In my last blog I explored an essential insight for anyone running a small to mid-sized accommodation or activity business in Australia, understanding your most valued ‘primary’ customer.
Just as important as knowing who your customer is, is a deep understanding the journey they take to find you, and book or not book. It’s not just useful; it’s essential. This ‘journey’ includes the full continuum of imagining, researching, booking, experiencing, and then post-visit sharing.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re offering boutique stays, eco-tours, farm experiences, or cultural activities, if you are familiar with the detail of your customer’s journey, you can identify and improve every touchpoint. You’ll be able to answer, and act upon, whether you are showing up where your ‘ideal’ customers are searching. Whether you’re making the booking process simple and whether you’re doing enough to encourage reviews and repeat visits.
For example, if your website content isn’t up to scratch, or too slow or unsuitable for mobile searches, if your availability isn’t instantly clear, or you don’t show up in online searches, you risk losing them at each decision point—even if you’re a perfect match for them. Particularly for small operators, you can directly influence every step. From the moment a potential guest starts daydreaming to long after they’ve left, you have the power to guide, inspire, and build loyalty.
It can make a big difference, so you spend your limited time and marketing budget more wisely impacting and motivating people most likely to love what you do.
Here’s how you can shape the journey from start to finish.
Firstly, every journey begins with dreaming and discovery. This is where you need to inspire.
Every tourism experience starts with the traveller’s imagination, a dream of where they’d like to go and what they’d like to do. As simple as scrolling Instagram, flipping through a travel blog, or chatting with friends about their next escape. They might stumble across a beautiful image of a coastal cabin in the Kimberley or hear about a food and wine tour in a small Tasmanian town.
How you can influence this very first step by investing in compelling visual content, authentic photos and videos and emotive descriptions that tell your story.
Share your own interactions and experiences on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or even TikTok to catch people at the ‘inspiration’ stage. Use hashtags, location tags, and collaborate with influencers or past guests to spread your reach to new eyes.
Ensure your listing appears on the big travel websites, and on ‘alternative’ sites like local tourism websites and Google Maps and is instantly bookable, with live availability and up-to-date evocative, attention-grabbing content, photos and descriptions. This is where TXA excels with broad distribution and seamless booking process.
The next step is planning and research where interest needs to be turned into intent.
Once travellers start narrowing their destination and experience choices, they begin to compare accommodation and activities that match their values, preferences, and budget. They’re reading reviews, scanning websites, and looking for clues that your tourism offering is the right fit.
To influence at this point you need to keep your own website clean, mobile-friendly, and informative. Include availability, prices, cancellation policies, FAQs, and what’s unique about you and your destination. Highlight sustainability practices, personal touches, and leverage local partnerships.
This is where encouraging guests to leave genuine reviews on your website, Google, TripAdvisor, and/or the relevant booking platform will help enormously.
And make yourself easy to contact and be quick to respond to enquiries.
Once they’ve made up their mind you need to make it easy for them to act, to close the deal through booking. At this stage, travellers expect a smooth, trustworthy process that gives them confidence. Again, this is where TXA can help with its simple, secure online booking system with live rates, real-time availability and instant confirmation.
You can directly influence the outcome here by offering direct booking incentives (e.g., free ‘value adds’). To build confidence be transparent with pricing, booking terms, conditions of use and inclusions. No surprises!
Again, provide fast, friendly responses to emails, messages, or calls.
The next step is about pre-arrival engagement
Probably the most underestimated thing you can do is build anticipation while setting expectations.
Once booked and confirmed, travellers often feel excited but still have questions. This is your opportunity to build rapport and provide value even before they arrive.
Send a welcome email with key info like directions, check-in instructions, what to bring, and weather tips. Recommend local experiences, restaurants, or partner tours, adding value and promoting the local economy. Offer to help with special requests. Guests always remember that little bit extra effort on their behalf!
Then the experience itself is where your tourism business truly shines or doesn’t. The traveller is now directly in your hands. Their perception of your business is shaped by every interaction, no matter how small, from arrival and service to atmosphere.
Provide a warm, personal welcome and clear communication while they are with you. Add thoughtful touches like a handwritten note, a happy snap’ or assisted ‘selfie’, local snacks, or flexible check-in/out options. And being available to answer questions or offer local insights shows you care and builds their trust.
Now to activate the ‘loyalty loop’ and turn a one-time guest into a repeat advocate.
Once the guest leaves, their journey can continue, but only if you stay connected. Positive experiences turn into glowing reviews, social shares, and repeat bookings.
