The Impact of Reviews on Your Tourism Business

The tourism industry is one of the most competitive and ever-evolving industries out there. The most successful tourism businesses are constantly innovating and leveraging the latest digital marketing trends to stay ahead of the competition. 

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Reviews Drive Purchase Decisions

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One of the key principles of digital marketing is your online reputation driven by customer reviews.  The vast majority of customers rely heavily on online reviews when making purchase decisions. According to BrightLocal, 91% of customers read reviews and 84% trust them just as much or more than personal recommendations.

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Successful tour companies leverage online reviews to not only drive new customers, but to increase conversions and revenue.  A recent study by TripAdvisor found that operators with a higher review score are more likely to receive bookings than those with a lower score. And we're not talking about a slight increase here. Operators with a review score of 4.0 or higher receive twice as many bookings as those with a score of 3.0 or lower. 

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Reviews & Search Rankings

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Having positive reviews can be a huge boost for your business's organic SEO efforts. Google uses the EAT method for calculating search results - Expertise, Authority and Trustworthyness.  User generated content in the form of reviews touches all three of these areas.  

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Google places large value in ranking search results on user generated content.  A study by Moz found that online reviews make up about 10% of how search engines, like Google, rank search results. This means that having a high quantity of good reviews can help your company rank higher in search results, bringing in more customers to you free Google search. After all, more customers mean more success!

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Valuable Business Intelligence

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Reviews can influence a user's decision to purchase from a business, but are you using them to help make business decisions?  Customer feedback can provide valuable insight in to your business and Yonder not only makes gathering data easy, but simpler to analyze.  

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1. Customer sentiment: Use customer reviews to gain insights into what customers think about your business. Analyze customer reviews to identify customer pain points, areas for improvement and customer preferences.  
2. Identify unseen customer trends: Looking at customer reviews over different times help you identify emerging trends in customer feedback. Use these insights to make informed decisions about product development, pricing, staffing and other strategic initiatives. 
3. Enhance customer service: Your customers tell you their pain points, use customer reviews to inform customer service initiatives on what works and what doesn’t.  
4. Customer feedback drives marketing decisions: “Wow, I am seeing all of these reviews from Bachelortte parties!”  Seeing a trend from a specific group or category of traveler?  Leverage this data and enhance your marketing in those segments.  
5. Enhance tour descriptions:  Use your customers own words to both enhance tour descriptions and display on your website for more credibility.

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Tip:  Check out Yonder HQ’s Smart Summaries which aggregates data from all of your reviews as well as seeing trends and frequently used keywords and topics!

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Overall, the importance of user generated reviews in the tourism industry cannot be overstated. Customer reviews and feedback are a powerful tool for businesses to build your online reputation, attract new customers, and gain valuable feedback. By taking advantage of the power of customer generated reviews, tourism businesses can ensure they stay ahead of the competition.

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