It is a jungle out there. Whether you’re new to the tourism game or are a seasoned veteran, there are countless apps and software available to help with any number of day to day business tasks. Tourism is a sector that has been steadily growing for years, and that hasn’t stopped the development of new and improved programmes from creating client proposals to booking software or even email marketing. We’ve put together a list of apps and software that could be beneficial to your tour business – we hope you find it useful!
Creating Proposals
Have you ever been in the position where you have given a client a free proposal, perhaps of your tour itinerary, and you know they are going to take your idea and run with it? Friendly advice: never give out free information. If a potential customer requests a tour proposal or a custom tour itinerary, go no further until they have paid a non-refundable deposit. If they refuse? More than likely they were never going to be a customer.
Anyway, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Where can you create, store and propose these ideas? Let’s take a look at some itinerary and proposal management apps.
Travefy(opens in a new tab)
Easily and quickly arrange events, flights, and accommodation on a clear itinerary. Import existing reservations via email forwarding, CRM (customer relationship management) and supplier integrations, or Travefy’s API. Create your own library of content to use on itineraries or access Travefy’s integrated database of millions of places as well as full city guides and destination content.
Proposify(opens in a new tab)
Proposify is a proposal software that helps untangle your processes and organises your team to create a seamless operation. The platform allows you to organise your content, have access to interactive documents, customisable branded templates, and the list goes on.
Nussi(opens in a new tab)
Nussi can provide you with professional proposal templates, open notifications, your own custom domain, proposal tracking, personal branding, automation, online signatures and much more…
Photos
Ever wondered how and where you could sell or share your tour photos to clients? Wonder no more. Having a platform for customers who have taken your tours to share and buy photos, as well as (and this is important too) leave a review – a few companies come to mind!
PicThrive(opens in a new tab)
Quickly deliver tour photos and videos to more guests in less time. Eliminate waiting, share the great content and free up staff time. PicThrive’s online store automatically sells photos and videos after guests leave and it’s very user friendly and integrates with your reservation system.
SmugMug(opens in a new tab)
Available across a number of channels, store, share, and even sell your photos with SmugMug. You’ll have immediate access to any photo, any time, anywhere in the world, and from any device. What’s more, you will be able to print, and even sell, your photos with the most trusted labs in the world, backed with a 100% print guarantee.
Fotaflo(opens in a new tab)
Fotaflo has a number of good qualities and the standout being the push for more customer reviews. Providing photos to a client after their experience will remind them of the great time they had, with an extra push on leaving a testimonial at the right time.
Struggling to Choose Booking Software?
This is a question that pops up from time to time in our line of work: which booking software do you recommend(opens in a new tab)? We have previously written about booking software versus booking forms and there are a number of different reasons why you should choose software. There are lots of companies to choose from and each has their pros and cons but they all have one thing in common: they allow customers to book your tours. Below we’ve put together a list of some of the most popular.
Rezdy(opens in a new tab)
Rezdy has arguably the most user-friendly interface on its backend. Their customer support is also very helpful and responsive in our experience. They charge a monthly fee, with the API key (for website integrations) coming at an extra cost if you want to customise the plugin.
Peek(opens in a new tab)
In terms of integration, we find Peek so easy to put on our websites and to make it look good. It has a lot of options for customisation and can also link to the marketing side of your business. Peek, instead of charging a monthly, charge a percentage on each booking.
Fareharbor(opens in a new tab)
Visually, the booking flows on Fareharbor is one of our favourites. When it’s done right, it looks great on the website itself and is really easy for the customer to navigate. They don’t charge a set-up fee but do take a percentage of bookings similar to Peek.
Email Marketing Software
According to Radicati(opens in a new tab), the number of worldwide email accounts continues to grow from over 4.1 billion accounts in 2014 to over 5.2 billion accounts by the end of 2018 – with suggestions that 34% of the world’s population uses email. Put shortly, email marketing is a great way to connect and engage with current and new clients. It’s also a perfect way of reaching your target audience. Within the tourism world, it’s important to be constantly active and looking to attract more bookings. As important, if not more so, than social media, there are a number of email marketing(opens in a new tab) platforms out there that make life easier for you!
Mailchimp(opens in a new tab)
The simplest platform for us at Tourism Tiger to use as it’s very easy to integrate onto our sites and works and looks great. It’s not specifically designed for tourism as it covers email marketing as a whole but it has everything you need! With 4 different plans and 1 being totally free, there’s something for everyone.
Mailerlite(opens in a new tab)
This is another platform that we’ve found a few of our customers have used in the past. MailerLite is a great tool for those who have a modest budget, but still need something that does more than just send newsletters. Again, with numerous plan options, you can choose the one that’s right for you.
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