How to submit your outdoor business to Google's activity knowledge panels

Google has been quietly building a booking layer into search results. When someone searches for things to do near a destination, Google now shows activity panels directly in the results, on Maps, and across Google Travel. These panels display tour and activity listings with prices, photos, and booking links. Most outdoor recreation businesses are not in them.

The feature is called Things to Do. It launched in 2021 and has expanded steadily since. It covers tours, guided experiences, equipment rentals, adventure sports, and outdoor activities. If you run a rafting company, a fishing guide service, a kayak rental, or any kind of outfitter, your trips can appear here for free. The catch is that Google does not just pull this information from your website. You have to submit it through specific channels.

Here is how to get your outdoor business into them.

Check your google business profile first

Your Google Business Profile is the prerequisite. If you do not have one set up, or if yours is incomplete, stop here and get that done first. Your business has to be findable on Google Maps for any of this to work.

The category you choose on your profile matters more than you might expect. Google’s operator booking module, the part of Things to Do that lets tour operators display products on their own listing, is only available to certain categories: tour operator, travel agency, tour agency, adventure sports and tour agency, outdoor activity organizer, rental service, and ski resort. If your GBP says something generic like “recreation center,” you may never see the activity editor options.

Log into your Google Business Profile and check your primary category. If it does not match what you actually do, change it. A fly fishing guide service should be listed as a tour operator or fishing charter, not a sporting goods store. A whitewater rafting company should be categorized as a tour operator or adventure sports agency. Getting the category right is what unlocks the tools Google offers for activity listings.

While you are in there, check that your name, address, and phone number are accurate, your hours are current, and you have recent photos. A half-maintained profile will limit what shows up in activity panels even after you submit your listings.

Use the tickets and activities editor

The most direct way to get your trips into Google’s activity panels is the Tickets and Activities Editor. This is a tool built into Google Business Profile that lets you add your tours and activities without any third-party software.

If your business is categorized correctly (tour operator is the most common qualifying category), you will see an “Activities” or “Tickets” option in your GBP dashboard. Click it, and Google walks you through a short form. You enter the activity name, a description, pricing, a link to your booking page, and photos. It takes about five minutes per listing.

Once submitted, your activities appear on your Google Business Profile listing with an “Official Site” badge next to the booking link. This tells searchers they are booking directly with you, not through a reseller. The listings also feed into Google’s Things to Do results when people search for activities in your area.

It is free. You do not pay Google anything to list your activities. The editor is simple but limited compared to working with a connectivity partner, so you cannot run paid Things to Do ads through it, and your listings will not appear in every carousel format Google offers. But for a small outfitter or guide service that wants to show up without adding new software, this is the fastest way in.

Connect through a booking platform

If you already use booking software like FareHarbor, Peek Pro, Rezdy, Bookingkit, or similar platforms, check whether your provider is an approved Google Things to Do connectivity partner. Many of the major reservation systems now have direct integrations with Google.

A connectivity partner sends your activity data to Google in a structured format: trip names, descriptions, pricing, availability, photos, and booking links. The data gets uploaded via a feed, and Google updates your listings as your availability or pricing changes. The advantage over the manual editor is that everything stays synced with your actual booking calendar without you touching it.

The process usually goes like this: you enable the Google Things to Do integration inside your booking platform, confirm that your listings have accurate titles and descriptions, link your Google Business Profile, and wait. Google reviews and indexes the feed on its own schedule, and listings typically appear within two to four weeks.

Not every booking platform is a connectivity partner. Google maintains a list of approved partners through its Actions Center. If your current platform is not on the list, you can still use the manual Tickets and Activities Editor described above, or you can work with a distribution-focused partner like Magpie Travel that specializes in connecting operators to Google.

One advantage of the connectivity partner route is access to the full range of Things to Do modules. Your activities can appear in the operator booking module on your own GBP listing, in the experiences carousel when someone searches for tours near a location, and in Google Travel destination pages. The manual editor only covers your own GBP listing.

Understand where your listings show up

Your listings can appear in several places, and where they show up affects how you should think about what you submit.

The operator booking module appears on your own Google Business Profile. When someone finds your business on Google Maps or Search and clicks your listing, they see your tours and activities with prices and direct booking links. This is the most direct conversion path because the searcher already found you by name or by browsing the map.

The experiences module shows up when someone searches for activities near a destination. “Things to do near Moab” or “tours near Gatlinburg” can trigger a carousel of experiences pulled from Things to Do data. Your listing competes here with other operators and with OTAs like Viator and GetYourGuide. The title, price, and photo you submit determine whether someone clicks your listing or scrolls past it.

Google Travel destination pages aggregate activities for a given location. If someone is planning a trip and browses the Google Travel page for your area, your activities can appear alongside lodging and flight information.

In all three cases, what you submit is what Google shows. Vague trip names like “Half Day Adventure” tell the searcher nothing. Specific names like “Half-Day Whitewater Rafting on the Nantahala River” perform better because they match what people actually search for and give Google more to work with when deciding which queries to show your listing for. This ties directly into your local keyword strategy because the same activity-plus-location phrasing that works in your page titles works in your Things to Do listings.

Optimize what you submit

Google ranks Things to Do listings on relevance to the search query, price, review quality, and how complete your listing data is. You control most of that.

Write clear descriptions for each activity. Include the activity type, location, duration, and what is included. Do not copy your website marketing copy verbatim. Write for someone scanning a search result who needs to decide in a few seconds whether this trip is worth clicking.

Google uses price as a ranking signal in Things to Do results, so keep your prices accurate. If you offer multiple trip options at different price points, list them separately. The lower-priced option can then appear when searchers filter by cost, and you still have the premium trip listed for people willing to pay more.

Use real photos from your actual trips, not stock images. A shot of a guide and guests on the river or a group at the trailhead will outperform a generic landscape. If you have already invested in real photography for your website, use those same images here.

Google pulls your review rating from your Business Profile and displays it alongside your Things to Do listings. A rating below 4.0 or a thin review count will hurt your click-through rate in activity panels. Building reviews is its own project, but it has a direct effect on how well these listings convert.

One thing that catches people off guard: Google requires feeds to be updated at least every 30 days or your listings get pulled. If you use the manual editor, put a reminder on your calendar to update prices and availability at the start of each season. If you use a connectivity partner, double-check that your booking platform data is accurate, because that is exactly what Google sees.

What this looks like alongside your other seo work

Getting into Google’s activity panels is not a replacement for the rest of your search presence. It is an additional surface. Someone searching “best rafting near Asheville” might see your website in the organic results, your Google Business Profile in the map pack, and your trip in a Things to Do carousel, all on the same page. Each one is a separate chance to get the click.

The schema markup on your trip pages helps Google understand your offerings in one way, and Things to Do listings give it the same information through a different channel. Your GBP optimization feeds into how your activity listings appear. Your keyword research informs what you name your trips in the editor. None of these things exist in isolation.

If you have not touched your Google Business Profile in a while, start there. Then add your trips through the Tickets and Activities Editor or your booking platform. The whole process takes an afternoon for most operators, and the listings are free. Google keeps expanding where Things to Do results appear in search, and right now most small outdoor operators have not submitted anything. That gap will not last.