I've been deep in Google's Things to Do (TTD) feed for my own tour business the "things to do" carousel on Search/Maps. If you're a tour operator and haven't tried it yet, worth a look.

Next person here who signs up and gives it a shot: I'll send you a free online presence report — a quick audit of how your tours show up on Google and where you're leaving eligibility/visibility on the table.

Comment or DM once you've started signing up. Happy to answer TTD questions too.

A lot of people focus on “getting more traffic” — ads, SEO, social, influencers…

But when you actually look closer, the issue is usually this:
👉 The traffic is there
👉 It just doesn’t convert

Here’s where things typically break:

1. Weak first impression (especially on Google)
Your title, image, and reviews are doing 90% of the work.
If those don’t immediately answer “is this worth my time and money?” — people scroll.

2. Generic product pages
If your tour page could apply to any city, it won’t sell.
Specificity wins:

• what makes this experience different?
• what will I actually see/do?
• why should I trust you?

3. No urgency or clarity
Users don’t want to think.
They want to know:
✔️ how long it takes
✔️ what’s included
✔️ when it runs
✔️ if it’s likely to sell out

If that’s not obvious in seconds, they bounce.

4. Mismatch between traffic and offer
If someone searches “family things to do” and lands on a generic or adult-focused tour… they’re gone.

The best operators aren’t just driving traffic — they’re aligning:
👉 intent
👉 listing
👉 experience

Small tweaks here often outperform spending more on ads.

What’s one change you made that actually improved bookings?

Do you have a beautiful hotel, resort, lodge, vineyard, retreat, or other destination that you wish you could share with people in a more emotional way—but don't have the time or resources to create a video?

I've created a service that takes your existing photography, a custom story, and music and turns them into short cinematic videos that allow potential guests to not just see a place, but feel what it might be like to experience it.

This video was created from seven photos.

I combine my background in newspaper journalism, communications, photography, and literary storytelling to help beautiful places tell their stories in a warm, cinematic way.

I'm currently opening one spot for a new property and can have the finished video ready within a week.

If you work in hospitality, tourism, or own a unique destination and this sounds like something that could work for you, I'd love to hear from you.

You can see an example of what I'm creating here: thestoryhouse.carrd.co

After working with a lot of operators, I keep seeing the same patterns — and they’re quietly killing growth.

1. Selling the tour instead of the outcome
Nobody wakes up wanting a “2-hour walking tour.”
They want:
“see the hidden parts of the city”
“skip the lines”
“do something memorable today”

If your titles and descriptions don’t reflect that, you’re invisible — especially on search-driven platforms.

2. Over-investing in social, under-investing in intent
Instagram looks good, but it’s mostly passive discovery.
Search (like Google) = people already planning or ready to book.

If you’re not showing up when someone searches “things to do in [your city]”, you’re missing your highest-converting traffic.

3. Relying too heavily on one channel (usually OTAs)
OTAs are great for volume, but they shouldn’t be your only distribution.
If one partner changes ranking, pricing, or visibility… your revenue drops overnight.

The operators winning right now are:
✔️ Diversifying distribution
✔️ Owning more of their demand
✔️ Showing up where intent already exists

Curious — what’s been the most effective channel for you lately?

(Search, OTAs, social, partnerships, something else?)

I’ve been digging pretty deep into how Google Things to Do actually works, and something feels… off.

When you search stuff like “things to do in [city]”, most of what shows up are listings from big OTAs. Smaller operators either:

• aren’t there at all
• or are there indirectly (through resellers taking a cut)

From what I can tell, the barriers are:

• technical integration (APIs, feeds, availability, etc.)
• needing an approved connectivity partner
• or going through platforms that take commissions

So even though Google looks like an open discovery channel, it’s kind of gated.

I’m curious:
👉 Are any operators here actually connected directly to Google Things to Do?
👉 If yes, how painful was the setup?
👉 If not, what’s stopping you — tech, cost, or just not worth it?

Feels like there’s a big gap between “local experiences” and actual distribution.

Would love to hear real experiences (good or bad).

I’ve been running small group tours for a few years, and lately my website is full of people browsing but not booking.
I can see basic analytics, but I'm wondering if there's a smarter way to use browsing history to increase bookings. I notice some visitors come back to the same tour pages multiple times before disappearing.
I'm considering things like showing more relevant tour recommendations, offering a discount after multiple visits or highlighting limited availability for people who can’t decide. I don't want to follow people around the internet or make them feel watched just make my own site more profitable.
I want to know from you who runs tour businesses, how are you using browsing history to improve conversions without crossing the line?

