23 Jul 2021 Business Insights

How to Promote Private Tours to Your Customers

Tours and excursions have long been an essential part of travel. And in the wake of Covid, private travel tours have become more popular than ever, as people become increasingly aware of their surroundings and try to minimise contact with large groups.

Therefore, you can expect a surge in private travel tours throughout the rest of 2021 and probably into 2022. For that reason, we’ve put this guide together detailing everything you need to know about partnering with private travel tour companies and how to promote them to your audience.

Find the right tour companies 🔎

The first thing you should do is find the right tour operators to work with. You probably have a few on your books already, but you can also strike up new partnerships as you look to offer more options to customers booking with your travel brand.

Work with guides who have previous reputations and have delivered in the past. Also think about using local tour guides as well as larger companies. They can provide an authentic experience for the traveller, though most large tour operators also have access to locals working on the ground level. Essentially, you want to maximise the operators you work with in each niche.

Understand your audience 🧍🧍🧍

Know who you’re selling to, so you can make the most out of available tours. Private tours tend to be more expensive, which means the audience you approach will be those who are willing to spend a little more on their trips.

However, you don’t want to isolate anyone who wishes to book a private tour but can’t afford it. That’s why you should think about offering alternative payment options like buy now, pay later, allowing customers to spread the cost of their payments and make it that little bit easier to pay extra for a private tour guide.

Create a marketing strategy 👋

Make sure your tour packages are clearly visible to customers and highlight the benefits they get from private options. It might sound like stating the obvious, but audiences need to see clear pros before parting ways with their money, regardless of the product or services.

Use the channels available to you, such as your website, social media and other content avenues like email marketing and blog posts to generate interest. For example, you can post on social media about destinations ideal for a tour guide, write a blog post highlighting the benefits of going private, and then send out an email with your current offers.

Profile tour operators 🧑

Show your customers profiles of the people taking them on tour. This might be tricky if you’re working with larger operators, but you can still highlight partnerships with the smaller, localised guides who can probably give you more access to their tour operators.

Private tours are different from group tours, as travellers spend more time with the guide. Therefore, profiling guides on your website will give holiday bookers a better idea of who they will share a couple of hours with while exploring a new country.

Utilise PPC 🖱️

If you’re planning on giving your private tour options a big push, explore using pay-per-click advertising to give them a boost. PPC is a great strategy that many businesses – large and small – use to get more bookings for their holidays, car rentals, flights, hotels and tours.

With some handy keyword research via Google Ad Planner, you find the terms that people are searching for. Then create a few different advert variables and increase your brand’s visibility on search engines for your private tour offering.

Develop a YouTube channel 📼

Video marketing continues to explode, and you can use it as an avenue to promote private tours. Create highlight packages from previous tours if you have access and put them together to show potential holidaymakers what they can expect.

Use YouTube as a way for people to discover more about the tour options available, including private bookings. Doing so will add an element of reality, thanks to the immersion of video. It’s a great way for you to get your audience excited about discovering a new place with a private tour guide.

Promoting your private tour

Offering private tours as part of your holiday packages can help increase bookings while giving you another avenue to promote your business. Private holiday tours were already on the rise pre-Covid but look set to become even more popular in the coming months and years. Make sure your travel brand is in the best position to take advantage of them and give customers a trip to remember.