Six Off-Season Projects That Boost Next Year's Bookings by 32%
This is part one of our series on the off-season. Watch the whole series here.
One Flying Bike operator made two simple changes during their off-season and generated an extra $24,000 in revenue the following year. Same number of tours, same schedule, massively different profit.
If you’re in the northern hemisphere reading this, you might be settling into your off-season or shoulder season. Maybe you’ve taken some time to relax and recharge. But here’s what the most successful operators know: your quiet months determine next season’s success.
The data backs this up. Operators who tackle strategic projects during downtime can dramatically increase bookings the following year. While everyone else treats November through March as complete recovery time, smart operators use these months to build systems that work year-round.
Why Off-Season Strategy Matters
During peak season, you’re in survival mode. Managing bookings, leading tours, handling customer service, putting out fires. There’s no mental bandwidth for strategic improvements. The off-season changes everything. Suddenly you have space to think, plan, and build infrastructure that generates results automatically.
We’ve identified six specific projects that create the biggest competitive advantage. Each addresses problems that show up during busy months when you’re too swamped to fix them properly.
Project 1: Redesign Your Top Tour Sales Page
Start with what’s already working. Your best-selling tour gets the most traffic, which means improvements here have maximum impact. Small conversion rate increases create compound effects across every marketing effort you make.
Here’s why this matters: A stronger sales page increases your conversion rate—the percentage of visitors who actually book. This improvement touches every marketing campaign. Better Google ad performance, more effective social media, higher returns on all promotional activities.
Let’s run some numbers. Say you do 100 tours next year at $75 per person with a max capacity of 8 guests. That’s $60,000 in revenue. Make two small changes—increase your price by $10 to $85 and bump your average group size by just one person to 9 guests. Same 100 tours, but now you’re at $76,500 in sales. That’s an extra $16,500 for the year without working any harder.
We have a Tour Description Mastery program that walks you through this exact process. Inside you’ll find a calculator that shows how much a conversion rate improvement could add to your annual revenue.
Project 2: Build or Automate One Marketing Funnel
This doesn’t have to be you personally—you could assign this to a team member or hire a contractor. If you’re not sure where to begin, start with email. Most tour operators simply aren’t leveraging the basic email automations that drive bookings on autopilot.
The key here is building something that runs in the background year-round. Start with a lead magnet like Asheville Wellness Tours’ “Asheville Retreat and Trip Planning Guide” or Target Tours’ “Seven Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Booking a Vacation from Atlantic Canada.”
When someone gives you their email, build an automation that sends 2-6 emails automatically. Here’s how it works: “Hey, thanks for grabbing our lead magnet yesterday. Here’s that link. As a quick follow up, I wanted to share two local insights.”
Then provide genuine value. For Vancouver operators: “The North Shore offers incredible mountains, gorges and rivers within 15 minutes of downtown. Capilano Suspension Bridge is popular but costs $60 per adult. Our recommendation? Check out the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge—15 minutes from downtown, free of charge, less crowded, with a massive network of trails.”
After building that personal connection, naturally introduce your tours as the solution for visitors who want expert guidance.
Project 3: Tighten Up Pricing and Profit
Most operators avoid this project because it feels overwhelming or uncomfortable. But if your year-end numbers show profit isn’t where it should be, this project is essential.
Small adjustments create massive impact. Food tour operators might drop their most expensive food stop and replace it with something equally good that costs half as much. Or adjust trip minimums from 4 guests to 6. Maybe bump maximum group size from 10 to 12.
Watch what happens with these changes. Those two adjustments Torin’s team at Flying Bike made based on our coach’s recommendations? They increased max capacity and removed the second tour leader requirement. Over $24,000 extra revenue annually. They had resisted these changes for years without running the profitability numbers.
Having an experienced coach spot these opportunities makes a massive difference. Our guest focus tour pricing calculator helps you experiment with fixed costs per tour, variable costs, gross ticket prices, and tour minimums while tracking your gross profit margin.
Project 4: Add One AI Workflow
You’re living in the age of AI, but who has time during peak season? Now you have the opportunity to explore tools that reduce overwhelm by handling repetitive tasks.
Here are two examples that save hours weekly: First, use AI to respond to reviews on TripAdvisor, Google, and Viator. Train an AI tool with your brand voice and example responses. Your team reviews and tweaks as needed, but what took hours now takes 10 minutes.
Second, train AI on your products, pricing, operation docs, and 20 most common customer questions. Test it on past customer queries. If it’s accurate, use it daily to answer emails, phone calls, and chat messages. Eventually, you could build this into a chatbot, but even for admin team use, it saves significant time.
Pick one area where AI could help you be more profitable or save time. Now’s the time to implement it.
Project 5: Plan Your Marketing Content for the Coming Season
If you’re posting randomly on social media or sending emails whenever you remember, you’re not building momentum—you’re adding to the noise.
The VIP Marketing Method™ has three core pillars: Valuable content that inspires, educates, or entertains your ideal guests; Intimate content that humanizes your brand by showing faces and team; Pervasive presence across platforms where your target guests spend time.
Generate content ideas for different stages of your marketing funnel. Top of funnel: “Vancouver’s Best Kept Secrets: Local Guides Reveal Their Favorite Spots.” Planning phase: “Kayak vs Paddleboard: Which Adventure Is Right for You?” Booking phase: “Can’t Decide? Here’s How to Pick the Perfect Water Adventure.”
Choose 24 pieces of content—one every two weeks. Then plan how to repurpose each piece across multiple formats. One video becomes a blog post, social media carousel, email newsletter, and LinkedIn article.
Project 6: Get Expert Feedback
It’s nearly impossible to see your own blind spots. You’re too close to your business, making the same decisions, following the same patterns. You don’t realize what’s holding you back.
Our coaches work with thousands of tour operators globally. They spot problems in five minutes that operators live with for years. Weak sales pages, missing follow-up systems, wrong target audience, pricing that’s too low—pattern recognition from extensive experience identifies issues quickly.
This is your chance to get a second opinion on operations, marketing, and offers. You’ll have more bandwidth during off-season to tackle recommendations and work on your business instead of just in it.
Making the Most of Your Competitive Advantage
These projects work because they create systems that operate independently. You’re building infrastructure that generates results year-round, not just staying busy.
The operators who implement these projects during quiet months start their peak season ahead of everyone else. While competitors scramble to set up systems during busy periods, you’ll have everything running smoothly from day one.
Your off-season isn’t downtime—it’s when you gain your competitive advantage.



