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Covering the Inbound Tourism Industry Since 1996

Register for Free Webinar on the Website Dedicated to Receptive Tour Operators & Their Partners

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Join Betsy Cooper, director of TourOperatorLand.com and partner engagement for Connect Travel, on Nov. 14 at 2:00 pm EDT for a free webinar on TourOperatorLand.com, and learn what we can do for you.

TourOperatorLand.com is the only travel site designed to be used by international, domestic and receptive tour operators, travel media and travel agents researching new ideas for products. By joining the 90+ other North American destinations on www.TourOperatorLand.com—a website that aggregates trade content, used by 3,700 international and domestic buyers, and offers a proprietary tracking system that is unique to the industry—your content partnership becomes an extension to your marketing/promotion plan.

What can you expect to learn? 

—Overview of TourOperatorland.com portal features.

—Review the real-time tracking alerts so you know which operators and countries are interested in you.

—Expand your marketing/branding promotions by having your content in front of thousands of potential buyers

About Betsy Cooper, director of TourOperatorLand.com and partner engagement: With nearly thirty years’ experience in the travel and tourism industry, backed by a bachelor of science degree from the University of Missouri, and more than two decades in sales & marketing, product and service management is a natural fit for Betsy Cooper. Facilitating TourOperatorLand.com for the last eight years, Betsy is energetic and efficient and has the unique ability to put her clients at ease. She brings with her a natural inclination to be organized and a dedication to distinctive engagement.

Register Here

Connect Travel RTO Summits & Other Events—Why They Go

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“I love it.” Simple enough, and it’s the answer to the question that INBOUND asked Howard Clark, area director of travel industry sales, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, as to why he prefers the Connect Travel  portfolio of boutique travel trade shows above other larger events well-known to international travel and tourism industry sales and marketing professionals.

We touched base with a number of such individuals at Connect Travel’s RTO Summit Florida last week in Orlando and put to them the question of just why they prefer the Connect’s RTO Summit series, which are held annually in February, April and October in Los Angeles, New York and Orlando, respectively. All three feature one day of educational and informational presentations and discussions and a second day comprised of business appointments between travel suppliers and receptive tour operators.

There are usually some 50 operators and approximately 100 U.S. travel suppliers—the majority of them from DMOs—at each event.

For Clark, the buyer-supplier ratio is just right, he told us, as he is able to see everyone that he wants to see. He expects it to be the same next spring when he attends the RTO Summit East in New York. It was also one of the reasons that he took part in this past August’s Connect Tour (a domestic market trade show) in Lexington, Kentucky. He is particularly interested now in the next RTO Summit East in New York, where his company has a property that will be easier to introduce to clients and potential clients.

Overall, he told us, he takes part in six or seven Connect Travel events each year. While the number might not be as much for the sample of individuals INBOUND surveyed last week, their reasons for doing so are related. Here are the reasons given to us—from the people who gave them.

—Julie Payne, group sales consultant, Hershey—the chocolate amenities she brings along have made her an extremely popular Summit goer—goes to all three Summits and, she says, they enable her to make contact with receptive tour operators in Los Angeles, the greater New York City area and Orlando. In this way, she is able to see, talk with and do business with buyers in the thee U.S. cities where receptives are clustered.

—Mike Prejean, supervisor, Louisiana Office of Tourism, believes that he has attended every RTO Summit, explaining that the three events anchor his international marketing calendar, which includes major overseas events and IPW. While a necessity, the latter, he explained is so large that it is impossible to make face-to-face contact with all of the buyers he would like to see. But, he advises, “you’ve got to do them all (the Summits), because the right people are not in every city.”

—Dennis L. Swayne, business development manager, Blue & Gold, is based in San Francisco, but has found that attending the New York and Florida RTO Summits (in addition to the Los Angeles edition) have their own particular logic for attending. For example, he explained that three key receptive tour operators who bring travelers from India to his attraction all attend the RTO Summit Florida, enabling him to have business appointments with companies that anchor his business from the India market.

