Creating Compelling Travel Guides

When you’re caught up in working to make tourism better each and every day, it’s easy to get lost in 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 👑 “We’re certified by X.” “We’ve reforested Y km2” “We’ve won the Z award for 5 years running.” That’s great, but if you were at a party and introduced yourself like that, I’d probably think that you’re 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗲 🤷♂️ Now, think about someone who shares stories that resonate, who listens, and who makes you feel 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻. That's the kind of connection travellers seek. The role of your business, especially in responsible tourism, is not to be the hero of the story. It's to help your guests become the best version of themselves through a meaningful, fulfilling, or transformative travel experience 💡 When it comes to your messaging, it’s a shift from “𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝘂𝘀!” to “𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹.” You’re not the hero. You’re the guide. The Gandalf to your guest’s Frodo. The Dumbledore to their Harry Potter. The Obi-Wan to Luke Skywalker 🪄 Think about your marketing. Does it speak to your customers’ emotional wants and needs? Does it offer clarity, guidance, reassurance? Or are you just listing credentials? More importantly than understanding what you do and what you offer, travellers want to know if this trip will light them up, challenge their perspective, or give them a story they'll tell for years 📖 I made the same mistake, albeit in a B2B context. On my website a year ago, you would’ve been greeted by the boring heading, “Responsible Tourism Marketing.” But now, it reads, “𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲.” See the difference? It’s about 𝘆𝗼𝘂, not me. So, instead of positioning your business as the hero of the story, be the guide who helps them become 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲❤️ Lead them towards connection, nature, culture, impact. Because in the end, it's their story; 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘁. For more tips, 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://lnkd.in/eWJSXmu2

I was recently asked at a conference about an immediate action tourism professionals could put into play right away when it comes to communicating with travelers. One area I see as being overlooked is taking advantage of anticipated questions. If you've led the same tour more than once, guided the same experience multiple times, or worked with travelers in any consistent capacity, you already know that their questions are predictable. Too many professionals act as if these are random moments of curiosity, but they are actually patterns you can anticipate and prepare for. The difference between reactive communication and intentional storytelling often comes down to anticipation. When you know the questions before they're asked, you have the opportunity to craft responses that do more than simply answer. These are the questions that open doors to deeper understanding. They are invitations to help travelers see the multidimensional reality of a place rather than just its surface appearance. And what can you do with this information? A few examples: On food tours, travelers will ask about ingredients or preparation methods. Be ready to share: > Where ingredients come from and who grows them. > What this dish means in local celebrations or daily life. > How climate or geography influences what grows here. For adventure activities, people often ask about the landscape or environment. Be prepared with: > Geological or ecological stories about how this place formed. > How local communities have adapted to this environment. > Changes happening due to climate or development. > Why protecting these spaces matters beyond just beauty. If you interact with travelers in any capacity -- from answering questions during the fact-finding part of the buying journey to on-the-ground guiding moments -- here are a few questions you can use to take better advantage of anticipated questions: > What are the three most common questions travelers ask during your tours, experiences, or interactions? How do you currently answer them? > Are there moments when travelers seem curious but don’t ask questions? What might they be wondering about, and how could you address those unspoken curiosities? > Consider the “surface-level” attractions of your destination — the things tourists come to see. What deeper stories or contexts could help transform these from pretty backdrops into meaningful experiences? #TravelStorytelling #TourGuide #

Destination marketing boards keep saying they want more tourists, more engagement, more visibility, yet most of them still communicate like the audience has no options. They release glossy videos nobody saves, promote awards nobody values, and approve campaigns that make internal teams feel good but make zero impact in the real world. They don’t understand the attention economy. They don’t understand how people consume content today. And that’s exactly why most destinations feel invisible. If a destination wants attention, it has to earn it. Not with budgets, not with committees, but with relevance, consistency, and storytelling that actually makes people feel something. Here’s how any destination can fix this with real, tactical action: 1. Publish daily content captured by real people who live in the destination. Show real streets, real food, real moments, real characters. Authenticity always wins because travelers trust what feels human. 2. Build a creator in residence program and let one creator live in the destination for a full month. Let them document the journey from sunrise to night. Audiences follow people, not institutions. Borrow the trust creators already built. 3. Train your tourism board staff to think like creators instead of admins. They need to understand hooks, storytelling psychology, on platform behavior, audience retention, and why content works. Posting isn’t strategy. Storytelling is. 4. Create a daily trend and insight review inside the team where someone monitors social shifts, content patterns, and audience reactions. You can’t operate in today’s attention economy if you don’t study it every day. 5. Partner with local chefs, artists, guides, hoteliers, musicians, and small businesses. They’re the soul of your destination. Let them lead the storytelling. Their voices carry more credibility than any slogan. 6. Focus less on perfection and more on energy. Travelers want to feel the heartbeat of a place, not stare at a brochure. Show the imperfect realities, the hidden gems, the unexpected moments. That’s what pulls people in. 7. Turn your destination channels into a living media brand. Educate, entertain, inspire, and surprise daily. When your content becomes part of someone’s routine, you win trust long before they book a flight. 8. Build a storytelling identity instead of chasing what other destinations post. Travelers remember destinations that know exactly who they are and communicate it with confidence and clarity. Destinations that embrace this mindset become impossible to ignore. Destinations that stay stuck in old habits slowly fade from relevance. The attention economy rewards speed, honesty, personality, and consistency. It rewards destinations that behave like creators and not committees. If you want the world to care about your destination, you have to show the world why it should care every single day. --- If you like the way I look at the world of hospitality, let’s chat: scott@mrscotteddy.com

