Five Basic Steps to Get More Direct Bookings

All tour and activity operators would like more direct bookings.

Here are four key things every tour, activity and attraction operator should be doing (we hope you already are) to drive more direct business.  

1. Customer segmentation: Understanding your target market will help you know what, how and where to sell your tours in order to maximize the potential of attracting direct bookings. Who’s your typical customer? What are they looking for? What key messages will be most impactful? These are answers you should have at the tip of your tongue.

2. Competitor analysis. Understanding your competitors through a competitive analysis will help you create strategies to set your business apart. Dig in to their products, pricing, key messages and their online reviews. 

3. Competitive pricing: Ensuring your customers know they can book directly with you and get the same or better prices and offers directly from you will increase the chances of them booking directly. Just be mindful of terms and conditions with your distribution partners and OTAs (online travel agencies). They often stipulate that they should have access to your best available rate. 

4. Optimize your website: Including quality content and powerful keywords, ensuring your site is mobile friendly, and maintaining a fast site speed are a few best practices for search engine optimization (SEO) that will help to ensure your website appears at or near the top of search engine results.

This is a key step with a lot of important elements, each deserving of their own articles or in-depth reports. Go deeper on a range of direct booking and marketing topics, from SEO and SEM to online reviews and website optimization via Arival’s search page. There are thousands of articles, reports, videos and webinars available. 

5. Emphasize the benefits of booking direct: Consider exclusive perks for customers who book directly with you, such as free transport to/from their hotel and complimentary extras during the tour. Then spread the word about these benefits in your marketing to entice more customers to book directly. (We generally recommend adding perks vs. discounting to create more value for booking direct.)

Visit the original article on Rezdy’s site here to view the full list of tips for increasing direct bookings.
Join us at Arival 360 | Las Vegas in October. The conference offers more than a dozen different sessions on direct marketing and booking, as well as a masterclass on website optimization and the opportunity to get your website critiqued by leading marketing experts in tours and activities. 

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