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Written, compiled and edited by Nicole Kow and Stephanie Kutschera Designed by

Written, compiled and edited by Nicole Kow and Stephanie Kutschera Designed by Barbra Silva Comparison Guide The #1 booking solution for tour and activity providers worldwide Trekksoft is trusted by thousands of tour and activity companies in 130+ countries across the globe. Learn about the software in a demo call 3 No matter how established a tour & activity operator is, we continually hear the question: ‘Are we connected with the right OTAs?’ This guide is designed to give you all the information you could need when comparing which Online Travel Agent (OTA) is right for your business and can provide you with both high quantity and top quality bookings. In this guide, we thoroughly analyse Viator, Exepdia Local Expert and Get Your Guide. We also decided to include Airbnb Experiences within this comparison, who, compared to the big three, are still relatively low in market share. However, this year, Airbnb are making their mark in the tour & activities sector with notable partnerships and a clear aim to give travelers a truly “local” experience. Enjoy! Author’s Note Nicole Kow & Stephanie Kutschera Content Marketing Team, TrekkSoft Content What is an Online Travel Agent (OTA)? 5 Chapter 1 - Marketplaces 6 Viator (TripAdvisor Experiences) 7 GetYourGuide 9 Expedia Local Expert 11 Airbnb Experiences 13 Chapter 2 - Market Share 17 Chapter 3 - Website Traffic 21 Chapter 4 - Commission Rates 26 Chapter 5 - Policies 30 Chapter 6 - Getting Connected 33 API Connections 34 Sign Up 37 Chapter 7 - Distribution Strategy 39 Final Words 42 5 Online travel agents (OTAs) act as online marketplaces where tour and activity suppliers from all over the world can list their services. OTAs then spend a lot of time and money aggregating services from all over the world and marketing their inventory to a global customer base. The main players in the industry at present are Viator (now renamed to TripAdvisor Experiences), Expedia Local Expert and Get Your Guide. These large marketplaces have long established their presence in the travel industry and are doing a fantastic job at growing their virtual presence, and even successfully bridging the transition from online to offline, real-world customer experiences. What is an Online Travel Agent (OTA)? Marketplaces 1 7 Viator, founded in 2006, is now a TripAdvisor company based in San Francisco. The online marketplace is available in 11 local languages and has more than 3,500 partners worldwide to include travel providers like Hilton and Wyndham, airlines like Swiss and Etihad, loyalty programmes like American Express and Mastercard, technology partners like Tavisca and Open Jaw, and travel sites like Lonely Planet and Priceline. In April 2018, Dermot Halpin, president of TripAdvisor Attractions and Vacation Rentals sent a memo to all employees announcing that both TripAdvisor Attractions and Viator will be branded internally and on supplier communication to TripAdvisor Experiences. For customers booking tours and activities, for now, it will remain as is, however, this will most likely become one name in the future. When we communicate with both Experiences and Rentals employees, we’ll refer to this business unit as TripAdvisor Experiences and Rentals. Viator (TripAdvisor Experiences) 8 Viator's main selling point is that it connects your TripAdvisor profile to your Viator profile, allowing site users to quickly browse and book activities, without having to leave the site. Tour and activity operators currently can include their contact details and a direct website link on their TripAdvisor profile. This allows direct bookings whether the company is connected with Viator or not. Recent discussions amongst suppliers suggest that the company is removing the contact details section from listings and replacing with a "Book Now" button that leads directly to Viator. This appears to be at a trial stage on a selected pool of operators. Whether or not this change will become permanent, no one knows as TripAdvisor has yet to make a formal statement. In late 2017, Viator announced that they were rolling out a new platform for travel agents to book from 104,000 trips from more than 2,400 destinations and earn an 8% commission for each booking. As of May 2018, 23,000 agents have registered to become Viator Travel Agents, and Viator products reach over 150,000 global travel agents through our distribution partners. 