travelinsights100

Distribution has been a common (if not cumbersome) part of life for airlines and hotels for many years now.  But hotels and airlines are only the thin edge of the wedge when it comes to the abundance of tourism products that could potentially be distributed.  Destination product suppliers like walking tours, whale watching, boat tours, bicycle tours, bus tours, and the like are, for the most part, absent from distribution channels.  Although there are a few applications that cater specifically to small tour operators almost none of them have been built with channel management capabilities.  Even fewer resellers have invested in developing connectors to these applications because no of them has emerged as the leading platform.  The main reason for this appears to be that distribution is not something that most small companies think about.  Most small operators think of distribution as the local concierge or the Visitor Information Centre who refers a new customer.  Very few think about selling their products through a travel agent half way around the World.  Even fewer can think about using a software that can allow them to manage selling their products through multiple channels.

One of the reasons why I love tourism is because I believe that unlike any other industry, tourism gives individuals the opportunity to build a business without a huge upfront investment in time, materials, or capital.  I watched Slum Dog Millionaire recently and there is a scene where the lead character finds himself becoming a tour guide to German tourists at the Taj Mahal.  The tourists pay the boy a relatively large amount of money to have him guide them through the Palace and give them an insider’s view of the history of the attraction.  He soon realizes that he can make a good income by becoming a guide.  He even finds additional ways to make money like taking photos of the tourists and selling the photos to them.  Although this is a fictional scenario, it struck me that anyone in any destination in the World can be that little boy (a.k.a. tour operator), if they have the wherewithal.  My challenge, from a technology standpoint, has always been how do I help make that tour operator successful.

I believe the way that I can help that tour operator be successful is by making sure they have lots of tourists waiting for them at the Palace and that they’ve already paid them so they don’t have to worry about collecting money after the fact.  The other way I can help that tour operator is by making sure that every traveler going to the Taj Mahal knows that the tour operator is there and what they can expect to experience if they pay for a tour with them.  The caveat is that the tour operator must be able to price their products with enough of a margin to make it competitive but still leave room to pay a commission to a reseller.  This one caveat, however, is tied to a much greater issue and that is coming to grips with the concept of selling globally.

There is no easy way to instill the concept of distribution and resale pricing in tour operators, it really seems to be something that has to be promoted by local trusted organizations like the tourist board or CVB.  That said, if the technical capabilities exist within the tour operator on-line booking software, then the tour operator is more likely to experiment with distribution.  In the next few years we are going to see more and more tour operators distributing their tours & activities through websites and resellers all over the World.  In advance of that day, we can expect organizations like OpenTravel to build standards that promote interconnectivity and we can expect to see tour operator software companies develop tour & activity distribution platforms that set the stage for more global delivery of local tourism products and services.