Glossary

Tourism, OTA and SEO Glossary

We've cut through the jargon. Clear definitions of the terms you need to know about marketplaces, bookings and search visibility.

A

Abandoned booking: A booking that reaches the payment step but isn't completed. Email or WhatsApp reminders can win it back.
AEO: Answer Engine Optimization: shaping content to give a clear, direct answer to a question; closely related to GEO.
AI Overviews: The AI-generated summary Google shows above search results. Being cited as a source is a new kind of visibility.
Availability: Which dates and times can be booked. If it isn't kept up to date, you either lose sales or take bookings for full sessions.

Backlink: A link to your site from another website. An important trust and authority signal for search engines.
Booking engine: The module embedded in your website where travelers pick a date and group size and pay.
Booking system: Software that manages your calendar, availability, payments and bookings, e.g. Bókun, Rezdy, FareHarbor.
Booking window: How far ahead of the tour date people book. Guides pricing, capacity and ad timing.

Cancellation policy: The rule for how long travelers can cancel for free. Flexible policies usually lift conversion.
Capacity: The maximum number of seats that can be sold for a tour session. If it isn't split correctly across channels, overbooking follows.
Channel manager: A system that pushes availability and prices to several sales channels at once, preventing double bookings.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that turn into clicks. Shows how well your title and cover photo work.
Commission: The share a marketplace takes from each booking. The rate depends on the platform and agreement.
Conversion rate: The share of people who view a page and go on to book.
Core Web Vitals: Google's user experience metrics for loading speed, interactivity and visual stability.
Cover photo: The first image of a listing. One of the biggest factors in whether you get clicked in search results.
CRO (Conversion rate optimisation): Improvements to pages and the booking flow aimed at turning more visitors into bookings.
Cut-off: How long before the start a tour stops taking bookings. Set it longer than needed and last-minute sales slip away.

Deposit: A partial payment taken at the time of booking. Reduces the risk of no-shows.
Direct booking: A booking made without an intermediary, through your own website or contact channels.
Dynamic pricing: Changing prices according to demand, season, day of the week and occupancy.

GEO: Generative Engine Optimization: work that increases the chance of being cited as a source in AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity.
Google Business Profile: Your free business profile in Google Search and Maps: address, hours, photos and reviews.
Google Things to Do: Google's space for tours and activities, which you can connect to through booking systems and marketplaces.

Hotel pick-up: A transfer service that collects travelers from where they're staying. The coverage area should be stated clearly in the listing.
Hreflang: A tag that tells search engines which page is meant for which language and region on multilingual sites.

Impression: The number of times your listing or page is shown in search results or a list.
Instant confirmation: A booking that's confirmed without waiting for the operator's approval. It reassures travelers and can lift conversion.

Keyword: The phrase travelers type into a search engine, e.g. "cappadocia balloon ride". Page content is planned around these searches.

Landing page: A page built for a specific ad, campaign or search, focused on a single goal.
Listing: Your tour's page on a marketplace: title, photos, description, options, price and reviews.
LLM (large language model): The type of model behind AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.
llms.txt: A proposed text file that summarises your site's key content for AI systems. Not yet an official standard.
Local SEO: Work aimed at showing up in searches for your city or region, especially on maps.

Marketing automation: Sending messages such as booking confirmations, pre-tour reminders and review requests automatically, based on triggers.
Meeting point: Where the tour starts. When it isn't clearly described, it's one of the most common causes of complaints and low ratings.
Meta title and description: The page title and short description shown in search results. They directly affect click-through rate.
Mobile-friendliness: How easy your site is to read and use on a phone. Most tour research happens on mobile.

Net rate: The amount you keep after commission. On some marketplaces you submit your price as a net rate.

On-request booking: A model where the operator approves each booking manually. Flexible, but slow replies can cost bookings.
Option: Different ways to buy the same tour, e.g. shared or private group, with or without transfer.
Organic traffic: Visitors who reach your site from search results without paid ads.
OTA (Online Travel Agency): Online marketplaces such as GetYourGuide, Viator, Klook and Headout that sell tours and activities on your behalf, taking a commission per sale.
Overbooking: Taking more bookings than you have capacity for. Usually happens when availability isn't synced across channels.

Package tour: A product that sells transport, accommodation and activities together for one price.
Paid ads (PPC): An ad model where you pay per click, e.g. Google Ads.
Payment gateway: The system that lets you take card payments on your own website.
Private tour: A tour run only for the person or group who booked. Usually offered as a separate, higher-priced option.

Ranking algorithm: The system a marketplace uses to decide which product appears where. It weighs signals such as conversion, reviews, availability and price.
Rate parity: Selling the same product at the same price on different channels. Many marketplaces expect it.
Retail price: The final price the traveler pays. Commission is usually calculated on this price.
Review funnel: An automated flow that asks every guest for a review after the tour and brings issues to you quickly.

Schema markup: Adding page details (tour, price, reviews, FAQ) as structured data that search engines and AI can read.
Seasonality: The way demand rises and falls through the year. Pricing, capacity and marketing are planned around it.
SEO: Technical and content work that makes your website more visible in search engines like Google.
Shared tour: A tour where different travelers join the same group. Lower price per person; group size is a key decision factor.
Supplier portal: The dashboard a marketplace gives tour operators to manage products, calendars, prices, bookings and payouts.

WhatsApp Business: WhatsApp for businesses. Used for quick replies, template messages and post-booking communication.

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