Tour Operators Push Off-Season Deals to Counter Overtourism
Photo Credit: Registan Square in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, pictured here, is one destination that Intrepid Travel is pushing this year to promote alternative destinations. Intrepid Travel
Skift Take
Tour operators addressing overtourism have essentially gone mainstream in recent years as more travelers have demanded alternatives to crowded city centers. In 2019, we will likely see more companies step in to do the right thing.
Tour operators are some of the largest contributors to overtourism as they bring busloads of tourists to the world's most popular destinations each day. While some tour companies have been working for years to better manage how and when they bring travelers to tourism hubs like Amsterdam or Venice, others have more recently shifted their strategies to ensure they have a positive impact on the places they do business.
Some companies like Trafalgar have changed their pricing model and have made peak season tours more expensive than off-season itineraries, while others such as Globus have created new itineraries that go to destinations in popular countries like Italy and the United Kingdom but take travelers beyond the gateways of Rome, Venice, London, or Edinburgh, and these kinds of strategies are beginning to become more widely adopted across the tours and activities sector as it looks ahead to 2019.
Trafalgar said it's in its second year of a new pricing structure that aims to
