Visit Kent are focused on reaching potential visitors with engaging content which will inspire them to not only visit the Garden of England, but to stay longer and explore further. Our recent Visit Kent visitor perception study showed that being able to choose from a variety of activities and experiences was the second most important factor for domestic visitors when choosing a destination to visit. To respond to this trend, we’re already working with local businesses around the county to help develop new exciting visitor experiences.
Making it as easy as possible for the visitor to find and book the authentic experiences they’re looking for is the next step in this journey. A key part of this is putting experiences front and centre of the Visit Kent website and enabling visitors to search by price, availability and timings, to help people better plan their trips and book with you.
We're excited therefore to announce we're partnering with Beyonk to enable visitors to search for and book experiences and tickets through our website.
We’ll be running a webinar about this at 11am on Wednesday 30th March, and would love you to attend to find out what we’re doing, why it will be of benefit to you, and how to get involved.
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You do need to register in advance to attend, so please do this as soon as you can.
Can't make it to the webinar... Here is a list of upcoming peer networking events you can attend to find out more:
East Peer networking session (Canterbury, Thanet, Dover, Folkestone & Hythe businesses)
Location: Canterbury Cathedral Lodge
Date: Monday 11th April 2022
Time: 09:45am – 12:00 pm
Click here to register
North/West Peer networking session (Ashford, Swale, Maidstone, Gravesham, Medway, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge & Malling businesses)
Location: Larkfield Priority Hotel
Date: Tuesday 12th April 2022
Time: 09:45am – 12:00 pm
Click here to register
Consumers are increasingly booking online, and the easier we make it for them to find and book, the more we can help visitors and the more business we'll generate for our members. We're aiming to turn browsers into buyers, to lock in visitor commitment and avoid the sales leakage of consumers clicking through lots of web pages to find, compare, contrast and finally book experiences.
In 2020, in one of the Beyonk regions, businesses generated on average 19% more online bookings than through their websites for those who used the Booking System so this is a real opportunity to have a cost-effective route to market in these challenging times.
Beyonk was set up to provide an easier to use booking system and an easier way to sell tickets through third parties with fair rates. They work with leading destinations from Cornwall to the Lake District and other ethical websites such as the National Parks and membership bodies.
By selling tickets through our website, you'll automatically be sharing your tickets across this distribution network, helping customers find you across other key websites.
They provide two things;
Go to Beyonk.com, create an account and upload your experiences. There are no sign-up fees, or credit card details to get started. There are no minimum term contract lengths and it's aimed to be completely self-service but the team are always on hand to help you get started.
Within 20 minutes you can be completely set up with multiple experiences bookable online. With lots of features to suit a broad range of tourism businesses from gift aid, free tickets with no commission, collecting information pre-checkout, and automating emails, Beyonk has worked with hundreds of businesses to create a flexible solution to work for the majority.
If you don't have a booking system or want to upgrade, you can add the Beyonk booking widgets on your website within minutes to share your live availability across your own website and ours and the team can join a video call to instruct you or your website providers how to do it.
If you already have a booking system you can upload tickets easily. If you have flexible capacity, you can upload your spare 'Instant Booking' tickets and you'll be emailed when you receive bookings, you'll need to update these when the capacity changes. If you have strict capacity, you can upload 'Pending Bookings' and you'll have the chance to accept, rearrange or reschedule with the customer when it works for you both. Payment is authorised and taken automatically when you accept the booking, avoiding the need for invoices and admin.
Beyonk works on a results-based commission model. They only get paid when bookings are made, which means they're focused on making it work for businesses and removes the risks for businesses. Fees are flexible based on the model you choose, read more about their fees here.
