Turn Lookers into Bookers

What one superpower would every tourism professional love to have?

While multilingualism, the ability to control the weather and enhanced memory would all be nice, I'm guessing that the power to turn lookers into bookers would be the runaway favourite.

The good news is this "superpower" is an ability we can all develop. Even better news? Thanks to Chris Torres and his book Lookers into Bookers: the tourism marketing blueprint, the key to building a successful travel brand is now well within your grasp.

Sure, it'll take time, and a lot of work on your part, but at least the process has been demystified.

I've been engrossed in Chris' book over the festive, and a full review will follow (the moment my website emerges from its redesign). In the meantime, here's a brief summary of our chat..

Tourism trail-blazer

Ever since my move into travel and tourism, Chris' content has been my go-to. His knowledge, expertise and generosity (he shares so much stuff for free!) is amazing. I felt star-struck at the prospect of meeting him.

Really though, I shouldn't have worried. Chris is every bit as down-to-earth and approachable as he comes across in his writing.

In the course of our chat we spoke about media company mindset, the power of direct marketing, dealing with algorithm changes and more. With loads of questions and comments from our engaged audience, it was a value-packed half hour.

Catch the replay here.

1. Media mindset matters

This is a key theme of Chris' book. It's not enough to organise and deliver tours: you need to become a media company, cutting through the clutter and rising above the noise of the internet.

The only way you'll reach potential customers is by producing consistent and engaging content across platforms.

if you think of all the videos, reels, blogs, articles, SEO, paid advertising, all the things that come with [running a tourism business], you are literally a media company that just happens to sell a tourism product or an experience.

2. Do direct marketing

Chris recognises the value of online travel agents (OTAs), and recommends tourism professionals get onto as many of these platforms as possible. However, that doesn't mean you can skimp on developing direct marketing!

Taking control of your own marketing gives you control over your brand and your revenue. It takes time and effort, but it's an investment that will pay dividends.

Over the years, you'll find that you will if it [direct marketing] is done right, you'll find you spend less money on direct marketing and paid advertising and all these things, because you'll get so much content out there.

3. Algorithm agony

Viewer Jonathan Rodgers asked about how tourism companies can deal with algorithm changes.

Chris suggests focusing on two key areas:

• Reels and videos: Chis reckons this is the best marketing tool you can use. Why? It gets your brand values and personality across quickly and effectively.
• Facebook groups: FB business pages are dead. Starting a group, on the other hand, is a great way of building engagement and community while showing off your expertise.

Say you do whisky tours and your group was about whisky tasting and pairing whiskies [...]. If you have a group around that, then you can use that group to raise your own profile. Every now and again, you may add some products and experiences to sell, but 80% of the time you're there to offer advice.

4. Humanise your brand

This is absolutely central to Chris' marketing philosophy. He urges tour operators to put their personality out there. Tour operators should make sure that their tour guides are at the forefront of their marketing and producing content. This means that potential guests get a true flavour of the kind of experience they're going to get.

A lot of operators try to sell experiences like they're selling a pair of shoes or a laptop or something like that. That just does not work in tourism. You need to humanise your brand. People buy from people at the end of the day.

5. Is this your missing ingredient?

Our final question came from a viewer, who asked: "What's the most common missing ingredient in sales pages that, if it were included, would improve conversion?"

Chris often sees sales pages that lack clear calls to action. He also comes across websites with buttons that are obscured or not immediately visible. You should always make booking as simple as possible.

The other missing ingredient is photographs. Usually tour operators will have a couple of photos, but often they don't really say much about the experience. Chris suggests having a minimum of ten images, starting with your strongest one. These images should always feature people: guides and people interacting with the tour. (Don't use drone shots, as this may result in guests getting disappointed by the lack of aerial views on your tour!)

You ultimately want them to click the book button there and then, because you want to have enticed them by that point. And if you're not doing that, then your sales page isn't doing its job.

A generous offer

Huge thanks to Chris for packing so much value into our half-hour chat. If you'd like 2025 to be a rip-roaring success for you, you could do worse than get yourself a copy of Lookers to Bookers.

And, generous to the end, Chris very kindly offered a 15% discount off his book. Use code: TOURPRO15 and buy it here.

My next guest

I'll be announcing this later in the week. Stay tuned!