As the last major sector to be brought into the digital
distribution ecosystem, there is now a rush to grow business in tours and
activities says EyeforTravel’s new The Changing Face of Tours and Activities report.
From the big online travel players, to airlines, to hotels,
to a host of start-ups, tours and activities are seeing huge interest and
investment according to EyeforTravel’s
report, which is free to download now. This is because advances in
technology and platforms have opened up the market and all of the
aforementioned players are eyeing the area as a major growth opportunity.
TripAdvisor,
believes we are at a turning point in the tours and activities market. “It’s an
exciting time to be in the attractions space – it’s entering a significant
growth phase as it continues moving online. It’s TripAdvisor’s largest
long-term growth opportunity outside of hotels,” says Laurel Greatix, Director
of Communications. Indeed, the report notes that the Compound Annual Growth
Rate (CAGR) for the company’s hotel revenue from 2013 to 2016 was 10% but its
non-hotel revenue grew 85% a year.
Key to tapping into the growth will be mastering
technologies, principally mobile and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Tours and activities booking engine GetYourGuide has seen a phenomenal shift towards mobile bookings. “Only
four years ago, less than 5% of our customers booked tours and activities via
mobile devices. This year we expect more than 50% of bookings to be mobile
driven,” says Johannes Reck, the company’s CEO. Smartphone access to tours and
activities is critical, as around half of consumers continue to book during the
vacation itself according to EyeforTravel research, and consumers are getting
better and cheaper access to data as they travel.
APIs are the second main technology transforming the space as
they allow a much wider variety of brands to access inventory and offer this to
their customers. In the case of tours and activities these are typically, response-request
systems that allow developers to access inventory and present it to end users through
incorporating HTML code. The ease of integration means many more players across
the industry can sell tours and activities direct to the consumer. There are
now more than 50 APIs that can be used to access torus and activities
inventory, including Viator, Expedia, Musement, Trip.com, Rezdy, BeMyGuest,
mTrip, Trekksoft, G Adventures, GetYourGuide and TourCMS to name just a few.
This is creating an exciting mix of new and established
companies rushing into the space and expanding consumer access to tours and
activities, which will push the sector to become a major growth engine in
travel and tourism.
This entirely free report
from EyeforTravel can be downloaded by clicking here. The report
investigates:
- The current state of the tours and activities market.
- The technical challenges of incorporating tours and activities into a digital travel product.
- New start-ups and disruptors.
- How OTAs, hotels, and airlines are including tours and activities.
- Technology and how it is shaping the future of this market.
Also make sure to check out all of EyeforTravel’s free reports and white
papers by clicking here.
