Tour Operators Revamp Partnerships With Airlines to Drive New Business
Photo Credit: Wilderness Safaris believe its partnership with Qatar Airways will help Pixabay / herbert2512
Skift Take
Tour operators need to be attentive to their customers' travel preferences, including favorite airlines. It's possible that many such companies squandered lucrative opportunities for years by not partnering with companies their guests love.
Numerous tour operators are successfully using strategic partnerships with entities such as cooking schools and healthcare companies to drive business since resuming their Covid-paused trips.
But operators also believe they've found new ways to partner with powerful corporations several have worked with for a long time — major airlines. Of course, the relationship between airlines and tour operators is not new, but some tour operators are highlighting issues they view are important to travelers in these new marketing alliances to attract customers for a post-pandemic era.
Those partnerships, which could boost many businesses in the two sectors still struggling to hit pre-Covid metrics, are also likely to increase in years to come as tour operators look to take advantage of many travelers' loyalty toward certain airlines.
"We saw the value in a commercial airline partnership due to the importance of having our guests arrive well-rested, well-fed and having experienced the best flight of their lives," said Amanda Wilson, vice president of partnerships at Wilderness Safa
