Study Reveals How Many Tourists Book Online for Activities - In Advance

Contrary to popular belief, new research reveals tourists prefer to book online for activities and tours in advance of their vacations.

The best way to target a segment of the market is to be cognizant of how they think. When a vacation is planned, do tourist book excursions in advance? How many tourists book online? And when searching the web for a local tour company, what initial factors draw them to a business? A recent study has given us some new insight - and somewhat contradictory to old understood behavior - on how vacationers prefer to plan. 

The tourism industry is booming and understanding our potential customer's behavior is the way to capitalize on that growth. A 2016 study conducted by the World Travel and Tourism Council reports that, contrary to popular belief,  67% of U.S. adults prefer to book tours in advance of their vacations. Craig Borowski, a market researcher for Software Advice,  breaks down key findings in the study, and reports that the biggest surprise was how many tourists book online and in advance compared to those that wait until after they arrive. According to Borowski, "This goes against the more traditional and possibly outdated assumption that people book the big things like hotel and transport before arrival but save excursion and activity selection until after arrival". 

The study also finds that the top two most important predictors of which company a new customer will choose are good reviews and the capability to book with a company online. For a breakdown of all factors by percentage, see the infographic below. Now that we are armed with this new statistic/data, we can begin thinking about how to harness it.

How to apply this information to your business:

• Online booking is clearly a must (Flybook can help you there!).
• SEO - Having a smart presence on the web is what will enable those customers to land on your site in the first place. Google a few terms related to your business and location and see if your website comes up on the first page of results. If it does not, there is some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work to be done. Whether you invest the time or hire a web professional, a higher ranking on Google paired with The Flybook's online booking widget integration is going to drive tourists to book with you online. 

The bottom line takeaway here is that the excuse (one we've heard before) "well, people only want to book flight & hotel before vacation, they wait to book excursions/activities when they arrive" or "my customers like to call me" is no longer valid. If your online booking percentage is not upwards of 70% (it's not uncommon for The Flybook's customers see that % and higher), it's probably time to take a magnifying glass to your digital presence and begin to optimize it to capture all those tourists looking to book with you in advance....online.

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