Why Tourism Businesses Need to Embrace Chat to Win More Bookings

Does a group of travellers hanging out together all on their phones look familiar to you? 

Chat started with SMS, evolved into apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and has since expanded into a vast ecosystem of social and messaging platforms. There are now over 2.1 billion users of messaging apps globally, and 18 of the world's 22 most popular smartphone apps have messaging capabilities built in.

This isn't just a consumer trend. It's reshaping how people expect to communicate with businesses too — including yours.

Who Uses Chat?

It's not just teenagers. Research shows that 90% of conversations with friends, family, and colleagues now take place over messaging. And those habits are carrying over into how people interact with businesses: 79% of customers say they would prefer messaging-based customer service. In some of the world's biggest tourism markets — the US, India, Singapore, and South Korea — chat ranks as the number one preferred customer service channel.

Why Do Travellers Prefer Chat?

Convenience — anywhere, anytime. A phone call demands your full attention. You need a quiet space, a reliable connection, and the ability to focus. Chat removes all of those constraints. Travellers can ask a question on a noisy bus, at an airport gate, or in a foreign country — and get an answer without disrupting anyone around them.

It's essentially free. International roaming and phone calls remain expensive. Chat runs over an internet connection and uses minimal data, making it effectively free for international travellers who want to avoid roaming charges while planning their trip.

Speed. Phone calls are fast, but chat is too — and it beats email significantly. Email tends toward longer, more formal exchanges that take time to compose and even longer to receive a reply. Chat is a real conversation, back and forth, in real time.

No hold times. 42% of customers say that not having to wait on hold is a key reason they prefer live chat. They can get on with their day — multitasking in front of the TV, on the bus, or wherever they happen to be — while the conversation happens in the background.

Richer conversations. Chat allows for links, images, and video to be shared mid-conversation, creating a richer, more engaging experience than a phone call can offer. For tourism businesses, this means you can send a traveller directly to a product page, share a photo of the experience, or link them straight to your booking system — all in a single conversation.

Why Tourism Businesses Can't Afford to Ignore Chat

A recent study found that over 60% of consumers believe businesses should be available and responsive through messaging applications. For travellers researching and booking on the go, chat is often the fastest and most convenient way to get the information they need. If you're not available on chat, you're invisible to a growing segment of your potential customers.

And simply installing a chat widget isn't enough. Our research shows that on average 33% of people won't leave their email address and wait for a follow-up — they want help now. The majority won't wait more than a few minutes, and within 15 minutes many are already researching alternatives.

That's where Yonder's AI Chatbot comes in. Purpose-built for tourism, it answers up to 65–85% of common questions immediately, 24/7 — with no wait time, no hold music, and no missed enquiries. It's integrated with leading booking systems to provide live availability responses, and payments can be taken directly through chat to complete a booking without redirecting customers elsewhere.

For conversations that come in via phone, Yonder's AI Voice Agent provides the same instant, always-on coverage — answering calls at any hour in a natural conversational voice so no enquiry goes unanswered regardless of the channel a traveller chooses.

Where to Be Available

Chat engagement doesn't only happen on your website. Travellers are messaging businesses directly through Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, and WhatsApp — and they expect the same speed and quality of response on those channels as they do on your site.

Yonder's Unified Inbox brings all of these conversations together in one place, so your team can manage enquiries from every channel without switching between platforms. Website chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp — all in a single, centralised hub, with the ability to assign conversations to team members, star priority messages, and work toward inbox zero.

The Bottom Line

Chat is no longer a nice-to-have for tourism businesses — it's the channel your customers already prefer, and the gap between operators who use it well and those who don't is only growing. Getting set up now means refined processes, better data, and more bookings before the rest of your market catches up.

Want to see what embracing chat could mean for your business? Book a demo with Yonder.