Why tourism needs its own kind of research
A trip is bought in advance, often from another city or another country, and the decision is assembled from dozens of small signals: photos, reviews, how fast you answer on Telegram, a clear price, a payment method that works. An owner of a guesthouse in Bukhara or a café in Samarkand usually sees only the outcome: the guest arrived or did not. Research shows what happened before that moment.
There is a second difference. Travellers compare whole destinations and formats, not just hotels on one street. Some weigh Khiva against a trip to another country in the region; a family from Tashkent may choose between Chimgan, a lake and a holiday abroad. Your competition is wider than it looks.
Segments first, everything else second
Labels like “foreign tourists” or “families” are too broad to act on. A couple from Europe touring historic cities on their own and a group of pilgrims look for different things, read different sources and pay in different ways. Pick the two or three segments that bring or could bring most of your revenue, and study each one separately.
- Cultural travellers from abroad: architecture, crafts, food
- Pilgrims and family groups: organisation, comfort, respect for tradition
- Business guests: conferences, exhibitions, short trips
- Domestic tourists: weekends, mountains, lakes, corporate getaways
- Event visitors: festivals, sports tournaments, concerts
The questions your research should answer
Good research does not collect everything; it answers specific questions. For a tourism business the list usually looks like this:
- Which countries and cities guests come from, and which language they are comfortable in
- Whether they plan alone, through an operator or on a friend’s advice
- Where they look for information: search, video, maps, booking platforms, Telegram channels
- How far ahead they decide
- Which cities are on the route and how many days they spend with you
- What disappointed them: transport, signage, card payments, Click and Payme for locals, staff language
- What they remembered and told their friends
Getting data without a large budget
Start with desk research. Official statistics on arrivals and accommodation, publications from tourism authorities and reviews by international organisations give you the general picture of where guests come from and when. It is background, not an answer for your specific business.
The most underrated source is reviews of your competitors. Copy a few dozen reviews of your neighbours into a spreadsheet, tag the themes (cleanliness, breakfast, location, staff, transfer, price) and count how often each is praised and how often it triggers a complaint. You see what to fix in the product and what is safe to put in your ads. Split reviews by language too, because differences between segments show up immediately.
Field work fills in the rest: a short form at check-out, conversations with guides, drivers and front-desk staff, and an analysis of your own bookings by country, lead time and channel. Add a mystery-guest test, where you walk the customer path yourself from the first search to departure.
Seasonality and competitors
Demand in tourism is uneven. Spring and autumn tend to suit sightseeing in historic cities, summer heat shifts routes and tour times, mountain areas follow their own calendar, and domestic travel follows holidays and school breaks. Build a month-by-month picture for your own business: who comes, when and for how long. A quiet season then stops being an empty gap and may turn out to be the moment to attract a different segment.
Break competitors into layers too: direct ones (nearby hotels and guesthouses), alternative formats (daily apartments, hostels) and other destinations. Look at how they present the experience, what their programmes include and how they reply to guests.
Example: a Khiva guesthouse in the low season
Picture a guesthouse with empty rooms in the quiet months. The owner exports a year of bookings and notices that some guests wrote only a day or two before arrival. In reviews of the house and its neighbours one theme repeats: people want more than a bed, they want a hands-on experience, such as meeting craftsmen. In the check-out form a few guests say they found the house on the spot through a map app.
These produce hypotheses to test, not final conclusions: a “stay plus workshop” package, a cleaner map listing, faster replies to late requests. After one season you will see which of them paid off.
Common mistakes and the next step
The usual mistakes are lumping all foreigners into one group, asking only those who came and never learning why others chose a different destination, running the survey in one language, and applying high-season findings to the whole year. Every study should end in a decision: which segments take priority, and which channels and offers get tested.
If you want to build this work into a system and connect it to advertising, your website and analytics, the markdev team can help with marketing strategy for tourism businesses. Tell us what you are trying to solve and we will decide together where to begin.
FAQ
Does a small guesthouse need market research?
Yes, in a lightweight form: analyse your own bookings, read reviews of your place and your neighbours, and add a short form at check-out. It takes consistency rather than a big budget.
Which data sources are most useful in tourism?
Reviews on booking platforms and maps, your own booking records, and conversations with guides, drivers and front-desk staff. Official statistics give context but do not replace them.
How often should research be repeated?
At least once a year before seasonal planning, while reviews and booking sources are worth tracking all the time. If your product or the market changes, revisit the findings sooner.
Can I do it myself?
The basics are within an owner’s reach: a review spreadsheet, a short survey, segmenting your bookings. A consultant helps when you need to connect the data and turn it into a strategy and campaign plan.
Let’s look at your task for free
Leave your contact — in a 15-minute call we’ll show where leads get lost and what to fix first.