Editor's note: This blog post is part of Bókun's Better Together series.

This guest post is by Michel Cervantes Martínez, Director of Customer Acquisition at Grupo Xcaret where he leads the digital strategy for sale and marketing of products including tours and attractions.

(Versión en Español)

We planned this as two phases, the first being connectivity with existing OTAs and ensuring accurate mapping of our products. Then, we’d move to the next phase to where we would be adding the development of a channel for smaller retailers and wholesalers once we master the functionalities that can be integrated with Bókun (Widgets and Agents).

In the second half of 2019, we worked on three areas—with the OTAs, with Bókun, and with the Integration department of Xcaret Group. With the OTAs, we informed them about the automation of reservations through Bókun, updated commercial contracts and conducted connection tests. With Bókun, we learned about the administrative structure, how to use the platform and developed the API with support from the integration team of Grupo Xcaret engineers.

Then came 2020. It was a particularly difficult year for tourism and while we had to make several adjustments internally, including postponing our second phase with Bókun, we are now back on track and preparing the release of our e-Partners program for Q1 2022.

I would like to highlight the great collaborative work with Bókun that has brought benefits for a region like Cancun and Riviera Maya where Attractions is of great relevance but technology is not yet fully adopted.

Bókun has helped Grupo Xcaret to move strongly towards process automation and to provide more modern tools for our sales force.

Another growing trend that we see is the adoption of channel managers in Attractions and Tours worldwide, which reinforces that Grupo Xcaret is on the right track with Bókun.