About Arival

Arival, the global research authority for tours, activities and attractions,
advances the business of creating amazing in-destination experiences. We
provide events, insights and community for creators and sellers of tours,
activities and attractions. Get in-destination insights and sign up for our
industry-defining newsletter at [Link].

About Regiondo
Regiondo is the all-in-one booking system for tours and activities. With
Regiondo, you can manage bookings, accept payments and connect
with popular OTAs like Viator, GetYourGuide and Klook. Learn more at
[Link].

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 A note from
Regiondo’s co-founder

These are tough times not just for the leisure and tourism industry but for
most other sectors as well. So we all have a choice: leave things to chance
or take proactive action in our businesses and communities.

At Regiondo, we’ve taken measures to protect our employees but we also

depend on our partners, customers, and suppliers. So it’s important for us
that they succeed. This is why we partnered with Arival to produce this
recovery game plan – to help our ecosystem regain traction and get back to
business stronger than before.

As a technology provider in the industry, we have access to thousands of

business cases, seeing what works and what doesn’t in this situation. On
the other hand, Arival’s voice and insights bring an even broader perspective
on the issues we all face and how to solve them.

And I think the result here is pretty awesome. We have combined our
knowledge to present a compact and useful guide to recovery, with a strong
emphasis on digitization. After all, if there’s one good thing the COVID-19
pandemic brings, it’s a not-so-gentle push to adopt technologies that make
our lives easier and improve the experiences we bring to our teams and
customers.

In other words, instead of leaving things to chance, let’s treat this crisis as
an opportunity to build a better, stronger ecosystem. I hope you’ll enjoy this
read and find new inspiration to move your business forward.

Yann Maurer
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Regiondo
Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Online Now More Than Ever 2

Five Digital Priorities for Tour & Activity Operators 4

1) Know Your Sales Metrics – In-Depth 4
2) Get Your Tech in Order 6
3) Get Your OTA Strategy Right 7
4) Get Your Digital Marketing Going 8
5) Become Mobile First 10

Digital in the Recovery 11

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Introduction

The global tours and activities industry entered 2020 with major
momentum. Over the prior decade, the sector had made enormous gains.
The market had grown significantly. Many thousands of new businesses
launched to serve the growing travel demand. It also was catching up in
technology adoption and online bookings, after trailing behind flights and
hotels for decades.

But the COVID-19 pandemic hit operators hard, quickly bringing most
businesses to zero revenue for significant lengths of time. Now in mid-
2020, as they slowly reopen, operators face an uncertain future. Will
they be able to attract and accommodate enough local and drive-market
visitors to sustain them until air travel returns at significant levels? Could
resurgences and second waves force them to undergo multiple costly
shutdowns and reopenings? Will the economic impact of the pandemic
further blunt travel spend?

Among the tools available to achieve the best possible outcome is digital
technology. This paper outlines the essential digital game plan for every
operator as travel gradually returns, by examining:

1 The online expectations of travelers

2 The channels that will come back first

3 The role of technology for recovery

1 | Copyright 2020 Arival LLC All Rights Reserved - [Link]

Online Now More
Than Ever

Online channels (direct and online travel agency, or OTA) have been the
fastest growing for years. While other segments of travel, like air and
hotels, have been sold primarily via online channels for several years, tours
and activities have lagged behind. Fragmentation and diversity in the
experiences space create challenges for aggregating the product, and many
operators saw no need to invest in digitizing their ticketing.

But travelers have grown accustomed to booking online, and demand for
digital shopping is apparent in the in-destination category. While purchasing
is still predominantly offline, desktop and laptop computers are the
preferred gateway to planning travel activities, preferred almost 2-to-1 over
guidebooks and family and friends. (see Figure 1)

Figure 1: How Travelers Plan Activities

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Computer Mobile phone Guidebooks Friends and
family offline

Arival’s Ready for the Rebound: Source: Arival Survey of 1,000 U.S. travelers

2 | Copyright 2020 Arival LLC All Rights Reserved - [Link]

While no crisis has affected travel as deeply
Online Now More
and broadly as Covid-19, we can look to past
Than Ever
crises to help predict how travelers will behave as
they return post-lockdown. When travel began to return
from the Great Recession of 2009, online channels surged.
Global hotel bookings went up 8% in 2010, and online bookings surged
by 18%. OTA growth led the recovery as travelers turned to aggregators in
search of deals and comparison shopping (see Figure 2). Similar trends are
expected as travel climbs out of the COVID19 lockdown.

Figure 2: Global Hotel Bookings Growth, OTAs vs

Hotel Websites
OTAs Hotel Websites
20%
19%
16%
14%

2010 2011

Source: Phocuswright

As they search online, travelers will want clear, upfront information on

attractions and activities’ safety protocols, cancellation policies, and other
special considerations such as timed entry. Both OTAs and suppliers need
to prioritize clear and prominent notices, both so that guests can determine
their level of comfort before purchasing and so that they know what to
expect before arriving.

The report outlines a five-point plan of digital priorities for each tour and
activity operator to implement as they plan for travel’s recovery.

3 | Copyright 2020 Arival LLC All Rights Reserved - [Link]

Five Digital Priorities for
Tour & Activity
Operators

Even as economies begin their cautious staggered openings, the vast

majority of travel activities, tours and attractions are several months away
from operating at full, or even profitable, capacity. Whether your business
is already welcoming a few guests or you are still waiting to reopen, there is
still time and need to assess your sales, marketing, and distribution strategy.

The post-COVID distribution landscape will look different than pre-COVID,

and success in that future requires taking careful and regular stock of how
your strategy aligns with market demands.

Know Your Sales Metrics – In Depth

1
• Understand how you stack up in comparison to the overall market and
your competitors on sales and distribution. For example, most tour
operators report website sales at approximately 30% of their total
bookings. Are you above or below this average? If you are below, you
could be losing out on some direct online sales.

