The first approach is arguably more challenging than listing tours on OTA websites, but both can be highly advantageous to growing your customer base and filling out your booking calendar. So, we\u2019ll discuss how to leverage both avenues and use these resources to your benefit.<\/p>\n
Our guide covers: <\/strong><\/p>\n B\u00f3kun tour operator software helps you manage bookings, availability, and customer experiences across all sales channels and partners. Our tool supports your operations as you grow so you can scale efficiently (while avoiding disorganisation and other blunders). <\/em><\/p>\n To explore our software and features, keep reading or start a free trial<\/a> (no CC required).<\/em><\/p>\n Just as you want to partner with reputable agents, agents want to partner with reputable tour operators to be assured they\u2019re suggesting high-quality experiences for their clients \u2014 and entering into mutually beneficial partnerships.<\/p>\n You want to show potential partners that you: 1) are well-organised, 2) have ideas for mutually beneficial partnerships, and 3) consistently provide five-star experiences for travellers.<\/p>\n So, we suggest that you:<\/p>\n Only after completing these foundational items should you contact travel companies to discuss partnership opportunities.<\/p>\n When considering who to contact, think about your existing markets and markets you\u2019d like to enter.<\/p>\n For example, if you run a <\/em>wine tour company<\/em><\/a> in Italy and find that most of your customers are from Europe but want to attract travellers from North America, you could reach out to US travel agencies to expand your customer base. <\/em><\/p>\n It can be helpful to:<\/p>\n You can contact travel agents via email, phone, or social media. (More tips on how to craft these outreach messages below.) <\/em><\/p>\n In addition, many tour operator software systems provide B2B marketplaces for travel businesses<\/strong> to connect and create strategic partnerships. These systems often also have tools to create, store, and manage partner contracts.<\/p>\n Our solution, B\u00f3kun<\/strong><\/a>, includes a Marketplace with 27K+ partners<\/a> in the travel and tourism industry. These include tour guides like yourself, travel agents, destination management officers (DMOs), hotel and resort chains, rental providers, attractions like museums and theme parks, and more.<\/p>\n The diversity of our network allows all tour companies to find complementary businesses for potential partnerships. Not only can you partner with travel agents, but you can also create packages or combo deals with hotels, car rentals, attractions, or other tour or activity providers. These partnerships can give you a leg up on competitors by allowing you to offer customers more convenient or unique experiences. <\/em><\/p>\n B\u00f3kun users who started selling through the Marketplace in 2023 saw an average GBV increase of 43% \u2014 <\/em>see how one diving company <\/em>increased bookings by 40%<\/em><\/strong> via B\u00f3kun Marketplace<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n When making the first contact with potential partners, you should clearly outline what you offer, what you\u2019re requesting, and the mutual benefits of the partnership.<\/p>\n There are three common ways to leverage partnerships:<\/strong><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> Three steps & best practices to create tour packages<\/a><\/p>\n After pitching high-level ideas and initiating partnership conversations, you must iron out the more nitty-gritty terms and conditions.<\/strong> Discuss commissions, promotional strategies, timelines, etc., and document these in a contract agreement. Then, both parties sign and agree on the terms.<\/p>\n Best practice: <\/strong>It\u2019s a good idea to create a standardised contract<\/a> you can amend quickly per partnership, as this speeds up the paperwork process when establishing bespoke agreements.<\/p>\n In addition to creating partnerships with travel agents, online travel agencies (OTAs) are invaluable for reaching new customers.<\/p>\n Instead of hiring and utilising travel agents, many travellers rely on OTAs to research destinations, plan vacations, and book travel with trusted providers because they\u2019re free and convenient. (And in this digital age, their popularity only continues to grow.)<\/p>\n Some major OTAs include Viator, GetYourGuide, Expedia, Trip.com, Klook, Civitatis, Headout, Tiqets, and more.<\/p>\n Each of these sites sees millions of monthly visitors<\/strong> (so enrolling in just one or two of them can exponentially broaden your reach). Plus, everybody who visits these sites intends to research and book travel. <\/strong><\/p>\n These are audiences in the market for what you offer and actively searching for travel experiences \u2014 so these are who you\u2019re most likely to convert into customers. <\/em><\/p>\n In addition to these popular sites, there are also a variety of niche-specific OTAs<\/strong> for booking certain experience types. For example, there are OTAs for boat charters<\/a>, food tours<\/a>, bike tours<\/a>, etc. You can research sites related to your specific offerings and list tours there.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> 10+ best travel distribution channels for tour operators | B\u00f3kun<\/a><\/p>\n Joining an OTA is easy and (usually) free \u2014 all you have to do is create a business account on each site, fill in some details and background about yourself, and submit your profile for review. Most OTAs have account-building tools that walk you through the steps to get started.