—Also based in San Francisco, Estelle Miller, director, tourism development, Hornblower Cruises & Events, has a travel schedule is as busy as that of any travel and tourism professional but, she told us, the RTO Summits in Los Angeles and Florida enable her to see receptives that she might not be able to make contact with very easily at larger international trade shows. And while she does not attend the RTO Summit New York, the company has part of its fleet there, along with sales and marketing professionals who can attend it.

—Alfredo Gonzalez, a long-time veteran of the travel and tourism industry who based in Florida, but who has clients in different parts of the U.S., finds that he can represent clients with smaller budgets at Connect Travel’s RTO Summits rather than at the costlier IPW or other large trade shows.

—“You don’t need all the fluff that you’ll find at the larger shows,” says Jesus Garcia, manager, international sales, Atlanta CVB, adding, “I like the Summits because their size allows us to see all the right people with a minimum of distraction.”

—A reminder: The next Connect Travel event is the Connect Travel Marketplace, February 19-21 at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida.

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The Connect Travel Portfolio of Events includes: The Connect Travel eTourism Summit; Connect Travel Marketplace; Connect Travel Marketing Leadership Summit; Connect Tour powered by Connect Travel; Connect THRIVE Summit; Connect Travel RTO Summit West; Connect Travel RTO Summit Florida; Connect Travel RTO Summit East; Connect Travel Active America China Summit; and Connect Travel Active America China Receptive Edition.

Sublaban Says Industry Facing Headwinds

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Bonotel CEO Talks of the Perils of Brexit, Dynamic Pricing and Commoditization: “The worst is yet to come,” Faisal Sublaban, president and CEO of Bonotel Exclusive Travel, half-jokingly told delegates to Connect Travel’s RTO Summit Florida last week in Orlando as he concluded his keynote remarks on the state of the travel and tourism industry. Chuckles of relief rippled across the room, as those in attendance had just heard Sublaban, in the style of a peripatetic tent preacher as he walked back and forth for 55 minutes, stopping to make points of emphasis and addressing key challenges—especially those of technology-driven commodification—while holding the attention of listeners for every moment of his presentation.

Sublaban said quite a bit—we estimated that, using the average radio announcer pace of 160 words a minute and taking into account his more rapid pace (about 180 words a minute)—just under 10,000 words. What INBOUND has done is to present the key points of his remarks epigrammatically, in his own words, occasionally edited for clarity. And mostly in the order in which he made them.

 

The Impact of Brexit and Other Events in Europe:

—”The state of the industry is … there are headwinds coming like never before. Some of them we can control. The largest headwind coming is Brexit. Whatever the outcome ends up being, there will be a significant impact on those of us expecting UK travelers.”

—Because of the tension over people wondering if Brexit will come soon or not, “the uncertainty is an indication of what’s going on in the market. Nobody knows the British market because (the British) don’t know if they should travel or not.”

—The UK market is going to be significantly impacted with Brexit or without it. You need to acknowledge that, lift your head out of the sand and understand that, regardless of ‘everything is going to happened as it always did,’ it’ not going to.”

—“There’s a lot of shock and awe that’s gone down with Thomas Cook (the 178-year-old UK tour operator that shut down on Sept. 23). There’s a lot of denial when it comes to the likes of AMOMA.” (AMOMA was a Geneva-based meta-search portal described by HospitalityNet as “infamously known for undercutting hotel rates and/or distributing net wholesale prices,” which went bankrupt in mid-September.)

—“AMOMA essentially took the money up front, from everybody, put it in their pocket and used it to fund their forward operations—Why is that a problem? Because, once the music stops, as it eventually did, the impact was significant.”

—After Sublaban asked for a show of hands of those in attendance who are following the Brexit issue, he noted that “80 percent have said that they haven’t followed it. Yet, it’s going to have a massive impact on global tourism. 80 percent in the room is essentially ignoring what’s happening with Brexit. You’d better be catching up on Brexit, At the end of the day, travelers either don’t have money to travel  or, if they are traveling to the  U.S. or North America, they are doing so in a different manner.”

