Tutorial on how to be a successful tourism company online

How can you attract more visitors to your tour operator website and how can you make them book a trip?

Through a series of practical videos, you will receive the best advice and tips from CBI tourism market information studies on how to be a successful tourism company online. Shown through best case examples implemented by CBI-supported travel companies and some of the best tour operators in the world.

Discover how strategy determines your website content. Learn to create a website that inspires, helps, convinces and sells. And find out how to convince visitors that your tour operator company is the best choice for them.

1. Strategy: the foundation to create a great travel website

This video shows how tour operators are reflecting their strategy on their website.

Learn to attract and retain visitors with your strategy.

Your website strategy  drives the design and content of your website. Through your vision you will create an emotional connection as a base for future sales.

Implementing your strategy online means your website shows a clearly defined niche, target markets and personal profile.

Allow visitors to recognise themselves on your website by showing pictures of people just like them doing the things they love. Give visitors reasons to book with you, by presenting your unique selling points in short sentences, supported by visuals.

2. Create, collect and curate inspiring, helpful, convincing and selling website content

This video shows how tour operators are using inspiring, helpful, convincing and selling content on their websites.

Now that your strategy has determined what to communicate to whom, it's time to collect and create the right content that will lead your visitors to making a booking.

Because it's unlikely visitors will book with your tour company the first time they find your website, you need to guide them from inspiration to booking through the inspire, help, convince and sell principle.

Visitors go through different phases: They discover, research, compare and then, if you are the right choice for them, they will book your tours. In marketing terms, we call that the customer journey. On your website you guide a visitor through these different phases with content that leads to the next step on their journey.

3. What should be included on a website that guides visitors to a booking?

This video gives a brief insight on website builders and the various technical elements of a website.

In this video we cover several elements to make your website easy to use. It is well worth checking if a web builder website is an alternative for you. The tried and tested templates of these platforms have proven to turn visitors into bookers. Web builder systems are a great alternative, especially if you have difficulties finding a developer. Make sure your strategy is reflected in the briefing for a web developer or your website team.

4. Homepage: the gateway of a tour operator’s website 

This video shows how tour operators create a homepage according to the inspire, help, convince and sell principles.

A homepage is your gateway to the tours and experiences that you sell. When scanning your homepage it should become clear who you are, what you offer, to whom you sell, what people think about you and how to  contact your company. Design your homepage with attractive visual blocks with bite-sized chunks of text that will lead your visitors to the most important pages of your website.

5. Show your expertise on a destination page

This video shows how tour operators create a destination page according to the inspire, help, convince and sell principles.

On a destination page you show that you are the number one expert in your niche. You guide visitors to a tour they will love and inspire them to visit your destinations. You show what other travellers think about your destination and company and why there is no other company that can unlock the beauty of this destination quite like yours.

6. Secure a booking with your itinerary & experience pages

This video shows how tour operators can create itinerary and experience pages according to the inspire, help, convince and sell principles.

On the itinerary and experience pages you convince visitors why this tour is an excellent choice and why you are the best company to book with.

Back this up with reviews of happy customers your visitor can relate to. Use lots of pictures not only of beautiful landscapes or buildings but also of previous clients enjoying their trip. Use pictograms, bullet points and other design elements to help visitors quickly extract the most important information.

7. Confirm you are the right choice with an ‘about us’ page

This video shows how tour operators create an about us page that contributes to trust.

The about us page is one of the most frequently visited pages of a tour operator website by visitors who book with you. So it is extremely important that you make this web page good by proving that you are a trustworthy and reliable company. Show your vision and values, your sustainability efforts, and present your team members.

8. Attract more visitors by showing your tourism expertise in blogs

This video shows how tour operators create blogs that attract more visitors and lead them into the sales funnel.

Blogs are your number one tool to attract visitors from Google to your website. In blogs you show that you are the master of your niche with in-depth articles about your destination, experiences, and how your company works. Answer the questions your target audience might have in detail, to not only help them but also to make sure that your website appears in front of them when they use those questions to search Google.