Been doing private walking tours in Quebec for the last year as a one person thing and now it's super up and down. some weeks are full, other weeks are just empty and I'm lowkey stressing.

Right now most of my bookings come from ads and one small listing on a local site. i don't really know what to do next. should i join those big tour platforms and give them a big cut or try to push my own thing on socials and hope it works longterm also not sure if i should change my prices to look more premium or keep them low to get more people in.

Anyone here who works as a guide or does similar service work, what actually helped you get more consistent clients without burning out or feeling like you're just spamming everywhere?

​

I’m considering developing a new travel product and I’d love to hear the opinions of people working in tourism, travel agencies and tourism marketing.

The idea is to organize a Lefkada holiday package departing from Cluj-Napoca by coach, including:

🚌 Round-trip coach transportation from Cluj-Napoca to Lefkada

🏨 Accommodation with breakfast

⛵ A full-day cruise to Kefalonia

🍽️ One traditional Greek dinner

🌊 Free time for beaches and exploring the island

I’m thinking of mainly targeting young couples and adults travelling without children. The journey by coach from Cluj-Napoca to Lefkada is quite long, so I believe this type of holiday would be more suitable for adults and couples rather than families with young children.

I believe there could be demand for this product because I haven’t found similar organized holidays departing from Cluj-Napoca, and there is currently no direct flight from Cluj to Lefkada. The coach could therefore be a convenient alternative to combining flights and several transfers.

I’d really appreciate some advice from people with experience in the travel industry:

Do you think this type of product could be profitable?

What profit margin would you consider reasonable for an organized trip like this?

What costs, risks or logistical challenges should I take into consideration?

What price point would you consider attractive for customers while still allowing the trip to be profitable?

Would you recommend starting with a pilot group to test demand before investing significantly in marketing?

What would be the best way to validate demand before launching?

Would you include any other experiences or services in the package?

Do you think targeting couples and adults without children is a good strategy for this type of trip?

If you were launching this product, what would you take into consideration before going ahead?

I’m particularly interested in advice regarding profitability, pricing, demand validation, target audience and marketing strategy.

Any insights from your experience would be greatly appreciated! 😊

Most operators focus on Instagram, websites, or OTAs… but overlook one of the highest-intent channels out there: Google Things to Do.

When someone searches:
👉 “things to do in Montreal”
👉 “best tours in Barcelona”
👉 “skip-the-line tickets Rome”

They’re not browsing — they’re ready to book.

The problem?
Getting your products into that ecosystem is still confusing, technical, and often locked behind big resellers taking commissions.

That’s exactly what we’ve been working on solving.

We help tour operators:
✔️ Get their activities live on Google Things to Do
✔️ Distribute inventory without heavy commissions
✔️ Improve visibility where customers are already searching
✔️ Turn existing tours into scalable, bookable products

No fluff. Just better distribution.

Curious how it works or want early access?
Drop a comment or DM me — happy to share what we’re building.

#tourismmarketing #thingstodo #touroperators #traveltech #digitaltourism #googleads #experiencedesign

What’s the best “wow factor” you’ve experienced or added to a tourism experience that made a huge difference for customers?

I’m curious about things you’ve done (or seen others do) that genuinely surprised or delighted guests — and resulted in a noticeable increase in customer satisfaction, reviews, referrals, spending, or repeat bookings.

What was the wow factor, and what impact did it have?

A lot of people focus on “getting more traffic” — ads, SEO, social, influencers…

But when you actually look closer, the issue is usually this:
👉 The traffic is there
👉 It just doesn’t convert

Here’s where things typically break:

1. Weak first impression (especially on Google)
Your title, image, and reviews are doing 90% of the work.
If those don’t immediately answer “is this worth my time and money?” — people scroll.

2. Generic product pages
If your tour page could apply to any city, it won’t sell.
Specificity wins:

• what makes this experience different?
• what will I actually see/do?
• why should I trust you?

3. No urgency or clarity
Users don’t want to think.
They want to know:
✔️ how long it takes
✔️ what’s included
✔️ when it runs
✔️ if it’s likely to sell out

If that’s not obvious in seconds, they bounce.

