We Heart Tours

The last 4 days were a full whirlwind of events. We Heart Tours crew was invited to an annual event for Tour Directors and Tour Operators - the 27th ITMI Symposium & Reunion in Nashville, TN! This was our first time in Nashville and we had a great time in Music City. But the most amazing part of our trip was the Symposium. We have met a lot of great folks and have learned, learned, and learned. Everyone was so welcoming, kind and relaxed so the general atmosphere has been that of a great family reunion.


This was our first year attending and the sessions we attended were a lot of fun. Rick Steve's keynote was truly inspirational. Travel is a great tool to gain knowledge of other people's dreams and their way of life which helps us understand each other, learn to resolve our differences and make this world a better place. The Tour Operator Open Forum provided great insights into the behind-the-scenes happenings of the industry. There were also a number of sponsors with booths and wish we had more time to check all of them out! We had a table set up as well and had fun talking to other attendees. Thank you all that came by to say hi!

We Heart Tours was invited to speak on the "Insights into Tour Planning/Starting your Own Tour Company" panel alongside Taunya Wolfe Finn, CTP, Owner & President of Wolfe Adventures & Tours, LLC and Phil Sheldon, president of HE Travel (merging the worlds of Hanns Ebensten Travel & Alyson Adventures): two amazing tour operators who shared their stories from the road of running a tour operator business. The panel presented a wealth of useful information to tour operator hopefuls in attendance and we provided a couple of useful tips on how to utilize freely available technology to make operations run smoother from day 1.


The next Symposium is slated for January 25-27, 2015 in Newport, RI and we cannot wait to see everyone again!

Pinterest has slowly emerged as the largest bookmarking site and one of the top "social" websites today. Launching in March 2010, its simple design and intuitive tools are now used for a wide variety of uses, from bookmarking tips and tutorials to planning complex weddings and trips, creating inspiration boards to scrapbooking memories. With a number of easy ways to share your pins and boards, Pinterest is also a great tool for engaging with prospective clients that come in contact with your content - directly from your site or via inner Pinterest channels. This means that it is very important to make your content look great when it is viewed outside of your website. We have put together a few tips to enhance the quality of your content and make it Pinterest-ready!

Use high quality media...

Pinterest's visual representation of content is its primary attractive point so it's important that contents of your website are pin-worthy. High quality pictures, framed to look good on Pinterest board will entice visitors to pin. Even if the visitor is not fully interested in the itinerary or the activity, a pinned inspiring photo will be a constant reminder of you. When the pinner returns to their plans weeks or months later, they might revisit your website with new perspective and fresh mindset.

...often.

While hardcore Pinterest users will actively pin your pages, you should make it easy for the rest of visitors to pin your content. Add "pin it" button for appropriate content to easily bookmark and encourage spreading the content. Ideally the tour itinerary page should have a picture that fits well with the tour (theme, season, mission, etc.); each activity may have a separate picture (if not a dedicated page!) and the pin URL should lead directly to the activity on the page (use HTML anchors for easy navigation). This way visitors are able to pin different ideas from your itinerary, improving brand awareness and increasing the chances of eventual booking. At We Heart Tours we offer many different ways to present your tour itinerary. Style your itinerary in a simple list format, fun slideshow, or engaging interactive map to name just a few ideas. Let us know in comments if you like these or have any other ideas for presenting your tour itineraries.

BONUS: Increased number of attractive pins to your website will spread your brand further via re-pins, shares and comments!

Engage with Pinterest users that share your content

Pinterest also has a number of tools that you can use to engage with your visitors away from your site. Ann Smarty has an excellent tutorial that describes how you can find pins linking to your site. You can use it to find visitors and offer them advice about your itinerary, give trip suggestions, and market your brand to build up your reputation. The extra level of service is always a delightful surprise that positions you positively in the mind of your visitors, making it more comfortable for them to work and book with you in the future.

Optimize tour booking process and make it easy to book

Current attention span of an average internet user is very small so it is imperative to reduce the number of steps and time it would take them to get to the booking stage. Make it easier to book online popular activities you may offer. If you only offer larger-scale/multi-day/multi-activity itineraries then you may want to consider allowing visitors to "reserve their spot" online. While you may be offering to personalize the itinerary further by adding or removing items, you can ask for an upfront deposit to secure their commitment. Depending on the average cost of your given itinerary, you may ask for 10% to 30% of the average price and the remainder of the total will be paid when the full itinerary has been finalized. At We Heart Tours you can create a pre-planned tour itineraries and designate certain time blocks as "free time" for tour members to enjoy and explore on their own, or specifying multiple activities for the same time block, allowing tour members pick one from a small range. This allows you to simplify the booking process while still allowing visitors to personalize their tour.

There are also a number of visual ways you can streamline your booking process. A great report by maxymiser and TRAVEL WEEKLY describes how a number of airline and hotel websites have increased their conversions by making it easy and simple to book their inventory.


If you are interested to receive more articles like these, sign up for We Heart Tours mailing list below.