Online travel agencies tips

Deploying travel advisors with zero travel booking experience sounds like a bad idea. But travel agency Fora believes it is leveling the playing field for individuals passionate about travel to earn extra income by planning and booking trips.  

Tour operators need to catch up in digitizing their systems to improve booking efficiency, brand reach and the overall quality of their experience. In a nutshell, the traditional way consumers find and book an attraction or activity needs to be more convenient. 

Having started as a mom-and-pop travel agency, EaseMyTrip today figures among the largest online travel agencies (OTA) in India with a market capitalization of $1.1 billion while being completely bootstrapped.

G Adventures, the small group tour operator, is restructuring as G Travel Community (GTC). The holding company sets the scene to bring its existing brands into one stable but with expanded space for new brand acquisitions.

Flight Centre Travel Group reported record travel booking inquiries for January and February, pointing to a continued uptick in performance in 2023 for Australia’s largest travel agency as it sees marked recovery from previous losses in 2022. The company is juggling a greater emphasis on online sales while reducing costs for in-person sales.

A listing in India, where the market is now more receptive to e-commerce platforms, is still on the agenda for MakeMyTrip, even as the online travel agency said it is not looking at any fundraising immediately.

Generative artificial intelligence like ChatGPT threatens the authenticity and trustworthiness of online reviews.  

Exoticca, a Barcelona-based online travel agency focused on affordable luxury tours and vacation packages, launched its first-ever brand campaign this year. The campaign, titled What a Time to be Alive, debuted in early January with TV spots in Canada and the United Kingdom and digital ads in the United States, Mexico and Spain.

Travelers make multiple purchases in preparation for their trip, a consideration Tripadvisor believes should be noticed by marketers. The company honed in on the purchasing intent of its audience and found that despite rising prices, plans to travel is on par with 2019 levels.

Tour operators need to make serious inroads into tech adoption to capitalize on the forced digital offshoots created by the pandemic. A Skift 2023 Megatrend forecasts that the global tours and activities software market is set to skyrocket, with a projected value of $1.2 billion by 2026. 

TUI’s winter bookings might have been lackluster, but early summer bookings for the world’s largest tour operator have picked up, as the company plans to focus on giving more flexibility to travelers in booking flights, hotels and activities individually, in addition to its wholesale packaged tours, to grow its customer base in underrepresented markets. 

Richard Branson’s Virgin Experience Days is betting on a thriving experiences economy, and Americans wanting to spend more time doing meaningful things together, by expanding its U.K. brand across the pond.

Affluent U.S. travelers are ready to drop some serious money on their travel plans in 2023 and they’re keeping Virtuoso’s global network of luxury travel agents busier than ever.

If booking friction and connectivity have been such a burning issue for the tours and activities sector, why has standardization to break digital barriers to growth taken this long?

Amadeus has achieved its first year of profit since the pandemic. 

A task force at Booking.com is dedicated to exploring how generative AI could be integrated into the platform, but just to be clear — the company is not rushing into anything. 

Oyo, which advertises itself online as “India’s Best Online Hotel Booking Site for Sanitized Stays,” said it is performing well in the U.S. — after de-emphasizing its U.S. presence during the height of the pandemic.

Spanish travel booking company eDreams ODIGEO said on Thursday its net loss in the October-December period narrowed to 10.1 million euros ($10.7 million) as it added more subscribers and the number of bookings continued to rise.

Tours and activities online booking platform GetYourGuide has unveiled a fresh look on its homepage this week, and with it, a new series of Originals by GetYourGuide.

The UK’s On the Beach Group has now said chief financial officer Shaun Morton will take up his new position as CEO on June 30.

TUI is closer to settling the substantial financial aid it received from German authorities during the pandemic.