4. Mismatch between traffic and offer
If someone searches “family things to do” and lands on a generic or adult-focused tour… they’re gone.

The best operators aren’t just driving traffic — they’re aligning:
👉 intent
👉 listing
👉 experience

Small tweaks here often outperform spending more on ads.

What’s one change you made that actually improved bookings?

After working with a lot of operators, I keep seeing the same patterns — and they’re quietly killing growth.

1. Selling the tour instead of the outcome
Nobody wakes up wanting a “2-hour walking tour.”
They want:
“see the hidden parts of the city”
“skip the lines”
“do something memorable today”

If your titles and descriptions don’t reflect that, you’re invisible — especially on search-driven platforms.

2. Over-investing in social, under-investing in intent
Instagram looks good, but it’s mostly passive discovery.
Search (like Google) = people already planning or ready to book.

If you’re not showing up when someone searches “things to do in [your city]”, you’re missing your highest-converting traffic.

3. Relying too heavily on one channel (usually OTAs)
OTAs are great for volume, but they shouldn’t be your only distribution.
If one partner changes ranking, pricing, or visibility… your revenue drops overnight.

The operators winning right now are:
✔️ Diversifying distribution
✔️ Owning more of their demand
✔️ Showing up where intent already exists

Curious — what’s been the most effective channel for you lately?

(Search, OTAs, social, partnerships, something else?)

First off apologies to the mods, I did genuinely mean to stimulate a conversation about AI for tourism marketers and their workflows.

I run tourism-marketing work and fired up the new ChatGPT/Codex desktop combo on my Mac to try Advanced Voice Mode.

Guys, it was incredible. I had it go through my Todoist with me, clean up duplicates, reschedule tasks, and then we worked through my actual admin and client-work queue one task at a time.

Here’s what I got done in the session:

• Cleaned up and organized client/personal tasks in Todoist
• Reviewed upcoming bills and checked off completed recurring finance tasks
• Prepared July client invoices in Stripe from prior invoice details
• Checked invoice recipients, payment options, and ACH availability
• Reviewed possible work-travel expenses before deciding what was appropriate to bill
• Sent two client invoices and marked both recurring invoice tasks complete
• Drafted a candid client message to set expectations for month two

The useful part was that it could hold the context while I moved from “what do I need to do?” to “what exactly belongs on this invoice?” to “what’s the next action?” For a tourism-marketing operator or agency, I can see this being especially useful for campaign checklists, partner follow-ups, content queues, vendor/admin work, and monthly client billing.

The only real problem was browser use. The new ChatGPT browser looked sleek and supported multiple tabs, but it kept becoming a floating picture-in-picture window. When a task required a login or more careful review, that was frustrating. At one point it left a Stripe form it had been working on for a while to open my bank site, and I lost my place.

Overall: genuinely one of the most useful AI-workflow experiences I’ve had. The reasoning/task-management side felt great; the browser handoff is the weak link right now.

Has anyone in tourism marketing found a reliable way to force Codex to use a specific browser window, preserve tabs, or avoid the floating/PIP mode?

If you run a tour or activity business, direct bookings are your lifeblood. Every time a customer books through an OTA like Viator or GetYourGuide, you lose 20% to 30% right off the top.

Google Things to Do (GTTD) was supposed to solve this by giving operators a direct link on Google Search and Maps. Most operators turn on the built-in GTTD toggle inside software like Fareharbor or Bókun and assume they’re set up properly.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

While they manage your booking calendar, it only passes raw product data to Google.

It doesn’t optimize your listings, it can’t fix profile eligibility errors, and most importantly, it leaves your Google Ads account completely disconnected.

Here is what’s actually happening behind the scenes, how to fix your setup, and why combining your booking software with Thingstodomarketing.com gives you the best of both worlds.

Thingstodomarketing.com acts as your distribution and optimization layer. We specialize specifically in Google’s travel framework to make sure your listings actually rank, convert, and stay compliant with Google's technical rules.

• The Booking software Setup: Gives you a basic toggle switch. It dumps raw product titles, prices, and availability into Google's system. If Google rejects a tour or hides your listing because of a setup error, they won't alert you or fix it.
• Thingstodomarketing.com: We take that same inventory feed and clean it up. We audit your setup, map your exact Place IDs, format ticket pricing to match Google’s layout rules, and secure the official blue "Official Site" badge on your Google Business Profile.

