Creating a professional and engaging website is crucial for any tour operator. Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. Choosing the best tour operator WordPress theme can make all the difference. This guide will help you understand what to look for when selecting the best theme for your tour operator business.
By focusing on essential features and considerations, you’ll be able to choose a theme that enhances your online presence and attracts more customers.
Why use WordPress for your tour operator business?
We can’t say for sure if WordPress is the perfect platform for your business since we don’t know your specific requirements. However, in most cases, WordPress ends up being the right choice for many businesses. Here’s why:
- User-friendly Interface: WordPress is intuitive and easy to use, even for those with no technical background. Its straightforward dashboard makes site management simple. You can further simplify it using page builders like Elementor or WPBakery.
- Vast Documentation & Guides: There are extensive tutorials, forums, and guides available online. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, you’ll find resources to help you solve any issue or learn new features.
- Huge Plugin Market: WordPress offers thousands of plugins that can add almost any functionality to your site, from SEO tools to e-commerce capabilities and beyond.
- Integration Capabilities: WordPress can easily integrate with a wide range of third-party services and tools, such as payment gateways, social media platforms, and email marketing services, enhancing your website’s functionality.
- Booking Plugins: For tour operators, WordPress offers many booking plugins that let you manage reservations, accept payments, and handle customer inquiries efficiently. If you use tour operator software, check if they provide their own WordPress plugin. For example, companies like Lemax offer such plugins.
- Huge Theme Library: WordPress has a vast selection of themes, both free and premium, allowing you to find the perfect design that fits your brand and business needs.
- Cost-effective: WordPress itself is free, and many themes and plugins are available at no cost. Premium options are available for those who need advanced features, making it a budget-friendly choice. The current average cost of a premium WordPress theme is around $59.
- Simplifies SEO: WordPress is built with SEO best practices in mind and offers a range of plugins such as Yoast that help optimise your content, improve site speed, and enhance overall search engine rankings.
Ensure Theme and Builder Plugin Compatibility
Using a website builder plugin can simplify the building process even more. If you plan to use one, which we recommend, ensure it’s compatible with your chosen tour operator WordPress theme. The theme provider should specify whether it works with Elementor, WPBakery, or other builder plugins. This is crucial to avoid spending money on a theme only to find out it’s not compatible.
Theme Vs Template
When searching for a ‘template’ for your WordPress site, you might actually need a ‘theme’. In WordPress, a theme is a complete design package that includes the overall look, feel, and functionality of your site, encompassing layouts, colour schemes, and widgets.
A template is a specific page layout within a theme, used for different types of pages like the homepage or blog posts.
In essence, themes provide the full design and features for your site, while templates are individual page layouts within that theme. So, when improving your WordPress site, focus on finding the right theme.
Finding the Best WordPress Themes for Tour Operators
Choosing the right WordPress theme for your tour operator business is crucial for creating an engaging and functional website. To find a suitable theme, consider using reliable sources like ThemeForest, known for its wide selection and high-quality offerings.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you find the perfect theme:
- Visit ThemeForest: Navigate to the ThemeForest website.
- Search for Themes: Enter keywords such as “tour operator WordPress theme” or “travel agency WordPress theme” in the search bar.
- Browse Themes: Look through the available themes, paying close attention to features, customer ratings, and reviews.
- Preview Themes: Check the live demos to see how the themes look and perform.
- Select and Purchase: Once you find a theme that fits your needs, purchase it and follow the installation instructions.
ThemeForest is a trusted marketplace, offering excellent customer support and a user-friendly platform, making it a top choice for many tour operators.
Things to look at when choosing a Tour Operator WordPress Theme
Selecting the right WordPress theme for your tour operator website goes beyond basic features like responsive design and SEO optimisation. While these are essential, specific needs unique to tour operators require careful consideration. Here’s a guide to help you choose the best theme and provider for your tour business.
- Check Reviews – Including 1-Star Reviews
- Thorough Review Analysis: Don’t just rely on high ratings or average scores. Look closely at detailed reviews, especially 1-star reviews, to identify common issues such as poor customer support or technical problems.
- Look for Trends: Check if the provider has recent positive reviews, which may indicate improvements. Conversely, be cautious of themes with many perfect scores but no detailed feedback, as these could be misleading.
- Authenticity: Keep in mind that a significant portion of online reviews can be inauthentic. Scrutinise the reviews to get a realistic sense of the theme’s performance and support quality.
- Specific Features for Tour Operators
- Booking Systems: Check the theme supports robust booking systems to handle reservations and payments seamlessly. However, if you intend to use a third-party plugin to handle bookings and payments, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
- Tour Management: Look for features that allow you to manage tour details, itineraries, and availability easily.
- Theme Provider Reliability
- Support and Updates: Choose providers known for excellent customer support and regular theme updates. This ensures your website remains secure and up-to-date with the latest WordPress features.
- Documentation and Tutorials: Comprehensive guides and tutorials from the provider can be incredibly helpful, especially if you encounter issues or need to customise the theme.
- Flexibility and Customisation
- Customisable Layouts: Opt for themes that offer flexible layout options to tailor the website to your brand’s needs.
- Compatibility with Plugins: Ensure the theme works well with essential plugins, such as those for SEO, analytics, and performance optimisation.
