The rising of OTAs
Ivan Ilijasic
Founder - ViagemIT / Orioly | Helping Tourism and Enterprise Companies Use Tech Solutions to Increase Revenue 4x Times and Optimise Operations
For some small tour operators is terrifying to hear that GetYourGuide (let's call it GYG) recently announced that will invest the incredible amount of $484M in their operations.
But before going nuts thinking that big OTAs will come and take over your local market, let's analyze the implications of this sort of news carefully.
Should you, tour and activity provider, be worried?
Travel and experience market is worth $150 billion, with projections to grow more $33 billion in the next 12 months.
This expansion of the market and massive investments, as the one announced by GYG, indicates that the market is doing well and there are many opportunities for tour operators to grow despite their business size.
So, what I have to say is NO, no need to be afraid, and instead, be excited that you are in the right business at the right time.
Imagine if the news was "GYG lost $500M in market value due to the poor performance of the tour and activity sector".
Why this news is great for small companies?
As I said, this indicates that the market is warm. Numbers are showing that and the news is showing that as well.
Despite how much these OTAs grow, they still depend on tour suppliers to keep the gears turning.
You should use the OTAs to leverage your business, imagine them as a powerful channel to put your products in front of a wider audience.
What I want to say is, instead of fighting against technology, you should embrace it and improve your profit.
If you are still sleeping, wake up!
My grandma always said "Don't put all the eggs in one basket", and this is totally true.
It is time to use a multichannel approach. Keep doing your great job with local partners, go for tourism boards and DMOs to make new partnerships, but also take advantage of OTAs and Google to reach as far as your business can go.
If one strategy fails, you have a sort of different ones to take advantage of and keep the ball rolling.
I believe that not only in tourism but in all the other areas, there will be always room for the ones who do a great job and don't miss opportunities.
This was the message I wanted to share with you today.
Any feedbacks or discussions regarding this topic, feel free to reach me.
To the ones who already use OTAs as a distribution channel or are willing to start using them, maybe you will be interested in our new App feature, the OTA Channel Manager.
You can know more about it clicking on the link below:
Travel video reviews promoting direct bookings
5 年You are totally right. Whatever business you are in there is always room for the smaller enterprise. Look at the dominance of the supermarkets and yet almost every town has a small market shop. Look at the dominance of Amazon and the smart and usually small retailers are adapting their business model to compete. And so it is with tourism at whatever level your business is at. You are so right if GYG is investing so much then they must see a growing market. It's no different to us at overseasinfo.tv. We've been compared to TripAdvisor and apart from being at start up stage and tiny by comparison, we're different. We don't grade and we don't sell anything. We only rely on content from our advertisers and the public to give information and feature ideas of places to go, things to do and where to stay. There's a big world out there and whatever your business there's always room for one more as long as you can give value and something extra.