Attractions, tours, and experiences receive near-perfect scores from travelers. On average, they’re rated four-and-a-half out of a possible five stars.
You, our operators, delight travelers. You’re behind the stories they’ll tell next month, next year, next decade. You create lifelong memories.
But despite this resonance, it’s hard to stand out. That’s because our industry is large and growing–where travelers once had two or three options for a cooking class, or three or four for a sunset cruise, they now have ten, twenty, or maybe even thirty choices.
Getting noticed? It’s hard. And that’s why we created Viator Accelerate.
Your feedback is our foundation
You asked us for more exposure – and Accelerate is our answer. The program lives to help businesses stand out on their own terms, under their control, and where it matters.
- Accelerate allows products to reach more travelers. In exchange for raising the commission above the minimum rate, eligible operators receive more exposure on Viator through ad impressions– and without any upfront costs.
- Accelerate maximizes your booking potential. It delivers contextual ads to a highly-targeted audience of interested and engaged travelers. Display ads show your product to travelers shopping for similar or nearby experiences. The ads are designed to deliver key decision-making information quickly: an image, product name, rating, and price.
- Accelerate helps get you ahead of the competition. Our tools and dashboard provide insights to help you stay competitive and optimize your business. You’ll easily be able to track the impact of the program and see how you stack up against the competition.
Reaching the right travelers
The program first rolled out as a pilot in select North American and European markets in late 2021. Early participants saw strong results, getting their products in front of more travelers and helping them meet their business goals.
Gray Line of New Orleans took part in the pilot. Their director of sales and marketing said the program provided an effective, affordable means of gaining exposure:
“With marketing budget cuts, we wouldn’t have been able to put dollars on the front end to get the kind of exposure we’ve gotten from Viator Accelerate.”
2023 Accelerate Enhancements
The initial success of Accelerate and additional feedback from more than 5,500 operators confirmed a growing demand for even more control, insights, and transparency. So, in 2023, we reimagined Accelerate to meet those needs.
Our improvements:
- Increased traffic and control with ad placements to promote your product to travelers actively searching for experiences like yours
- Better insights into how you compare to your competitors
- More detailed performance metrics, including ad impressions count and average for your product’s competitive set on the Insights dashboard.
We’re empowering you to dial-up or dial-down your participation at any time, and make those decisions based on cold, hard facts.
A partner through it all
The latest iteration of Accelerate aims to create a competitive marketplace in which you, our operators, can control your exposure and realize your perfect vision of success for your experiences business. As always, we will continue working to improve the program’s effectiveness – bringing even more value to our operators around the world.
Learn more about how Viator can help your products stand out from the competition.
Editor’s Note: This announcement was originally published in 2021 but was updated in 2023 to reflect product enhancements.