Top WordPress Themes for Tour Operators in 2024
We’ve carefully selected these WordPress themes for tour operators using the criteria we outlined earlier. Our evaluation focused on essential features like booking systems, customer reviews, integration capabilities, and compatibility with website builders. While we believe these themes are among the best, your specific needs may vary. Therefore, we suggest using our guidelines to find the theme that best fits your tour operator business.
1. Travelicious
Travelicious is a WordPress theme crafted specifically for tour operators and travel agencies. It features customizable layouts that align with your branding and effectively showcase your tour packages. The built-in booking system simplifies the reservation process, enhancing the user experience. Additionally, Travelicious offers an intuitive search filter, allowing users to find tours quickly and easily.
Developed by BoldThemes, a reputable company known for creating high-quality themes and plugins, Travelicious ensures reliability and excellent support.
Cost: $69 + VAT
Key Theme Highlights:
- Tour Management Features: Supports detailed tour information, including itineraries, galleries, reviews, and similar tours.
- Free Cost Calculator Widget: A free cost calculator plugin is included in this theme.
- Integration Capabilities: Compatible with popular plugins such as WooCommerce for e-commerce functionality and WPML for multilingual support.
- Custom Tour Search: Includes a customisable tour search function to help users find specific tours quickly.
- Custom Icons and Google Fonts: Comes with custom travel-related icons and over 850 Google Fonts to enhance your site’s visual appeal.
- Bold Builder: Equipped with an intuitive drag-and-drop page builder for easy content creation and layout adjustments.
- Tour Header Designs: Offers multiple tour header designs, including image sliders and videos, for a dynamic and engaging presentation.
2. Ora Travel
Ora is a versatile WordPress theme designed for travel agencies, tour operators, and hotel booking services. Provided by DesignThemes, which boasts an impressive 5-star rating with over 100,000 sales, Ora offers a range of features tailored for these businesses.
Cost: $59 + VAT
Key Theme Highlights:
- Comprehensive Booking System: Supports hotel, flight, and tour bookings with integrated payment options.
- Tour Management Features: Detailed tour pages with itineraries, embedded pinned maps, galleries, reviews, and similar tours.
- Included Premium Plugins: Comes with WPBakery Visual Composer, Ultimate Addons, Layer Slider, and Revolution Slider.
- Membership Plans: Supports different membership plans, allowing users to subscribe and access exclusive offers and content.
- Multilingual Support: Compatible with WPML for creating multilingual sites.
- Events Calendar: Integrated with the Events Calendar plugin, making it easy to manage and display events by day, week, month, or list.
3. Abape
Abape is a feature-rich WordPress theme specifically designed for tour operators and travel agencies of all sizes. Developed by a trusted provider with a strong reputation, Abape includes a variety of tools to enhance your online presence. Integrated with WooCommerce, it allows customers to book and pay for tours directly on your website.
Additionally, it offers an automated email payment system, providing a convenient alternative for handling transactions. With its robust functionalities and user-friendly features, Abape ensures a seamless and professional booking experience for your clients.
Cost: $29 + VAT
Key Theme Highlights:
- Advanced Booking System: Facilitates seamless bookings for tours, and other travel services, integrating with multiple payment gateways.
- Tour Management Features: Detailed tour pages with itineraries, maps, galleries, customer reviews, and related tours.
- Included Premium Plugins: Comes with premium plugins like WPBakery Visual Composer and Revolution Slider for advanced customisation.
- One-Click Demo Import: Quickly set up your site using ready-made demo content.
- Comprehensive Search Functionality: Customisable search forms to help users find specific tours and travel packages.
4. Travesia
Travesia is a modern and dynamic WordPress theme crafted for travel agencies and tour operators. Developed by, AxiomThemes, it features a vibrant design and extensive functionality tailored to the travel industry.
However, it offers limited options for customising search forms and individual tour pages. Therefore, we recommend Travesia primarily for smaller tour operators who require a straightforward yet effective solution.
Cost: $69 + VAT
Key Highlights:
- Six Months Tech Support: offers six months of tech support, doubling the typical three-month period provided by others, ensuring you have ample time for assistance.
- Multiple Tour Layouts: Offers various layouts for showcasing tour listings and details.
- Premium Plugins Included: Comes with WPBakery Page Builder and Slider Revolution for enhanced customisation.
- Custom Widgets: Provides specialised widgets for travel-related content.
5. Goyto
Goyto is a relatively new theme for tour operators, but it comes from a reputable provider with over 18,000 theme sales and a respectable 4.5 out of 5 rating. Designed specifically for travel agencies and tourism businesses, Goyto offers a variety of features to enhance your travel website.
However, compared to more established themes, it provides fewer options for customising tour information and pages. Therefore, we recommend Goyto for smaller tour operators seeking a reliable solution.
Cost: $29 + VAT
Key Highlights:
- Comprehensive Tour Booking System: WP Travel Engine facilitates seamless
- Premium Plugin Integration: Includes Elementor website builder plugin.
- One-Click Demo Import: Quickly set up your site with ready-made demo content.
- Multilingual Support: Compatible with WPML for creating multilingual websites.
Conclusion
Choosing the right WordPress theme is crucial for creating a successful tour operator website. Whether you opt for Travelicious, Ora, Abape, Travesia, or Goyto, each theme offers unique features tailored to meet the needs of travel and tourism businesses. Consider the specific requirements of your business, such as booking systems, multilingual support, and customisable layouts, to find the perfect theme. By selecting a theme that aligns with your business goals, you can create a professional, user-friendly website that attracts and engages your customers.
