Last Updated: 23rd May, 2022

Traveling to a new place without any information about the lay of the land is a thing of the past. Today, you can search for all the major attractions in and around a particular place and get all the information like distance from the city center to the modes of transportation available to reach those places with ease. This is the reason behind the increasing number of travel booking marketplaces in the eCommerce sector. 

According to Statista, the global market size of online travel booking platforms amounted to $517.8 billion in 2020. The market size is forecasted to reach around $983.2 billion by 2027.

The segment offers sustained profitability and is a hot favorite among entrepreneurs today. As is the case with any business idea, we must first find out ‘why’ should one enter into a particular field, and the travel & adventure booking platform business is no exception. So, without further ado, let’s try to find the answer to this ‘why’ before we get into exploring other aspects of the same.

Table of Contents:

• Reasons to launch an online travel activity booking website
• Business model
• Top market players in travel activity booking business
• Revenue model analysis
• Must-have features for online travel activity booking website
• Conclusion

Why Online Travel & Activity Booking Is a Profitable Business Idea?

• Travel made easy: Today, travelers have access to economical transportation options, well-built infrastructure, and a focus on tourism. These factors are now adding some of the best-kept secrets and lesser-known places to every traveler’s bucket list. With travel made easy, it is the right time to leverage this segment.
• Profitable venture: According to Statista, it is forecasted that, by 2025, 72% of all travel & tourism sales globally will be made online, up from 65% in 2020, These stats highlight the increasing penetration of digital platforms and changing consumer preferences. This is why starting an online travel & tourism platform is a profitable business venture with sustainable growth potential.
• Lack of niche-based websites and apps: When you wish to travel, you would prefer to book your accommodation in advance, but wouldn’t you prefer booking the adventure activities at the same time and confirming your itinerary beforehand? Of course, you would. But most of the websites and apps offer generic solutions and as an entrepreneur, you can solve this pain point and create a platform that connects travel activity businesses and travelers. Sounds good, right?
• It’s easy to start: Gone are the days when you needed a full-fledged development team to create your website. Now, you can have a website up and running in no time thanks to the availability of out-of-the-box solutions like FunAway. These solutions offer hundreds of templates and have extensive customization options to design a website that resonates with your vision, mission, and brand image.

Psyched about launching a travel activity booking website? Your excitement is well-placed. But before we discuss the must-have features for your website, we should understand how the business functions.

Business Model of a Travel Activity Booking Website

The travel activity booking business model consists of two participants:

• Travelers: These are tourists looking for fun and engaging activities on their trips. On an activity booking website, a traveler can search/select their desired activities. Next, he/she will create a reservation request and make payment. Once done, the traveler will receive a confirmation for booking approval.
• Activity Organizers: Activity organizers can be a local guide or an event management firm that provides travel activities. The organizer is responsible for listing the activities online, receiving payment for their booking requests, and sending booking approval to the seeker. From adventure sports to sightseeing events, there are a variety of activities that travelers seek.

When starting your business, you will be bringing the aforementioned entities onto a common platform — Your travel activity booking website. Here is a graphical presentation of the business model.

Travelers today often plan shorter vacations and they wish to make the most of them during the few days that they have. Take a look at some of the prominent names in this segment.

Top Online Travel Activity Booking Businesses

Source: Statista

• Airbnb: It is the world’s largest online travel company with a market cap of $104.25 billion. Airbnb has over 6M listings with 41k+ active experiences listings in 220+ countries. Plus, it has registered a record 1B+ guests to date. 
• Booking.com: A Dutch travel agency and a subsidiary of Booking Holdings, Booking.com is the world’s second-largest online travel company after Airbnb.com. Launched in 1996, It has a market cap of $98.52 billion, as of December 2021. 
• Expedia: Expedia is an American online travel company and a subsidiary of Expedia Group. Founded in 1996, Expedia.com offers a wide range of vacation packages, activities, attractions, and more. It has more than 50,000 experiences and activities for travelers worldwide.
• Trip.com: It has over 400 million members, 1.4 million hotels in 200 countries/regions, and 2M+ flight routes connecting more than 5K cities. Similar to other travel firms on the list, Trip.com also offers a wide range of activities/attractions for travelers to search & book from.
• MakeMyTrip: Launched in 2000, MakeMyTrip is an Indian travel company and one of the leading firms with a market cap of $2.9 billion. From custom tours to shore excursions and adventures, MakeMyTrip offers a variety of activities for travelers. 

These are the top 5 leading market players with a combined market cap of over $248 billion as of December 2021. This is nearly 45% of the overall market size of the global online travel sector (forecasted at $561 billion in 2021).

If they can do it, you can too. But remember this, building a website with a local twist can prove to be a game-changer. If you can identify the expectations of your target audience and deliver something they desire then you can capture a significant market share within a short span of time. With that said, let’s take a detailed look at the revenue models of online travel agencies (OTAs).

How to Make Money with Online Travel & Activity Booking Business?

How are OTAs making so much money? There are multiple methods through which online travel firms can earn revenue. Below, we have highlighted some of the key revenue channels:

• Commission from Bookings

Most OTAs earn money via commissions on every booking. These commissions can range anywhere from 5% to 25% and vary from brand to brand and property to property. As a new entrant in the market, start attracting more vendors to your marketplace by charging lower commissions or giving certain perks for achieving some milestones.

• Customized Trip Offerings

You can cater to the needs of your customers by helping them in creating a customized trip during their visit to a designated location. You can organize their trip and provide services like airport transfer, arranging accommodation, local transportation, and creating an itinerary for an additional fee.

• Advertisements

Also, termed as pay-per-click, advertisement is another major source of revenue for OTAs. Here, travel firms can charge service providers for boosting their services over others. The OTAs charge a per-click fee. For instance, hotels pay OTAs a substantial fee to rank above organic searches.

In addition to these, there are other monetization options like launching premium memberships for customers when scaling up or adding a rating system that highlights the best vendors on your website.

Now that the revenue channels have been discussed, we come to the most critical part of this blog post – The essential features that your website must have in order to give a strong start to your travel activities booking website.

Must-have Features and Functionalities of a Travel Activity Booking Website

Website Overview

Create a clean and minimalistic website design that has a user-friendly interface. Images or text should not be cluttered and serve as value addition and not as a hindrance to seamless user experience. Here are the most important sections that you need to work on moving ahead:

Homepage

The heart of your website — Homepage — must clearly explain what your website is all about. The first fold of the homepage should contain a search bar along with the names of top destinations mentioned under it. Other sections can include:

• Testimonials
• Popular around the world
• Travel guides
• Media and press releases
• Footer with social media links
• Top navigation

Important modules can be added in the top navigation area, such as:

• List an experience
• Login
• Sign up
• Request a trip

Your website’s top navigation should be simple and concise. It is recommended that you only add the most important links in the top navigation and leave the rest for the footer area.

Other than that, your online travel activity booking marketplace should have the following features in the front-end:

• SEO-Friendly URLs: Optimized as per search engine norms, SEO-Friendly URLs tend to be keyword-rich and short. Your marketplace should offer sellers the flexibility to rewrite/create SEO-Friendly URLs.
• Map View Feature: Enable service providers to add a precise location for their travel activities. This helps activity seekers to track and reach the location with ease.
  
• Multicurrency: An important feature in eCommerce, multicurrency allows seekers to view prices of packages as well as activities in multiple currencies.
• Booking Calendar: Make trip scheduling effortless and date selection super easy for travelers with a calendar view-enabled booking system. With the booking calendar feature, your travelers know exactly which dates are available so they can plan in advance. 

And more.  

Now, with the basics in the right place, let’s discuss features specific to travelers and hosts in an online travel activity marketplace.

Features for Travelers

Travelers are the people who will spend the money on listed tours and packages. Hence, features related to them require special attention. The most critical features on different pages of famous travel websites have been discussed below:

You can gain a competitive edge in the market if you move smartly and spoil your customers with convenience. Travelers don’t mind spending a few extra bucks if it makes their trip more comfortable. In order to cater to their requirements, you can add the following features to your website:

1. Search Places

A search feature must be enabled where users can search for destinations and activities to do in a specific location. Key highlights of a search feature include:

• A large database of information about places
• Catchy design and smart labeling
• Auto-suggestions
• Traveler – book activity

2. Activity Listings Page

This page lists the activities to do in a particular city and must have a crisp design that highlights:

• The price of each activity mentioned upfront
• A short description of the activity
• Number of reviews mentioned against each activity

3. Filter Options

Filter functionality should be present in the activity listing page to help travelers sort experiences based on their interests, popularity, reviews, pricing, etc. Filters come in handy when you have a substantial number of activities listed at and near a destination. So, don’t forget to incorporate this feature in your travel and activity booking portal.

4. Social Login

A single sign-on feature where all the details are fetched from your social media profile to create a user account on the website. Social Login provides a secure, feasible, and quickest way to engage users and drive growth. It increases the conversion rate by up to 50%. This is why almost every OTA uses this feature.

