From Paris to Rimini, Spokane to London, we went where you are: at the coffee queue, on the show floor, around a karaoke bar table…
Here’s the thing though, whatever the city, the conversations followed a similar theme. Operators across the globe are wrestling with common questions. Namely, how do I make AI useful? How do I sell to travellers who book at the last minute? How do I price smarter? And how do I sell on more channels without drowning in admin?
We’ve broken down what we’ve heard, what the data says, and what you can do about it. We were banging this drum at the events but if we didn’t manage to catch you here is your cheatsheet.
AI: Less hype, more help
AI came up in almost every conversation we had. But the key here is nobody chasing magic spells, they want to know how to get their time back.
Operators want AI that cuts admin, not AI that makes the headline. The operators moving first in AI are starting by getting their houses in order. Clean product details. Accurate availability. Tried and trusted pricing. AI amplifies whatever is already there, so a business that runs smoothly gets the most from it. Then AI earns its keep on the repetitive tasks: the admin that eats into the majority of your day and holds your business growth back.
At Black Tech Fest in London, the wider tech world said the same. Measure AI on outcomes, not activity. And always verify output, remember AI is speaking for your business and brand.
Meanwhile, travellers have already moved. TOMIS, who spoke at the Gray Line Partner Summit, tracked AI-referred visits across tour operator websites it manages. They jumped from about 6,300 in 2024 to more than 121,600 in 2025. That’s nearly 20x in a year. Travellers are asking AI where to go. Make sure it can find you.
Your takeaway: Keep your product details updated and accurate across everywhere you sell. AI assistants pull from all of it. Then put AI to work where it saves you hours: reading booking emails, writing descriptions, answering “what’s free next weekend?”
Inspired early. Booked late.
Travellers start dreaming weeks ahead. Then they book on their phone, often very soon close to their desired experience.
We heard it at every stop. At the VAC in London, Blackpool Pleasure beach showed booking curves where nearly all demand lands in the final days before visit.
Our data tells the same story. 47% of experiences booked on Bókun are booked within a week of travel. In peak season, the median booking window shrinks to just six days.
There’s a twist. Your channels fill your calendars at different sprints (based on Europe data):
- Reseller marketplace: median booking window of 17 days
- OTAs and agents: median booking window of 11 days
- Direct online: median booking window of 4 days
- Walk-ups and phone: median booking window of 2 days
OTAs and resellers fill your calendar early. Direct fills it late. You need both.
Your takeaway: live availability and instant confirmation on every channel. Be visible early. Be bookable late.
Peak season, same price? Not for long
Dynamic pricing was the hot topic of the season. From Spokane to London, the same question kept coming up: how do you price by demand without living in spreadsheets?
The upside is real. Speakers at VAC London reported first-year uplifts of 5-30% from dynamic pricing. Yet most operators leave that money on the table. 4 in 5 top experiences on Bókun don’t charge more for peak dates. The 1 in 5 who do see a median price rise of 11%. Bókun’s largest operators are 1.5x as likely to price for peak.
However, there’s a line not to cross. VAC also flagged “pricing surveillance”: in a NBC News test, nine people checking the same ticket saw 8 different prices. Smart pricing rewards demand. But, it doesn’t punish the customer.
Travellers will still pay for what they value. Tripadvisor’s Seasonal Index report found that 82% would cut shopping, accommodation and transport before they cut experiences.
Your takeaway: set higher prices for peak dates in advance, before demand arrives. Price by date and departure time, not just season.
Connected wins
Almost every piece of partner advice we heard this season came back to one thing: a connected booking system. One source of truth. Live availability. Instant communication. Everywhere you sell.
OTAs keep winning share. Across the industry, booking experiences through OTAs has grown 200% since 2019, according to GetYourGuide. And, Airbnb Experiences now connects directly to systems like Bókun, so availability, pricing and bookings stay in sync.
Connectivity also opens new markets. In Ireland, North American visitors make up 30% of arrivals in July but 44% of spend according to the Central Statistics Office. Visitors from continental Europe grew fastest, up 9% on last year. Every Irish operator we met at Flavours of Ireland wanted to reach those new markets and relay less on one channel. Connectivity is how to get there.
In Nuuk, Vestnorden showed the next frontier. With new airport infrastructure and better international access, Greenland is set to become one of the most exciting adventure destinations in the coming years. Its operators want growth that stays responsible and locally anchored, and the reach to sell worldwide.
Your takeaway: list where your travellers already look. Being listed isn’t the same as being sold, so choose your channels deliberately and keep every one in sync.
Collaboration beats competition
Our favourite moments of the event season had nothing to do with the stands. They happened when operators stopped competing and started building together.
In Rimini, we spent an hour at the Bókun and Viator community event introducing suppliers from across Italy to each other. Introductions quickly turned into ideas: selling each other’s experiences, sharing audiences, building packages no one operator could offer alone. Operators who once saw each other as competition left talking about growth together.
In Paris, we invited three suppliers who had never met onto a private boat. By the time we docked, they had an outline of a combo product that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the city.
The same spirit ran through Arival Spokane. Instead of waiting behind our stand, we went and sat with operators, took a breather alongside them, and started real conversations. And at Launchpad Americas pitch booth we saw operators come together to pitch brand new experiences ideas that will move the industry forward.
And we also can’t forget the recognition of our friends who won Arival Spokane Spotlight Awards:
- Railbiking in Greece: Attraction Innovator Award
- Friends Guides: Tech Trailblazer Award
- TouringBee: Industry Innovation Award
A huge congratulations to them and their teams on their innovation, passion and extraordinary traveller experiences.
And, the last word goes to operators
None of this season happens without you. To every operator who dropped us a DM, booked a meeting, grabbed us for a coffee catch-up, or even donned their running trainers for an early morning 5K in Spokane: thank you! You brought the questions, the ideas and the deep-dive conversations that shaped another energy-packed event season.
Some of the best insights didn’t come from the keynotes, but from a hallway catch-up, a shared lunch break or a chat at the end of a long day. That’s why we keep showing up and believe in the power of the experiences industry.
We closed the season at our Community Connect event in London, alongside World Travel Market, co-hosted with Viator and Tripadvisor. We were joined on the stage by two of our own operators who shared their stories.
Veditalia started with a single Duomo tour in Milan 2011. Today it runs guided tours, day trips and shore excursions across Italy. Managing Director Davide Inzeo talked about why quality beats scale, the importance of one centralised to avoid overbookings and pricing date by date rather than season by season.
Lava Show began when two people watched lava pour down a canyon during the 2010 Fimmvörðuháls eruption and had an idea. Founder Ragnhildur “Ragga” Ágústsdóttir built the world’s only live lava shows, with real molten lava at 1,100°C, now in Reykjavík and Vík. She shared how she sells alongside her neighbours, and how gift cards become rain-checks when the weather cancels a winter tour.
Different countries. Different products. Same lesson: get the foundation right, and the extraordinary follows.
See you on the road in 2027
The season might be over, but the conversations are definitely still in full swing. We’re taking everything we learnt, everything we shipped, every inspiration we gained into 2027 and we will be back on the show floor early next year rejuvenated and raring to go.
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Meet us on the road and want to find out more about what Bókun is all about? Try out your 14-day free trial today.