Travel and tourism marketing is the promotion of destinations, tours, activities and trip-planning services. It includes the work of city and regional tourism offices, tour and activity operators, travel agencies and advisors, and anyone else trying to convince people to take a trip and book the experiences in it.
Trips are planned well before they happen, often across many sites, apps and conversations. The destinations and operators that appear early, with clear and trustworthy information, tend to make the shortlist when travelers finally book.
What is travel and tourism marketing?
Travel and tourism marketing sells the reason to go and the things to do once you arrive. A state tourism office promotes the region. A whale-watching company promotes its tours. A travel advisor promotes the planning service that ties a trip together.
It overlaps with hospitality marketing, but the two have different jobs. Hotels compete for the room after the traveler has picked a place. Tourism marketing works earlier, shaping where people go and what they do there. Single ticketed venues and seasonal events have their own playbook, covered in event and attraction marketing.
Why travel and tourism marketing matters
The market is large. The U.S. Travel Association's 2025 national economic impact summary says travelers in the United States directly spent $1.4 trillion in 2025, supporting more than 15 million jobs.
Not every segment has recovered equally. The same summary puts 2025 domestic leisure travel at $900 billion, 104% of 2019 levels after inflation, while international inbound spending was $176 billion, 80% recovered. Destinations that depend on overseas visitors face a different market than those built on road trips.
Planning has moved into answers. Travelers now ask AI assistants for itineraries and "best things to do" lists. Those answers tend to name a few operators and attractions, so being described accurately in them matters.
How travel and tourism marketing works
Destination marketing organizations
Many places have a destination marketing organization (DMO), sometimes called a convention and visitors bureau. WVU Extension describes DMOs as organizations charged with leading tourism marketing and development for a community, typically funded through a lodging or hotel tax, with other money from tourism improvement district assessments, government budgets or partner fees. DMOs run visitor websites, guides, campaigns and meeting sales, and they promote the place rather than any one business.
Tour and activity operators
Operators sell through their own sites, through experience marketplaces like Viator and GetYourGuide, and increasingly through Google. Google's Things to do program lets attractions, tour operators and activity providers show tickets, tours and activities in free listings and in paid ads, usually by connecting through a booking software partner. Google's help page also notes that starting in Q3 2026, Travel campaigns are migrating to new Search campaigns for Travel, so check current options before planning paid spend.
Inspiration, seasonality and markets
Tourism content often aims at the "where should we go" stage: itineraries, seasonal guides, maps and video. Seasons shape everything, from when campaigns start to which pages need updates. Destinations courting visitors from abroad also deal with language versions and international SEO.
Rules that apply
Some states regulate travel sellers directly. The California Attorney General requires sellers of travel to register and to display the registration number on all advertising, and other states have their own seller of travel laws. Reviews are regulated too. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, in effect since October 21, 2024, bans fake reviews (including AI-generated ones), incentives conditioned on positive reviews and undisclosed insider reviews. In a December 2025 business blog post about warning letters, the FTC noted civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation. This entry is not legal advice, so confirm what applies to you with counsel.
Where to start
- Know which stage you serve. A DMO wins at inspiration. An operator wins at comparison and booking. Build content for the stage where you actually make money.
- Make booking facts crawlable. Put tour lengths, meeting points, prices, age limits and cancellation terms in plain text, not only inside a booking widget.
- Connect to Google's travel surfaces. Ask your booking software whether it supports Things to do, and keep your Google Business Profile current.
- Earn real reviews. Ask every guest, respond to criticism, and never pay for positive reviews.
- Get listed by your DMO. For operators, the local tourism site and visitor guide are trusted, often-cited sources.
- Check AI answers each season. Ask assistants for itineraries in your area and note whether you appear and whether the details are right.
Common mistakes and misconceptions
"Marketplaces are enough." Experience marketplaces bring volume, but a thin website makes you dependent on them and gives search engines and AI tools little to work with.
"Beautiful photos sell the trip." They help, but travelers still need practical facts. Missing details like pickup times or accessibility send people elsewhere.
"Last season's page will do." Outdated schedules and prices erode trust and can surface in AI answers long after you change them.
"Review gating is harmless." Offering rewards only for positive reviews, or hiding negative ones, can violate the FTC's review rule.
How Butter approaches travel and tourism marketing
Butter's plans work for tourism businesses and destinations on the search and AI visibility side. We don't manage marketplace listings, Things to do feeds or Google Business Profiles as standalone services. Our GEO plan, which starts at $399/month, includes monthly AI prompt testing built around the trip-planning questions your visitors ask, plus indexing strategy, schema markup guidance, knowledge graph submissions and one AI-crawlable content citation and backlink each month.
For destinations and operators that want broader coverage, our public relations work focuses on earned media in the publications travelers read. You can see the details on our GEO services page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a DMO?
A destination marketing organization promotes a city, county or region to visitors and meeting planners. Many are known as convention and visitors bureaus, and they are typically funded through lodging or hotel taxes.
Do tour operators need a seller of travel registration?
It depends on the state and what you sell. California requires sellers of travel to register and show the registration number in all advertising, and some other states have similar laws. Check with counsel, as this is not legal advice.
How can a tour operator show up on Google with bookable times?
Google's Things to do program supports free listings and paid ads for tours and activities. Most operators connect through a booking software partner that supports the integration.
Can we offer a discount for leaving a review?
You can ask for honest reviews, but the FTC's review rule bans incentives conditioned on a positive review. Any incentive should apply whether the review is good or bad, and platforms may set stricter rules of their own.