Episode 33
7 Things Tour Operators Should Stop Doing in 2027
Don't carry your 2026 marketing playbook into 2027.
Seven things to stop doing in 2027
In this solo episode of the Tour Operator Growth Podcast, Nikki flies without her co-host to tackle what tour and activity operators should stop doing as 2026 winds down. With two months left in the year, she argues the marketing playbook that worked in 2024 and 2025 is breaking, and walks through seven habits to leave behind across SEO, AI search, Google Ads, Meta ads, and social.
The through-line is simple: stop chasing proxies and start measuring what actually pays. That means becoming the source AI recommends instead of just ranking for the click, writing pages a machine can read (prices, dates, and policies in plain HTML text), feeding ad platforms good creative and guardrails rather than tight keyword control, and trusting total bookings and total revenue over any single platform's dashboard. She closes on her favorite point: your guides and guests, not the company logo, are your real distribution.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Should tour operators still chase the number one Google ranking?
The goal has shifted from getting the click to becoming a source AI recommends. Google now answers questions and compares options right in the results, and a large share of searches end without a click. Win by publishing authentic, first-hand, specific content (real E-E-A-T), not pages built around a keyword.
-
Does less website traffic mean my SEO is failing?
No. Fewer visitors with better visibility and more revenue is a win. The people who do come are further down the funnel and more qualified. Track AI visibility, how often you show up in AI answers and overviews, alongside traffic; Google now reports how you appear in AI experiences.
-
How do I make my website readable by AI, not just humans?
Write self-contained chunks (name the tour instead of saying "it"), and put operational facts (price, duration, difficulty, age, months, meeting point, what's included) in plain HTML text, not PDFs, images, or content JavaScript fills in later. Make subheadings the real questions people ask, answer them in the first two sentences, and add schema.
-
How should I build my Google Ads account in 2027?
Stop building around keyword control. Google is moving broad match, auto-created assets, and dynamic search ads into AI Max, which matches on intent, and now treats exact match as exact intent rather than exact wording. Your advantage is what you feed the system: offer, landing page, creative, and conversion data, plus exclusion lists as guardrails.
-
What's the right way to run Meta (Facebook) ads now?
Stop hyper-targeting and hunting for the one winning ad. Feed Meta lots of different creatives (concepts, messages, hooks) and let its system find the audience. The creative is the targeting now, so killing everything but one winner removes the raw material the system needs. Volume and variety beat one perfect ad.
-
Can I trust the revenue numbers in my Facebook and Google dashboards?
Not on their own. Both platforms can claim the same booking, so their totals add up to more than you actually took in. Trust total bookings and total revenue as the shared scorecard, run incremental tests (pause a channel or a region and watch bookings), watch branded searches, and ask guests how they heard about you.
-
Should my company account be the center of my organic social strategy?
No. People are your distribution. LinkedIn says employee networks are roughly 12 times larger than the company page, and for operators that means your guides and guests, not the logo. Let guides post, share real faces, and build a system to collect the footage guests already shoot, while still keeping the company account active.
