How Tour Operators are Navigating Direct Bookings: 3 Growing Trends
Photo Credit: A growing preference for authentic, immersive experiences reshapes how tours and activities are discovered, booked, and distributed. Unsplash / Unsplash
Skift Take
The lack of digital connectivity in the tours and activities sector concerns more than racing to get more tour operators online. It is about adding the right digital approach for that particular tour operator's business.
Amid the experience sector's digital transformation, a notable trend is emerging: the importance of direct bookings, with smaller tour operators looking to capitalize on the next wave for experience travel businesses.
While leading online travel agencies (OTAs) are keen to expand their digital footprint in a market where only 30% of bookings occur online, a growing preference for authentic, immersive experiences is reshaping how tours and activities are discovered, booked, and distributed.
Skift interviewed intermediary businesses, including management software solutions and business-to-business marketplaces, to get the inside track on these latest trends.
1. Google Things To Do DisruptionLasse Kjær, founder of Holdbar, which offers management systems software for experience businesses, called Google's Things To Do an "interesting disruptor", offering tour operators direct traffic opportunities. "It changes the way bookings flow to