—Instead of booking an 18-day vacation, they might shorten it to 13 days or 13 days or 9 days or seven.

—Among British travelers, “Nobody knows whether they should travel, whether they should be planning for their future vacation or not, whether (those in the industry) are going to have a job or not have a job, whether they’re going to be forced to leave, in a short period of time, the UK market or not—all these things are indicative of the market today.”

 

Technology s Commoditizing Distribution:

—“Now, we get dynamic rates. We used to have static rates, rates that were tied to certain periods—rates that were fixed. Now, the reality is that we’re dealing with revenue managers. The revenue manager probably has more power than the general manager.”

—“The reality is that technology is enabling distribution to happen in a faster and more efficient way than ever before; revenue managers are not focused on more than 90 days out.”

—“When you look at what is happening, technology is the leading indicator in our industry as to what’s to come and the path forward. You’re going to have a lot of headaches.”

—“Even if the way you receive rates is different, it doesn’t change because revenue managers are not focused outside of major events or conferences; they are not focused outside of 90 days.”

—“Commoditization is happening because technology is making it happen.”

—“We can ‘pretend’ that we’re going to have dynamic rates … but the reality is that technology will commoditize the way that you distribute rates and availability.”

—“The way that people research and book is going to change. Technology is going to commoditize the very picture of what we’re doing today. We can look at connectivity, technology and try to deny the fact that it’s very pervasive and taking over the world. “

—“It’s a scam to some, but I raise my hand and say ‘Hell yeah!’“

 

The Way It Used to be, and the Shift to Last-Minute, and Other New Verities:

—In Europe, Bonotel “has had a 147-day booking window. Now, the largest companies are actually booking within 10 days. People are making buying decisions based on the ability to move when the want to move.”

—Travel and destination information “is being served in your face using algorithms.” (He suggests that it has become a “hash-tag” world.) If you’re not-top-of-mind, you’re dead in the water.”

—(Holding up his cell phone) “The cell phone is the remote control of your life…”

—Today, “you may not buy 180 days out, but you’re thinking about it.”

—Does the traveler visit 30 sites on the way to making a booking decision? “No, but they talk with 30 friends who they follow (on a social media site).”

—We’re enabling the last-minute traveler. People are traveling last-minute because hotels and airlines are dropping their last-minute rates—rewarding the last-minute travelers.”

—“So, if you’re not top-of-mind when the consumer wants to make a buying decision, you’re dead in the water.”

 

But What do You do about Creeping Commoditization?

—“If you think for a second that an owner of a property or a tour operator or travel venue is not going to enable technology to provide efficiency or scalability, you’re probably going to be the person in the room who’s going to be let go—you avoid that by providing value.”

—But, “You cannot allow technology to commoditize your product … There’s always going to be the human touch. There’s always going to be a relationship. However, the form which that relationship is changing, and you have to change and adjust it.”

—“If you’re providing value, irrespective of whatever industry you’re in, you will never be commoditized, because you are relevant to a hotel owner, you are relevant to a hotel supplier, you are relevant to your distribution partners, you are relevant to the end consumer.”

How Channel Managers are Changing Attraction Distribution By Bob Gilbert

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(At Connect Travel’s recent RTO Summit New York, Bob Gilbert, CEO of Captivation Marketing, moderated a panel discussion on the ways in which channel managers are changing distribution for tour and activity companies. We asked him to synthesize the panel forum’s work and its topical discussion into a single piece so that we could share it with our readers. The multilingual Gilbert is well suited to the task, having served some four decades in a wide swath of the tour and travel industry, including key roles in the hotel, food service, tours and entertainment, destination marketing and travel trade publication sectors.)

Overlooked? No more:  The $190 billion global tours and activity business is coming of age as more focus is given to this industry segment.

