Advertise a tour business against the season, not against the calendar.
Travel demand arrives in waves, and the advertising that works in peak week is the wrong advertising in the quiet month. What to do two months out, what to do while the season is running, how the channel mix should shift, and what to track.
FUEiNT Technologies is a software studio in Coimbatore, India, building custom software since 2014. This is a free checklist that accompanies our article on advertising channels for tour packages — no sign-up and no file to download.
Two months before the season
The work that decides how the season goes. Almost all of it is unglamorous and all of it is cheaper now than in week one of peak.
- Every itinerary, date and price on the site is currentA stale price is the fastest way to lose a booking and the slowest thing to notice. Check every package, not the popular ones.
- Destination pages are written for how people searchPeople search for a destination and a month, not for your package name. Make sure a page exists for each combination you sell.
- Early-booking offers written and scheduled to past customersThe cheapest bookings you will take all year come from people who have already travelled with you.
- Content planned for the whole seasonWritten and photographed now, published through the season. Nobody writes anything once the season starts.
- The enquiry path tested end to end, on a phoneFrom an advertisement to a completed enquiry, on mobile data, as a stranger. Time it. Count the taps.
- WhatsApp set up to answer instantly, including out of hoursMost travel enquiries arrive on a phone in the evening. An away message with a real answer time beats silence.
While the season is running
Short list, done daily or weekly. The season is not the time for new ideas.
- Bidding hardest on the searches that carry booking intentDestination plus "book", "package" or a month. That is where the money should be while demand exists.
- Retargeting live for people who looked and did not bookIn travel the gap between looking and booking is long and full of comparison. This is where it is closed.
- Posting from the trips actually happeningPhotographs of this week’s group, with permission. Nothing you can buy performs like current travellers.
- Every enquiry answered the same dayTravel enquiries go to several operators at once. The slowest to reply is generally the one that does not get the booking.
- Reviews requested from people who have just returnedAsk in the week after they get back, while it is still vivid, and ask by name.
How the channel mix should shift
Same channels, different job depending on where you are in the year. The mistake is spending the same way in all three.
| Channel | Peak — demand is here | Shoulder — demand is building | Quiet — demand is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Most of the budget, aimed at booking searches | Less budget, aimed at specific destinations | Little, and only to stay visible |
| Social media | Daily, from the trips running now | Two or three times a week, inspiration for the next season | Twice a week, past trips and practical advice |
| Late availability and last-minute offers | Early-booking offers for the season ahead | Destination writing and staying in mind | |
| Content and SEO | Change nothing — protect what is ranking | Publish the guides for next season | The big work: rewrites, restructures, audits |
A starting split for the advertising budget
Shares of whatever you spend in a peak month. Fill in your own amounts.
| Channel | Share | Your amount | What it is buying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | 50% | Bookings from people already searching | |
| Social media ads | 30% | Enquiries, and being known before you are needed | |
| Retargeting | 20% | The people who looked, compared and drifted |
What to track, weekly
Set your own targets from your own last season. We publish no benchmark cost per booking, because one that ignored your destination, your margin and your season would be worse than none.
| What to measure | Last season | This season’s target | Actual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per booking | |||
| Enquiries per week | |||
| Enquiries that became bookings | |||
| Average booking value | |||
| Return on advertising spend |
The one that is not on any list
Answer speed. A traveller comparing four operators is deciding partly on who replied, and how fast — which means the gap between an enquiry and a booking is often closed or lost after the advertising has already done its job. It is also the cheapest item on this page to fix.
If nothing else on this checklist gets done, set up an instant WhatsApp acknowledgement with a real answer time in it, and make sure somebody is actually reading that inbox in the evening.
In travel, the slowest reply loses the booking.
If enquiries arrive and do not turn into bookings, send us the path a customer takes and a senior engineer will write back with where we would look first.
Saravanampatti, Coimbatore, TN, India — 641035
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