r/Tourguide

So ive been looking into both Viator and GetYourGuide for booking and promoting tours, and im curious what everyone else thinks!!

Viator seems to be the go to for reaching a huge global audience. It feels like they have all the big tourist spots covered, with a ton of tours. They have got a pretty good system for managing bookings and keeping everything organized, but it can feel a little crowded, so standing out can be tough.

On the other side, GetYourGuide has this clean interface and really seems to focus on unique and more niche experiences. Its super easy to use, and ive seen it attract a younger, adventure driven crowd. But it doesnt have the same global reach as Viator, so im wondering if its worth the trade off.

Anyone here used both platforms for their tours and which one do you find brings in more bookings and gets your tours in front of the right people?

I’m currently planning my first solo trip to Morocco for later this year, and I’m incredibly excited (and a little overwhelmed by how much there is to see!). I have about 10 to 14 days and want to get a good mix of vibrant culture, history, and maybe some relaxed coastal vibes or nature.

The pitch: a QR code on your flyer/poster that, when scanned, saves your tour to the tourist's phone wallet (same place as boarding passes) instead of sending them to a website they'll close and forget. No app, no signup - one tap.

Once it's there, you can push notifications to their lock screen for 7–10 days: reminders, last-minute spots, weather changes. Geo-triggered notifications when they're near you. And you see which poster actually converted.

Flat price, no commission. I'm validating before building further, so I'd rather hear it's a bad idea now than later.

Honest question: would you use this? If not, what's the dealbreaker?

Gestisco una società di charter Nautico tra Capri Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi.
Iscritto sulle piattaforme con i nostri servizi su Viator e GYG, ma in questo periodo non arrivano nessuna richiesta. Eppure gli annunci che il profilo è tutto ok. Sarà la guerra in medio oriente, non voli cancellati. Quest’anno non sto capendo nulla.
Chi può darmi una mano a Capite ? Grazie

Okay, so it’s a good problem. I run a guide business out of Marquette, Michigan. The town is full of history and people are STOKED about a history tour I’ve built. The problem is, I’m on a shoestring budget but need a booking system that can handle the popularity of my trip. I’m looking for a cheap, bare bones option where I can simply set the day, the time, and the max participants and the software will automatically disallow any additional people once the trip is full. I can literally collect money and have people sign waivers outside the software if I have to. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks for your help!

So I run a few tours around Florida mainly in Miami and the Keys and summer is usually the time I get a good flow of bookings but this year it's been a bit of a struggle especially when it comes to attracting international tourists.

Florida's always packed with travellers from all over and normally I'd see a lot of tourists coming in during the summer but I am realizing that most of my bookings are from locals and I am not seeing as many international folks like I used to.

I have been thinking about maybe adding some tour packages that cater to different interests or listing my tours in multiple languages. Not sure what's going to work though I have tried a few things already but nothings really made a huge difference.

Anyone else have experience reaching international tourists and can you tell me what's worked for you?

I keep thinking about how overstimulated we’ve become.

We scroll through thousands of images a day, consume culture in fragments, save posts we never revisit, and somehow still feel emotionally underfed.

Everything is optimized for attention.
Almost nothing is designed for meaning.

Museums were supposed to be places where we slow down, reflect, feel, remember.
But too often, the experience still feels passive, static, disconnected from how people actually live and think today.

And honestly?
What bothers me most is not that culture is becoming digital.

It’s that digital experiences are becoming emotionally empty.

We built systems that know what we click, but not what moves us.
Algorithms can predict behavior, but they cannot create awe.

And yet awe is exactly what people are starving for.

I’ve been researching consumer behavior, digital learning, museums, future trends, and one pattern keeps repeating itself:
people don’t want more content.
They want resonance.

Not more information.
More connection.

Not more features.
More meaning.

The future of cultural experiences will not belong to institutions that simply digitize collections.
It will belong to those who understand human emotion, identity, memory, curiosity, and participation.

The ones that stop treating visitors like audiences —
and start treating them like co-creators.

That shift is what I can’t stop thinking about.

Maybe the real opportunity isn’t building “better museum tech.”

Maybe it’s rebuilding our relationship with culture itself.

And maybe that’s why this work matters so much to me.

Hi!

I'm currently in the process of getting a channel manager (I'm on Viator, GYG, Airbnb).

I'm thinking between FareHarbour and TicketingHub. My top choice until a few days ago was FareHarbour BUT I noticed that FareHarbour passes the booking fee to the customer, which is quite brutal. Meanwhile, TicketingHub has a fixed 3% fee on all extra bookings.

What are your experiences or recommendations?

P.s: ChatGPT gave me completely different information and now I don't know what's true. ChatGPT wrote this: "FareHarbor pricing

 There is NO flat 6% platform commission on all bookings

What actually happens: Direct bookings (your website) - FareHarbor takes 0% commission, FareHarbor does NOT take extra %. FareHarbor ≠ 6% system fee. Where does the “6%” confusion come from? Old pricing models, Misunderstanding of payment processing, Mixing it up with other systems.

Buongiorno a tutti,
Vorrei diventare un tour operator (che tra l altro è il settore per cui ho studiato) ma prima di avere tutte le autorizzazioni sto tastando il mercato e mi sono reso conto che attirare clienti è davvero difficile in questo settore, ho creato depliant e volantini, li ho lasciati in b&b, autonoleggi, bar e ho creato un gruppo Telegram ma non mi ha cercato praticamente nessuno. Per iniziare sto provando a vendere escursioni in Sardegna condotte da un mio collaboratore che è una guida certificata GAE ma come ho scritto con scarsi risultati.
Sto sbagliando qualcosa? Avete qualche dritta da darmi?