cards is that they can be for every occasion—a gift for vaccinated friends and family or to celebrate any big milestones. Gift cards, especially activity gift cards, are good options when it comes to celebrating upcoming nuptials or for folks to embark on an exciting tour during bank holidays. 

Remind your guests that they can personalize their gift cards with custom messages to their loved ones. Last-minute and eco-friendly gifters are able to send digital gift cards via email or even print out the card to gift friends and family personally. 

When it comes to merchandising your gift cards, it is vital to ensure a streamlined checkout process for your guests. 

Setting up gift cards within your booking engine is simple with Zaui. Zaui’s online booking engine provides a tab for your guests to purchase gift cards by denomination or by experience.

3. Build Your Social Media Presence

From the biggest city to the smallest town, social media provides you with the platform to promote your brand to anyone anywhere, both organically or through paid ad campaigns.

If you are not on social media yet, analyze your current customer base and demographic trends to pick up the right social media platform for you before diving into building your presence and content strategy.

When it comes to platforms Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, you have only a few seconds to capture their attention before your content is scrolled past and forgotten about. Enrich your feed with catchy, interactive content capturing the best of your products and services. Create content tailored to your business and audience (i.e. For action-packed tours, try incorporating more videos).

Engagement is key. Besides replying to messages and comments, you can tap into User Generated Content (UGC). In a 2019 survey, 79 percent of people agreed that user-generated content highly impacts their purchasing decisions. 

Whenever your guests create posts featuring your brand, share them on your platforms. 

Other than organic content, paid promotions on social media with a clear call to action(CTA)  also help you reach more potential customers. CTAs should direct your social media followers to the website to book an activity or tour.  For example,  Zaui lets you integrate the “Book Now” button into your Facebook profile, bringing guests directly to the booking engine to make reservations with ease.

4. Get Killer Content on Your Website

Potential customers are one step closer to booking your tour or activity when they land on your website. 

Converting them into your next guests should be a piece of cake if you have digestible and engaging content paired with a frictionless booking engine that takes care of the heavy lifting for you.

Here is a quick checklist for your website to ensure you have everything right to get more summer bookings this year.

• Simple & engaging content: Make your tour sound exciting and thrilling with easy-to-read content and snappy descriptions to hold the audience’s attention.
• Detailed & timely content: Add detailed product features, inventory, property description and working hours. People may still have safety and health concerns. Ensure your website promises them a memorable tour and activity experience with all safety nets in place.
• On-brand & relevant visuals: Stay away from stock photos as they do not reflect your brand. Keep real photos of your tour business Content should be relevant to your target audience. For an adventurous getaway, select photos that capture the spirit of your tour. 
• Frequently asked questions:  Every detail your guest is looking for should be available on the website. Think of the questions frequently asked by your guests and include those details. For instance, with everything going around, guests may want to get a better picture of your cancellation or refund policies. 
• Guest reviews: Guests who have taken part in your experiences can be some of your best brand advocates. Reviews help build credibility and social proof, as many potential visitors tend to research platforms such as Tripadvisor and Google My Business before booking.
• Call to action: Place clear Call To Actions that are visible to users. For many, this will most likely be a call to action, “Book Now.” Integrate your website to an online booking engine and booking widgets to make the booking process clear, quick and easy for your potential summer guests.

For our Zaui user community who’s looking for tips and tricks on how to make this their best summer ever, reach out to our Customer Success team.  

If you are still shopping for an online booking system for this summer, we can help you. Connect with Zaui experts today to schedule a demo to understand how you can drive direct bookings by integrating an online booking engine into your website.

Do you want to sell your tours through various channels and reach more guests this summer? Learn how Zaui can help you sell your tours and activities to a global audience.