Articles tagged “attractions”

Step by step, inch by inch, Google is becoming more central to the tours and activities sector. We've seen this playbook before.

Booking.com expanded the geographic reach of its tours and activities offerings in Asia by entering a long-term strategic partnership with Klook, Booking.com announced Monday.

When it comes to running mainstream tours to popular attractions, booking sites can't hope to compete with the online user experience that Google provides. Off-the-beaten track activities, though, may be more fruitful.

Experiences aren't a financial game-changer for most online travel companies, but they are a must-have regardless.

Airbnb mothballed its experiences business — and ceased investing in hotels — at the beginning of the pandemic, but CEO Brian Chesky said earlier this week that Airbnb will begin…

This deal will unite Beyonk's capital access with technology and geographic reach Bookinghound has. Bookinghound's founder will stay on, as Beyonk's CEO leads the combined company.

As part of its "connected trip" and loyalty strategy, Booking Holdings argued it can convince hotels and other partners to offer up substantial discounts and perks, and this would spur incremental bookings. But do hotels really want to be a cog in building the Booking.com brand?

Hornblower's private equity investor Crestview kept the faith in the experiences operator during the pandemic. Now the investor is supporting a global mergers and acquisitions strategy that could amp up the company's momentum.

Whether it is hotel-like commission levels on the online travel agencies, new product features, or market share gains, Tripadvisor was unabashedly selling the virtues of a Viator IPO — or deal. It's not a winner-take-all market, but rivals have narrowed any competitive gap.

Google's attractions ticket beta has been among its least elegant in travel to date. This has angered many tour operators because it couldn't have come at a more inopportune time.