Tour of Sicily: Tour Operator Success Story
“It was a very, very strong campaign… more than €100,000 of bookings”
The Challenge
Tour Of Sicily has specialized in private and multi-day guided tours and unique experiences on the island of Sicily since 2001.
On a picturesque Italian island with plenty to offer visitors – from archaeological sites and beautiful beaches to Palermo’s famous street food and Sicily’s unique wines – tourism is thriving.
But Tour Of Sicily’s marketing was almost solely reliant on Google Ads to drive new inquiries, and they wanted to try something new. The company launched a new website and decided to work on a strategy to generate more organic leads and reduce their Google Ad costs.
“Google Ads was basically our marketing strategy...”
Tour Of Sicily’s General Manager Vincenzo Ciceraro had co-founded the company in 2001, after over a decade’s experience as a travel agent. After the new site launched, TOS began working with 10x Tourism to try to update its narrow marketing focus with a more strategic approach.
Previously TOS had done little email or content marketing, and weren’t using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to monitor performance or to get behavioral insights into their customers.
But their tours were popular, with almost 50,000 satisfied customers. So there was a big opportunity to take their marketing efforts to the next level, and get a more accurate picture of what their ideal clients really wanted.
The Solution
In 2017, 10x Tourism began running content marketing campaigns as part of a customized Get More Bookings sales funnel for Tour Of Sicily.
With such a wide range of tours and experiences on offer – from cooking classes to archaeological tours to golfing packages – there was plenty of exciting content to write about, and position Tour Of Sicily as the best choice for anyone seeking an unforgettable experience on the island.
Working with Vincenzo and the team on their first ever sales funnel, we were able to add €90,000 in new bookings to their business in the initial 7 months with modest resources. Delighted with the return on their investment, TOS decided to run another campaign.
“From the beginning we found them very professional, very very helpful in creating the strategy and giving us the opportunity to share with their team...”
Choosing to work with a full-service sales & marketing partner for the first time was a big step for Vincenzo and the TOS team. He later revealed to us that they had been unsure about whether to take what felt like “a jump in the dark”.
But after seeing the results of that first campaign and gaining a better understanding of digital marketing beyond just paying for search advertising, they felt more comfortable knowing there was a clear strategy in place – one that could be optimized for even better results.
In 2019 we began our second campaign with Tour Of Sicily. Over the course of just 4 months running their Get More Bookings sales funnel, we were able to generate over €100,000 in new bookings for their tours and experiences.
In addition to the extra revenue their sales funnel has brought in, Vincenzo and the Tour Of Sicily team now have a much greater understanding of how digital marketing works for their business…
Whenever 10x Tourism implements a part of our strategy for a tour operator business partner, we provide educational training sessions about the technology and theory behind the strategy. We want all our partners to feel confident about how their sales funnel works, and to be able to monitor its performance so they can see the results for themselves.
By using our partner CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, the TOS team can now keep track of how their clients and prospects are attracted, nurtured and educated towards choosing a specific tour or package.
They’re even able to see which emails are opened and which content is read at any given point, and how often. As Vincenzo says: “We are learning every day, thanks to their team!”
“We learned a lot… (the 10x Tourism team) is always very promptly responding, helping us and supporting us”
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