5. Activity Details Page

As soon as a user clicks on an activity from the listings page, they should be redirected to the page containing information about all activities. Users should get all the information they require about the desired activity on this page. They can choose to book online, contact the provider, or seek answers to their queries.

6. Activity Photos & Videos

Showcase photographs and videos related to activities in a special section — you can also label that tab as ‘Gallery’. Add a carousel slider where all images are displayed and can be browsed with a single click.

7. Insider Profile

Just below the images section, feature the activity provider’s information. It is very important as the explorer will get a more transparent picture of the person providing that particular activity/experience.

You can also add a brief introduction to the activity provider in the “Your Guide” section on the Activity detail page. This information can be fetched from the Guide’s profile page and a link to their “Full Profile” can be hyperlinked. The following information can be included on the profile page:

• Name
• Profile Picture
• Location
• Contact Functionality
• Wishlist
• Review Functionality
• Provider Verification

These features might appear basic but they must be part of your portal as they foster trust between your business and the visitors.

8. Reviews

Reviews help travelers to evaluate the quality of the services provided by different vendors. Enable the reviews section on the activity details page to help users in choosing the right service provider to facilitate their travel plans.

9. Map Integration

Further down the activity detail page, a map section can be integrated on the page to showcase the exact location of a destination and/or activities to the travelers. This traveler-friendly feature should definitely be included in your travel website.

Note: If you are building your website on a clone script, make sure this feature is available in order to provide a better user experience.

10. Nearby Experiences

Similar to the “Also Check” or “You may Like” sections on eCommerce websites, this feature can help you list nearby experiences on multiple pages. You can use this widget to list more activities based on the visitor’s activity on your website.

Travelers can book multiple activities during their trip to a particular destination and this section allows them to explore more options on your website and share them with their friends as well.

11. Save and Contact Option

Simple yet effective. This feature enables users to save a listing and get the contact information about a specific activity provider. This feature allows them to:

• Save an activity in their wishlist
• Enables website visitors to contact activity provider for queries

12. Making Reservations

‘Making Reservations’ feature is the backbone of any travel booking website and is the biggest revenue generator for the company and vendors alike. Visitors can make a reservation from the activity details page by providing information like date, time, and the number of people.

While some activities can be booked instantly, others need to be approved by the respective service providers.

13. Making Payments

Integrating secure payment methods is a must for every eCommerce business, including travel businesses. Your website must have a streamlined payment process that is supported by a neat user interface. Enable payments from major payment processing platforms like Visa, MasterCard, Amex, PayPal, and Discover Cards.

Note: If you are building your website on a clone script, opt for the one that integrates multiple payment gateways. Only then will you be able to compete with big players like Vayable and Peek.

14. Account Menu

Some more useful options should be included in the account menu for the convenience of your registered users. These include:

• Profile: Profile page for travelers
• Messages: A special inbox for users
• Reservations: Section listing past and upcoming reservations
• Wishlist: A place for activities marked as ‘Save to collection’
• Invite Friends: This is part of a promotional activity where users get some perks whenever they recommend a user to make bookings from your website

15. Request a Trip

You can add this feature to help users request a specific trip. In fact, several companies are offering tailor-made plans among their listings. These plans include airport transfers, accommodations, travel arrangements, and specific activities in a particular area to name a few.

This feature works best for users who do not want to spend their time exploring every aspect of the trip individually and want everything to be pre-planned as per their convenience.

16. Gift Cards & Discount Coupons

‘Gift Cards’ option enables users to purchase an electronic gift card, usually a coupon code, that can be redeemed later by other users as well. Do not forget to add redemption of discount coupons during checkout to attract more users from a price-sensitive market.

Features for Host or Activity Providers

Offer free listings on your website if you want to attract more vendors to join your portal. Here are some interesting features that you can provide to service providers on your website:

1. List an Experience

This is the area of your website, vendors can track any feedback posted by a customer, manage listings, schedule posts ahead of time, and more. Highlights of this section include:

• Fetch the basic information of service providers like title, location, a maximum and minimum number of people, duration, and price
• Add photos to a listing
• Prepare a schedule
• Complete profile
• Verify bank details where payments are to be forwarded
• Reviewing and Publishing

Some sites give distinct badges to top activity providers. These badges can be showcased on a profile to help travelers know that a vendor is credible. The criteria for earning these badges and their advantages are as follows:

• The vendor needs to have a minimum number of reviews
• Offerings from premium users (with badge) should appear higher on the website
• Offer perks like free passes, press opportunities, and referral bonuses
• Add this feature to your travel discovery website and motivate your vendors to deliver excellent service

2. Account Menu

Activity providers should be given a dedicated panel to have complete control of their website presence. Here are some important links to include in this section:

• My Experiences: This allows the providers to see their listed activities and edit them
• Reservations: Past and upcoming reservations made by travelers
• Payout Settings: Bank account details and related information
• Transaction History: This section will display a list of monetary transactions

3. Official Blog

Add a blog to publish travel-related posts and news on a regular basis and an awesome way to get more leads through inbound marketing. A blog helps you in improving your website’s positioning on different search engines. Make sure that your website’s script includes a blog-powered section that can be managed easily using a CMS.

4. Floating Main Navigation Bar

Travel eCommerce sites often opt for a floating navigation bar that remains on top even if you scroll down. This also makes navigation easy and improves the user experience.

5. Go to Top Button

As a travel website displays many activities on its listing page, a ‘Go to Top’ button makes sense. It will save the hard work required to browse through the activities and return all the way to the top by scrolling.

Conclusion

After hotel booking websites, travel and activity booking marketplaces are the next big thing for the travel industry. If you are planning to launch a travel activity booking website of your own then this is the best time to do it.

Make sure you find the software solution that fits your website requirements and includes the aforementioned features. Alternatively, you can opt to create your website with an out-of-the-box solution like FunAway and have a brand new website up and running in very less time.

Last Updated: 13th Nov, 2021

The travel industry has grown exponentially over the past few years. One of the many factors responsible for the growth within this industry is the increase in the purchasing power of consumers. Advancements in technology have proven to be the most important factor that has improved the experience a traveler seeks.

According to Statista, the global economic contribution of the travel industry reached 4.6 trillion USD in 2020. Amid the easing pandemic restrictions and increasing business opportunities in the tourism industry, these numbers are expected to increase even further. To excel in the travel industry, it is important for entrepreneurs to identify the right business model and the ideal travel & activity booking software to successfully launch an online travel marketplace.

In this blog post, we will present the top 8 Travel & Tourism Business ideas for entrepreneurs who want to be a part of the travel industry. Without further ado, let’s jump right in.

Table of Contents

• Online Hotel, Flight and Rental Car Booking Marketplace
• Run Vacation Rental Booking Marketplace
• Launch Online Travel Discussion Platform
• Online Travel Adventures Booking Site
• Online Bike Rental Marketplace
• Start a Snorkeling and Diving Equipment Rental/Booking Business
• Skiing Activity Booking/Rental Business
• Start a Boat Rental Marketplace
• Conclusion

1. Online Hotel, Flight and Rental Car Booking Marketplace

With digitalization taking the center stage, people prefer to Google and search for places they plan to visit. Before traveling, transportation and accommodation are two important elements to consider during the research phase. To help you understand the working of a hotel/flight booking website, look at the following process diagram.

The model of this business is based on the concept of the marketplace. The hotel lists itself on the booking website. When a customer books a room from the marketplace website, the hotel is notified about the booking and the travel website owner or manager deducts an amount as commission. Booking.com is a prime example of such a marketplace.

Current Status of Hotel, Flight, and Car Rental Marketplace

The online travel market has a huge scope for eCommerce marketplaces that offer hotel, flight, and rental car booking functionality. According to a report by Allied Market Research, the annual growth rate for the online travel industry is projected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1% since 2016. The instrumental resurgence of the travel industry is a result of travel giants and startups offering value/convenience to their customers.

For instance, travel industry behemoth Amadeus has partnered with Hopper, an emerging travel app, to introduce an instant rebooking feature (in case of any cancellation) to its marketplace. Similarly, Expedia Group is merging loyalty programs across its travel brands (Orbitz, hotels.com, Expedia, and more) to expand member benefits.

Business Opportunities in Hotel, Flight, and Car Rental Marketplace

It is an effective business model that requires business owners to understand their niche target audience and generate relevant leads. When choosing this business model, consider all the pros and cons while planning the marketing strategy.

If you wish to launch a travel booking website, try to conduct in-depth competitor research to know what your competition provides. Ideally, you should document your requirements based on the functionalities you require. Finally, make sure you understand what the future holds for the travel industry after which you compare and hire a website development partner to create the website as per your requirements. You can also choose an online travel activity booking software that delivers ready-made tour & travel marketplace. This will save you hundreds of thousands of development hours.

2. Run Vacation Rental Booking Marketplace

Booking hotels and cabs cost more money as compared to renting a place. It all started back in 1996 when a couple in Colorado was looking for a way to rent their ski condo and created a website for the same.

