📌 Key takeaways
- Pinterest isn’t a classic social network but a visual discovery engine, where users plan their purchases and trips.
- 93% of users use it to prepare purchases: it’s an ideal channel to capture travellers in the inspiration phase.
- Unlike other networks, a pin keeps generating traffic months after it’s published: it’s a lasting acquisition lever.
- Selling on Pinterest takes six steps: pro account, optimised profile, themed boards, product pins linked to your site, advertising, then measurement.
- The point isn’t to sell on Pinterest itself, but to attract qualified traffic there that you turn into a booking on your own site.
A traveller daydreams on a Sunday evening, scrolls through photos of treehouses and canoe trips, then pins the ones that thrill her in a board called “next holidays”. Three weeks later, she books one of these activities. In between, there was Pinterest. Because Pinterest isn’t a social network where you kill time: it’s a visual discovery engine where people come to prepare their projects and purchases. For a tourism professional, it’s a goldmine too often ignored in favour of Instagram or TikTok. You just have to understand how the platform works and, above all, how to turn a simple pin into a paid booking. This guide explains what selling on Pinterest really means, why it’s particularly powerful in tourism, and the six-step method to get started.
What does selling on Pinterest mean?
Selling on Pinterest doesn’t mean opening an online shop on the platform, but using its pins as shop windows that bring qualified traffic to your site, where the booking is concluded. A pin is a clickable image, associated with a link: you save it, share it, and above all click to learn more. Pinterest therefore behaves less like a news feed than like a visual search engine, halfway between Google and an inspiration catalogue.
How does Pinterest differ from other social networks?
On Instagram or TikTok, the user is entertained and stumbles on your content by chance. On Pinterest, they actively search for ideas for an upcoming project: a trip, an outing, some décor. This project intent changes everything, because your pin addresses someone already planning. Public authorities also recall that a default presence isn’t enough and that you need a real strategy to turn social networks into customers (France Num).
Do you need a professional account to sell?
Yes, and it’s free. The professional account unlocks detailed statistics, the ability to link your website and access to advertising. Without it, you publish blindly, with no idea what works. Switching from a personal account takes a few minutes and is the very first reflex before thinking about content or strategy. It’s the foundation of everything else.
Which pin formats to sell on Pinterest?
Not all pins are equal depending on your goal. Knowing the available formats keeps you from publishing at random and helps you choose the right tool for each moment of the customer journey:
| Format | What it’s for | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Standard pin | An image and a link to your site | Inspire and generate traffic |
| Video pin | A short immersive video | Make people feel the activity |
| Product pin | Price and availability displayed | Push a direct purchase |
| Sponsored pin | A pin run as an advert | Reach a wider audience |
For tourism, visual quality trumps everything else: a bright photo of your activity will always beat a text-heavy visual. Think of each of your activity listings as a potential pin. At Tourbiz, taking care of your visuals from product creation then makes it easier to reuse them on Pinterest.
💡 Good to know: The vertical format is king on Pinterest. Aim for a 2:3 ratio, for example 1000 pixels wide by 1500 high. A beautiful vertical photo of your landscape or activity takes up more space in the feed and instantly catches the eye, where a square image goes unnoticed.
Why sell on Pinterest when you’re in tourism?
Tourism sells through image and dream, exactly Pinterest’s raw material. But the interest goes well beyond the pretty: the platform combines a buying-intent audience and an incomparable content lifespan.
Why is Pinterest’s audience so profitable?
Pinterest users don’t scroll to pass the time, they prepare. Nearly 93% use it to plan purchases, and half have already bought after seeing an ad on the platform. For a tourism activity, this means reaching travellers precisely as they build their stay, well before they type a query into a search engine. It’s the dream playground to find customers for your tourism activity upstream of the decision.
🎯 Our tip: At Tourbiz, what we see working is linking each pin not to your homepage, but directly to the bookable listing of the activity shown. The visitor who clicked on a paddleboard photo wants to book paddleboarding, not search through your whole catalogue. Shorten the distance between the urge and the button.
Why is Pinterest a lasting investment?
