Tackle Your Busy Season or Ease Into Your Slow Season with FareHarbor

The travel industry relies heavily on seasonality, with peak seasons that ramp up during school holidays and summer vacations for many tour operators. While some businesses in the northern hemisphere are winding down their busy summer season, others are getting ready to welcome visitors for fall and winter activities. Whatever your seasonality or location, FareHarbor is here to help you succeed.

We’ve identified simple tasks to help keep you on track, whether you’re preparing for the start of your busy season or are ready to slow down and tackle your to-do list.

If Your Busy Season Is About to Start…

If you’re getting ready for spooky season or waiting for the first snow to fall to start your winter adventures, here’s what you can do to prepare for your busiest time of year.

Website, SEO & Marketing Channels

• Display your best-selling activities prominently on your website to improve conversions. Check the activity description, images, pricing, and any other information that needs to be updated, paying special attention to specific dates listed on your website (such as the start of your season). You don’t want potential customers to see last year’s dates on your website and think you’re not currently offering tours!
• Review your website on a mobile device to ensure that it’s easy for customers to navigate and make a booking. This will help with your rankings on Google search and provide a smooth experience for guests.
• Check your Google My Business listing to ensure it’s optimized and updated, including hours of operation and contact information. This crucial SEO tool will help you capture travelers who are searching for something to do once they’re arrived at your destination, as well as locals looking for tours and activities in the area.

FareHarbor Dashboard

• Make sure your best-selling items are optimized on your FareHarbor Dashboard. Check the activity description, headline, prices, images, and confirmation notes on your Dashboard to ensure everything is up to date.
• Create custom reports on your FareHarbor Dashboard so you can easily view the information you need.
• Use our new Health & Safety policy feature to communicate to guests the measures you have in place to keep them and your staff safe. Safety continues to be one of the most important factors travelers consider when making a booking.
• Set up any promo codes you’re running during your busy season to increase bookings. Attract more bookers with early bird specials, group discounts, and more!

If Your Busy Season Just Ended…

Take a breath. You did it! You got through your busiest time of year. Now it’s time to attend to those tasks that you didn’t have time for while you were running tours nonstop.

Website, SEO & Marketing Channels

• If you were running PPC ads on Google or your social media channels during your busy season, analyze the performance and use that data to inform your strategy for next year. Focus on the keywords and ad copy that performed best.
• Review your SEO performance, using tools like Google Analytics, and create a plan to optimize your website. For example, review the pages that had the highest bounce rate (or lowest engagement rate, depending on which version of Google Analytics you’re using) and make the necessary updates, such as improving the content and ensuring the most important information, like a call to action, is at the top of the page.
• Use Google Trends to identify dips in search volume associated with your core offerings. Align your editorial calendar to boost audience engagement during the slow season.
• Create a blog posting calendar for the coming year and write a backlog of blog posts that you can publish throughout the year.
• Similarly, build out a social media calendar and draft all your evergreen posts and campaigns so you can easily post them throughout the year. (Of course, leave some room for timely posts as the need arises).

FareHarbor Dashboard

• Start building your calendar of availabilities for your next season. Travelers tend to plan their trips up to 3 months in advance, so the earlier you get your calendar built out, the better positioned you’ll be to capture those early bookings. Ready to build out your calendar? Contact FH support.
• Are you considering working with partners and resellers next year? Learn about the FareHarbor Distribution Network and FareHarbor Connect and work with our team to get started!
• Review your FareHarbor reports data and use it to inform your strategy for next year, such as adding more availabilities for popular activities or reconsidering items that didn’t get many bookings.
• Set up any promo codes you’re running during your slow season, such as discounts on off-season tours and activities.

No matter which season you’re heading into, these lists will help you stay on track and ensure you’re putting your first foot forward all year-round.

Want more in-depth tips to prepare for your busy season? Check out Compass, available exclusively to FareHarbor clients, to read our marketing and SEO checklist and FareHarbor Dashboard checklist.