Alabama holds the unique distinction of being the only state in the nation to hold statewide, simultaneous walking tours. Such an achievement is only possible with considerable taxpayer underwriting. However, any walking tour operator can learn from 'Bama's example of combined free historic tours. This post looks a how April walking tours are in high demand and asks if your tour booking software is ready to book tour reservations online.
TV station FOX 10 in Mobile Alabama has a popular special segment it calls 'Studio 10' which focuses on human interests stories. Recently, Studio 10 featured the state's popular walking tours and interviewed two tourism board members.
Some 22 towns across Alabama, including Mobile, will be on display during Saturday mornings in April as part of the Alabama Tourism Department's April Walking Tours.
A variety of community leaders will lead the free walking tours through their historic districts or courthouse square areas of their hometowns. The hour-long tours will start at 10 a.m. on April 6, 13, 20, and 27. Tours in Mobile will start at the Downtown Mobile Alliance.
Alabama Tourism Board representative Brian Jones says of April walking tours in high demand, "We have done more than 1,700 walking tours since the beginning of the program ten years ago and they keep increasing in popularity every year."
The full list of the 22 free, historic walking tours can be reviewed here:
https://www.alabama.travel/trails/april-walking-tours
It is quite impressive that Alabama operates multiple, simultaneous historic walking tours across the state. The logistics involved with operating simultaneous walking tours is definitely a challenge. However, a state government has vast resources when compared to the average hard working, independent, walking tour operator.
Walking tour booking software to meet the demand
Seasonal or holiday rushes are common for many historic walking tours and the standard response to high demand is to add more tour times per day. This allows each walking tour to manage tour reservations online to the increased traffic coming through each tour.
If you do intend to meet a spike in demand with multiple, simultaneous walking tours and increased tour guides, ensure you have the best tour booking software capable of meeting the increase tour bookings. Then, when a walking tour sells out, ensure your tour booking software alerts you immediately. This necessary function allows you the opportunity to add an additional walking tour at the same time. In addition, make sure your tour booking software includes the ability to survey tour goers after the event. Hence, you can find out about how customers enjoyed their walking tour experience with an email after the tour. This makes it easy for customers follow a link to review your tour on TripAdvisor or Yelp.
The ThunderTix guided tour management software is used by some of the most popular walking tours in the US. Our booking software is more than capable of managing the myriad daily start times that Alabama's tours would generate. We would love the opportunity to manage your walking tour's demand spikes, seasonal, holiday or other!