In rental booking, property owners list their apartments/condos/flats for rent. Travelers can search for rental places in their desired areas and choose the one that best suits them in terms of size, cost, location, etc. Renting property is advantageous for people traveling with families for a longer duration. To understand the business model better, refer to the diagram below:

Current Status of Vacation Rental Booking Marketplace

2021 saw an uptick in family travelers on Airbnb and Expedia’s Vrbo. According to a new study by The Points Guy, these travelers are seeking a vacation rental space to enjoy and explore during extended weekends while continuing to work remotely during weekdays. As the travel industry rebounds from the COVID-19 crisis, Airbnb – the industry giant – recently announced the launch of 100+ new innovative upgrades such as flexible dates selection (rather than fixed dates) for vacation rentals, expansion of support agents to almost double, use of smart text selection to simplify listings for hosts, and much more. 

Moreover, Airbnb released a 2021 report on Travel & Living with insights across the industry. It includes key findings such as – 200 million flexible date searches since January 2021, overall bookings in 94,000 cities in 12 months (ending on April 30, 2021), and an increase in longer stays vacations (28 days and more) from 14% in 2019 to 24% in Q1 2020. These stats reveal the explosive demand for vacation rentals and also how the pandemic has fundamentally changed travel.

From emerging marketplaces such as Evolve to industry giants such as Airbnb and Vrbo, several key players are playing an important role to consolidate a buoyant accommodation industry.

Business Opportunities in Vacation Rental Booking Marketplace

For any new business, a good marketing strategy is needed. As the rental vacation industry has presently shown growth post the crisis, it will attract a good number of hosts and renters. Therefore, to start your vacation rental marketplace, you need to be specific and different in your service provision with good SEO services, promotional services, branding, photography, and videography to spread awareness.

3. Launch Online Travel Discussion Platform

This platform makes it easy for travelers to decide whether they should undertake the trip or not and if yes, what is the best option while traveling. These platforms provide advisory to help people know the best places to travel and notify nearby tourist places of the destination through user-generated content (UGC). Check the graphic below to get a clearer idea of the business model.

These platforms provide you with detailed information about the places that you must visit in a set time of the year. The websites help you compare fares offered by various hotels and you can opt for the services you want to avail.

Current Status of Online Travel Discussion Platform

One of the most renowned companies in the online travel discussion platform is Tripadvisor. Initially, a marketplace that suggests the best places to visit with details of hotels and activities in the desired place, Tripadvisor later added the trip bookings feature emerging as a one-stop solution for travelers to plan, book, and take a trip. Still, the spirit of this firm is to meet the customer’s expectations by providing guidance (thanks to over 934 million reviews) from those that have been there before.

Initially a subsidiary of Expedia Group, Tripadvisor later became an individual firm due to the corporate spin-off. Starting with an initial capital investment of $4 million USD, the company today enjoys a net worth of nearly $5 billion USD – termed as a classic consumer success story in an Harvard Business Review article. TripAdvisor has shown tremendous growth and gained a reputation because it reduces the work for marketers.

But despite being a popular medium, it often faces backlash due to fake reviews on its website. For instance, recently the Tripadvisor team suspended reviews of the 3-star victorian hotel “The Grand Hotel Scarborough” following an influx of review submissions from people who are not staying at the hotel.

Business Opportunities in the Online Travel Discussion Platform

Some rival businesses tend to bring the other one down and it is easier for a site like Tripadvisor to be a target. To build a successful marketplace like Tripadvisor, you need to ensure the marketplace stays authentic with minimal/zero false entries on your website. Hence, while creating such a marketplace, one should be fully prepared for the upcoming challenges. Here are some of the points that need to be taken care of.

Fraud Reviews

Review fraud is a well-known issue that these platforms face. Buying and selling reviews have become a common practice for listing owners these days. Fraud reviews affect the brand image as the audience loses trust in the marketplace resulting in reduced overall website traffic. To minimize such fraud instances, a dedicated team should be available to monitor the platform activities at all times.

Marketplace Security

Starting a marketplace such as Tripadvisor means providing travel bookings that include online payments once the traveler books and shares details on the website. Here, any kind of security breach would result in data or even payment theft, bringing your business down. Hence, to prevent security concerns, website development should be done in such a way that it gives priority to the safety of the customer and their data.

Personalization

Personalization provides a better experience and makes it more appealing to travelers. Changing to a customer-centric strategy leads to a considerable rise in website traffic as well as leads.

Competition

When you have knowledge about your competition you get to plan things beforehand. Developing a strategy for the market is the only way you can deal with the competition.

Travel Season

Season and time of the year are the most important things which have to be taken into account while traveling. People prefer to travel during the months of April-October, Christmas, and New year. For this reason, you should be ready for the highs and lows during vacations. A good marketing approach would be to attract people in the off-season through various discounts.

4. Online Travel Adventures Booking Marketplace

Traveling was never meant to be restricted to just sightseeing, trying different cuisines, and discovering museums. Often, many travelers wanted to undertake new adventures and focus on experiencing a city/country. This demand created an opportunity for business owners to invest in an adventure gear rental marketplace – a profitable business idea. While the essence of travel continued to evolve with the years gone by, the industry came to a premature halt during the pandemic. Now, amid the easing travel restrictions and the increasing interest of people in seeking adventures, adventure booking websites are gradually returning to normalization. People are looking for different destinations that offer unique adventures that they can undertake. For instance, places like Australia and New Zealand offer skydiving, cliff jumping, bungee jumping adventures whereas Turkey offers the subtle hot air balloon adventure, Costa Rica offers water rafting and the list is never-ending. 

GetYourGuide, Viator, and Adrenaline Hunter are some of the popular adventure booking marketplaces online. Adventure booking websites have become immensely popular over the years and below is a graphical representation of its business model:

Current Status of Travel Adventures Booking Marketplace

The travel adventure industry is showing great signs of progress as customers seek variety and adventures post-pandemic as per the Forrester report. The adventure tourism market valued at $112 billion in 2020 is projected to reach an astonishing $1.1 trillion evaluation by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 20.1%, according to Allied Market Research.

Several tour operators utilized the time-off last year to devise creative Travel & Tourism Business ideas and be ready for the post-pandemic boom. For instance, Insight Vacations – a website offering premium tour guides, partnered with Anneka Manning – an Australian author and founder of cooking school Bake Club, to start a food-themed tour of Tasmania in October 2021. Similarly, a US tour operator smarTours collaborated with CVS – a US healthcare company to encourage vaccinations with a OneStepCloser sweepstakes.

Business Opportunities in Travel Adventures Booking Marketplace

The adventure travel trends build a positive outlook of the industry, creating an opening for travel adventure business to outshine in the coming years. The travel activity portal should be social media-friendly as people undertaking adventure activities share their experiences on social media leading to word of mouth marketing.

According to Stratos Jets statistics, around 70% of customers research for travel using their smartphones and it is estimated that around 700 million people will be making their travel bookings online by 2023. This makes mobile-friendly marketplaces and smartphone apps an integral part of travel business growth. Entrepreneurs in this business or planning to open a travel activity marketplace should make their websites robust and mobile-friendly.

You can hire a team of web designers and developers to build the website or can use an already existing system like FunAway – a turnkey online travel activity booking software that enables the host to connect with travelers and assist them. It provides features like calendar management, easy booking, social media signup, and more.

5. Online Bike Rental Marketplace

Sharing economy businesses have prospered over the years, especially after the emergence of Airbnb. The Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Bike rental marketplace is one such collaborative business idea where trusted bike owners connect with users looking to rent or borrow a bike. Renting a bike is extremely popular especially in cities where people commute daily amid traffic congestion. The business model of the bike rental marketplace works as such:

A bike rental website provides a platform for bike owners to make money by renting their equipment to potential rentees at a reasonable price. Also, the website admin earns via commission on bookings, premium listing fees, on-page advertisements, and other revenue channels on the marketplace. Spinlister is a prime example of such a marketplace.

Current Status of Bike Rental Marketplace

Amid the pandemic, cycling has emerged as a safer, healthier alternative to commuters. According to a report by The NPD Group, in April 2020, adult leisure bikes saw a significant jump of 121% in sales reflecting the growing consumer demand. The trend continues as the global bike-sharing service market size is estimated to reach from $3.3 billion in 2020 to $13.7 billion in 2026, as per Statista survey.

Business Opportunities in Bike Rental Marketplace

Urban policy and planning Journal – Cities, recently published a new paper citing the environmental benefits of bike-sharing services. The study says that bike-share travelers saved around 500 tons of emissions during the 2014-2017 period in NYC. As people become increasingly aware of the environment, the bike-sharing and rental industry is bound to prosper even further.

6. Start a Snorkeling and Diving Equipment Rental/Booking Business

Snorkeling is a popular underwater recreational activity where divers swim on the water’s surface facedown to relish the marine environment. Snorkelers require these equipment to breathe underwater. There are many diving lessons to learn about snorkeling equipment and swimming methods. It requires three pieces of equipment:

• A curved plastic tube called a snorkel, used for breathing underwater
• Mask to protect nose/face from water
• And Diving fins to swim

Diving equipment such as these is either sold or given on rent by the sellers in a snorkeling/diving equipment marketplace. Aqua-Lung, Cressi Sub, and Seavenger are among the industry leaders in the global snorkeling equipment market.

