Strategic digital marketing for tourism
We turn data into one connected digital strategy that tells you where to act in the traveller journey. For operators, that means more bookings and revenue. For destinations, greater visitor value and qualified operator referrals.
The agency trusted by NZ and Australia's leading tourism organisations
Most tourism marketing decisions are made on unclear data.
Your agency doesn't know tourism
You spend the first month of every engagement explaining seasonality, guest nights and trade bookings.
You pay the commission and don't get the guest data
The OTA takes the margin and keeps the relationship and the data.
You get chosen on price
Nothing in the market marks you out as the must-do, so you compete on rate and discount into the shoulder season.
Sales move, and you don't know why
The trigger for a good month and a bad month is not clear. You are left guessing the cause.
No clear path to growth
Plenty of channels are running. But you don't have a clear interlinked plan for how to use these channels together to achieve your goals.
You're not getting strategic input back
You get delivery and reporting. The thinking about what to do next still lands on your desk.
See what our clients have to say
“Arthur raised a great question around our budget allocation to branded search. As a result, we set up a test redirecting spend to generic and tracked performance. The final results were a really positive outcome. Thanks so much for the insight, we really appreciate it.”
Chief Marketing Officer, Wētā Workshop Tours
“The team at Data Story have transformed how we approach our digital marketing. Their data-driven approach and clear reporting means we always know exactly where our marketing budget is working hardest.”
Marketing Director, Ultimate Hikes
“Working with Data Story has been a game changer for our SEO strategy. They helped us identify key opportunities and delivered measurable improvements in organic traffic and rankings.”
Digital Marketing Manager, Destination Queenstown
“The paid media strategy that Data Story developed for us has consistently delivered strong ROAS. Their transparent reporting and proactive optimisation means we feel confident in every dollar we spend.”
Director, Aspiring Guides
“Data Story helped us completely overhaul our HubSpot setup. The result is a CRM that actually works for our team, with automation that saves us hours every week.”
Head of Marketing, MountainWatch
“The HubSpot CRM setup that Data Story delivered has completely transformed how we manage our client relationships. The team took time to truly understand our business before building anything.”
Operations Manager, ARRIVAL Travel
“Data Story have been an invaluable partner in helping us understand and leverage our data to drive better marketing decisions. Their team is knowledgeable, responsive, and genuinely invested in our success.”
Marketing Manager, International Antarctica Centre
“Data Story helped us understand how to use trend-driven content to reach visitors at the right time. The results speak for themselves — our organic reach has never been stronger.”
Tourism Manager, Horowhenua NZ
“Arthur raised a great question around our budget allocation to branded search. As a result, we set up a test redirecting spend to generic and tracked performance. The final results were a really positive outcome. Thanks so much for the insight, we really appreciate it.”
Chief Marketing Officer, Wētā Workshop Tours
“The team at Data Story have transformed how we approach our digital marketing. Their data-driven approach and clear reporting means we always know exactly where our marketing budget is working hardest.”
Marketing Director, Ultimate Hikes
“Working with Data Story has been a game changer for our SEO strategy. They helped us identify key opportunities and delivered measurable improvements in organic traffic and rankings.”
Digital Marketing Manager, Destination Queenstown
“The paid media strategy that Data Story developed for us has consistently delivered strong ROAS. Their transparent reporting and proactive optimisation means we feel confident in every dollar we spend.”
Director, Aspiring Guides
“Data Story helped us completely overhaul our HubSpot setup. The result is a CRM that actually works for our team, with automation that saves us hours every week.”
Head of Marketing, MountainWatch
“The HubSpot CRM setup that Data Story delivered has completely transformed how we manage our client relationships. The team took time to truly understand our business before building anything.”
Operations Manager, ARRIVAL Travel
“Data Story have been an invaluable partner in helping us understand and leverage our data to drive better marketing decisions. Their team is knowledgeable, responsive, and genuinely invested in our success.”
Marketing Manager, International Antarctica Centre
“Data Story helped us understand how to use trend-driven content to reach visitors at the right time. The results speak for themselves — our organic reach has never been stronger.”
Tourism Manager, Horowhenua NZ
One connected model behind every marketing decision.
Our work covers
We create a plan together based on your customer journey, in-house resource and data insights.