The most fun part of planning any leisure trip is deciding where to go. Sounds uncomplicated enough. The travelers will discuss the all the things they want to see or do in the destinations they are considering. They will compare the options. The decision is made and the transport and lodging is booked. Price is a secondary factor where most people’s thought process is made on the emotional side of the equation. In fact, according to an Expedia Media Group survey, price follows activities, bucket lists and cultural experiences in the decision path. Validating this is the fact that at least 97 percent of leisure travelers booked a tour, visited an attraction or did an activity on a trip in the past year, according to a recent Arival survey.

What’s upside down (or back to front) about the process is that the most significant part of trip (the experiences) are mostly not booked at the same time as the transportation and lodging. However, it’s the experiences that are remembered most, not the middle row of your flight or the hotel room next door to the elevator. The fastest growing experiences, according to TripAdvisor, are family friendly trips, then trips with a thirst to learn and engage with the community – one way and another. This includes classes or workshops, wellness, outdoor activities especially water sports and food and wine experiences – even marijuana facility tours in some states! Today’s travelers want to bring home memories not just a tan.

 

Today, booking software dominates: Trip Advisor (Viator’s parent) purchased Bókun; Booking Holdings purchased FareHarbor and rumors of consolidation and other mergers and acquisition abound.

When one studies the core differences between the booking software providers, these days there is little to meaningfully separate their competitive functionality. These differences are narrowing. So what are the key differences?

 

The most important piece of the puzzle is distribution: If we accept that fact that there are mainstream booking software businesses like Rezdy, Fareharbor, Peak Pro, TrekkSoft et als, in one camp, then we see more activity-specific providers who focus on museums, zoos, aquariums etc. Yet another group specializes in booking software for events and catering, the specialist list is getting longer day by day.

Now it gets more complicated. Is your booking software provider owned by an OTA? Does your booking software provider compete with you with a B2C and B2B facing strategy? Does your service provider have a variety of pricing options including monthly subscriptions and commission based?

The point is that you may have a product that you work hard at being unique and provide exemplary service with rave reviews. You work hard at building or licensing the best booking software for the best price point. (Unless you decide to pass the booking fee to the customer, which can be dicey, with a current 81 percent cart abandonment in online travel bookings.) Also check how many countries they operate in. You want reach vis distribution. To me, the most important piece of the puzzle is distribution. Built into distribution is channel management. Channel Management should provide you with a single point of contact for all of your booking agents, large or small.

 

 

 

 

If you want to play in the Big Boys OTA poker game, the cost of entry, (as well as the stakes), are high.

True channel management should allow you to pick and choose which OTA you wish to work with. Yes, it comes at a cost, 20 percent, 25 percent and perhaps 30 percent. But if you want to play in the Big Boys OTA poker game, the cost of entry, (as well as the stakes), are high. How much inventory do you want to offer to OTAs? 20 percent? More? How will you drive more direct or more profitable business?

Better to find a booking software provider that has the biggest list of agents in its marketplace and allows you to open and close inventory agent by agent (or collectively), and allows you to change commission and net rates “on the fly”. This then helps you develop a long tail distribution strategy.

There are thousands and thousands of smaller agents and tour operators out there who are happy to get 10 percent, 12 percent. 15 percent. And you are happy being more profitable conducting business with them as well.

These “long tail’ agents are tough to reach on your own. You also want a channel management platform where you can easily add your own agents. Remember to compare both booking software costs as well channel management costs.

 

The next part of the journey is revenue management (AKA dynamic pricing): This, as it was back in my hospitality days, will become increasingly relevant as suppliers “Channel Manage” with a well thought out pricing and distribution strategy. But remember, you can’t have a pricing strategy and dynamic pricing without a channel manager and its distribution. Today’s challenge is not about the lack of great tours and attractions, not the lack of booking software, it’s identifying which provider has the largest most comprehensive channel management platform. Today, huge distribution channels are easily accessible—you just have to do a little digging.

