Experiences Distribution Trends

03.10.2023 - 14:29 / skift.com / Selene Brophy

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 occuronline, 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.

Lasse 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 the end provider of the experience,” said Kjær, calling it a leveling of the playing field for smaller providers by reducing dependency on OTAs.

Google’s Things To Do tool introduced a display update in July that makes the unpaid search and discovery of tours and activities easier, and it could be an important driver of direct bookings in the experiences market.

Skift Research’s recent analysis of 40 cities on Things To Do showed that the direct sites of tour operators consistently appeared as top options for attractions, followed by major online travel agencies like Viator and GetYourGuide.

Craig Everett, CEO of Holibob, a travel tech platform that facilitates the distribution and selling of experiences online for tour and activity providers, travel brands, and tourism boards, said the cost of listing with OTAs was substantial, compared to operators owning their own direct booking process and optimizing their digital presence for organic search and display on Google Things To Do.

He used a hypothetical example for a walking tour operator in New York that runs 10 tours every day, each for 30 people, with tickets priced at $40.

That’s $1,200 a day or $84,000 a week. However – if 90% of their bookings come through OTAs at a commission of 30%, operators are paying over $22,000 to the OTAs a week, compared to no commission cost for organic display on Google Things To Do. Focusing on direct bookings and investing $100K in site optimization and digital marketing could increase direct bookings by 25%, Everett said.

“While many operators excel in their specific niches, they often lack a strong digital strategy,” added Kjær, who has helped 2,000 small and medium tour operators build their business through his decade-long venture TrueStory, which he recently exited. “This leads to an over-reliance on OTAs and a