Tours and Activities Sector Still Faces Challenge of Moving Bookings 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