Creating a Group Tour

How to create a new group tour page.

This page is a placeholder — content will be added during editor training.

Tagging with destinations

On the Tour Properties tab, the Destinations picker lets you select one or more destinations the tour covers (e.g. “UK”, or “Belgium” and “Holland” for a combined tour).

Tagging is what makes a tour appear on its destination page(s) — the Internal Links - Destinations block on each destination page automatically lists every tour tagged with it.

Tagging is optional — you can save a tour as a draft before assigning destinations.

Choosing images for the rotator

Every tour page has an image rotator near the top. The rotator shows one large stage image that changes every few seconds, with a strip of three smaller thumbnails alongside it. The rotator can hold any number of images: the strip stays the same shape (one stage + three thumbnails) regardless, but every image you attach takes its turn in the cycle.

The page thumbnail is the single image that represents the tour everywhere else on the site (search results, tile listings, social shares). It reuses one of the rotator images, you don’t upload a separate one.

How to choose which images go in the rotator

Use this rule, in order. Stop when there’s nothing left to add.

1. Start with the itinerary. Read the day-by-day itinerary on the tour page. For each day, add the image of the place(s) named that day. Keep them in day order: day 1 first, then day 2, and so on. The itinerary is the primary source.

2. Make sure there are at least four. A tour rotator should hold at least four images. If the itinerary names fewer than four photographable places, top up by adding images of places mentioned in the Sights list, then in the More Sights list, in that order, until you reach at least four.

3. Then add any other Sights or More Sights images you have. Once the itinerary is in place and the count is at least four, any extra images you have of places mentioned in Sights or More Sights can go in too. They sit after the itinerary images. Sights first, then More Sights.

4. Anything else stays out. If an image isn’t of a place mentioned in the itinerary, Sights, or More Sights, it doesn’t belong on this tour’s rotator. That includes generic stock photos, logos, off-tour locations, and pictures of places that were dropped from the final tour copy.

If the same place is mentioned in both the itinerary and Sights, the image goes in once, in its itinerary slot — don’t duplicate it.

How to choose the thumbnail

Pick one image from the rotator set as the tour thumbnail. Default rule of thumb: the most recognisable, “most-of-the-place” image, the one that still reads well at a small size on a phone or in a tile listing.

The thumbnail and the rotator order are independent — picking an image as the thumbnail doesn’t move it within the rotator.

Worked example

A five-day tour where the itinerary mentions Ely Cathedral (day 1), Norwich and Oxburgh Hall (day 2), Sandringham and Holkham (day 3), Felbrigg and Blickling (day 4), and Anglesey Abbey (day 5). Sights also lists Ely, Norwich, Oxburgh, Sandringham, Holkham, Felbrigg, Blickling and Anglesey Abbey. More Sights mentions Houghton Hall.

Available images on the day: Ely Cathedral, Norwich Cathedral, Sandringham, Anglesey Abbey, Houghton Hall.

Result, in this order:

1. Ely Cathedral (itinerary day 1)
2. Norwich Cathedral (itinerary day 2)
3. Sandringham (itinerary day 3)
4. Anglesey Abbey (itinerary day 5)
5. Houghton Hall (More Sights)

Day 4 has no image yet, so it’s just skipped. Houghton goes in last because it’s a More Sights mention, not in the itinerary. The rotator now has five images cycling, and the strip on the page still shows one stage plus three thumbnails as normal.