If I were a tour operator… I wouldn’t be creating pages like: “African Safari” or “Solo Safari”. I’d be creating experience-led pages instead. Pages like: 👉 African safari for a first-time solo traveller to Africa 👉 Luxury safari for empty nesters celebrating an anniversary 👉 Family safari for parents travelling with teenagers Why? Because that’s how people actually search now. Search behaviour has become far more specific, driven by intent, experience level, fears, and motivations, not just destinations. There’s a real opportunity to create hyper-personalised content that: ✅ Answers unspoken questions ✅ Reduces uncertainty ✅ Builds trust before the enquiry form is even touched The strategy - If you’re a family travel specialist, don’t try to create content for every traveller type. Go deep on family variations instead: 👉 Families travelling with teenagers 👉 Multi-generation trips with elderly grandparents 👉 Single parents travelling with children 👉 Families travelling with children with special needs That’s where relevance lives. Yes, you could try to cover everything, but that’s when content becomes thin and unfocused. If you know your niche (family, luxury, educational, first-time travellers), you can go much more granular and attract the right enquiries. Not more pages. Better pages. Built around real people, not just keywords. If someone searched for their exact travel scenario, would your website have a page for it? #travelseo #touroperator

Last week in London I saw (what I hope is) the future of food tourism. TLDR: this is not about AI. In fact, there was (almost) no technology involved. Just simple human connection, raised to an art form. For a while, I was worried. The guide, Obi, had already served us 8 tastings in 90 minutes, and I thought I was headed for one of those bloated tours where you leave stuffed but forgetful of everything that was experienced. Boy, was I wrong. What happened next? We all sat down at a table and broke bread for the next 90 minutes, eating in the first Black-owned Irish pub in the UK. Obi's story unfolded. But his story merged with those of the guests. We all took turns sharing our lives, and it was a beautiful, simple moment. A group's dialogue—artfully facilitated—is just as important as a guide's knowledge, or the quality of the food. Story-based connection in which the whole group comes together is the secret sauce of any great guided experience, but now more than ever, as we all confront enslavement to entertainment algorithms. When we break free and enter into the world, and gather with a group of strangers, it's a chance for something spectacular. What did Obi do right? ✅ The storytelling was personal. He shared his family's experience of gentrification—good and bad—as it affected himself, his parents, and the Nigerian population in the neighborhood. ✅ He didn't create a false touristic version of the place. Instead, we all felt like we were guests being invited into something raw and real, not sugarcoated. ✅ 50% of the tour was simply sharing a meal. He shared his story, but also asked us questions, and empowered each group member to share their perspective. ✅ He was ferociously anti-script. I get in trouble a lot for saying this, but there are ways to develop tours that empower guides to be who they are, and tell stories from their perspective. It's a different kind of guide training, and a different way of developing tour products. But ohhhh so much better. ✅ Vendors were not on 'show' and chosen because they offer easy to work with commodified products — rather, he was juggling lots of spinning plates making phone calls to ensure people were at their stalls, but each vendor greeted him like a childhood friend. Because they were. ✅ pre-tour communications with guests in order to curate a set of tastings that makes sense for the group, without a 'set' of predefined ideas of what the tour will be. Each tour is different, and co-created ✅ He ended with personalized, hand-written thank you notes. 🚨 My worry for him is my worry for our industry in general. He's a one-man-band. A tour tied intimately to himself. It makes for the best kind of experience, but not the best kind of business. I struggle trying to think of where the balance is in our industry, between viable, thriving businesses and unique experiences. Thank you Will Gluckin and the GetYourGuide team for setting it up. Link to tour in comments.