Tours and activities API
Tours API for tours, activities and attraction tickets
A tours API puts guided tours, day trips, experiences and attraction tickets from activity suppliers on your own website. This page walks through what that content looks like over an API: time slots and capacity, prices per traveller type, the questions suppliers ask at booking, and the voucher the traveller shows on the day.
- Dates, time slots and capacity
- Adult, child, infant and senior prices
- Vouchers and mobile tickets
- Your own tours beside API stock
What it sells
What a tours API sells
Activity suppliers group very different products under one API. They share the same booking pattern (a date, often a time, a number of travellers per age band), but each type has its own detail your site has to show.
Guided tours
City walks, museum tours and food tours with a guide, a meeting point, a start time and a guide language.
Day trips
Full-day excursions from a city, usually with hotel pickup, transport and lunch listed as included or not.
Attraction tickets
Museums, landmarks, theme parks and zoos: open-date or timed entry, often with skip-the-line options.
Experiences
Cooking classes, cruises, shows and outdoor activities, each with its own duration and group size.
Multi-day tours
Tours over several days with a day-by-day itinerary, accommodation and fixed departure dates.
Tours with transfers
Activities sold with a return transfer from the hotel or port, where pickup details become part of the booking.
Most agencies combine these with flights and hotels on one site. See how the Travel APIs fit together.
Start times
- 09:30Sold out
- 14:00Sold out
- 14:00Sold out
Illustrative data
Availability
Dates, time slots and the seats that are left
Before a traveller can pay, the API tells your site which days are open, which start times exist on that day and how many places each one still has.
- Real-time availability
- The supplier keeps a capacity per time slot and the API returns what is left. Your site checks again just before payment, because another seller may have taken the last places.
- Freesale
- Some products have no fixed allocation: the supplier lets partners sell freely and confirms every booking, until it closes a date or a slot.
- On request
- A few products need the supplier to accept each booking by hand. The booking stays pending until it is confirmed or declined, so the traveller must be told before paying.
- Cut-off times
- Sales usually close a set number of hours before the start. A slot can look open in the morning and be gone by the afternoon.
Pricing
One price per traveller type, not one price per booking
Activities are priced by age band. The supplier defines the bands for each product, and the total is the sum of every traveller in the booking.
| Traveller type | Age band | Price each | Travellers | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adult | 18 to 64 | – | 2 | – |
| Child | 4 to 17 | – | 1 | – |
| Infant | 0 to 3 | Free | 1 | – |
| Senior | 65 and over | – | 0 | – |
| Total for 4 travellersYour markup is added on top of the supplier price | – | |||
- 01
Bands differ by product
A child can be 3 to 12 on one tour and 4 to 17 on another. Your site has to read the bands from each product, not use one rule for all.
- 02
Minimum and maximum travellers
Products set how many people one booking may hold, and some need at least one adult whenever a child or infant travels.
- 03
Per person or per unit
Private tours, boats and vehicles are often priced per group or per vehicle up to a capacity, instead of per traveller.
- 04
Free does not mean uncounted
Infants at no charge still take part in the headcount, so they are sent with the booking and appear on the voucher.
Booking questions
The questions a supplier needs answered before it accepts a booking
Many activities cannot run on a name and an email alone. Each product can carry its own required questions, and the booking is rejected if they are missing.
- Per bookingAsked once: the pickup hotel, an arrival flight, a mobile number for the day.
- Per travellerAsked for each person: full name, age, and on some activities height, weight or a passport number.
- Choices with fixed answersGuide language or pickup location come as a list the supplier provides, so travellers pick instead of typing.
A good booking flow asks these questions in the checkout, in the traveller's language, and passes the answers to the supplier with the booking, so the guide receives them before the day.
- Pickup pointRequired
- Hotel lobby, city centre
- Tour languageRequired
- Spanish
- Dietary requirementsOptional
- One vegetarian, no nuts
- Lead traveller phoneRequired
- +00 000 000 000
On the day
The voucher is the product the traveller actually holds
Once the supplier confirms, the API returns what the traveller shows at the entrance or the meeting point: a code, a supplier reference and the practical details.