Centralized Channel Management is the future, existing methods are outdated, time consuming to manage & prone to errors. Channel managers offer two-way connections to the best booking sites & channels globally and locally. They can easily manage all your products online to increase revenue. Eliminate guesswork and use data to drive your decisions. Here is a guide to come key players (note that these companies often change options and pricing:

TrekkSoft (Established in 2010, Independent) https://www.trekksoft.com/

Highlights: A suite of tools to connect your front and back of house.

Channel Manager: Connects with leading OTA’s including Viator, Expedia, Get Your Guide, and more.

Pricing: Plans start from under $60 per month for their entry package and $225 a month for enterprise accounts. Offline booking fees start from $0.60, and online 2 percent.

 Rezdy (Established in 2011, Independent) https://www.rezdy.com/

Highlights: Good solution for tour & activity companies of all sizes. Tailored to the type of business. Solid suite of customized reporting. Zapier and TOMIS integrated. Winner: Capterra Best Ease of Use Award 2018

Channel Manager: Most comprehensive Channel Manager with over 14,000 booking agents including OTA’s such as Expedia, Get Your Guide, Ctrip, Trip Advisor Experiences, Klook, Musement, Reserve with Google and more. $3.5 million in booking revenue daily.

Pricing: Rezdy pricing start at $49 a month for their entry plan up to $249 for Expansion (Enterprise accounts) and includes Developer API. Custom plans available. Offline booking from 0.70 cents. Online bookings from 1.75 percent.

FareHarbor (Established in 2013. Acquired by Booking Holdings in 2018) https://fareharbor.com/

Highlights: Pay as you go models. Scale could be a challenging. No Zapier integration and unable to bundle multiple products on one package. Suitable for smaller businesses.

Channel Manager: You can connect with Booking.com and other larger OTAs.

Pricing: Suppliers are charged a credit card processing fee and supplier passes fees to customers as a suggested 6% “convenience fee.”

Peek Pro (Established in 2012. Independent) https://www.peek.com/pro/

Highlights: Peek has both a B2B as well as B2B offerings. Acquired many Zozi assets in 2017.  Good shopping cart. Limited Reseller program.

Channel Manager: You can connect with Expedia and Viator with this solution. This could limit or restrict your audience, or increase admin time and costs to manage.

Pricing: $199 supplier set up fee, then 2.3 percent per transaction plus $0.30. Manual booking fees are also 2.3 percent per transaction plus $0.30. There is a commission charged for business booked via Peek B2C website (similar to OTA commissions)

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(Full disclosure: Mr. Gilbert’s company, Captivation Marketing, handles business development for Rezdy)

Just in Time for IPW: How Do You Make the Most out of Those 20-Minute Appointments?

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At recent RTO Summit East in New York, Sally Berry shares delegate’s tip on how to use trade show appointment time efficiently.

The tour and travel industry professionals who turned out for Connect Travel’s recent RTO Summit in New York City became part of the program in a type of crowdsourcing exercise, thanks to Sally Davis  Berry, tourism consultant and author who made a presentation on how to make the best use of the time one has in the business appointments where success sometimes turns on what happens in a few seconds.

She turned the exercise over, in part, to the Summit delegates who were there to hear her discuss “Getting the Most out of 7-10-15 or 20-Minute Appointments.” Everyone seemed familiar with such meetings, with the 7-minute appointments being a well-known staple of NTA’s Travel Exchange; the 10-minute appointment period a standard for Connect Travel’s RTO Summit Series; and 20-minutes serving as a staple for IPW, which takes place in a few weeks (June 1-5) in Anaheim, California.

In order to get input from the delegates who attended, Davis-Berry asked each delegate to fill out the comment cards that had been placed at the tables in the RTO Summit conference room, and share with her their advice—in as few words as possible—on how to make the most of the 7-, 10- or 20-minute appointment.

