From inspiration to booking? Start with the layer below
More and more destinations are transforming their websites into comprehensive platforms for visitors. Inspiration, information, and bookings—all in one place. A great development. However, there’s one aspect that’s often overlooked. And it’s precisely this aspect that determines whether it will work. Zandvoort Marketing demonstrates, through “Visit Zandvoort,” that the website is evolving into a digital starting point for the entire visitor experience.
The line between inspiration and booking is becoming blurred
Visitors prefer to organise their trip from a single platform – from finding their way around to booking transport, accommodation and activities. The traditional destination website as an ‘inspiration channel’ is no longer enough.
Zandvoort Marketing is a good example of this. They are transforming visitzandvoort.nl from a traditional destination website into a platform that supports the entire visitor journey. Visitors can now choose from hundreds of accommodation options and book tickets for transport and attractions. Around 325 businesses and partners are affiliated with the site, and visitors can choose from a wide range of activities, attractions and regional tickets. The site attracts around 780,000 visitors annually.
For many DMOs, this raises one question: should we be doing this too? And above all: where do you start?
The myth: “the booking is the finish line”
There’s a fallacy here. Many organisations see the booking button as the ultimate goal. As if the platform is complete the moment you can make a reservation. But the booking is just the visible tip of the iceberg. What really gives a visitor a seamless journey lies beneath: accurate, up-to-date and easily findable information about what there is to do, see and experience. The events. The venues. The routes. Without that layer, everything above it falters. A booking module with outdated or incomplete data mainly leads to disappointment. And a visitor who can’t find the answer quickly will give up or look elsewhere.
Why that layer is becoming more important now
There’s something else to consider. Visitors are increasingly searching via Google answers and AI tools, and are clicking through to individual websites less often. These tools will only provide good answers about your destination if your data is structured and machine-readable. In other words: your own basic data isn’t becoming less important – quite the opposite. Those who have their events, venues and routes in order will be found. Those who don’t will become invisible. Even in the best one-stop-shop.
Want to know more about this shift? Read our blog on being found in AI and search engines (GEO).
How to build that layer
At Event Connectors, we work according to one simple principle: collect, enrich, distribute.
- Bring your events, venues and routes together in one place. Not in separate lists and documents, but in a single source.
- Ensure the data is complete and up to date: opening hours, accessibility, images with alt text, practical details. This is the service layer that really benefits the visitor.
- Make that source machine-readable (using schema.org), so that Google, AI tools and partners can display your city or region correctly. Record it properly once, and it can be used everywhere.
Within that same data layer, we also collect information on numerous accommodation options, hotels and B&Bs. It is precisely this comprehensive, structured data that ensures a destination — and its businesses — becomes easier to find, both in search engines and via AI.
This is how inspiration turns into a concrete plan: adding this event to the calendar, walking this route, visiting this location. That is the step from inspiration to action, even before the booking is made.
What it delivers
A strong foundational data layer does more than just help visitors:
- Businesses become visible the moment people start exploring.
- You gain insight into what visitors are searching for and doing.
- You can steer visitor distribution, for example towards quieter spots or more sustainable transport.
- You’re discoverable via AI and search, without having to fight for every click.
That is precisely the value you can demonstrate to both businesses and the local authority. Not through vague promises, but through concrete, measurable visibility.
In short
Moving from inspiration to booking is a logical ambition. But don’t start with the booking module. Start with the layer that makes the whole thing work: your events, venues and routes, properly collated, enriched and distributed. If you’ve got that foundation right, you’ll be found — even by AI.
Zandvoort Marketing’s Top Team
It’s great to see how Zandvoort Marketing is taking concrete digital steps in this direction. From a traditional destination website to a platform that supports the entire visitor journey — with the foundational data in order as its bedrock. Exactly as it should be: first the underlying layer, then the rest. Kudos to the innovative team at Zandvoort Marketing for making this possible.
At Event Connectors, we’re helping Zandvoort Marketing with these steps. For example, we developed an overview of tickets, largely fed via an API, and helped with the integration with the Travelbase booking platform. Read the case study on Visit Zandvoort too.