Current Status of Snorkeling Equipment Rental Business

With a contribution of around $11 billion in the US alone, the recreational scuba diving and snorkeling equipment market is poised for incremental growth, according to a report by the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA). Also, Statista recently published a survey report that highlights that in the year 2017 US had approximately 8.38 million participants in Snorkeling activity. These numbers have grown substantially and will continue to increase even further as the travel industry rebounds.

Business Opportunities in Snorkeling Equipment Rental Business

The popularity of recreational activities such as snorkeling has dramatically increased highlighting the need for a reliable snorkeling equipment marketplace. While there are a few leading manufacturers/suppliers of such diving equipment in the industry, online marketplaces are few and far between. Hence, it is an excellent opportunity for a business owner or an entrepreneur to invest in a snorkeling equipment marketplace (for rental or sale) by choosing the right travel & activity booking software.

7. Skiing Activity Booking/Rental Business

Skiing is another popular recreational activity as well as a competitive sport that attracts a lot of attention/tourists thanks to the Olympics. While people often viewed this as an extreme sport, new and promising marketplaces such as Liftopia (skiing and mountain activity marketplace) are changing this case by making Skiing more affordable and accessible to the average consumer. 

The skiing activity booking marketplace connects users (skiers and snowboarding enthusiasts) to ski resorts around the world. Also, there are skiing equipment rental marketplaces where individual sellers offer skiing gear on rent or sale to the users. In both these instances, the marketplace admin earns a commission fee on every transaction.

Current Status of Skiing Activity Rental Business

According to a recent Statista survey, there were around 9.2 million skiers and snowboarders in the US in 2018. This number has grown substantially over the years. Moreover, the market for ski gear and equipment has also increased. The global ski gear and equipment market is forecasted to reach $1.74 billion USD by 2028, as per another Statista report.

Business Opportunities in Skiing Activity Rental Business

While the Ski season is almost here, it will be the industry’s third operating season since the pandemic began. From mountain resorts to ski equipment providers, everyone is planning for the season. Despite the crisis, the Skiing industry is showing great signs of progress as users show a keen interest in such recreational activities around the world. This is why skiing activity booking and the rental marketplace is a popular business idea worth investing in.

8. Start an Online Boat Rental Marketplace

Boat rental is a thriving industry that saw a significant uptick in bookings last year even as the pandemic affected the tourism industry. Boats emerged as a safe, reliable means to travel and enjoy while safeguarding occupants from crowded areas. From everyday sailor boats to luxury yachts, boat rental continued to remain a highly profitable business with instrumental growth. There are 3 prominent activities driving the demand for boat rental business namely – cruising, watersports (such as jet ski racing and powerboat racing), and fishing. 

Amid the surge in tourism and an increasing public interest in recreational activities, the boat rental market is expected to grow at a 4.71% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) reaching an estimated $25.8 billion by 2028.

Current Status of Boat Rental Marketplace

Boatsetter – one of the leading P2P boat rental marketplace delivered 15,000+ trips for over 60,000 customers in 2020. Similarly, GetMyBoat – another giant in the boat rental marketplace, achieved a 700% year-over-year (YoY) growth rate in 2021 recording an annual run rate (ARR) of over $158 million, as per the latest press release. 

According to Bryan Petro, CEO of GetMyBoat, the boat rental industry experienced a 3900% increase in demand during the pandemic last year with an influx of first-time renters. This is despite tapping the full potential as there are travel limitations and lockdowns in many parts of the world.

 Business Opportunities in Boat Rental Marketplace

The P2P boat rental business is a booming market that continues to see growth as promising new players such as Popey.co enter the market. It is a highly profitable business and is expected to see a surge in various regions of the world once travel limitations and restrictions ease. Moreover, the marketplace owner has a variety of revenue channels at its disposal such as rental commission, service fees, subscription plans, PPC campaigns, affiliate marketing, and more. Starting a P2P boat rental business is a good idea with great investment returns.

Conclusion

While the COVID-19 crisis ravaged the travel industry last year, it is showing signs of recovery as travel restrictions are removed. People are looking to travel more, seeking change and adventure. This has attracted hosts and startups alike to start an online travel business. But, before starting a travel marketplace, it is advised to devise a reliable business strategy, select an ideal tour & activity booking software, and identify the unique offerings that will provide your marketplace business with an edge over the competitors.

Last Updated: 14th Feb, 2022

Undoubtedly, the experiential and adventure activity segment perfectly conveys the idea of more local, adventurous, immersive, and active forms of travel. Nowadays, travelers believe that excursions, attractions, events, and activities make their travel experience better at an emotional level. Long underestimated, experiential travel and adventure activities are now crowned as the next big growth segment. According to a travel and activities report on ResearchAndMarkets.com:

• The global market for Tours and Activities Reservations is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 7.7% during the 2020-2027 period
• The segment is estimated to reach US$266.7 Trillion by 2027

In terms of online penetration, the share of adventure business or global in-destination activities segment is still much smaller than others in the industry. It demonstrates that experiential travel and adventure activity booking has a great scope or growth potential for new players and the following points exemplify this statement:

• Only a few adventure activity providers have adopted the latest technology (feature-rich marketplace solution, customized mobile apps, etc.).
• Still, the activity segment is fragmented.
• Major offline companies that are related to experiential travel and adventure activities, until now, paid less attention to digital.

Table of Contents

• How is Experiential Travel Changing the Industry?
• Shift from materialism to experiential
• How millennials are reshaping travel industry?
• The experiential tourism trend
  
• Business model of experiential travel website
• The future of adventure travel
• How to start an experiential travel website?
• Steps to grow your travel website
  – Identify the right channels
  – Increase the number of bookings
  – Invest in the right marketing approach
• Conclusion

How is the Experiential Travel and Adventure Activity Segment Changing the Industry?

Evolution in any industry is natural and the same applies in the travel industry. Jamie Wong, founder/CEO of Vayable perfectly describes this scenario in his statement:

“The most inspired types of travel today are those that you would never find in the traditional tourism industry.”

Earlier, all the mainstream travel experiences were the same but now experiential travel and adventure activities are giving travelers what they believe is real.

Understanding, evaluating, and adapting to changing travel trends are important for experiential travel and adventure activity booking segment to find out the answers to the following questions:

• What is the meaning of authentic travel in the traveler’s mind?
• How authentic travel is related to experiential travel and adventure activity booking business?
• How can activity booking marketers differentiate their product as more experiential?

General Shift of Travelers from Materialism to Experiential

Consumers are asking or looking for packages beyond packaged travel. They want personal fulfillment and more enriched lives through travel activities, experiences & learning. According to Skift, a media company that provides marketing services for the travel industry, “67 percent of opulent or well-to-do travelers would like to spend their money on activities than a nicer hotel. Travelers are going beyond the concept of relaxation, leisure, and traditional sightseeing.

They want to interact with local communities, visit schools, orphanages, museums and perform activities such as Skydiving, Rafting, Rappelling, Sandboarding, Paragliding, etc. Top experiences that travelers are demanding in 2019:

• Online travel and Adventure Tourism
• Online Travel Discussion
• Vacation Rental Booking
• Online Bike/Boat Rental
• Online activity booking, and more

To learn more about these business opportunities and fulfillment ideas, click here.

How Millennials are Reshaping the Online Experiential Travel and Adventure Activity Booking Segment?

For millennials, experiences and activities mean more than other resources of the place they are traveling. According to a report by iSeatz, Inc., a travel technology company, millennials are most likely to pre-book activities than other age groups. They are willing to spend on activities but not on accommodations. For them, hostels are a more appealing choice when it comes to staying and also it provides them more opportunities to meet like-minded individuals (another sort of experience).

Emerging from the pandemic: The Experiential tourism trend

When the pandemic disrupted normalcy, it changed the way people traveled. This prompted many travelers to choose experiences over a relaxing beach, a fancy hotel, or other amenities. Experiential tourism emerged as the new travel trend as shared by Travel Writer Brittany Varano in an interview with NBC15. From experiencing the great smoky mountains in Tennessee to hiking Devil’s lake in Wisconsin, Brittany loved to travel. The pandemic, if anything, pushed her to explore Wisconsin – her home state, and immerse in the beauty. 

“When you get to know a place deeper you know through the culinary aspect through the nature through actually kind of roughing it and to me that’s sort of been a little bit more fun than maybe just laying on a beach,” Varano said.

While Wisconsin saw a 20% dip in visitors in 2020 as compared to 2019, there was a renewed interest in road trips as shared by Anne Sayers, Acting Secretary for the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. “It’s as much about the drive as it is the things you’ll do along the way you’re going to want to stop and stretch your legs. Take a hike and stop for some of our awesome craft food and drink, take in some cultural arts and historical experiences so really a lot to offer for travelers looking to arrive by a car,” Sayers said.

