Two years after replacing Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has steadily become the new standard — not just for website data, but for measuring the entire customer journey. That’s big news for tour and attraction operators, who often juggle multiple touchpoints with potential visitors across web, mobile, email, and ads.
GA4 now goes far beyond tracking pageviews. With AI-powered insights, upgraded attribution models, and stronger integrations across channels like TikTok and Pinterest, it’s evolving into a full-funnel performance tool. For operators looking to connect the dots between marketing efforts and actual bookings, GA4 offers more visibility and flexibility than ever before.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how to make the most of Google Analytics’ latest features and which KPIs tour operators should track to grow smarter in 2026.
- What is Google Analytics 4?
- What’s the difference between metrics and dimensions in GA4?
- Key metrics to track in GA4
Editor’s Note: Looking for help getting Google Analytics 4 set up? Check out our detailed tutorial — so that you can continue to accurately track website traffic and engagement metrics.
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 is the new version of Google’s website analytics service that tracks and reports web traffic and a slew of other metrics that help gauge how your business is performing online.
In response to changes in online consumer behavior and new customer privacy laws, Google had to revamp its data-tracking service, formerly known as Universal Analytics. The new service captures the buyer experience across multiple platforms, as well as leverages AI and machine learning to better track user engagement and user behavior.
The main differences between the original analytics service and GA4 include the following:
- You can now track activity on both your website and apps
- There’s a brand new dashboard
- There are new user engagement metrics like engaged sessions, engagement rate, and engagement time
- With predictive analytics, you’ll be able to observe key metrics like purchase probability, churn probability, and revenue prediction
Google Analytics 4 is a more advanced version of the original analytics service. GA4 provides businesses with a more complete picture of where customers come from, how they found your site, and what they’re doing when they get there.
What’s the difference between metrics and dimensions in GA4?
One of the biggest changes in Google Analytics 4 has to do with dimensions and metrics. Dimensions are the descriptive attributes of your data — they tell you what or where of user activity. For example, the City dimension tells you where a user is browsing from, while Browser reveals if they’re using Chrome, Safari, or another platform. Traffic sources are also dimensions, including labels such as Source/Medium, Session Source, and Traffic Channel — all essential for understanding where your users come from.
Metrics are numerical values that measure user interactions. They quantify behaviors like Sessions, Pageviews, and Event Count. A session begins every time someone lands on your site and continues until they exit or stay inactive for 30 minutes.
Ultimately, ones gives context to what’s happening, while the other help you measure how well it’s working. Both dimensions and metrics are helpful in understanding user interactions on your site.
Custom metrics and dimensions in GA4
While GA4 offers plenty of standard reports, you can go a step further by creating custom metrics and dimensions. These let you track data that’s specific to your tour business, like the number of times a certain tour type is viewed or how many travelers select “photos” as an add-on.
Custom dimensions capture non-numeric data (like tour category or user type), while custom metrics track numeric values (like total add-on revenue or number of guide requests). Together, they help you analyze what matters most to your operation, beyond the default setup.
You can define custom metrics and dimensions using event parameters, then configure them in your GA4 property settings so they appear in reports.
What’s new with Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 isn’t just a new version of Universal Analytics. It’s a more flexible, AI-powered tool designed to help you track the entire customer journey across various platforms.
Here’s what’s new (and why it matters for your business):
- Track more than just website visits. You can now measure web, app, and even offline interactions in one place, giving you a fuller picture of user engagement before, during, and after booking.
- Get credit where it’s due. Not every customer clicks on an ad right away. GA4 now shows when a booking happens after someone simply sees a Google Ad, even without clicking. That means you can finally measure the true impact of your campaigns.
- Understand what’s actually driving bookings. New conversion path reports help you break down your customers’ full decision-making journey. Instead of just seeing the “last click,” you can spot which touchpoints (like Instagram or email) helped push someone toward booking.
- Use AI to plan smarter. GA4 is rolling out forecasting tools that predict how your key metrics might perform by channel. You can even run scenario plans to figure out where to shift your budget for the biggest return.
- Leave yourself notes (and track changes). You and your team can now add annotations directly into reports. This is helpful for marking when a new tour launches or a promo goes live, so you can easily connect changes in traffic or bookings to specific events.
- Build dashboards that work for you. GA4 is moving toward fully customizable reporting, so you can visualize performance in a way that actually makes sense for your day-to-day operations, not just a bunch of charts and graphs.
Key metrics to track in GA4
Many of the metrics from Universal Analytics were carried over to GA4. However, a few have evolved along with the platform. Let’s take a look at the most important metrics to track in Google’s new and improved analytics dashboard.
1. Total Users
Total Users refers to the number of unique individuals who have visited your website within a specified period. Google Analytics calculates this by tracking the unique user ID or cookies of each user.
This metric provides an overview of the reach and size of your website’s audience. It helps you understand the potential market and track the growth or decline of your user base over time.
2. New Users
New Users represent the number of first-time visitors to your website within a specified period. Google identifies new users by looking at their unique user IDs or cookies. Those that have not been previously recorded are considered new users.
This helps you measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns in attracting new visitors to your website. It provides insights into your website’s ability to attract and engage new audiences.