She tallied and transcribed the scores of advice bytes written down by delegates and has shared them with INBOUND. We reviewed the scores of advice bytes and, from them, prepared the following sampler—just in time for those readers who will be going to IPW in Anaheim in several weeks for all those 20-minute business appointments with international tour operators and wholesale buyers from throughout the world.

 

Advice for 20-Minute Sessions

“Build some rapport outside of actual business. Showcase not only the individual destination, but regional offerings as well. Use a map to start the conversation.”—Hannah Oliver, tour and travel sales manager, Visit Loudon

“I always start by asking about their company’s needs and information about them so it frames the conversation.”—Sarah Winters, leisure sales director, North Lake Tahoe Chamber/CVB/Resort Association

“Always give an introduction/overview of organization and roles and what services we offer. Always ask for their needs and how we can help them. Most people know Las Vegas but not the full scope of services we can offer them.”—Katja Spitz, international market manager, Las Vegas CVA

“Be prepared to suggest how my region can be added to an itinerary with other regions in the state. Tours from farther away go to multiple regions and states.”—Tillie Youngs, sales manager,1000 Islands International Tourism Council

“Always prepare a ‘what’s new’ presentation. Keep personal information that I collect on my clients in Simpleview [software] so I can make notes before the appointment to have and discuss during our meeting.”—Leslie Straughan, senior account executive, New Orleans and Company

“You have time to ‘ease’ into the appointment a bit. Let the person sit comfortably, greet them warmly and start with a bit of small talk.”—Melissa Rose, group sales manager, Corning Museum of Glass

 

Advice for 10-Minute Appointments

“Ask about what they do and what they love about it. Lead them to talk about their passion.”—François Deslandres, go-to-market-manager, Bus.com Montreal

“Ask them what they currently offer in my destination and determine the need. Then respond with how my business can fulfill that need.”—Kieron Weidne0r, owner and adventure travel expert at First Nature Treks & Tours

“Try and think of every possible question a tour operator will ask ahead of time. That way, you don’t get caught off-guard AND you may even impress them!”—Bethany Lunden, social media & public relations strategist, BB&G Advertising, representing Rockland County Tourism

“I make sure my handouts always have a map of the US/State/Region – never assume people know.”—Josh Sanders, vice president of sales & tourism development, Oregon’s Tualatin Valley

“Ask them an interested question: ‘What are you looking to expand/offer?’ “—Bob Navarro, president and CEO of the I & M Canal Heritage Corridor CVB

“Research previous notes to have a start-up conversation that is relevant, and create a connection. Have a map to show your location.”—Vickie Evans, global tourism & partner sales at The Henry Ford

 

Tips for 7-Minute Appointments

“Do your homework-research the businesses you are meeting with and know what tours they are currently operating in your area.”—Laurel Bennett, vice president of tourism sales, Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.

“Do research prior to appointments so I know what to talk about before sitting down, so we don’t waste any time (7 minutes goes really fast!”—Kalynne Defever, tourism specialist, Detroit Metro CVB

“For a seven-minute appointment I typically will show a video that highlights our top attractions and experiences. Better than images.”—Greg Edevane, director of global development, Countryside of Philadelphia

“Most want to know what’s “new.” I give bullet points on my fact sheet along with quick highlights of the new attractions. Then FOLLOW UP!”—Heather Colache, tourism account director, Meet AC, Atlantic City Convention & Group Sales

“Show routes that connect my state’s cities with those in other states in a sample brochure. Southern USA Road trips.”—Grey Brennan, deputy director, Alabama Tourism Department.

“Since our destination is so close to NYC and many operators are bused there, I immediately leverage Rockland’s proximity to the city. If they don’t know the area, they’re surprised and excited to visit.”—Chris Goodman, account executive, BB&G Advertising, representing Rockland County Tourism

To access the complete list of tips and advice from tour and travel industry pros, and for other helpful information, contact Sally Davis Berry via www.SallyDavisBerry.com.

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Tom Berrigan, Managing Editor/Producer
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