Fotaflo Blog

What Came First: The Chicken Tour or the Marketing Egg ?

Written by Fotaflo | June 30, 2025

🐔 If a Tour Happens and No One Remembers It, Did It Even Happen?

In the world of tours and experiences, most operators treat marketing like it’s all about the chicken—attracting new guests, filling spots, and driving bookings. They pour energy into the front end: ads, SEO, social media.

But here’s the twist: the real value often comes after the tour. That’s the egg—what gets laid after the experience is delivered.

Every tour produces something far more valuable than just a ticket sale: memories. When those memories are captured and shared, they become powerful marketing eggs that hatch referrals, return visits, and 5-star reviews.

If your marketing ends when the tour does, you're missing the moment when your guests are most emotionally engaged—and most likely to advocate for your brand.

So the real question is: are you just raising chickens, or are you collecting the eggs?

 

💡 The Science of “Holy Guacamole, I Forgot How Fun That Was”

Humans are hardwired to remember moments tied to emotion. That’s why first kisses, rollercoasters, and dropping your phone in a Porta Potty stick with us. These memories live in the limbic system—the emotional epicenter of the brain.

When you send a guest their tour photos a day, a month, or even a year later, you reactivate those emotions. It’s like hitting the “replay” button on happiness. That's The Psychology of Crafting Unforgettable Memories.

And when people feel good? They share. They refer. They book again. Boom—brain science, meet marketing strategy.

📸 Photo Delivery = Long-Tail Marketing Gold

You know what guests don’t revisit a week after the tour?
Your waiver form.

You know what they do revisit?
That group photo where they’re grinning at the charismatic guide who is capturing the moment,  elated in the moment, savouring the experience.

With branded, shareable photo albums (thank you, Fotaflo), you give guests a reason to:

  • Feel all warm and fuzzy about your business

  • Show off to their friends

  • Come back next season with a cousin in tow

🤳 Bonus: Guests Open Photo Emails at Wildly High Rates

While most marketing emails drown in the inbox, photo delivery emails from operators using Fotaflo see open rates over 100%.

Why? Because “Here’s your tour photos!” is way more compelling than “Check out our summer rates!”
One is a favor. The other is… well, spam with a nice font.

🧃 Squeeze More Juice from Every Tour

Let’s say you run 10 tours a week with 8 guests each. That’s 80 potential brand advocates. Now imagine every one of them receives a branded photo album post-tour:

  • With your logo and booking link

  • Without needing to download an app

  • That they can instantly post to Instagram or Facebook

  • That their friend comments on, saying, “Omg where is this?!”

The average Facebook user has 338 followers, according to brandwatch.  That’s a curated opportunity of 27,040 people who can be personally introduced to your brand.

That photo is not just a souvenir. That’s marketing in action—automated, emotional, and free-range (just like that egg we started with).

🛠 Real Example: The Delayed Delight Strategy

One horseback riding tour company using Fotaflo sent annual reminders with guests' photo albums for three years.”

Guess what happened?

  • 20% year over year growth

  • Increased customer satisfaction

  • Increased staff tips

Why? Because memory marketing isn't loud. It's smart, sweet, and sneakily effective.

🐣 What Happens When You Don’t Deliver Photos

Let’s play “spot the difference.”

No Photo Follow-Up:

  • Guests forget your "brand" faster than their last layover

  • No branded memories = no social proof

  • No reminder to return = no repeat booking

  • Review request emails feel cold and impersonal

With Photo Follow-Up:

  • Guests relive the joy, remember your name

  • They post your brand with glowing captions

  • Their friends click, curious and ready to book

  • Your TripAdvisor rating gets a boost because you cared enough to follow up

🔁 The Secret to Repeat Business? Emotional Re-Engagement

In tourism, we chase new customers like chickens chase insects—but we forget the golden eggs we already have.

Studies show that a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25–95%. So instead of only filling the top of your funnel, how about reactivating the people who already loved you?

Deliver photos. Spark memories. Get booked again.

🚀 Why Fotaflo Is Built for This Exact Moment

Most photo tools were built for photographers. Fotaflo was built for tour and activity operators. Here’s how it helps you book more tours:

✅ Auto-delivery of photo memories via email or text
✅ No guest app, no "searching through the day's photos" = no friction
✅ Branded albums = shareable, searchable, SEO-friendly
✅ Referral tracking = see who’s sharing + who’s booking
✅ Seamless integrations with FareHarbor, Peek, Checkfront & more

✅ TL;DR – Don’t Stop Marketing When the Tour Ends

Without Photo Delivery: Tour ends, memory fades, No brand recall, No repeat business, Cold review asks.


With Photo Delivery: Tour ends, memory grows, Brand embedded in photo, Top-of-mind rebooking, Emotion-driven 5-star love.


🐣 Final Answer: Tour Marketing… It’s both the chicken and the egg

Tours build the memory. Photo delivery brings it back to life.
Don’t let guests forget you. Deliver photos that make them remember—then refer their friends, who also get photos and they refer their friends and they all return.

👉 Want to see how easy it is to crack open repeat bookings? Book a free demo with Meghan Forbes and let’s make some memory marketing magic.