Tours and Activities Sector Still Faces Challenge of Moving Bookings Online


Skift Take

Everybody wants a piece of the tours and activities sector, but how easy is it going to be to migrate all those businesses that currently operate offline to online?

The tours and activities sector has received a real boost lately with a series of deals and announcements creating a major buzz in the sector. Having mostly watched from the sidelines over the past few years, some of the industry’s major players now want a bigger slice of the action. But how easy is it going to be to bring more of these offline transactions to online? Bookings for tours/activities/trips/experiences still largely happen in destination and in person, very close to the intended time of departure — a major challenge for any company looking for a significant degree of scale. “Because business is generally offline, so much of the sale happens physically at a desk somewhere with people handing over cash, it’s a really old school way of booking,” said Tony Carne, general manager of Urban Adventures at EyeforTravel Europe 2018. Urban Adventures is one of a number of companies trying to change all that. The bu