For small tour operators, frictionless customer experiences should begin long before the tour itself. But with only 11% of leisure travellers not getting frustrated when planning a trip online, there’s clearly a lot of work to do to improve this stage.
It’s not surprising that so many travellers are clenching their teeth when booking a getaway. Research from Skift finds that more than 30% of adventure tour operators can't accept credit card payments online, and research from Arival finds that more than half of day tour operators aren’t using an online booking system at all.
If today’s digitally savvy customers aren’t able to make a booking without picking up the phone, there’s an issue that needs to be addressed – and soon.
Of course, it’s understandable that many tour operators pressed pause on their technology investments over the pandemic. With the whole travel industry screeching to a halt almost overnight, digitally transforming wasn’t a priority. But the pandemic is behind us now, and it’s time to move forward.
In fact, the small tour operators that don’t invest in their technology soon risk being left behind in the industry. Digitalising is crucial for many reasons, including:
Enhancing the customer experience
Streamlining workflows across the business
Staying agile in an ever-changing travel industry
We can no longer hold the pandemic responsible for customer experience hiccups. It’s crucial for small tour operators to prioritise excellent customer experiences now more than ever, and with almost 60% of customers preferring to engage with companies digitally, it’s clear that technology should be part of this.
If digitally savvy travellers can’t book a trip online, what’s to stop them from simply looking elsewhere for a seamless digital booking process? Not digitalising could be a barrier to many travellers, and therefore a barrier to many sales.
Tour operators can use technology to enhance the customer experience in various ways, whether it’s by personalising their marketing messages or facilitating easy online payments. The benefits of investing in a positive customer experience are highlighted by the fact that.
Becoming more efficient is a key driver for many businesses’ tech adoption, and in the travel industry, these efficiencies can be far-reaching. Technology can help tour operators to streamline everything from sending marketing emails to generating sales reports to reminding travellers that their next payment is due.
For the businesses working with a reduced headcount, as many are following the pandemic and its resultant labour shortages, automating and simplifying manual tasks is even more invaluable.
Not only does this save time, but it can optimise companies’ resource and expenditure – something that’s particularly important as we navigate a difficult financial landscape.
The travel industry is vulnerable to change, with financial uncertainties, geopolitical tensions, the threat of future pandemics, and other challenges. The best thing that tour operators can do is stay as agile as possible.
Investing in technology is also the key to agility. By allowing tour operators to automate the predictable, technology can free up teams to handle the unpredictable – whatever this may look like.
If you’d like to explore this topic further, and read our tips for staying agile in an ever-changing travel industry, we’ve got a free whitepaper with your name on it.
Aside from obvious barriers, such as budgetary constraints, it’s understandable that small tour operators might be hesitant to invest in technology. We speak to many businesses that are no longer satisfied with their online booking platform, for instance, but that don't know what to look for in their next investment.
Here, we consider three of the barriers to adopting a new online booking platform, and how small tour operators can overcome these potential issues.
Legacy booking systems are often too rigid to be customised easily in-house. As a result, businesses often either need to wait for the platform provider to make the changes or simply put up with the lack of functionality.
Businesses should look for a flexible booking platform that supports low and no-code integrations and custom-built add-ons, like our modular, developer-friendly SaaS solution RezKit. With RezKit, tour operators needn’t rely on us to make changes, meaning they’re always in control of their own technical destiny.
Many booking platforms have been designed for large travel and tourism companies. As such, they often contain features that small tour operators don’t need, but still have to pay for. This means large upfront costs, plus lengthy implementation processes.
Small tour operators should look for platforms that can be customised to their bespoke needs, as above, but that can scale up alongside them. We at RezKit believe that businesses should be able to pay for the features they need, as they need them, so that investing in a new platform doesn’t become an unnecessary financial burden.
Overwhelmed teams don’t always want to add more technology to their stack, particularly when they’re already navigating marketing platforms, sales dashboards, content management systems, and much more. Large systems can also be complicated to learn, which busy teams don’t always have the time for.
Businesses should invest in technology that will genuinely ease their customers’ and employees’ pain points, rather than meeting “flash in the pan” trends (AI travel agents, we’re looking at you).
Tour operators should also look for platforms that can integrate with their existing tech to create one user-friendly interface. For instance, RezKit is simple to use, offers use cases across the business, and is built to integrate with an ever-growing library of APIs. This means it complements and enhances business processes, instead of restricting or complicating them.
There’s a very real tech opportunity for small tour operators today, and those that seize it will be better prepared for the unpredictable future of travel. Here at RezKit, we want to make the journey as quick, simple, and rewarding as possible for small tour operators with our hassle-free booking platform.
To read our thoughts in more detail, don’t forget to check out our whitepaper, Staying agile in an ever-changing travel industry: An opportunity for small tour operators.
In it, you’ll get to read more insights about the industry, plus our tips for futureproofing your operations. Go ahead and download your free copy here.