3. Active Users
Active Users are one of the most important new metrics in GA4. It’s the primary metric that tour and activity operators should pay attention to in the new analytics platform. This metric tracks the number of users who visited your site or app and had an engaged session (which we’ll define later on).
4. Pageviews
Pageviews refer to the total number of times a specific page on your website has been seen by visitors. Each time a page loads, Google Analytics logs it as a pageview. There may be several pageviews in a session, but 5 pageviews by the same person during the same period equals 1 session.
It’s important to note that GA4 combines both app and web views, while UA tracks them separately.
The number of page views helps you understand the popularity of your website’s content. It can also provide insight into which pages are frequently visited and how users navigate through your site. For instance, you can take a look at the pages with the highest pageviews to understand what kind of content appeals most to your audience.
5. Sessions
A session is recorded from the moment someone enters your site to the moment they exit. A session can also end after 30 minutes of user inactivity, yet there is no limit to how long a single session can last.
For example, if a guest lands on your homepage and browses through your tour pages for five minutes, one session will be recorded.
Google Analytics tracks a session by recording a timestamp when a user first arrives on the site and when they either exit or become inactive. In GA4, a session is also known as a “session start.” The new GA4 also tracks engaged sessions, which consist of sessions with two or more pageviews or when a user spends more than 10 seconds. Also, sessions in GA4 are not automatically restarted at midnight.
Sessions help you evaluate the overall traffic and engagement on your website. It allows you to analyze what customers are doing when they arrive on your site and how effective your content is in keeping them engaged.
6. Sessions Per User
Sessions Per User refers to the average number of sessions per unique individual within a specified period. It is calculated by dividing the total number of sessions by the total number of users.
This metric helps you understand how frequently users return to your website. It’s a strong indicator of the level of loyalty of your audience. If the same customers are returning to your site several times per week, they’re very interested in what you’re offering them.
Higher sessions per user typically indicate that your marketing strategy is working well: It’s attracting the right customers who not only engage with your website once but return time and time.
7. Acquisition Source
The Acquisition Source points to what channels or sources website visitors came from, such as social media, organic search (Google), or direct traffic. Google Analytics tracks the source of each visit based on the referral information from the user’s browser.
Acquisition metrics provide insights into which marketing channels are driving traffic to your website. This helps you identify which channels are most effective in reaching your audience. You can then focus on creating marketing campaigns on those specific channels.
8. Engagement Rate
The engagement rate is the percentage of engaged sessions on your website or mobile app. It can be found under the Session category on your analytics dashboard.
An engaged session is any session that:
- Lasts at least 10 seconds
- Has at least 1 conversion event
- Has at least 2 pageviews
The engagement rate is calculated by diving the number of engaged sessions by the total number of sessions over a specified period and multiplying by 100.
If your tour pages have a low engagement rate, they’re probably not converting many visitors. This means you’d need to assess the marketing campaigns that lead them there, as well as the content of the pages themselves.
9. Average Engagement Time
The Average Engagement Time is the average time a browser engages with your website. It’s calculated for active users only, or those who had an engaged session.
In Universal Analytics, you could view your average session duration or the average amount of time a user spent browsing your site. In GA4, you’re able to identify the time in which these users are actively engaging with your site (rather than just leaving it open in the foreground).
10. Bounce Rate
In GA4, Bounce Rate is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged. An engagement session is any session that lasts at least 10 seconds, has at least 1 conversion event, or results in at least 2 page views.
In other words, this metric measures the number of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page without taking any further action. It’s calculated by dividing the number of single-page visits by the total number of entrances to your website and multiplying by 100.
The bounce rate helps you understand how much customers engage with your site or app. A high bounce rate may indicate that visitors are not finding what they are looking for when they land on your homepage, or that your tour pages need improvement.
11. Conversions
Conversions represent the number of desired actions completed by visitors on your website. The specific action can vary based on your goals, such as making a purchase, subscribing to a newsletter, or booking a tour. In GA4, conversions depend upon the actions you specify as conversion events.
Conversions help you evaluate how well effective your website
are a crucial metric for evaluating the effectiveness of your website and marketing efforts. They provide insights into the success of your calls-to-action, landing pages, and overall conversion funnel.
12. Revenue
Revenue is the total monetary value generated from conversions on your website. In this case, the revenue is generated from ticket sales or tour bookings.
Revenue is tracked by assigning a value to each conversion, such as the booking amount, and summing up the total value of all completed conversions.
Tracking your revenue via GA4 gives you another avenue (other than your booking software) to track the return on investment of your marketing efforts and the profitability of your business.
13. Events
This represents specific key event actions on your website that are tracked separately from page views, such as button clicks, file downloads, or form submissions. In GA4, the metric Event Count corresponds to the total number of times an event occurs.
Key events are tracked by implementing an event conversion tracking code on your website or using Google Tag Manager to capture specific user actions.
Tracking and analyzing custom events, you can understand how guests interact with your website and what features they find most popular. This allows you to optimize your website for improved user experience and conversions.
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Google Analytics 4 will help you gain valuable insights into how customers engage with your website.
Understanding how to track these Google Analytics metrics outlined above will help you optimize your website to get a better understanding of everything from site users over time to traffic acquisition channels and even which sales and marketing activities drive the most direct bookings. In doing so, this will help you make data-driven decisions and set specific business goals in any given time period.
