What Is a Channel Manager and How It Can Help Your Tours and Activities

If you run tours or activities, you may have heard the term channel manager but aren’t entirely sure what it means—or how it can benefit your business. Simply put, a channel manager is a tool or service that helps tour and activity providers manage their bookings, availability, and distribution across multiple sales platforms, all from one place.

How a Channel Manager Works

A channel manager connects your inventory—your tours, activities, or experiences—to multiple booking channels such as:

• Google Things to Do

• Online travel agencies (OTAs) like Viator, GetYourGuide, and TUI

• Your own website booking system

Instead of manually updating each platform every time you change availability, pricing, or tour details, a channel manager automatically synchronizes all information in real time. This ensures that your tours are always accurately represented across all channels, prevents overbooking, and saves you countless hours of administrative work.

Why Google Things to Do Matters

Google Things to Do is an important platform where travelers search for activities and experiences. With millions of users browsing Google Search and Maps every day, appearing on Things to Do can significantly increase your bookings.

As a Google Connectivity Partner, we help tour and activity providers list their products directly on Google Things to Do. This means your tours and activities can appear in search results, on Google Maps, and in the Things to Do carousel, giving you access to travelers actively looking for experiences like yours.

How We Help Tour Operators

If you are a tour operator or activity provider, our channel manager service makes it easy to:

• Load and update your tours in real time

• Manage pricing, availability, and descriptions from one dashboard

• Ensure your listings comply with Google Things to Do requirements

• Get your tours discovered by more travelers worldwide

This means you can focus on running your tours and providing amazing experiences, while we handle the technical distribution and optimization.

Benefits of Using a Channel Manager

Here’s why tour operators and activity providers love channel managers:

• Time Savings: Update all platforms from one place.

• Accuracy: Prevent double bookings and pricing errors.

• Visibility: Reach more customers by distributing to multiple channels simultaneously.

• Compliance: Ensure your listings meet platform requirements, including Google Things to Do.

• Growth: By maximizing exposure, you can attract more bookings and increase revenue.

Conclusion

A channel manager is a powerful tool for any tour or activity provider who wants to streamline operations, maintain accurate listings, and expand reach. By using a channel manager that distributes directly to Google Things to Do, you can ensure your tours and activities are easy to discover, accurately represented, and booked by more travelers around the world.

Whether you’re a small operator running a few local tours or a larger business managing dozens of activities, a channel manager simplifies your workflow and helps your business grow.