This page is about selecting an online booking engine/ticketing system for your guided tour, tourism activity or tourist attraction. If you already have one, and want to explore ways to increase ticket sales see How to Grow Your Bookings/Ticket Sales.
As a tour guide, tourism activity/attraction operator you will want clients to be able to buy tickets when they find your tour/activity/attraction on your website or on the websites of other parties who are assisting you to promote your tourism business. Your focus is on ensuring your guests have a great experience so your primary focus is on the tour/activity/attraction itself. You only want to spend minimal time on getting a booking engine/ticketing system configured.
Here are some things to look for when choosing a booking engine/ticketing system:
- It should be easy and reasonably quick to configure.
- You don’t want to have to install software packages onto your computer or server to configure your tours/activities/attractions.
- You will want the ability to copy and paste a booking widget from the booking engine’s control panel onto your webpage. This should display detailed information about the tour/activity/attraction including:
- for tours: the places visited and why they just have to be seen
- for tourism activities: why the activity in your location is so special
- for tourism attractions: what makes it unique and what visitors can expect to experience
- images which you upload to the control panel
- The location where the tour/activity is to take place or where the attraction is located
- For tours and activities: The start date & time of the tour/activity and also the end time or duration
- For attractions: The opening hours
- Any particular items or equipment which guests should bring with them or not bring with them
- Any restrictions which apply
The booking widget must also enable customers to book their tickets and pay for them.
- Customers should be able to book and pay for their tickets 24×7. They should also receive a confirmation e-mail within a few minutes of purchase.
- The system should support e-tickets: That is, tickets are generated by the system and e-mailed to the customer who can print them or keep them on their mobile phones/tablets
- From the point of view of customers buying tickets, the process should be straightforward with the minimum number of steps and requesting the minimum amount of information to be entered. It should be easy to use from mobile (smartphone, tablet), laptop and desktop devices.
- It should prevent overbooking: If your tour/venue has capacity for 30, then it should not allow more than that number of tickets to be sold.
- It should enable you to place an upper limit on the number of tickets which can be purchased at one time (for fairness).
- If you plan on holding the tour/activity on multiple occastions, on a regular basis, the booking engine should enable you to make it recurring so that you only have to enter the details once. You should be able to specify the regularity of the recurrence, for example, “every two weeks on Friday”, or “the first Saturday of each month from September through December”.
- The system should enable you to configure off-peak and peak period pricing should you wish to do so
- The system should enable you to configure different ticket types, for example a full price/standard ticket, and reduced price tickets (concessions) for students, the retired, etc.
- Consider entry to your tour/venue and the checking/validating of tickets. You don’t want to frustrate your guests with long admission delays. Does the ticketing system provide some fast and automated way to scan and validate tickets? Does this require special equipment which you will have to purchase or rent or can you use a mobile phone with an app?