<\/p>\n After creating an account, you can create listings for your tours and experiences. Again, most OTAs have product builders to walk you through this.<\/p>\n Here is where fees come into play. Most sites will charge for product or listing reviews<\/strong> (these may also be called subscription reviews, depending on the OTA).<\/p>\n If listings are approved, they\u2019re added to the OTA site. If they\u2019re denied, you\u2019re back at the drawing board (and must edit, re-submit, and pay another fee).<\/p>\n Then, most OTAs charge a commission or booking fee on each reservation<\/strong>. Fees will vary from OTA to OTA, so we suggest reading the fine print to ensure you fully understand the pricing structure and what costs to expect (or contacting a customer service rep if you have more questions).<\/p>\n As a <\/em>Viator preferred partner<\/em><\/strong>, we\u2019ve written guides on using Viator and selling tours on their site. You can check out more details in our guides below: <\/em><\/p>\n Don\u2019t overwhelm yourself by joining a dozen sites at once.<\/strong> Remember, each site sees millions of monthly visitors, and you only have so many bookings to fill. <\/em><\/p>\n Instead, select two to three major OTAs to test<\/strong> (check our list above for ideas) and a few niche-specific sites<\/strong> (you\u2019ll want to research OTAs related to your industry).<\/p>\n Then, monitor the number of bookings you receive per channel<\/strong> to measure how these sites perform for you.<\/p>\n Perhaps you enrol in Viator, Tiqets, and a few niche-specific OTAs but receive 60% of business from Viator. This would tell you to list more experiences or open up more availability on that site. You could even take it a step further and run PPC campaigns on those sites to promote your experiences above or more frequently than competitors. <\/em><\/p>\n You can add more sales channels and gradually grow your distribution network. <\/strong>Test new channels and monitor performance, double down on channels that perform well for you, and experiment with adding new products or running PPC campaigns.<\/p>\n Then, as you broaden your distribution network, using a <\/strong>channel management system<\/strong><\/a> is essential<\/strong>. This way, you don\u2019t have to manage bookings and availability on each site individually (and constantly jump between sites trying to keep everything updated in real-time).<\/p>\n A channel manager (like B\u00f3kun) allows all OTAs to work in sync.<\/strong> They feed bookings to a central calendar, and that calendar updates availability across all sites as you receive new reservations.<\/p>\n No matter where they find your tours, all travellers can see your current available time slots, so there\u2019s no chance of double bookings.<\/p>\n We won\u2019t discuss all of these systems in this post; we\u2019ve written a complementary guide you can read here: <\/em>Best OTA booking systems for tour operators<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n Here are a few extra tips to drive new bookings:<\/p>\n Lastly, (as discussed above), you need to continually report on where bookings and revenue come from<\/strong>, then test new OTAs or renegotiate partnerships.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a \u201cset it and forget it\u201d process. If you\u2019re in the business of continually increasing bookings and revenue, then you need to track where you earn business and use that data to guide your growth strategies.<\/p>\n Check out more tips and details here: <\/em>Ten ways to get more tour reservations<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n We\u2019re a Tripadvisor brand and Viator partner <\/strong>with over a decade of experience working with tour and activity providers to support and scale their operations. Our tour operator software<\/a>, B\u00f3kun<\/strong><\/a>, includes an array of features to manage all areas of business. It includes:<\/p>\n We offer a free trial to explore our software<\/strong><\/a> and see how it works for your teams. After the trial, you can upgrade to a paid subscription to access our core features and join the B2B Marketplace. Then, we have extra perks for users selling on OTAs:<\/p>\n Get started with B\u00f3kun today.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Related reads: <\/strong><\/p>\n There are two approaches for tour operators interested in partnering with travel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,40,38],"tags":[268,147,269],"class_list":["post-3309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grow-your-bookings","category-increase-revenue","category-otas-and-resellers","tag-how-to-partner-with-travel-agencies","tag-reseller-partnerships","tag-travel-agencies"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
How to establish partnerships with travel agents<\/h2>\n
Preliminary steps<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
Strategies to make connections<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"Discover](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/bokun-discover-partners.png\")
<\/p>\nLeverage partnerships & establish contracts<\/h3>\n
\n
Don\u2019t forget about online travel agencies (OTAs)<\/h2>\n
![\"Online](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/bokun-online-travel-agencies.gif\")
<\/p>\nHow to join OTAs & associated costs<\/h3>\n
![\"Viator:](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/viator-create-new-account.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
Best practices for using OTAs<\/h3>\n
Other tips to grow your distribution network & earn new customers<\/h2>\n
\n
Getting started<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n