Arival

Just a few more days for your last chance to save on Arival | Activate Edinburgh tickets! This intimate gathering is designed to help you get connected, no matter where you are in your journey. From “AI is for Everybody” with Tom McGarry (Head of Business Development, Holiday Extras), to “Nine (Not 10) Things You Wish You Knew Before Starting Your Tour Business” with Roisin O'Sullivan (COO, Walks / Devour Tours), and "Get Connected!" essentials like How to Choose a Booking System with Martin H. (MH Strategic Solutions Ltd) and Working with OTAs: Strategies & Best Practices with Peter Muttitt (PM Consulting), the teachings are great for everyone looking to grow or even start the digital journey from scratch! View the full agenda and get your tickets today: https://lnkd.in/gHNaKxad #arivalevent #thebestpartoftravel #travelnews #arivalinsights #tourism?

Free Webinar! ?? Join us for Key Trends in Experiences: The Future of Tours, Activities & Attractions for the UK and Ireland on Thursday, 17 October - 10am EDT / 3pm BST / 4pm CEST Visitor experiences—everything travelers do in-destination—are undergoing major changes. From evolving traveler preferences and booking methods to new product, technology, and distribution trends, these shifts are transforming how travel experience creators and sellers operate and plan for the future. Join this special online event, in partnership with ETOA (the European Tourism Association). Arival Co-Founder, Douglas Quinby, will be joined by a panel of European tourism leaders including, Jo Fennell, Head of Sales for UK & Ireland for GetYourGuide, Vox Group CMO, John Boulding and Angela Skelly, CCO of Travel Curious Ltd. who will share their insights into the state of experiences in Europe. The panel will be moderated by ETOA - European tourism association Director of Insight and Business Improvement, Rachel Read. Click here to save your spot: https://lnkd.in/eCWySmcN #arivalevent #thebestpartoftravel #travelnews #arivalinsights #tourism?

Time to reflect & plan for 2025! ? As the busy season wraps up for many of us, let's take stock of your business performance and plan for future growth together. In this insightful Elevate session, Andrea Ross from Cultivate Advisors will walk us through the planning methodology and key strategies for assessing this year's success to create strategic goals and a roadmap for 2025. Discover the metrics and tools you need to analyze your financial health, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and plan for the year to come. Join us Thursday 24 October, 2024 11am-12pm EDT, for this session that is open to Arival Insider Pro Access and Free Members. RSVP now! https://lnkd.in/eR3-Y_tP #arivalevent #thebestpartoftravel #travelnews #arivalinsights #tourism?

Would you spend your last dollars on an event you knew absolutely nothing about? Gabriela Vazquez and Carlos Alcerreca of La Isla Tour Cabo San Lucas?did, and it changed their lives forever. These are the stories we can't get enough of, stories of operators who found what they needed from Arival to find a community, grow, and prosper. Thank you to everyone who has taken a chance on Arival, not knowing what to expect, but trusting that we are doing everything in our power to support you. ?? Congratulations to Gabriela and Carlos on taking a leap of faith and seeing the rewards of it! #arivalevent #thebestpartoftravel #travelnews #arivalinsights #tourism?

Reviews are great when they’re great, but when they’re negative? Mmm, not so much. ?? We all have to learn how to cope with negative feedback, and who better to learn from than from ?TourReview’s COO Juana Inés Muro and from top-rated operators? Check out this great resource and let us know - how do you plan on turning negative reviews into opportunities in the future? https://lnkd.in/diBrU5Kg #arivalevent #thebestpartoftravel #travelnews #arivalinsights #tourism?

???????????????? ???? ?????????? ????????????????????… ?????? ???? ?????? ????????! I just got back from my first-ever tourism conference—Arival in San Diego—and it was a game-changer. ?? I arrived feeling a bit out of place among almost 1000 tourism pros, but by the end, I realized something important: it’s not about how you look or how many business cards you hand out. It’s about a shared passion for travel and the connections that come from that. ???? I went to some truly insightful sessions and had many uplifting conversations, with every moment being packed with learning, laughter, and inspiration. And the best part? The people. ?? To everyone I met—THANK YOU for making this experience so special. I greatly cherish the new connections with people like Beth Santos, Renee Ventrice, Joe Martin, Drew Fortner, Catharine Pear, Madison Rifkin, Boris Bijlstra, and many others! A huge shoutout to Douglas Quinby, Bruce Rosard, and the whole Arival team for bringing together such an incredible community of like-minded travel enthusiasts. I left San Diego with a ton of new ideas, some amazing new friends, and excitement for what’s next. ?? And the last thank you goes to the best boss and a great friend, Michaela Vaszi, who gave me the opportunity to represent Prague City Adventures in San Diego ???

Arival Conferences are the most fun I have all year. A special thank you to Bruce Rosard, Lynne Fetterman, Douglas Quinby and the incredible Arival team for hosting such an impactful event. I was proud to debut the new Propellic travel marketing strategic methodology, "Performance Bookings" at the conference and have so many people take our new marketing assessment (link in comments). Shoutout to all of the incredible people who joined us for our (dare I say famous?) annual dinner (apologies if I miss anyone): Daniel Hadden, Daphne Tsevreni, Dimitris Bistolas, Andrea "Dre" Merino, Coy Clayton, Greg Fisher, Amanda Krause, Arnaud (Arno) Azoulay, Dan Christian, Dario Valsagna, John Kelliher, Kim Kelliher, Joshua Carr, Kenneth C. Lippman, Lindsey Geores, Liz Philpot, Matt Mette, Preston Kwok, Shradha Bhatia, Soledad Rodriguez, Sujean Lee, Lance Zaal, David Long, and Ivan Garza! And, of course for Soledad Rodriguez for planning all of it (to perfection). We'll see you next year!