Experiential travel inspires people and connects them with locals and lesser-known places that they otherwise wouldn’t have explored. GetYourGuide, Civitatis, Viator, and Tripadvisor are some of the leading brands that help travelers discover/book new experiences worldwide.

Admittedly, the pandemic has been a difficult time for the travel industry and travelers to experience what they love, but this hasn’t stopped people from googling their travel ideas online. Unforgettable Travel – a luxury travel operator, collaborated with digital marketing agency SEO Travel to compile a list of the world’s most popular bucket-list destinations based upon the average monthly searches globally.

Business Model of Experiential Travel and Adventure Activity Booking Platform

Running an online business effectively requires time, effort, and investment. Depending on the resources available at your disposal, the selection of the right business model can help you optimize the usage of time, effort, and investment. One such business model which requires less effort is an online adventure activity booking marketplace. This business model facilitates the transaction process between the activity host and the activity seeker.

The Future of Adventure Travel

As vaccine rollouts are beginning to ramp up around the world, more countries are opening up their borders for vaccinated tourists. For instance, countries like Nepal and Mexico have already opened their borders to welcome travelers seeking adventure. 

The adventure travel and tourism industry is driven by top market players like Intrepid, G Adventures, Contiki, and Topdeck. These leaders understand the importance of experiential travel and are deeply invested in the sector. For instance, an article published on Contriki shares a glimpse of the hidden London and a walking tour led by the city’s homeless community. Targeting the experiential travelers and visitors, this experience is part of a “London to Berlin” tour package, offered by Contiki. Similarly, Topdeck inspires travelers to experience an undiscovered Europe with its article on 7 unmissable experiences in Georgia, Europe.

Yet, the trend for the foreseeable period suggests that the future of adventure tourism is:

• Traveling in small groups or with a few friends either on their own or in a bubble
• To prioritize health and safety when traveling. This includes pre-departure Covid-tests, mask-wearing, digital sales, contactless check-in process, and more.
• Sustainable. According to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in 2021, countries around the world were asked to secure global net-zero emissions by mid-century to ensure a sustainable future. Hence, reducing carbon footprint, supporting local communities, and improving the impact journeys have on the planet will remain a travel trend for the future as well.
• Experiencing the wilderness and indulging in activities such as camping, hiking, fishing, etc. For instance, according to a recent outdoor participation report from the Outdoor Foundation, in comparison to 2019, there were 8.1 million more people who went hiking, 7.9 million more people went camping, and 3.4 million more people participated in freshwater fishing in the US.

There is no doubt that the experiential travel and adventure activity segment is gaining momentum as highlighted in the compiled list of most searched bucket-list destinations. Hence, starting your online adventure activity booking business gives you an advantage over your competitors, but you need an effective go-to-market (GTM) strategy that helps you capture the market segment and get more bookings once the pandemic restrictions ease worldwide.

How to Start an Experiential Travel and Adventure Activity Booking Website?

The experiential travel and adventure activity website can be designed around two different business models – single vendor and multi-vendor. In a single vendor, you are responsible for marketing your online business and generating enough bookings to sustain your business.

You also have to provide an optimal end-user experience to activity seekers who booked activities using your website. In multi-vendor, your sole responsibility is to market your online business and focus on adding more activity hosts.

Carefully consider the time and resources you have and select a business model. To simplify the business model selection process, try to answer the following questions:

• How much investment will go into developing an experiential travel and adventure activity booking website?
• How can I allocate time to run an online business and ensure the optimal user experience of activity seeker?
• Are there market-ready solutions available to support your preferred business model?

Depending on your answers, you will get a clear idea of the available resources and business model. 

Building an adventure activity booking website with advanced features requires a thorough analysis of the potential market and knowledge of the emerging eCommerce trends. For instance, most adventure activity booking websites such as Peek, Vayable, and Zozi list experiences curated by people. This is one of the biggest selling points among tourists and explorers. 

While any solution can be developed from scratch to support the preferred business model, solutions like FunAway, an experiential travel activities platform, tend to save time and improve your market readiness.

3 Steps to Grow your Adventure Activity Booking Website

1. Identify the Right Channels to Connect with Target Audience

To improve the return on your investment, you need to identify channels that are relevant for your online business. But, how to identify such channels? To enable you to start your research, here are a few examples with the relevant target audience – TripAdvisor, Instagram, Online Travel Agents (OTA), Partner networks like TrekkSoft (helps to connect with activity service providers), Hotels, and more.

2. Increase the Number of Bookings by Generating Interest

Engaging your target audience is not an easy one-time task. To generate interest, you have to create a sales funnel with three fundamental stages such as awareness, consideration, and decision. The next step involves planning your marketing assets according to the funnel stage. For example – In the decision stage, direct emails can be used to nurture a relationship along with call-to-action to book a travel activity.

3. Invest in the right marketing approach to achieve goals

A well-informed marketing approach with realistic and clearly-defined measurable objectives determine how your travel business will run. It is the fundamental step towards strategic planning and growth. To realize your business goals and build an authentic relationship with customers, utilize the following marketing trends for your travel website:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to organically improve your website ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs) and increase your audience reach.
• Social Media Marketing to spread awareness, build trust, and connect with potential customers looking for travel packages.
• Set up a robust affiliate program and reach out to potential affiliate marketers to fuel your business growth.
• Target your audience by age, interest, geographic location, and more with paid advertisements. A powerful marketing approach to skyrocket your conversions.
• Connect with the influencers to reach a sizeable audience quickly. These influencers doesn’t need to have millions of followers. Micro-influencers with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers will work. 

Working tirelessly on your travel brand and focusing on the defined marketing strategies will improve your sales results. 

Conclusion

While the travel industry operations have been subdued since the start of the pandemic either due to lockdowns, travel bans, or local restrictions; it is still better equipped to recover from the losses. This is because the industry was already undergoing digital transformation in the last decade prior to the pandemic. Consider this, according to a survey conducted in 2019 on British adults by Kayak – an online travel agency, the following findings were discovered:

• Nearly half of surveyed adults had never visited a travel agency in 10 years
• 1/5th of them had never visited one at all
• Yet the majority of them have used hundreds of online booking applications

There has been a drastic shift in consumer behavior and spending habits since the pandemic began and this has impacted the travel industry. For instance, a vast majority of experiential and adventure activities, that were sold offline either through travel agents or tour operators, are now offered via digital channels. The trends suggest that the upcoming years will prove more prominent for entrepreneurs who want to start an online business in the experiential travel and adventure activity segment.

About FunAway

FunAway is a self-hosted online platform that delivers a readymade experiential Travel and Adventure Activity Booking marketplace. The platform comes with an intuitive user interface, multiple payment gateways, commission management, and all essential eCommerce features. FunAway is fully customizable to launch a personalized travel activity booking website that meets your business requirements. 

Evolving trends have brought many changes to the travel distribution landscape in the past few years. Not just inevitable, change is now a necessity to remain relevant.  We can expect a great many changes in the future too, which will benefit both the sellers and travelers.

Before we jump to what 2019 will bring forth, let’s quickly take a look at the current events first, as they are going to transpire the veritable future of travel businesses.

By now we know the last year was all about keeping travelers happy by providing fast, simple and effective travelling solutions. Sellers have been doing it pretty much the best they can but to thrive in the overbearing competitive travel market, it’s time they ask the right questions to themselves.

• How travelers would want to travel in the coming future?
• How to adapt to the changing needs of the market be it technology or community related?
• We all want our travelling experience to be flawless, unique and thoroughly personalized?
• What else does technology have to offer?

Looking at your strengths and weaknesses, always ask what is it that you want to achieve and what will convert the future travelers into happy customers?

If we look at 2019, with artificial intelligence and enormous amount of data at their disposal, sellers can look forward to personalizing offers for higher revenue generation. But that doesn’t imply all travel companies just need to focus on AI and data.

With advanced technology at your fingertips, it is very easy to get distracted with a variety of like ideas that can bring you on top of your business. Having a clear mind and focusing on key suitable priorities must be the focus of businesses that aim at bringing profitable changes to their customers’ journey. Let’s have a look at the most anticipated trends that can help you achieve this in 2019.

Investment trends

In a recent report by Deloitte, the global travel industry gross net reached $1.6 trillion in 2017 and now accounts for an amazing 10.2% of the Global GDP. Travel giants like Airbnb and Uber along with many others continue to raise capital while many other tours and travel adventure companies are growing expeditiously.

Although we have previously seen a gap in funding, many investors are taking risks nowadays by investing outside core geographical areas like China, Latin America, South East Asia and India. Meanwhile, existing players are keeping up with the competition with their own venture investments.

Global travel industry is estimated to hit record revenue of $370 billion that accounts for a 5% growth by the end of 2018.

Machine Learning and QTrace

A subset of AI, machine learning equips a computer to undertake decision making for a given situation without requiring any human intervention. Big data empowers computers to do this and can help users with effective web search, dynamic pricing, speech recognition and many other things in the future.

The latest QTrace is yet another application waiting to utilize its full potential this year. A Bluetooth item tracker can now help you locate lost items like keys, luggage, your pet or wallet.

