Out of the many services offered by Google Reserve with Google (RwG) clearly must be within the top 10 favorites as a tourism operator. No tourism operator can deny the extent to which RwG’ simplified the entire booking process via their ‘Buy’ Now’ button. Therefore, having to hear that Google has decided to shut down the RwG service must have been a massive shocker. And, it may still be an unbearable shock to most tourism operators.

All hope is not lost because Google is currently piloting its new initiative, Google Things To Do.  ‘Google Things To Do’ (GTTD) is specifically targeted towards tours, activities, and attractions. No one can be certain whether GTTD is a perfect replacement for RwG, however, one thing is certain, which is that it has few interesting features to add to the table.

In GTTD a button named ‘Official Site’ will direct your potential customers to your official website or the OTA’s (Online Travel Agency) website. Another fascinating feature is that it provides a summary of the most important information such as price, operator, and rating.  What’s more awesome is that all this important information is displayed via a brand new user interface. 

After getting to know what it offers your interest may have peaked to some interest, and surely now you want to know when it will be released. Don’t bother worrying about the release date because it is already released. 

There are few methods that you can try out to leverage your business via GTTD.

1. Market your tourism business via an OTA which is partnered with Google. By doing so the technical aspects of the booking process will be looked after along with the conversation optimization of their offer page. Also, it must be mentioned that in the future GTTD will positively impact the placement of the advertisement which comes at a considerable commission.

2. Get hold of a compatible booking system that automatically generates a booking page according to Google’s strict specifications. The data transfer to Google is done behind the scene directly through a technical interface.

Things to note: So what have you gathered from these 2 methods? These 2 methods in their own roundabout way are trying to tell you that you need to give a lot of attention when choosing a booking system because it is critical to ensure that the technical setup of the booking system is in line with the technical requirements of the largest OTA’s. 

Why is it necessary to have the ideal technical compatibility? Because you will have a very slim chance of hitting the top of the search results unless the technical structure of your booking system is in line to a major extent with the technical requirements of the OTA which you dreamed to get hold of.

3. In some situations, it would be wise to go ahead with a hybrid approach where your offer is listed multiple times- organically, via your booking system and connected marketing platforms.

Apart from the above methods, there are 2 other critical factors that help to market your tourism business in the best way possible via Google Search.

Tip 1:  Many tourism operators want their bookings generated via Google to come through their booking systems, for example: minimizing potential customers from getting in touch with other offers or to save commission fees. How is this achievable? The only way to do this is to make sure quality content is advertised and well maintained on your booking system or on your website. As a result, there is a high possibility of getting a high ranking in Google search results.

Tip 2:  Google’s algorithm considers price and rating when determining the ranking order. Therefore, you need to give a lot of attention to maintaining and updating your Google My Business profile, especially, keep a close look at the number of your reviews and your average rating because they will be displayed in the upper section of the search, and, therefore will be instrumental in getting those clicks.

The all-important Official site badge

GTTD provides you with an official site badge that gives you an edge over your competitors, especially, when there are listings placed side by side. As a result, there could be an increase in your direct bookings. According to a recent study it has been found out that 39% of customers prefer direct booking rather than booking through resellers and the best part is that these numbers are showing signs of growth each year.

SEO perks

Google did not specifically mention the benefits of SEO. However, you are most likely to have a positive impact on SEO similar to times when you set up your listing on Google My Business. You will be receiving a referral link from google which will be good for SEO, and in turn, you will have more direct traffic.  What all this indicates is that Google considers your website to be useful.

Google Things To do is absolutely free

It is surprising to hear that Google provides this service free of charge, but, that is the happy reality that comes with a pinch of surprise.  Reserve with Google did charge a commission so it makes sense for people to be surprised about the free service offered by Things To Do.

Since Reserve with Google is unavailable you must be eagerly waiting to get your website hooked with Things To Do. We’ve realised that and we can help you out as we are specialists at integrating 3rd party applications to tourism websites so it’s just a matter of you telling us how the integration should workout for your website.

It all starts with a “Hello!” click below to flick us a message to discuss your next digital project.