On most social networks, a post lives a few hours then disappears. On Pinterest, a well-ranked pin keeps being found and clicked months, even years, after it’s published. It’s like planting a tree rather than picking a flower: the initial effort bears fruit over time. France Num describes Pinterest precisely as a lasting acquisition lever for small and medium businesses (France Num).
💡 Ready to turn your pins into bookings?
Link your Pinterest traffic to bookable listings and collect payment directly with Tourbiz, the all-in-one tourism software. Free trial, no card required.
Create my free accountHow to sell on Pinterest in 6 steps?
Let’s get practical. Here’s a realistic six-step method to turn Pinterest into an acquisition channel, with the precise actions and budget benchmarks, for a tourism professional starting out on the platform.
Step 1: create a professional account
Go to Pinterest and create a business account, or convert your existing personal account. The operation is free and takes five minutes. Fill in from the start:
- Your activity name and a clear description with your keywords (for example “canoe rental in the Ardèche”).
- Your geographic area, essential to be found locally.
- A link to your booking site in the profile.
Step 2: optimise the profile and claim your site
A professional profile is only complete once it’s linked to your website. This claim, free, unlocks traffic statistics and lends credibility to your brand. To do it:
- Add your website in the settings, then verify it via the code provided by Pinterest.
- Take care of your profile photo and banner in your activity’s colours.
- Request the verified merchant badge if you sell online, to reassure.
Step 3: organise themed boards
Boards are your shop shelves: they arrange your pins by theme and help Pinterest understand your world. Create them for free around your customers’ desires rather than just your products:
- A board per type of experience: “family activities”, “sporty outings”, “weekend ideas”.
- A destination board showcasing your region and its landscapes.
- A practical tips board that attracts by answering travellers’ questions.
Step 4: create pins linked to booking
This is the heart of the setup: each pin must point to a page where you can book, not to a dead end. Publish quality vertical pins for free and link them to your bookable listings, for example via a booking widget embedded on your site. For each pin, check:
- A bright vertical image at a 2:3 ratio, with no superfluous text.
- A descriptive title containing your keywords and a link to the right listing.
- A clear call to action, like “Book your outing”.
Step 5: amplify with advertising
Once your best pins are identified, you can accelerate by sponsoring them to reach a wider audience at the right time. Pinterest advertising is steered by the budget you choose. Here are some starting benchmarks:
| Campaign type | Recommended budget | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness (views) | from €5 a day | Make an activity known |
| Traffic (clicks) | €10 to €20 a day | Bring visitors to book |
| Pin testing | a few euros per pin | Find the visuals that convert |
Step 6: measure and optimise
Pinterest provides detailed statistics for free once your site is claimed. Analyse them regularly to focus your efforts on what really brings bookings. Watch above all:
- Outbound clicks to your site, more telling than mere saves.
- The best-performing pins, to replicate and sponsor.
- The conversion rate of Pinterest traffic once on your booking site.
How does Tourbiz turn your Pinterest traffic into bookings?
Let’s say it plainly: we don’t manage your Pinterest account and we don’t pin for you. Our role begins the moment the user clicks on your pin and lands on your site. That’s where it all plays out, and that’s where our booking software takes over: the activity listing they discover is immediately bookable and payable, with no detour or contact form that cools the urge.
Concretely, you embed a booking module directly on the page your pins point to, you centralise all requests in a single back office, and you stay visible beyond Pinterest, including for free on Google and Google Maps. The traffic you sow on the platform no longer gets lost in a dead-end showcase site: it lands on a smooth purchase journey. You attract attention, we turn the urge into revenue.
Conclusion
Selling on Pinterest, for a tourism professional, isn’t collecting payment on the platform: it’s sowing images there that attract travellers in full dream mode, for months. The channel’s strength lies in this double promise, an audience that plans its purchases and pins that keep working long after they’re published. But remember the essential: a magnificent pin that leads nowhere is a missed opportunity. The whole point is to link each visual to a bookable listing, with no friction, so inspiration ends in a booking. Start small, with a professional account and a few well-crafted boards, measure your outbound clicks, then amplify what works. Your finest photos deserve better than a simple “like”.
