# Method

Edition: 2026-10-25. Twenty real publicly described products were reviewed: four each from Foods of NY Tours, Like A Local Tours, ExperienceFirst, Context Travel and SF City Guides. The first four publishers contribute New York products; City Guides contributes San Francisco products.

## Collection and interpretation

Official product pages and their relevant FAQ sections were opened with web retrieval. Public source material may be cached; no transaction, date selection, booking, account, attendance, route inspection or provider contact took place. Each of the twenty substantive fields is an observation, explicit unknown or conflict. JSON is canonical. Each observed value carries the exact URL, source identifier and UTC observation timestamp. An unknown lists the reviewed source and means the field was not established in the reviewed material, not that the feature is absent.

The cell named `format` is a published format, not an assessment of crowding. A party-size threshold is not a total tour cap: City Guides' seven-person private-group rule is not recorded as a cap of six. Context's general small-group maximum is not assigned to a specific product whose currently offered format was not established. A tour's language is not inferred from the language of its website.

`duration_minutes` multiplies a published hour value by sixty and preserves ranges. It does not estimate walking time or promise an end time. Topic labels are narrow editorial classifications grounded in the named product subject. Walking distance, steps and operator access claims do not establish personal suitability.

## Conflicts

Private Williamsburg Bites lists 1.5 miles in product details and 2 miles in its embedded FAQ. Both are retained as attributed observations and no single distance is selected. Context's Little Italy page mentions tastings in its weather FAQ but excludes food in its standard inclusions block; food inclusion stays unresolved. The source-conflict field is unknown where no conflict was established; it is never a certification that a page has no inconsistency.

## Source practice

Each source's terms were read before its facts were compiled; sources whose terms prohibit compilation were left out; only short, independently worded facts and links are published; no descriptions, reviews, images or documentation are copied.

The original observations and compilation are CC BY 4.0; source material retains its own rights. The licence cannot grant rights in third-party content or marks.

## Maintenance

Recheck active product links weekly and all factual cells monthly. Keep publisher-update dates separate from observation dates. Removed products should be withdrawn, not replaced with guesses. New editions retain the earlier JSON and record field changes. A provider-side check is required for current departure, final price, meeting instructions, inclusions and availability.

## Validation

The generator checks 20 records, five publishers with four records each, exactly twenty substantive fields per record, source/date provenance for every factual cell, explicit unknowns and preserved conflicting observations. CSV is a derivative with formula-protected text; it is not the canonical representation of nested provenance. No ranking, quality score, paid inclusion or sponsor influence is allowed.