Investing in such arenas can eventually help your users avoid worry if they can’t find their valuables on a vacation. Availability of intelligent machines to help them out 24/7 can give them a smooth experience.

Cloud Computing

Digital transformation has been a key ingredient to maximize returns using customer information. Cloud computing uses scalable computer resources and IT infrastructure to harness large amounts of data to provide users with facilities like chatbots and virtual assistants all around the clock.

Use cloud computing to manage data efficiently across different channels like social media, review sites, affiliate networks etc. You can also directly integrate your information with data analysis tools to gain insights using cloud computing.

Read More: Things To Consider Before You Pick A Name For Your Business

AI, Voice Search and Robotics

Artificial Intelligence is all set to provide sellers with data that helps analyze customers and then tailor results in accordance with the demand supply pattern. Most communication platforms now come with in-built intelligence that has the capability to understand and interpret large amounts of data. This can help sellers offer an accurate and highly personalized experience.

Many travel apps are integrating voice assistants and natural language search into their user interface. Digital assistants will now accompany you everywhere and can book your tickets or find you a ride anywhere.

Robotics is another field gaining popularity in the travel industry by offering opportunities for creativity and long lasting customer relationships. Robots can actually get jobs done more quickly and effectively. These come with features like voice recognition, advanced sensors, great mobility and a unique ability to interact with their environment.

Focus on Travel Satisfaction and Safety

Increased communication channels focus on customer experience rather than any other marketing strategy. Retailers now invest in customer experience design & management, fraud prevention, guest relations and loyalty program management as a means for revenue generation.

Social media plays a dynamic role as sharing travel experiences and research on travel destinations helps users see brands for what they are and influence their buying decisions. Providing a seamless travelling experience like no check-in lines at the airport and looking for an eatery late night is what empowers customers to invest with you.

Geographic Distribution –Trending Destinations

Although United States and Europe have been home to amazing trending destinations previously, the winds are now blowing towards the East. A study shows that from the 2013 to 2017, the major share for travel tech is still dominated by the United States at 33%, but we can see new players like India at 31% and China at 10%.

The EU nations like France and Germany failed to attract more than 6-7% of tech and tourists. This clearly indicates that travelers around the world are focusing more on exploring the Asian countries.

Trending destinations can help you provide better deals, packages and discounts to your customers in their preferred locations.

Emerging Categories & Increasing Demand for Experiential Travel

The past few years have witnessed many lucrative changes in the services and experiences provided by the travel industry. The online travel market is no more limited to hotel and travel bookings.

The entire industry has experienced striking changes as machines have come of age. Digitization has helped sellers amass loads of data that they can now use to target customers. We are looking forward to many industry players investing in subsidiaries targeted solely on adventure treks, water sports and spiritual experiences.

Travelers will also be inclined to invest more on experiential travel rather than vacationing on the usual, much-frequented tourist spots. They look forward to spending more time, money and effort exploring local cuisines, lifestyles and culture.

‘Bleisure hotels’ are specialized to accommodate the suits, in case they want to enjoy the destination along with their business meetings. The MeliáDe Los Duques Hotel in Madrid is a great example that offers various activities like exclusive visits and guided tours promoting cultural tourism to its clients.

Knowing what exactly your customers want can help you earn loyal customers in the long run.

Read More: How To Outsmart Competitors With These Simple E-Commerce Tricks

The Comeback of Luxury Travel

Budget vacations and travelling is not something that everyone is looking for. A report by Amadeus suggests that luxury travel has a projected growth of 6.8% in the next decade which is more than the growth of overall travel being at around 4.8%.

Luxury tours are most likely to attract reward hunters who aim to get the most out of their travel be it an exclusive yoga retreat in North India or a private cruise sail in the Caribbean.  Travelers are seeking out extraordinary travel experiences and best of the facilities, and they don’t mind paying for it.

Customer profiling, pre & post travel support can encourage sellers to understand their role in the traveler’s journey and can help them adapt to their preferences and needs. The new age traveler isn’t restricted by finances and they look forward to pamper themselves by trying something new every now and then.

Understand your role of offering a luxury experience that is exclusive, curated, experience-led and personal.

Endangered Natural Places to get a boost from Tourism

Although the list of travelling destinations is endless, endangered habitats and famous cultural heritage spots have been inviting travelers from all over the world. Natural habitats are facing environmental problems due to the interference in the ecosystem and are thus on the verge of extinction.

Places like The Great Barrier Reef, Galapagos Islands, The AoPhangNga National Park and The Great Wall of China have been flooded with visitors all year round.  Travelers aspire to check such exclusive destinations off their bucket lists.

Certain wildlife and cultural heritage is now on the brink of facing severe consequences due to over tourism and disruptions in the natural ecosystem. People hope to visit these before they are closed for public visitation.

The question now remains so as to how these destinations will address the problems caused by over tourism in 2019.

Conclusion

New trends educate travel industry retailers and agents on how travelers would want to travel in the coming future. It is an insight on how they can adapt to the changing needs of the market be it technology or community related. With artificial intelligence and an enormous amount of data at their disposal, sellers can look forward to personalizing offers for higher revenue generation.

Sellers now have the ability to sell museum tickets to art history lovers, food deals and discounts to foodaholics, city tours to vacationing families and absolutely anything that can happen after a airplane lands.

Travel companies can now build their technology according to the latest trends and present potential solutions to their online global audience. Investors must constantly innovate and invest in the latest tech to survive competition.

Sellers must be able to provide meaningful product choices in a cost effective manner to meet the demands of the new age traveler that can either be reward hunters, simplicity searchers or obligation meters.

With a greater role of travel advisors, customer personalization and advancement in technology we are looking at another eventful year for the travel industry in 2019.

Travel sector has been one of the most growth-oriented sectors globally with total sales crossing $629.8 billion in 2017, growing at a rate of 11.5%. This number is expected to cross $800 billion by 2020. In the digital arena, online travel marketplaces are becoming one of the most lucrative business models for aspiring entrepreneurs. There are several strategies to increase revenues being used by online travel startups. Although there has been a certain decline in digital travel sales across the globe over the past couple of years, Asia Pacific is the only region that is showing a promising increase with online sales going from 34% in 2017 to 40% by 2020. India in that aspect is turning out to be one of the best places to start an online travel booking startup.

A recent study done by Google India-BCG has projected that the overall Indian travel market will reach $48 billion by 2020, growing in sync with the global growth rate of 11%-11.5%. Another report by IBEF states that by 2020, almost half of the travel bookings in the country would be done online.

Additionally, Air travel in India will reach $30 billion by 2020 growing at 15%, while hotels bookings will rise to $13 billion and railways to $5 billion. By 2020, one in three hotel rooms will be booked online – which clearly shows that how online travel startups will become prominent in the coming years.

Suggested Read – 5 Statistical Graphs Every Online Travel Booking Business Must Be Aware of

Key reasons behind such a growth in travel sector

There are many reasons behind such a growth in the Indian online travel sector, including faster internet connections, rise in ecommerce and smartphone penetration, increase in household incomes, better travel options available etc.

Although there are several players in the market, the whole startup arena in India is open to new entrants. Given the growth projections in the market and its openness to new startups, there has never been a better time to launch an online startup.

Suggested Read – Market Analysis & Travelers’ Booking Behavior

The online journey of traveler while making a booking

The bottom line is that a typical journey of online travelers encompasses a combination of several sectors including ticket reservation, booking hotels, hiring tour guides and transportation services.

However online travel startup offers one thing to the travelers – i.e. convenience by offering all the services under a single room. The best part is that these services can be accessed and booked from anywhere and time.

For the majority of consumers, a vacation involves weeks if not months of planning. On average travel consumers spend 49 minutes spread over 46 days, visiting as many as 17 different online touch points to plan, research, and make a booking.

These touch points include online travel aggregators, search engines for reviews, testimonials, and maps. More than two-thirds of the travelers take inspiration from friends and family, while reviews/ratings come as the single most important criteria for making the final decision.

Key areas to keep in mind for online travel startups In India

Types of travelers to target

There are in fact three generations of travelers that an online travel startup must target. This includes Millennials born between the 1980s and early 2000 (17-35 yrs), generation X born between the mid-1960s and early 1980s (35-52 yrs) and baby boomers born between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s (52-72 yrs). Millennials are the ones that are one of the biggest contributors to this growth followed by Baby boomers and Generation X respectively.

A number of travelers

Often overlooked, it is one of the key points to keep in mind for online travel startups. It revolves around how many people they are planning to travel with. This includes:

• Single travelers – Ones who travel alone
• Couples – Ones who plan on traveling along with another person usually (honeymoon or married couples.)
• Family – Ones who plan on traveling with a larger group of more than 2 travelers.

Exposure to Technology

This is another aspect that online travel marketplaces must keep in mind. Exposure to technology has played a critical part in the growth of online travel startups in India. Targeting the group of consumers that has the least exposure to technology is basically wastage of resources and online travel startups in India must keep this mind while designing their marketing strategy.

