The product feed offers a number of ways for you to specify points of interest associated with the product. Google uses this information to help surface the product to users when relevant POIs or destinations are being searched.
Each product option can specify one or more points of interests (POIs)
related to the option using the related_location field (containing a list of
RelatedLocation objects). Each RelatedLocation object contains a location
describing the POI in question and a relation_type describing the
relationship between the POI and the product option.
Related locations and relation_type
A product option should only be marked as related if it provides a
meaningful experience of the location in addition to physically visiting
it. The definition of "meaningful" might vary for different locations, but
things that usually shouldn't be marked as related include views of a POI during
for example a boat cruise or bus tour or meeting points for tours (use the
meeting_point field instead). The three relation_types are:
RELATED_NO_ADMISSION: Location is related but the product option does not include admission or admission is irrelevant. For example if the location is a square highlighted in a city tour.
ADMISSION_TICKET: Relation grants admission to this related location.
SUPPLEMENTARY_ADDON: Relation declares an additional service which doesn't get the user into the related location. For example parking ticket, a temporary exhibition.
Examples
| relation_type | Example |
|---|---|
| RELATED_NO_ADMISSION | Walking tour around the Eiffel tower without entry. Helicopter tour around the Burj Khalifa. |
| ADMISSION_TICKET | Entry ticket to a Zoo, can include additional addons. |
| SUPPLEMENTARY_ADDON | Skip the line without entry, audio guide without entry. |
| Not related | Boat cruise which sees the POI from a distance. Tour office where the tour starts or ticket can be purchased. |
Each product option may also have a meeting_point for specific tour types
where the starting location is unclear and must be determined (e.g. guided
tours).
How to pass location for a related POI to Google
In general, location in the feed spec can be represented in one of three ways (in order of preference):
Google place ID: This is the preferred method of passing location information as it has the highest degree of accuracy. To get the google place id from street addresses, you can use the Places API (Similar to string based addresses following, Places API search results improve when the POI name is added as part of the search string).
String based address: This is the next preferred option as Google can use this signal to determine the correct POI with high degree of accuracy. This is less accurate than place ids as a matching heuristic is then used to determine the POI. The address should contain the name of the POI first followed by a comma and the street address. For example:
Madame Tussauds London, Marylebone Rd, London NW1 5LR, United Kingdom.Latitude & longitude: This is the least preferred option as a point using latitude and longitude can represent many things for example: city, country. If provided, this information is only used to determine the city or general location.
How to request a new Attraction to be added
If you are providing the official tickets for attractions and notice one of the attractions you are working with is missing from Google Things To Do, you can fill in the TTD New POI Request Form to request the POI to be added as part of Things To Do.