Before Viator, which profits from non-local internet based “ghost tour businesses” decided to make up their losses after Covid, if you were visiting a town or city you could find a well-informed quirky individual ready to tell the local history for a ticket fee.
Ghost tours and pub crawls were fun ways for tourists to learn about where they were visiting.
Viator paid millions to Melissa Mcarthy and Tina Fey each to be a spokesperson to sell Viator tickets. I have to believe that if they knew the truth, that Viator/TripAdvisor were really a scam, they would have made a different choice.
Viator a scam? Yes. They manipulate the reviews and rank any company higher who pays them the most commission. So they sell more of the big ghost tour and pub crawl internet businesses tickets because they give Viator a higher commission.
Any franchise or in other words internet-based tour company whether it is a food tour, cycling tour, ghost tour or pub crawl needless to say is pretty much a scam. The guide receives a script online with information from the internet and no training in storytelling or accurate history.
But that’s not the point of the tour. The point of the tour is to make money for the internet businesses and Viator. If there is no consequence (real reviews – like “no guide showed up, the tour was lame, I was confused and thought I signed up for the local ghost tour”). It is a free-for-all and the customer is the one who takes the brunt of the scam.
As does the local business. The internet business has to use their names and pretend to be them that is part of scamming the customer. The local business has top SEO. All over the country this is happening.
In tourism the internet is still like the wild west. Those with the bigger guns and bigger meaner posses’ take over …. for a little while…. stay tuned… cause it’s going to be a show down…
