Overview
Search a service in Bath and you're competing with a city that pulls in millions of visitors a year, which means a chunk of the searches around your business have nothing to do with local intent. If you run a spa, salon, café or professional service in Bath, understanding the difference between tourist search and local search is the first step to winning the Map Pack for the customers who'll actually become regulars.
Two very different searchers, one search box
Someone typing "massage near me" while stood outside the Roman Baths is not the same customer as someone typing "massage therapist Bath" from their kitchen table three streets away. Google can't always tell the difference from the query alone, but your Google Business Profile can help it work that out.
- Tourist searches spike around school holidays, weekends and festival periods, and tend to favour proximity to the centre over loyalty or repeat business
- Local searches are steadier throughout the year and are far more likely to convert into a repeat customer or referral
- Review language differs too: tourist reviews mention "visiting Bath" or "holiday treat", local reviews mention ongoing appointments or specific staff members by name
Why this matters for your Google Business Profile
If your profile is optimised purely to win the passing-trade searcher, you can end up ranking well for high-volume, low-loyalty terms while missing the searches that would actually build a client base. The fix isn't to ignore tourist search, it's to make sure your profile signals both.
Practical adjustments
- Use your Business Description to speak to locals directly, not just "visiting Bath? come see us"
- Add services and attributes that matter to regulars (loyalty schemes, membership options, repeat-booking discounts) as these rarely appear in tourist-focused competitor profiles
- Encourage reviews from repeat clients specifically, since review recency and language both feed into how Google assesses relevance
One further point worth noting: Bath search volume for many service categories is genuinely higher than population size would suggest, precisely because of tourism. A 2025 VisitBritain report noted Bath receives over 6 million visitors annually, a figure that dwarfs its resident population of roughly 94,000. That gap is exactly why local intent gets diluted in the data if you're not careful about how you read it.
Tourist-leaning search behaviour tends to spike around weekends, holidays and festival periods and favours proximity, opening hours and photos above all else. Local-leaning behaviour stays steadier across the year and rewards a strong services list, loyalty attributes and recent, detailed reviews.
Don't abandon tourist search, layer on top of it
None of this means turning away passing trade. Tourist-driven visibility can be genuinely valuable, especially for hospitality and beauty businesses near the centre. The point is to make sure your profile isn't accidentally optimised only for the one-off visitor at the expense of the customer who'll come back every six weeks. If you'd rather build a strategy for the 3-pack itself once the basics are sorted, winning a spot in the 3-pack for service searches is the natural next step.
Does Google know the difference between a tourist and a local searcher?
Not directly. Google infers intent from the query itself, the searcher's location history, and signals on your profile such as services, attributes and review content.
Should Bath businesses target different keywords for tourists and locals?
On your website, separate landing pages or sections can help. On your Google Business Profile, the fix is more about the services list, attributes and review encouragement rather than keyword stuffing.
Will encouraging reviews from regulars actually change my Map Pack ranking?
Review recency and relevance are both factors Google considers, alongside proximity and profile completeness. Fresh, detailed reviews from repeat customers add relevance signals a single holiday review typically doesn't.