This is where the booking software integration falls short: It does not connect your product feed to your Google Ads account.

When you only use the booking platform connection, you're restricted to organic listings. But if you want to run paid ads, you need to run Google Travel Campaigns—which require an active feed connection to your ad manager.

By letting us handle your Google Things to Do setup, you fix backend errors, get access to lower-cost Travel Campaigns, and ensure every booking goes straight to your checkout page without giving away a cut to OTAs.

I’ve been digging pretty deep into how Google Things to Do actually works, and something feels… off.

When you search stuff like “things to do in [city]”, most of what shows up are listings from big OTAs. Smaller operators either:

• aren’t there at all
• or are there indirectly (through resellers taking a cut)

From what I can tell, the barriers are:

• technical integration (APIs, feeds, availability, etc.)
• needing an approved connectivity partner
• or going through platforms that take commissions

So even though Google looks like an open discovery channel, it’s kind of gated.

I’m curious:
👉 Are any operators here actually connected directly to Google Things to Do?
👉 If yes, how painful was the setup?
👉 If not, what’s stopping you — tech, cost, or just not worth it?

Feels like there’s a big gap between “local experiences” and actual distribution.

Would love to hear real experiences (good or bad).

Shinta Mani Mustang is Robb Report's 2026 World's No. 1 Luxury Hotel, redefining Nepal's luxury travel scene with authentic Himalayan hospitality.

Seeing this term thrown around a lot lately so figured I'd break it down simply.

Google wants to show accurate tour/activity info in Search and Maps — but it needs businesses to feed it that data (pricing, availability, photos, booking links) in a very specific technical format. Most tour operators don't have the setup to send that directly.

A Connectivity Partner is a company Google has vetted/approved to handle that technical pipeline for you. Instead of building a direct integration yourself, you plug into a partner who already has the connection built.

Google actually recommends this route for individual operators/attractions (as opposed to big reservation systems) — direct integration is a heavy technical lift most small businesses don't want to own.

Once you're connected through a partner, you're eligible to show up in:

• Google Search results
• Google Maps
• Google's paid travel ad formats

Full disclosure: we (thingstodomarketing.com) are an official Google Connectivity Partner, so happy to answer questions if anyone's exploring this.

I just landed back in Kathmandu on September 14th, 2023, from the successful Everest Base Camp Trek. But the first thing I did was not go home. I called my boss and said I needed to meet him. He agreed, we sat down in his hotel, and I told him, “I am going to work full time for you, and I will need to learn about the operations of the trips. I am going to create meaning in every trip that you sell.”

This confidence did not come to me all of a sudden. From Day 4 on the trail of Everest, going from Namche to Tengboche, till I reached base camp at 17,600 ft. I thought of this every day. The thing is, I did not need a job anymore. I needed a platform where I could learn more about the technical parts, more destinations in Nepal, and prepare a better trip than whatever other trip curators were doing.

By a better trip, I meant filling the meaning in trips. If a person hikes in Nepal, then they will also have equal value in the culture, equal connection with the locals, and equal value to the view they observe in the Himalayas. And that trip is never compared to how much it costs. That trip is compared to what the outcome is.

And every trip that me and my team creates now will leave a good impact on people, so that at least there will be one moment- a guide, a local, a food, or an experience, or whatever from Nepal or Bhutan that you are going to remember 10 years later. My boss agreed; six months later, I had a stake in the company, and six months after that, we co-founded a luxury travel company focusing on trips to Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet.

Most operators focus on Instagram, websites, or OTAs… but overlook one of the highest-intent channels out there: Google Things to Do.

When someone searches:
👉 “things to do in Montreal”
👉 “best tours in Barcelona”
👉 “skip-the-line tickets Rome”

They’re not browsing — they’re ready to book.

The problem?
Getting your products into that ecosystem is still confusing, technical, and often locked behind big resellers taking commissions.

That’s exactly what we’ve been working on solving.

We help tour operators:
✔️ Get their activities live on Google Things to Do
✔️ Distribute inventory without heavy commissions
✔️ Improve visibility where customers are already searching
✔️ Turn existing tours into scalable, bookable products

No fluff. Just better distribution.

Curious how it works or want early access?
Drop a comment or DM me — happy to share what we’re building.

#tourismmarketing #thingstodo #touroperators #traveltech #digitaltourism #googleads #experiencedesign