Tour and excursion marketing in Phuket: lead cost from our cases
Cost per inquiry, per qualified lead and per sale for every tourism case we publish in English: excursions, tour companies, yacht charters and boat sales on Phuket, plus two cases outside Phuket marked by market
Inquiry, qualified lead, sale
Inquiry - any contact: a messenger conversation, a form, a call. On Phuket it is usually a chat started from a Meta ad. Qualified lead - an inquiry the client's team confirmed as a real buyer with dates and a budget. Sale - a paid excursion, charter, tour or purchase. Numbers are taken from the case studies as published; «no data» means the case does not disclose the metric and we do not fill it in. An asterisk (*) marks a value calculated from the case data: budget divided by count, or the ticket divided by ROAS
Phuket: 4 cases
| Case | Market, product, channel, period | Budget | Inquiries | Per inquiry | Next step | Per qualified lead or sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phuket excursions | Phuket, excursions, Meta Ads, October 2025 - January 2026 | $11,563 | 2,761 | $4.19 | 21.8% visitor-to-lead rate; ad spend paid back in 3 days | no data |
| Zapiski ob Azii, year | Phuket, excursions and yacht rental, Meta Ads in 3 languages, October 2025 - October 2026 | $46,800 | 11,400 | $4.1* | 35% qualified (first 8 months) | ≈$12.5* per qualified lead (first 8 months) |
| Zapiski ob Azii, low season | Phuket, same account, June - October 2026 | $6,800 | 2,250 | $3 | 2,054 messenger conversations (91%*) | no data |
| Motorium | Phuket, boat sales and rental, Meta Ads, February - April 2026 | $3,000 | 248 purchase leads | ≤$12.1* | 1 boat sold at $300,000 | $3,000* per sale |
| Premium yacht charter | Phuket, Meta Ads, high season 2024 | no data | no data | no data | ROAS 420% at $4,200 ticket | ≈$1,000* per charter |
Kazakhstan and Bali: 2 cases outside Phuket
| Case | Market, product, channel, period | Budget | Inquiries | Per inquiry | Next step | Per qualified lead or sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KZ Travel Agency | Kazakhstan (not Phuket), outbound travel agency, Meta Ads and Yandex Direct, March - August 2024 | $1,850 | 370 | $5 | 89 sales (24%*) | $20.8* per sale |
| Bali Bikes | Bali (not Phuket), bike sales to tourists and expats, Meta Ads, October - November 2024 | $551 | 142 | $3.88 | 10/10 bikes sold | $55.1* per sale |
How the calculated values work
- Zapiski ob Azii, year: $46,800 divided by 11,400 leads. The 35% qualification rate is published for the first 8 months (9,151 leads on $40,000), so the qualified lead cost is $40,000 / 9,151 / 35%
- Motorium: $3,000 divided by 248 purchase leads and by 1 sale. The budget also covered boat rental campaigns, so the real cost of a purchase lead is no higher than the figure shown
- Yacht charter: at 420% ROAS every $1 of ads brought $4.20 of revenue, so one $4,200 charter carried about $1,000 of ad spend. This is an upper bound: according to the client, referrals added 30% more sales with no ad spend
- KZ Travel and Bali Bikes: budget divided by sales
The median uses only Phuket rows with a cost per inquiry (3 cases). Across all 5 cases with a published or calculated cost per inquiry the range is $3.88-$12.1. ROAS is revenue to ad spend, not profit; the cases do not publish margins, so we do not calculate ROI
What the cases show
- Product and ticket. Excursions and mass-market tours cost $4.1-$5 per inquiry; a boat purchase lead cost up to $12.1. Compare cost per sale with the ticket, not cost per lead across products
- Guest language. Zapiski ob Azii ran separate campaigns in Russian, English and French from day one and moved budget into the excursion, language and creative combinations that brought qualified leads. Motorium advertised only in Thai and did not reach expats until we relaunched in Russian and English
- A warm audience at the end of the season. The excursion company retargeted people already looking for things to do on Phuket and showed real remaining places. The ad spend paid back in 3 days, and upsells (photographer, transfer, drinks) lifted the average ticket from $80 to $120
- The season. In the June - October 2026 low season Zapiski ob Azii paid $3 per inquiry against about $4.4 in the first 8 months that included the high season (calculated)
- An offer the aggregators do not have. KZ Travel in Kazakhstan sold visa support, cancellation insurance and a 24/7 manager instead of «tours» and closed 24% of leads
- An experience offer in premium. The yacht company showed sunsets and guests instead of boat specs, targeted guests of 5-star resorts and kept a discount only for 24 hours after the first inquiry
- The guest base. Zapiski ob Azii added 1,500 Telegram channel subscribers alongside leads; the channel works for repeat sales next season
Our fee starts at $750 a month. The minimum ad budget for tourism is $2,500 a month, paid directly to the ad platforms
Related pages
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