Booking voucher
Old town walking tour with a local guide
- Date
- Sat 14 November 2026
- Start
- 09:30
- Travellers
- 2 adults, 1 child, 1 infant
- Meeting point
- Main square, by the clock tower
- Supplier ref.
- TR-48210-KQ
- Confirmed
- Confirmed
- Mobile or printed
Many products accept a code on a phone; some still ask for a printed voucher. The product says which, and your confirmation should repeat it.
- Instant confirmation
Most API products confirm in seconds and the voucher is ready right away, so it can go out with your booking email.
- Confirmation on request
On-request products send the voucher only after the supplier accepts, which is why the booking status has to be tracked after payment.
- Cancellation policy
Each product carries its own refund rules, often free cancellation up to a set time before the start. Show them before payment and on the voucher.
Ready in PHPTRAVELS
Tours API connectors you switch on with your own account
These activity suppliers are already connected to the PHPTRAVELS tours module. You sign with the supplier, enter your credentials in the admin and test before going live. The list is the live one from our integrations directory.
TiqetsReady connectorRead the integration guide
Tours BMSReady connector
ViatorReady connectorRead the integration guide- All integrations
How far each connector goes, from search and details to an order and an e-ticket, depends on the supplier and on the account type it gives you, so each guide explains its own flow. For a supplier that is not listed, see Custom API integration.
Further reading for agencies: earning with the Viator affiliate program and selling tours online without investment.
Your own products
Your own tours too, next to the API stock
A tours API fills your site with content from other companies. The tours you run yourself, and those of local operators you work with, belong in the same search.
In the PHPTRAVELS Tours & activities you create a tour with its itinerary, departures or time slots, seats and prices per traveller type. It appears in the same results as supplier activities, with its own markup rules, and travellers book it in the same checkout.
Operators who run their own departures add guides, manifests and deposits with the Tour operator software, and the Tour operator back office covers the bookings, payments and reports behind them.
- Tours you operateYour tourYour departures, seats and prices, managed in your admin. The margin is all yours.
- Partner operatorsLocal operatorLocal operators log in to manage their own tours, availability and prices; you add your markup.
- Activity suppliersSupplier APITours and tickets from connected suppliers, with live availability and your markup.
Agents book all three in the B2B portal at their own rates, paying from their wallet balance.
See tours and activities in a working booking engine
Search tours, pick a date and travellers and go through checkout in the live demo, then talk to us about the activity suppliers you plan to sign.
A tours API is a set of web services from an activity supplier that lets a travel website search tours, activities and attraction tickets, check dates and time slots, get prices per traveller type, create bookings and receive vouchers.
The terms are used for the same thing. Suppliers call them tours, activities, experiences or things-to-do APIs, and most cover guided tours, day trips, experiences and attraction tickets in one catalogue.
Yes. Attraction ticket suppliers such as Tiqets offer timed and open-date tickets with adult, child and other ticket types, and the e-ticket is returned after the order.
Yes. You apply to each supplier and receive your own API key. The supplier decides which products, prices and booking access your account gets. PHPTRAVELS does not provide supplier credentials.
With real-time availability, the supplier keeps a capacity for each date or time slot and the API returns the places left. With freesale, the supplier lets partners sell without a fixed allocation and confirms every booking until it closes the date.
Usually per traveller type, with age bands the supplier defines for each product, such as adult, child, infant and senior. Private tours and vehicles are often priced per group or per unit. Your markup is added on top.
The tours module has ready connectors for activity suppliers such as Viator, Tiqets and Tours BMS. The current list is in the integrations directory, and any supplier with API documentation can be added as a custom integration.
Yes. Tours you create in the PHPTRAVELS tours module, with your own departures and prices, appear in the same search as supplier activities, each with its own markup.
Yes, on the Enterprise plan. The PHPTRAVELS REST API and webhooks, with documentation, expose search and booking from the connected suppliers in one format.
Keep exploring
More from the platform
- Tours & activitiesPackages and excursions
- Viator API integrationViator tours and activities in your booking site
- Tiqets API integrationTiqets attraction tickets in your booking engine
- Tour operator softwareDepartures, itineraries, guaranteed minimums and agent sales
- Viator travel agentPortal, commission and a connected tour workflow
- Travel APIsGDS, hotel, tour, car and payment APIs