Industry Report · September 2025 to September 2026
Boat Tours by the Numbers.
The booking data behind boat tours, and what it means for how you market, price, and crew your fleet.
of bookings are placed the same day guests sail.
58% of bookings are placed inside 24 hours of departure
58% of bookings land within a day of departure. Another 9% come in more than a month ahead, which lifts the average booking window to 14.9 days.
Keep every open seat bookable on a phone right up to departure. Run always-on intent and retargeting instead of long-lead campaigns. Hold some inventory back for the 9% who book a month out.
A crew of 3, and 1 in 8 bookings cancels.
Guests buy for the whole party: 3.09 tickets at $214.63 a booking. But 12% cancel, on average 11.6 days before the sail date.
Package for the party: group rates, add-ons, a premium tier on your best departures. Cancellations arrive 11.6 days out, so automate a waitlist and a reschedule offer to refill the seat.
Cancellation rate, or 1 in 8 bookings. The average one arrives 11.6 days before departure.
Average booking value. Add-ons and group rates push carts well past a single seat.
Tickets per booking. Guests book for the party, not the seat.
57% are visitors, and locals spend the same.
Tourists are 57% of bookings, locals 26%, semi locals 16%. Booking value barely moves across the three: $219 to $237, with semi locals the highest.
Stop discounting the people down the road, they spend what visitors spend. Win tourists with geo-targeted social and "things to do" search timed to the same day window. Give semi locals a reason to drive.
5 in 6 visitors come from inside the country.
85.38% of visitors travel to you from inside the country. The 14.62% who cross a border spend $465.69 a booking against $276.28, about 1.7 times more, in slightly bigger parties.
85% of your visitors are close to home, so that is where the budget belongs. Give the other 15% clear pricing, local currency, and a checkout in their language.
Bookings arrive every day, sailings stack up on Saturday.
Bookings land evenly across the week, 13.1% Wednesday to 15.7% Saturday. Departures do not: Saturday carries 19.8%, and 51% of sailings run Friday to Sunday. July peaks at 12.5%, March reaches 10.6%, ahead of June.
Do not throttle spend by weekday, demand arrives on all seven. Crew and stock for Friday through Sunday, when half your departures run. Sell March like a summer month.
Bookings arrive evenly, all seven days
1 in 5 departures runs on a Saturday
Bookings split evenly. Departures tip to the weekend.
A June to August business, with March already at summer volume
Chart shows when guests sail (product start date). Trailing 12 months to September 2026.
of bookings are taken on operators' own channels.
The website widget alone takes 37.15%. The other 26.4% runs through third party platforms, where a booking averages about $120 against $242.14 through the widget.
A widget booking is worth $242.14; the same seat through a third party averages about $120. Start with abandoned booking recovery, a mobile checkout built for same day search, and pages that rank for "boat tour near me".
The operating system for boat tours & charters.
Peek Pro 9 runs what generic ticketing tools were never built for: fleet status, per guest manifests, and a booking flow you actually own.
Manage Fleet Inventory
Know which boats are seaworthy today, not last week. Real time availability across the fleet, per guest manifests, and maintenance tracking that syncs to your crew's phones, even with spotty signal at the dock.
Sell More Tours
Every booking owes you the upsell. Recover abandoned carts before they drift away, layer on photo and video add-ons, and flex your pricing with the season, the March shoulder included.
Tailor to Your Needs
Waivers signed before guests ever reach the dock. A branded customer portal, automated text and email reminders, and Apple Pay and Google Pay built in, because nobody wants to type a card number standing at a marina kiosk.
"It completely eliminates phone calls and the convenience of being able to schedule on the fly is really helpful."
Blue Water Marina"The Customer Portal has been key in creating quicker check-in process since partners can sign waivers before arrival!"
Newport Fun Tours"Overall, I absolutely LOVE Peek, there are SO many useful features that enable me to streamline my business."
Sisu Adventure RentalsCharter your course
for more bookings.
Join Blue Water Marina, Newport Fun Tours, Sisu Adventure Rentals, and boat tour operators everywhere turning these numbers into their growth plan.