It was a great week at Arival San Diego last week. As I am settling back into the regular workweek back in the GMT+8 timezone, I thought I would reflect on an amazing couple of days spent in the company of partners and a carefully curated program by the brilliant minds at Arival that gently nudges us to ponder on the broader patterns of change in our industry. ?? Curated experiences are very much in demand as we saw the likes of Batch (a party-planning OTA), TripShock (Water-based tour OTA across Southeast US) and Virgin Experience Gifts that emphasises on the value of gifting experiences present their booming businesses in the future of Distribution Forum. ?? Content - The basics are key when we are in the business of capturing the minds of people on vacations. People only start to engage when there are at least 20 reviews. It is critical that content in the listings answer the concerns raised in reviews. And as always mobile first and the hero image/ title combination is key to the capturing the eye initially. Bravo to Peter Muttitt and Nicholas Merrett for the very entertaining and useful tips. ?? Dynamic Pricing - Back in the day, I used to spend my full working week consulting on strategy based on revenue management business intelligence tools to hoteliers that would be benchmarked based on the competitor set and market behaviours. This is possible partially because of the fairly standard attributes (and location) that hotels share despite each of them having their own unique USP. The landscape is vastly different in the attraction space where the world famous San Diego Zoo would be vying for the same limited time (and money) of a traveler who might choose to visit the shores of La Jolla to enjoy sunset with the sea gulls or even visit or choose to spend a restful day on the Old Town Trolley Hop-on Hop-off. It is amazing to see pioneers in the industry like Caitlin Montgomery, Evan Reece and Greg Loewen are producing amazing results by using history to predict future trends and set strategy and always, always testing and learning (if there's no calibration, it's not considered dynamic pricing!) The party that rounded it off at the Air & Space Museum located in Balboa Park (which I hear is even bigger than Central Park!) fascinated the Astronomy Club Schoolgirl in me.

It was a great week at Arival 360 in San Diego with the team. At Walkway we learned a ton, and remain confident but humble in the ways we can help solve some real problems faced by the Experience Travel Industry. Special thanks to Douglas Quinby & Bruce Rosard for welcoming us into the industry and conference! I left feeling very excited for the next one ;o) A few thoughts below: ?? Dynamic Pricing is the Future Many savvy operators are experimenting with dynamic pricing, but connectivity between reztech and OTAs is still limiting full implementation. While interest grows, many are managing prices manually—or not at all. As booking platforms start to embrace this shift, it’s only a matter of time before dynamic pricing becomes standard. The real question is: how easy will it be to implement across multiple channels? ?? Benchmarking Business Performance Operators spend hours manually tracking competitor prices, which underscores the need for automated tools that make it easier to gather critical insights. As pricing strategies get more complex, current methods for gathering competitive intelligence just won’t scale. ?? Navigating Copycat Tours and Market Saturation With digital platforms making it easier to duplicate successful tours, standing out in crowded marketplaces is becoming harder. Like e-commerce, the next “best-seller” is only a click away, pushing top operators to innovate to stay ahead. ?? Unlocking Value in Capacity-Constrained Experiences Certain experiences, like exclusive boat tours, hold unique value because of limited availability. Identifying these “cornered assets” can be a game-changer, allowing operators to boost profitability and rise above the competition. ? Challenges for New Entrants in Review-Weighted Markets Star ratings dominate search results, keeping established players at the top and often stifling innovation from new entrants. There’s an opportunity to level the playing field and foster fresh, innovative experiences. ?? Rising Competition Among OTAs While many distribution channels remain stable, agile players like Civitatis and Headout are carving out niches by targeting specific demographics. Meanwhile, established platforms are innovating to maintain their market advantage. The experiences industry is evolving fast, and while change can be daunting, it’s also opening doors for operators ready to embrace new opportunities. We’ve had amazing conversations this week, and they’ve inspired us to double down on building tools to help experience operators thrive. ?? ?? What trends did we miss at Arival? cc: Alex Grant, Harry White I'm glad the corgi sales team was able to connect us at the hotel restaurant! #TravelTech #DynamicPricing #ExperienceEconomy #MarketTrends #Walkway

I can’t believe that just happened… If you had told me a few years back that a Walt Disney Exec (thanks Caroline Boone!) and the CEO of Arival (Douglas Quinby) would be discussing my once 'crazy idea' of starting a sandwich walking tour business (A Man and His Sandwich) on the main stage of the travel industry's preeminent conference in front of 1000+ attendee, I’d tell you that you were dreaming. But that’s exactly what just happened. On Day 1, presentation 1, main stage of Arival San Diego. And that’s why I attend - the opportunity to meet the incredible people at the forefront of the travel industry. To take inspiration from conversations with them back to NYC. I only wish I said that quite as eloquently on Dan Christian's Travel Trends podcast when we recorded at Arival... ?? From connecting with fellow tour operators to learn how we can uplift our individual businesses and industry as a whole Justin Buzzi, Christy Hunter, Pete Kootsikas, John O'Sullivan, Brian Cain, Kai Kaapro, Shannon Largen, Renee Ventrice, Hana Robinson. To meeting with leaders at OTAs that are fundamental to the survival of niche tour businesses like mine Douglas Weiss, Matt Orr, Mike Petrakis, Penny McNamara, Shauna S., Coco Nunez, Anna Cashman, Carolina Ramirez. And having chats with new and old mates who represent the full spectrum of what makes the travel industry really tick Joe Martin, Vitaliy Levit Lorena Q., Mark Topley, Christopher Lovatt, Chris Murray. And yet the biggest impact always come from the intangible moments created over dinners, drinks or activities that occur when you drop so many likeminded travel pros in the same place. Although its going to take me a while to recover from some of those tour operator war stories John… Can’t wait for next year already.