Analytics
Increase marketing ROI through cross-channel reporting
One model across every channel, so you can see commission against the true cost of direct acquisition.
Channel & CRO
Optimise direct bookings
We find where commission eats the margin you could keep, then build and test the direct path until it converts.
Paid Media
Get higher ROAS from your paid media
Ensure that spend goes to audiences that convert. Branded search gets tested rather than assumed.
GEO & SEO
Future-proof your discoverability in AI search and GEO
Evolve the content strategy for how trips get planned now, across Google, AI assistants, social and forums.
Learn about GEO →Lifecycle and Automation
Grow repeat bookings without buying the guest twice
Lifecycle campaigns run from your CRM, carrying a first stay into the next one.
Tourism doesn't behave like other categories
Tourism demand across the year
Hard peaks, quiet shoulders.
A traveller's path from first idea to booking is long, seasonal, and spread across many touchpoints. They dream, plan, book, experience and share, often over months, across search, social, AI answers, your own site and an operator's. Tourism rewards the strategy that holds the whole considered journey in view.
A considered journey, not a campaign
- Long consideration: the choice of where to go forms slowly, over many sessions.
- Seasonal demand: hard peaks and quiet shoulder months that shift where budget should work.
- Many touchpoints: search, social, AI answers, your site, an operator's, an airline's.
- Cross-channel: the journey spans channels that no single report can see on its own.
Whether you sell the trip or grow the destination
The method is the same: read the whole traveller journey on one measurement model, then build the strategy around the outcome you own. What success means depends on which you are.
For operators
You sell the booking. We build the strategy around booking revenue.
- Direct booking growth. Evidence-led UX and CRO that cut third-party dependence.
- Lower OTA commission. Reclaim the customer relationship and the margin.
- Higher order value. Smart upsell through the booking flow.
- Audience depth. Your first-party data turned into sharper targeting.
- AI-native pace. Live test pages and connected execution across channels.
The shared method
Journey-Based Measurement
For destinations (RTOs/NTOs)
We build the strategy around visitor value and referrals.
- High-yield visitor acquisition. Focus on the high-value, high-spending segments.
- Qualified operator referrals. Turn inspiration into tracked handoffs to your operators.
- Off-peak and regional dispersion. Pull demand into the shoulder months and quieter regions.
- CRM and database growth. Capture traveller intent for long-term marketing.
- AI-native execution. Content and GEO audits at pace, across topics and markets.
How we turn traveller data into marketing decisions
One connected model traveller journey that helps you meet your goals: such as increasing bookings or growing visitor value.
Explore Data for Strategy →Instrument the whole journey
Dream, Plan, Book, Refer on one model. Paid, search, site and CRM are read together, not in separate silos.
Find where value leaks
The model shows the stage in the traveller journey that loses the booking or the yield so that you can improve it. As a result, you improve the whole journey.
Decide the move that shifts the outcome
We pick the fix that moves bookings or visitor value.
Execute connected, then re-measure
SEO, paid, UX and CRM work to one goal. We check the outcome moved, then go again.
We show you where and when to spend
Tourism demand moves through the year, and your budget should move with it. We read your demand curve and show you which phase, channel and message earns most, so spend follows return, not habit.
Off-peak: build demand
When competitors go quiet, attention is cheap. Brand, content and GEO plant your place in the next trip before anyone is searching.
Shoulder: capture intent
As planning starts, SEO, paid search and a sharp booking path turn rising intent into booked, direct revenue.
Peak: capture and maximise
Demand and competition both spike. Capture it efficiently, lift yield per guest, and set up the rebook.
A senior team, scaled by AI.
- Senior practitioners who have worked tourism accounts for years run every engagement.
- AI carries the volume: the analysis passes, the build work and the reporting.
- Wired into your live accounts. Our systems connect through MCP servers and APIs, so the work runs on your real data.
- Anthropic API, GitHub and CLI workflows end to end. Analysis, build and review run as versioned, repeatable workflows.
- Enterprise grade security and process. Controlled access and reviewed change on every workflow that touches client data.
- The thinking you get back comes from the people you hired, not a junior bench.
Strategy in action
Build a tourism marketing engine that compounds.
Bring us into your channel mix, your reporting, your GEO strategy or your CRM build. We'll show you what real share growth looks like, measured against the market, not the marketing.