TripAdvisor Exec Accuses GetYourGuide of Fear-Mongering
Skift Take
TripAdvisor and Booking Holdings are seemingly playing nice and fair with the tours and activities companies for now, but what happens five years from now when competition gets more intense and extracting profits is more of a mandate? Will push come to shove?
When large online travel companies such as TripAdvisor and Booking Holdings own the software companies that bring tours and activities operators online, should the tour operators look for independent providers instead?
GetYourGuide, the largest tours and attractions company in Europe, cautioned last week that the consolidation of such ownership under TripAdvisor and Booking Holdings last year represents a grave threat to tour operators, but a TripAdvisor executive accused GetYourGuide of engaging in "fear-mongering."
Ben Drew, TripAdvisor's vice president of business development and strategy, rentals and experiences, told Skift Wednesday that GetYourGuide's accusations "were unfounded," and that it is actually advantageous for operators that TripAdvisor brought Bokun in-house last year because its investments in the company ensure stability.
Drew said Bokun now operates on three continents, instead of merely from its former Iceland b