9 GetYourGuide provides over 30,000 tours and activities in over 2,500 destinations across more than 110 countries. Based in Berlin, GetYourGuide claims to find the most relevant and personalised trips for its users. In 2015, the company secured a whopping $50 million in funding, a sum unheard of before in the sector, to grow its operations. Then, in November 2017, the company announced that it secured another $75 million in funding to expand its operations internationally. GetYourGuide has now raised $175.5 million total since its founding in 2009. In 2017, the company also secured partnerships with airlines EasyJet and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, allowing customers to book tours and activities after booking their flights via their websites or mobile apps. Other prominent partners include Emirates, Hotels.com, hotel.info, airberlin holidays, Opodo, Thomas Cook and Lufthansa Holidays. Tao Tao, co-founder and chief operating officer, shared that he wants the company to ‘keep growing.’ Tao said ‘there’s ample room’ for all marketplaces ‘to grow’ in the sector because a vast majority of the activities around the world aren’t bookable online yet. GetYourGuide 10 In a recent interview with Tnooz, GetYourGuide CEO Johannes Reck said that; ‘True success in the future of travel comes down to personalization.’ The company's long-term strategy and newly secured funding will go towards making the booking experience as personalized as possible. GetYourGuide aims only to show relevant content tailored to the user. To achieve this, they will have predictive algorithms to estimate customer value, smart recommendations based on the user’s travel history, and intelligent touch points that know when a customer is more likely to be considering booking another trip. So in the next five-to-ten years, you’ll be seeing travel companies doing that and doing that very well and those will win and the others who don’t do that will lose. 11 Expedia Local Expert was launched back in 2014 and is part of Expedia Group that operates the well-known Expedia travel booking platform that offers hotels, cruises, flights, and now, "Things to do". "Expedia Local Expert is a one-stop resource for local activities, tours, and transportation in more than 750 different vacation destinations." Source: Expedia Website When you sell on Expedia Local Expert, your products will be distributed online in 17 different language sites, across 57 different websites including Orbitz, AirAsia Go, Hotels.com and Ebookers. During the online booking process for accommodation or flight tickets via Expedia, "Things to do" will be displayed towards the end of the booking process, allowing customers to add tours and activities to their "Cart" seamlessly Apart from online booking capabilities, Expedia Local Expert has a unique approach among major online competitors with offline sales. The program has in-destination kiosks staffed by ‘400 concierges serving guests face-to-face 365 days a year,’ according to Expedia. These are located in hotels around the world, offering in-person advice to customers. Expedia Local Expert 12 In February 2018, Expedia also launched "Event Tickets" to further leverage on their online booking and payment capabilities and to truly provide a one-stop shop for travellers. Skift reported in April this year that the Expedia Group had finally shared information on how well its tours and activities business has been performing. ‘During the Q1 2018 earnings call, CEO Mark Okerstrom said the company generated “north of half-a-billion dollars in bookings” in full-year 2017 across its Things to Do and Local Expert businesses — a figure later confirmed by company spokesperson Sarah Gavin. Okerstrom also said that in the first quarter of 2018 Expedia grew its activities transactions by approximately 20 percent.’ Skift, April 2018 13 Despite most people thinking that Airbnb is a real estate business, the company has a current global market share of 6% in the tour and activities sector. Airbnb Experiences offer activities which are hosted by ‘locals’ in that city, ranging from dinners cooked by chefs to surf lessons by professionals. ‘Airbnb Experiences are activities designed and led by inspiring locals. They go beyond typical tours or classes by immersing guests in each host’s unique world.’ Source: Airbnb Experiences Website Parin Mehta, APAC trips Operations Director for Airbnb described their experiences as trying to create ‘something slightly different’ to ‘build really local and authentic experiences in every city.’ For large companies interested in listing their trips on Airbnb Experiences, a cookie cutter tour or activity will not be accepted. On the other hand, if you have the capacity to experiment with a new kind of tour, this could be the platform for you. For example, you could have one your guides become the face of the Experience and offer an intimate and unique activity where their enthusiasm is shared for the destination or their interest. Airbnb Experiences 14 Launched in November 2016, Airbnb CEO, Brian Chesky, recently said the platform ‘is uploads/Geographie/ the-large-marketplace-comparison-guide.pdf