Social Media

In the current market dynamics, social media plays a key part in connecting businesses with consumers. Online travel startups must keep this aspect in mind. With over two billion Facebook users, 700 million Instagram users and 300 million Twitter users, social media becomes one of the major channels for online businesses to target consumers. As targeted ads become a norm on social media, travel startups are using social media to their benefit to capture prospective clients.

Payment Options

Although ecommerce has taken the Indian consumers by storm, still there is huge ambiguity when it comes to payment options. The fact remains that credit/debits card are still not prominent in the country and most of the people still rely on other options for making payment. An online travel startup must ensure that they offer as many options to the travelers making it easy to make the payment.

Seasons

Consumers in India do not travel around the year. The influx of tourists is scattered across seasons, and the bulk of the booking is done over a short period of time. Online travel startups in India must time their marketing strategy around the seasons, and push offers accordingly for maximum results. This usually ranges from October to March when the weather is on the cooler side compared to rest of the year.

Destinations

Although India is a big and diverse country, the bulk of the travel is limited to a handful of destinations. There are two factors behind this. One being lack of awareness among consumers and other being facilities being offered. There are some new travel startups in the country that have created a niche for themselves for offering travel solutions to offbeat places.

Conclusion

The next few years are highly crucial for online travel sector in India. The fact of the matter is that aspiring entrepreneurs just need to keep certain things in mind pertaining to the local customers as mentioned in this post. With more and more people going online for planning and booking their vacation, it has never been a better time for anyone to launch their online business.

As a travel activity booking marketplace, you ought to target tour & activity vendors, i.e. tour operators, activity hosts, & guides before travelers. In fact, to increase their reach, these hosts & operators continuously look for different distribution channels. And mostly, they rely on OTAs (online travel agencies) or online travel booking marketplaces.

According to a Trekksoft study, on an average, activity hosts receive 20% more bookings after partnering with OTAs. Also, about 22% of them say that OTAs or travel booking marketplaces bring them more than half of their bookings. In urban areas, these numbers are even bigger.

It is clear that there are loads of opportunities for OTAs in the market. But there’s intense competition that must be dealt with. To help you on the matter, here are some data-backed insights & executable tips that will help you become the favorite of activity hosts & tour guides.

Provide What Activity Hosts Want

The chart above pretty much solves the riddle as to what activity hosts & tour guides expect from a travel booking marketplace. While all the above-listed factors are important, it is clear that first two are simply the must-haves for your OTA.

It makes perfect sense that the volume of bookings is the top most factor. To achieve that you need to ensure certain features & capabilities on your travel booking website. These are:

• SEO-friendly website for higher ranking – since most travelers start planning their travel via Google search
• Social media integration for easy distribution – so that vendors and visitors can easily share listed activities/tours etc.
• Good user experience – because how easily getaways can be found & bookings can be made makes a lot of difference
• Easy mobile bookings – since 1 in 2 travel booking journeys begin on mobile

And as for the credibility, you need to ensure that you have transparent pricing & partnership policies. Besides that, over time, the above-listed features to boost the volume of bookings will also help build credibility for your website.

Related read: Launching a Travel Booking Website? What Features You Must Consider

Plan Commission Rates Thoughtfully

A recent Trekksoft survey found that about 80% activity hosts/guides/tour operators say that they are willing to partner with OTAs only if they charge commission rates less than 15%. Usually, a 15% to 20% commission charges are considered fair in the ecommerce sector; so it’s not much that activity hosts are asking.

That said, it may not be feasible for a growing business to manage with only that much commission. In that case, varying commission rates can provide a viable solution.  Here are some ideas in that regard:

• Charge new activity hosts with less than standard commission rate for a limited period of time
• Plan different commission rates on different activity categories and for different types of hosts/operators (such as rural/urban)
• Offer reduction in commission rate after certain sales/booking milestones

It is also worth noting that, if your booking marketplace is able to deliver enough volume of bookings to the hosts, they will stick with you, since about 71% hosts believe that commission rates are fair based on the delivered results; in urban market, 89% vendors think so.

Proactively Solve Challenges Faced by Vendors

The above pie-chart gives us a clear picture on the common challenges faced by travel activity vendors when partnering with booking marketplaces. Let’s address them all, one by one.

Loss of traffic

The first (and apparently the biggest) concern that activity hosts have is that partnering with OTAs results in loss in traffic on their own sites. A quick fix to this is to add a fallback link for the vendor website on the pages where their activities are listed on your marketplace.

Also, if we look closely, it shouldn’t be that big of an issue for two reasons:

1) Only a small segment of activity hosts have their own website

2) Hosts/guides get much better market exposure through marketplace listing.

More work; fewer bookings & High commission charges

We have already addressed these challenges in the first two section of the post.

Maintaining Live Inventory & Lack of Appropriate Categories

Solution to such operational issues is to simply build your travel activity booking marketplace on a state-of-art platform (such as FunAway, offered by FATbit), which offers features & functionalities to proactively address these challenges.

Learn from the Market Leaders

‘Follow in the footsteps of the successful ones’ – a rule of thumb applicable across all walks of life, and extensively used in the business world. Therefore, it is always a good idea to look up to the market leaders (even competitors) for some ideas & inspirations.

Viator, GetYourGuide, & Expedia are clearly the worldwide leaders. Other than these, some other emerging OTAs that operate in specific markets like Peek & Vayable are also worth considering.

Check out the features they offer to the hosts. From sign up to listing tours/activities and payment processing, analyze everything to see what makes them popular among hosts & guides. Stay updated on the upgrades they make in their system, find out how they devise their promotional offers, study their software suite for vendors, follow them on blog & social networks, and so on.

All this is not about copying what they are doing, but to get inspired, brainstorm & implement similar cutting-edge ideas that can help you get ahead in the race.

Conclusion

Besides the mass of activity hosts & tour guides looking for more distribution channels to grow their business, there’s also a huge untapped inventory for OTAs to thrive upon, as only 40% of travel activity hosts & tour guides worldwide are listed online.

To capitalize on these opportunities, you need to provide an online platform that not only offers services better than others but also motivates activity hosts to take all the advantages they can get by partnering with an online booking marketplace.

Customers have grown used to the convenience and speed with which they can now make their travel bookings online. So, the current times have been calling for something else; something more; something that can deliver a better customer experience and keep your customers coming back for more.

As a matter of fact, many online travel booking business owners have been brainstorming on how to spice things up for their customers. And thankfully, recent technological developments have brought along copious amounts of options with which business owners can overcome this concern.

From AI to VR/AR, technology has equipped businesses with the right set of tools to enhance their offerings. So, it’s about time that OTAs (and online travel booking businesses) start learning how they can use latest technology to deliver better customer experience.

Virtual Reality (VR)

Today, virtual reality needs no introduction. But for the uninitiated, virtual reality, or simply VR, is a computer generated simulation that offers a “real-life” experience to the users. If you know Oculus or Samsung Gear, you know VR.

The above definition (creating real-life like virtual experiences) in itself gives cues on how the technology can be used by travel industry businesses. Travel booking startups can start offering virtual tours of the destinations they are selling packages for. Through these tours, visitors can get an idea of how the real life experience is going to be. A glimpse of what they can expect is a sure way to entice them and want to seal the deal.

The mobile app of your booking startup is ideal to implement this feature (as there is already a multitude of VR devices for mobile). Other than that, you can also offer virtual tours on the desktop website.

Augmented Reality (AR)

If you think AR is great only for Pokémon Go, the world has come past all of it. As a matter of fact, the world of technology has started exploring AR for its more extensive uses, with many applications for travelling & exploring. How? Well, that quite interesting to know.

• Many museums and galleries have already started offering AR experience to their visitors. You should definitely embed such features and provide it as a value added service to your customers. Also, you can (and should) exclusively suggest your customers the places where such AR experience is offered.

AR technology being used at a Museum (Source: Wikipedia)

• Real time AR based navigation, where users can find the directions by simply pointing the mobile camera on the road, not only helps them in finding the desired location easily, but also improve the user experience of your service by miles.

AR based navigation feature (Source: AppleApple.top)

Related Read: Business Model & Essential Website Feature Analysis for Online Travel Booking Platforms

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is no new concept, and yet, there are many ways in which its uses are yet to be realized and utilized. IoT is immensely useful for online travel agencies/booking marketplaces to offer their customers a more seamless experience once they have reached the destination.

First off, you can offer virtual keycards that work in tandem with the package bought. This keycard should contain information about what facilities the customer can avail in the package, and thus, the access will only require the customer to scan the code and that’s that. From self-check-in to unlocking the room, IoT can work wonders for customers by making things more streamlined.

Speaking of streamlined experience, IoT also includes using wearable technology such as Pebble Watch, so that customers can get “handy” navigation without having to hold their smartphones/tablets in their hand all the time. And then there comes the problem of luggage handling, this is where Smart Suitcase comes into play.

Pebble wrist watch navigation (Source: Pocketnow)

As a travel booking agency, what you can do is integrate an ecommerce module and sell such merchandise on your website. Besides offering customers a better experience, it will also add an additional revenue channel for your business.

