Marketing Mythbuster #1: My Website Is Just A Brochure

We hear this phrase a lot, particularly in tourism: “My website is just a digital brochure.”

It sounds harmless, but it’s one of the most expensive beliefs a tourism business can hold. Because your website isn’t a digital pamphlet. It’s not there just to look nice, list a few facts and prove you exist.

Your website is your hardest-working sales tool where you own both the content AND the customer relationship. If done well, it provides content for AI Search, and works while you’re on the water, guiding a tour, cleaning rooms or sleeping.

But if it’s been built and treated like a brochure, it’s probably underperforming.

This mindset will cost you bookings.

The problem with brochure thinking

Brochure-style websites focus on telling, not selling. They tend to:

• List features instead of answering real traveller questions
• Prioritise aesthetics over clarity
• Assume visitors already understand the value
• Rely on beautiful images but offer little guidance on what to do next

A brochure can get away with this. A website can’t.

Online, you don’t have a captive audience. You have seconds. If your site doesn’t quickly explain who it’s for, why it’s worth booking and how to take the next step, users won’t linger. They’ll bounce. Usually to a competitor.

Travellers want to make a decision

Modern travellers arrive at your website mid-decision. They’re asking:

• Is this right for me?
• Is it worth the price?
• Can I trust this business?
• How does this compare to the other options I’ve just looked at?
• Is it available when I want to travel and can I book it now

A brochure-style site assumes people will read everything and connect the dots themselves. A high-performing website does the thinking for them and leads them to make a booking.

Design matters, but your site must convert to bookings

A beautiful website that doesn’t convert is just an expensive digital brochure.

Strong design should support usability, messaging and flow. Every page should earn its place by guiding visitors closer to a decision, whether that’s booking now, checking availability, signing up or getting in touch.

If your site looks great but relies on phone calls, follow-up emails or third-party platforms to do the real selling, you’re losing bookings and money.

At Tomahawk, we specialise in helping tourism businesses enhance their website user experience. Our Creative Lead, Pallavi Karambelkar shares her thoughts:

"A great tourism brand goes beyond photos. Design shapes emotion, guides choice, and becomes the unseen thread that turns experiences into memories."

Pallavi delves into the role of both UI and UX:

"The most important thing to recognise here is the difference between visual design, UI (User Interface) Design, and UX (User Experience). A website might be visually extremely beautiful and meet all the standards of the brand - but it can still rank low on User Experience, if the User Interface is difficult to engage with. "Pretty" is simply not good enough if it is not functional. An effective website for a tourism business must include all ingredients in appropriate proportions - brand presence, inspiration, and good quality user interface design that will lead to a great user experience - which in turn will lead to conversions."

What your website should be doing

A strong tourism website acts more like a great salesperson than a glossy handout. It should:

• Lead with the experience and the outcome, not just the offering
• Anticipate objections and common questions, and answer them clearly - both for humans and for AI Search
• Use imagery to support the story, not replace it
• Make the next action obvious at every stage
• Build confidence through clarity, consistency and social proof

This doesn’t mean your site needs to be pushy - it needs to be purposeful.

The shift worth making

The mindset shift is simple but powerful. Your website isn’t there to describe your business. It’s there to grow it.

>> Stop asking: “Does this website look good?” Start asking: “Is this site doing its job?”

And when it’s built and treated like the sales tool it actually is, the difference shows up where it matters most. In bookings.

If you’re unsure whether your website is selling or just sitting there looking pretty, that’s a conversation worth having. Get in touch with our team to get started!