Website chat is fast becoming an essential tool for tourism businesses that want to scale their customer service without the cost or complexity of hiring more staff. But what does good actually look like? How many conversations should you expect? And what impact does chat have on website conversion?
We've analysed data from across our Yonder customer base to share real benchmarks for website chat performance in the tourism sector.
Analysis of our customer data shows that, on average, 1.5% of website visitors engage with chat, although this average changes during the year, and is typically higher in summer and lower in winter.
This plot shows the distribution changes:
In terms of off-peak (winter) and peak (summer) chat averages, here is what the data tells us:
● July 2020 = 1.2%
● February 2020 = 1.65%
● Year average = 1.5% (2019 data to exclude COVID)
Chat engagement is highest among visitors who are actively planning or booking, rather than those in the early dreaming phase. In winter, websites attract a higher proportion of dreamers, which partly explains the lower engagement rate.
Dream-phase questions tend to be broad: "What's popular?" or "What's good for kids?" Planning and booking-phase questions are more specific: availability, family packages, pricing, how to book, and check-in times. Trips that sell out in advance also generate more chat, particularly around how and whether to book.
Activities that accept last-minute bookings see significantly higher chat engagement — and the timing matters too. Approximately 40% of chats happen outside of 9am to 5pm, which means a large portion of your enquiries arrive when your team isn't available. Accommodation and half-day activities booked very last minute are especially likely to drive after-hours chat.
This is exactly why Yonder's AI Chatbot operates 24/7 — so no enquiry goes unanswered, regardless of when it arrives.
When a business has a large or complex product range, visitors are more likely to ask for help. Polynesian Spa, for example, offers multiple pool areas and spa services and uses chat across every page of their website as a simple navigation aid for customers.
If customers can't find what they need on your website, they turn to chat. While that's useful in the short term, the real opportunity is using that chat data to fix the underlying gaps. Yonder provides powerful conversation analysis tools that reveal exactly what visitors are searching for — missing content, unanswered FAQs, and friction points that may be causing visitors to bounce. Redwoods Treewalk used these insights to improve their website content directly.
Research consistently shows that visitors who chat are more likely to convert than those who don't. Yonder data shows that an average of 10% of chat users click through to a booking system. Given that the average website conversion rate for tourism businesses with online booking is around 1.5% — the same figure as Yonder's average chat engagement rate — converting even a fraction of those chatters has a meaningful impact on revenue.
People who reach out through chat are actively interested in your product. Answering their questions instantly, at any time of day, removes the final barrier between curiosity and a confirmed booking.
Getting more visitors into chat is straightforward with the right setup:
The more a visitor learns about your business, the closer they get to booking. Book a demo with Yonder to see how chat can work for your business 👇