Destination guides have long been a strong resource for travel agents, but the key to their effectiveness is keeping them updated and relevant. Destination guides can be the perfect solution to when a client is either looking for a specific place that you might not know as much about, or if a client is looking at several options and needs some inspiration. We have created several guides for our most popular destinations for you to have at your disposal, but if you want one to specifically send out to your clients that includes your Bookable Link, you can create your own!
Here are a few different tips in regards to creating your own destination guide!
Picking Your Destinations
In order to pick the specific locations your are going to cover in your destination guides, make sure that you are creating them not only for the staple destinations like Italy and France, but also for trending locations like Croatia and New Zealand.
In regards to the more classic locations, although these destinations are timeless, your destination guides are not: they need to be updated on a yearly basis to include the newest trends. Every year there are new things to do that pop up, new wine tours, new dance lessons, new scooter tours.
For trending locations its best to keep those updated as well, adding trending tours to your repertoire will help to keep you relevant with younger audiences in specific. Social media is often a great resource for identifying what types of locations are trending. Also an article on the year’s top trending destinations is usually just a Google search away.
Deciding What Attractions to Include
When it comes to picking what attractions to highlight, it’s hard to know exactly what your clients are looking for, but odds are they are going to want to hit some of the most popular attractions. In order to find those out, TripAdvisor and Viator’s websites are great resources to identify these popular attractions. We also provide a lot of helpful information and travel guides here.
Looking at the number of reviews and the average star rating (if its four or five stars on average it’s probably a great pick) will prove the most helpful in this process. Also, finding attractions for a variety of audiences is best, make sure there are kid-friendly options as well as options for adult- only groups.
Highlighting unique tours in different locations is also especially efficient with a younger audience, things like vintage car rides, yoga classes and painting lessons in destinations are super popular.
Picking Between Products
When there are multiple great tours for the same attraction, it is important to create a balanced variety in your guide. Including activities with different levels of prices, lengths and levels of physical activity is important to ensure your clients can find the perfect mix for them. Using the filters on Viator is a great way to navigate this search and most effectively. You can filter by price, duration, rating, skip-the-line and more!
Using the Bookable Link
The key to earning commission is the Bookable Link, without this link, you will not be able to earn commission on the products that your clients book for themselves.
Everytime that you are hyperlinking your products on the destination guide, make sure that you are using the link generated from the “Share with client” button.
Related: New Ways to Use a Bookable Link
What to Highlight in a Tour Description
A tour description needs to be informative but also exciting! In a tour description you need to grab your client’s attention enough to make them click on the link and check out more details and generate a booking. In these tour descriptions it’s great to include things like what major sites the tour focuses on, the length of tour, if there are any added bonuses like hotel transport or meals included, but also remember to keep it brief. You ultimately want to spark their interest enough that they click the link and check out the information on the product page!
Using Photos!
Using photos is one of the most important parts of your destination guide for often times pictures are the best way to spark excitement about travel. When using pictures make sure that they are of a good enough quality that clients are able to get a full feel for what the destination actually looks like. Pro Tip: Include pictures of the tours themselves from the client’s point of view, it’s one thing to show a client a stock photo of a destination but it’s even better to show them the exact experience that they are considering.
Building in Tips for Travelers
A part of the guide your clients will especially appreciate is the tips section. Including things like the best times to visit, local customs, and packing list essentials will give your clients insight into the external factors to keep in mind during the booking and planning process. As a travel agent, it’s important to add in any extra local knowledge that you can in marketing materials sent to the client. Afterall, your expertise is truly the reason many clients will turn to you as their main guide in navigating themselves to create the trip of their dreams.
Designing your Guide
We at Viator have created our destination guides to be embedded into our webpage but if you want to create different document to send to clients that is both printable and emailable there are a few different options.
Canva is “a simplified graphic-design tool website, founded in 2012. It uses a drag-and-drop format and provides access to over a million photographs, vectors, graphics, and fonts. It is used by non-designers as well as professionals. The tools can be used for both web and print media design and graphics.” Here is a great instructional video on how to use Canva to create designs for your business!
Microsoft Word is also a great resource to create your guide. We at Viator have created a Destination Guide Template for you to use to create your own destination guide with ease!