• Learn your channel metrics. What kind of customer does each channel
bring? Track how market conditions affect this balance. In early phases of
reopening, you will likely be more dependent on local and drive markets,
and you might need to attract a younger demographic. You may need to
change your channel mix to keep up.

4 | Copyright 2020 Arival LLC All Rights Reserved - [Link]

 Five Digital Priorities
for Tour & Activity
Operators

• Check in with others in your local market. Are they

attracting a type of customer that you are not? Are they
using channels you may have overlooked? Look for opportunities to
partner and cross-sell.

• Connect with your DMO, or local destination marketing organization, on

how travelers book into your destination. If they are booking air and hotel
through the same channel, and not using it to book with you, you are
missing an opportunity.

• Are you in all of the channels you need to be? Are you under-indexing in
some areas?

Figure 3: Distribution Survey Results: Share of Bookings

by Channel

OTAs Website/app Phone call or email In-person

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Tours Activities Attractions

Arival’s Ready for the Rebound: Source: 7,000 operators

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 Five Digital Priorities
for Tour & Activity
Operators

2 Get Your Tech in Order

• Automation has transformed the tours, attractions and activities sector
over the past decade. This will be even more true post-COVID. The
ability to manage inventory, pricing and distribution as efficiently as
possible will be even more important as operators look to return to
profitability.

• In 2010, just 25% of operators surveyed were using res tech. By 2019,
that figure climbed to 71%. Adoption will continue to rise in the wake of
the pandemic.

• Operators that were more satisfied with their internal tech in

2019 were also growing faster and more profitable. Having the right
technology in place, and making the most of it, will become even more
important as operators seek to accelerate their return to profitability.

• If you haven’t already used some of the quiet shutdown period to

evaluate how your current tech serves your business, it’s time to get
moving. There are 100+ systems out there; now is the time to find the
right one for you. Operators that are ahead of you in tech will quickly
leave you behind.

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 Five Digital Priorities
for Tour & Activity
Operators
Get Your OTA Strategy Right
3
• OTAs have been the fastest growing channel, expanding at more than
three times the rate of the market overall in 2019. They are likely to be
more important than ever in the recovery. Travelers will leave less to the
last minute. They will want to know their options, and ensure they have
bookings ahead of time. Expect them to shop around too, comparing
deals, cancellation policies and safety protocols.

• Selling via an OTA still might not be right for you, but if it is, choose the
right OTAs for your business. Understand how their terms will affect
your profitability, and whether they will bring in a customer you cannot
affordably reach on your own. Consider how your products are displayed
through their sites and apps.

• Get connected through APIs for greater efficiency and to give travelers a
better shopping experience.

• All OTAs are not the same, so your products and merchandising shouldn’t
be either. Design and constantly adjust your strategy for each third party
distributor you work with.

• Don’t just set it and forget it. Treat each OTA like a competitive
marketplace. Just like in Google ads and search results, you need to work
to rank high in the listings.

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 Five Digital Priorities
for Tour & Activity
Operators
Figure 4: OTAs Were the Fastest
Growing Channel in 2019

21%

6%

Total Market OTAs

Arival’s Experience Revolution

Get Your Digital Marketing Going

4
• Operators say growing direct bookings is their top strategic priority, but
a majority of operators neglect the digital marketing basics. Trip planning
and inspiration occurs across platforms, so you should be present
everywhere (or as in many of the most important channels as possible).
From paid visibility via ads on leading platforms to organic posting to
e-mail marketing and SEO strategy, most operators could be doing more
to reach potential guests.

8 | Copyright 2020 Arival LLC All Rights Reserved - [Link]

 Five Digital Priorities
for Tour & Activity
Operators
Figure 5: Operators Engaging in
Direct Marketing

100%

75%

50%

25%

0%
Facebook SEO Facebook ads Instagram Google Email SEM
posting organic MyBusiness marketing

Arival’s Experience Revolution

• Winning direct customers makes good business sense for some

operators, and owning the customer interaction might be even more
important to you post-COVID. If that is true for your business, start
acting like it -- with a carefully planned and constantly monitored
approach to digital marketing.

• Opportunities to hone your skills abound. If your digital outreach is falling

short, invest in education and training on digital marketing, advertising,
search optimization, and website design.

9 | Copyright 2020 Arival LLC All Rights Reserved - [Link]

 Five Digital Priorities
for Tour & Activity
Operators
Become Mobile First
5
• Mobile bookings are still a small share of the tours and activities market,
but they are growing fast and account for almost half of online direct
sales. Operators say 2 in 5 online bookings are mobile.

• Why prioritize smartphone shoppers? Not only could you be losing out
to a competitor with a better cross-device strategy, but mobile bookers
are also more valuable to your business because they spend more, leave
more reviews, and take more tours.

Specifically, mobile bookers:

- Average 2.9 tours per trip
- Spend 50% more on tours and activities per trip
- Are twice as likely to leave online reviews

• As most businesses face a slow return to past visitor volume, extracting

the most possible value out of each customer is crucial. Mobile should
be a top priority in your digital marketing and website efforts. The fact
that these travelers also are more likely to leave a review will also be
especially helpful as you seek to spread the word that your experience is
safe and amazing.

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Digital in the Recovery

The outlook for the return of travel and tourism remains uncertain at best,
and the tours and activities sector will take some years to recover. But
what is not at all uncertain is the importance of digital in travel’s recovery.
Travelers will return first online, and those businesses best prepared to
serve those travelers will win in the rebound. So take this five-point plan as
the starting place for your digital roadmap to recovery in 2020 and beyond.

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For comments or questions
Email: insights@[Link]

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