Suggested Read: Maximize Earnings of Your Travel Booking Marketplace with These Proven Revenue Sources

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Traveling brings along lots of questions. And more often than not, most of the travelers share common queries.Online travel agencies can integrate AI technology based Chatbots with their websites, where customers can get their FAQs answered quickly.

These are the questions whose answers don’t change, and you need to answer a lot of people at the same time for the same questions. In this case, you don’t need to employ skilled human resources,thus saving plenty of money. These Chatbots are capable of answering the travel related queries of potential customers.Including the FAQs in chat based queries by using a Multiple Choice Question format will help your potential customers get to the right answers more quickly.

The fact of the matter is, Chatbots are becoming the new norm in the ecommerce sector, and it makes perfect sense for travel booking startups to include this feature among their offerings to provide an enhanced user experience.

Snapchat Heat-map

Last but not the least, being an innovative social media platform, Snapchat has continuously introduced many new cool features (tech-based or otherwise) that can be easily & effectively used by travel industry businesses. One of such features is Snap Map, a heat map that tells you where your friends are, the bigger the heat map, the more action an event is getting.  Online travel agencies can use Snap Map by purchasing location tags of a particular location to get useful customer data and to notify their potential customers the special tourist attractions or the “must visit” places of a particular destination.

Conclusion

Keeping the above discussion in mind, we can’t emphasize enough on the importance of incorporating latest technology with online travel sector – one of the fastest growing ecommerce business models.Online consumers have already moved on from quick websites and quick bookings. The times have changed and they expect you to give them unprecedented experience. Giving them a virtual tour of places they plan to go to, giving them the added touch of augmented reality once they reach there, giving them a seamless experience and making things really easy for them is the way to go.

When it comes to millennials, the way they travel is a lot different from how people from other age groups do. Here’s a small infographic to give you a glimpse of how millennials are traveling…

(Click Here To View the Complete Infographic)

So before you plan what your travel website should include, knowing what the millennials want is a prerequisite. And this is exactly what we are going to talk about today. Read along:

Millennials Want Trust

More than anything else, millennials want trust from online travel portals. It won’t be wrong to say this particular age group is immensely aware of the internet world. They know many websites show something else and deliver something entirely different, mostly towards the inferior side. To make sure they are going to make the right deal, millennials have a habit to go through customer reviews, travel journals, discussion forums and blogs.

As a travel activity website owner, it becomes your responsibility to keep a WYSWYG approach. It will also be a good idea to have all these features on your website. Let them share how was it to travel with the booking help and support offered by your website. Give them space to talk, give them space to blog, you’ll be surprised how much people love such a space. In short, let them write on your website, make community pages and ask to leave reviews.

Millennials Want Ease

Depending on the season, your portal should tell people which place would be the best choice to visit. Let us put a fact in perspective: the tourist culture is fading out, especially millennials. This is one particular age group that wants to get back to traveling. For them, ease is everything; the ease of planning, booking a trip, packing, checking on everything else that revolves around traveling. And just in case their plan gets postponed or cancelled, they want the cancellation to be a breeze too.

So make sure your website has good navigation and allows visitors to book or cancel a trip easily.

Suggested Read: Make Your Travel Booking Website Ready for High Season with These Features

Millennials Want To Be Pampered

They just don’t want to stay informed; they also want to feel special. A mere “thank you for booking with us” is just not enough. Messages such as “Welcome to <destination name>, have a wonderful stay” the moment they check in shows you care for them.  And when their trip is done, a message that thanks them for choosing you would be a nice touch. Also, sending occasional messages regarding the weather and preferable activities is also a good idea (obviously, apart from the standard SMS notifications/confirmations).

Millennials Want To Be Treated As Travelers, Not Customers

The normal practice followed by travel booking websites is that the website owners give a glimpse of a destination, and focus on selling a package. Millennials don’t like that. For them, it’s not all about the pricing alone or the convenience to book hotel/ flights; it’s in fact about what all travelers can do when they reach a destination, it’s about the value for money. Give them freedom to choose what they want to do.

Thing is, nobody wants to be treated as a typical customer. Customers are pushed round from one package to another. They come to your website because they feel you will offer something of value. If they wanted to be treated like just another customer, they’d have chosen any other website or simply decided to do things the old fashioned way.

Millennials Want Experience, Not Trips

Numerous of travel communities built across the world have clearly shown that people want to connect with likeminded people. And the case is even stronger among the millennials. They want to make memories. They have apps, blogs and everything else that lets them plan their trips, so now; it’s up to you to deliver the experience. Some people like to plan their trip around food, so their main focus is to go places and try local delicacies. Some people like to go on historical tours, while some want to have an adventurous traveling experience. And given the fact that customer experience begins counting the moment your customers log in to your website, you need to plan your website accordingly. Given the variety of activities people can indulge in during their trips, you can offer different levels of experiences to your patrons.

Conclusion

It’s always good to know what’s happening in the industry before you start tweaking your online travel booking website. The way millennials shop, eat and travel is a lot different from what other age groups do. Their taste differs a lot from the rest of the people, and they are always on the go. Given the fact that this particular age group is really good at juicing out the best of the internet, you know the millennials deserve more attention than they normally get.

A recent Allied Market Research study reports that online travel industry will continue to enjoy a double-digit annual growth till 2022. And further industry research tells that this growth is led by leisure travelers, who are increasingly becoming tech-savvy across the world.

Therefore, analyzing leisure travelers’ behavior becomes vital for entrepreneurs who run or aspire to launch an online travel booking business. And for that, questions like – which online resources impact travelers’ purchase decision, how they like to travel, what device they use, etc., must be answered.

The following infographic addresses all these questions for online travel booking startups with stats & valuable insights. Further it also highlights how the next of phase of opportunities lie with mobile travel bookings & the role of millennials in the overall industry growth.

Every destination has a different story behind it that drives travelers to visit that place. As more and more people have started to travel on a regular basis, most of these travel destinations are jam packed with tourists. To avoid the last minute hassle, travelers prefer to make bookings beforehand to enjoy a smooth vacation.

Revenues from online travel booking have grown by over 73% in the last 5 years. Almost 40% of all tour and activity bookings are being made online, out of which, 60% of leisure and 41% of business travelers make their own travel arrangements, generally via the Internet.

The change in dynamics and rising demand for online travel has been a boon to all travel-related startups. This is the reason why a number of entrepreneurs are drawn towards starting their online travel activity marketplace and are investing in this industry. With the changing trends, the industry is reshaping, travelers now plan vacations that not only include sight-seeing but include some type of activities which adds an extra spice to the destination. Following are some business ideas for entrepreneurs and a list of activities that they can consider if they wish to start their business in this industry.

Food & Delicacy Tours

Different people have different reasons to visit a particular destination. Some people have a quest to travel to different places to try authentic food and wine. Every country has a different cuisine which is prepared with the perfect spice and ingredients from which it originally belongs.

There are numerous food and wine events where people travel from across the globe. What these travelers do not want is the event to be full. This is why most travelers book these activities beforehand.

For entrepreneurs, this is a unique business idea for attracting a large number of people. The provision of different food and delicacies tour packages on your website can give your business recognition among masses as a large number of people are drawn towards food. Booking through a travel activity website gives assurance to the traveler regarding their plan when they arrive at the destination.

Your travel activity website can include food tour packages with the following list of activities:

• A tour of various local restaurants that serve the best cuisine.
• Wine tasting sessions.
• Workshop to learn how to make local dishes.

Cultural Tours

It is believed, culture has a way of defining every country and person in the world. Culture provides the destinations we visit and the people we meet an extra nudge that makes them worth remembering.

Every destination has a different culture which is worth knowing. Getting accustomed to the culture of a certain place interests a lot of people. It will be a highly profitable business for entrepreneurs who have a keen interest as well as knowledge of the culture of a certain place. Culture tour can include travel activities such as:

• Visits to holy places.
• Workshop to learn different dances of the state.
• Walking tours of different areas and understanding their customs.
• Attending festivals or art exhibitions.
• Tour of the local museum with a guide who knows everything about the city.

Nature and Wildlife Tours

People living in the cities often tend to feel separated from nature as if living in a concrete jungle. This is why many people prefer to go on a vacation where they feel close to serenity and tranquility. People feel they are away from nature which is why after some time they wish to go for a vacation where they could connect themselves with nature. Nature tours must provide tourists exclusive experience where people can forget the hustle and bustle of the city and connect themselves directly with nature.

Nature tours can include travel activities such as:

• Jungle jeep tours.
• Hiking and trekking tour.
• Trips to national parks and natural reserves.

Historical Tours

The ancient human civilization goes back to 3200 BC and there are a lot of things and places that hold great importance. History lovers and people who have been planning to know more about where they actually come from would want to visit these places and accumulate more information from the locals and experts.

There is a shortage of people who have the knowledge and the skills to show around historical monuments. For the entrepreneur this is a great opportunity as conducting historical tours will attract numerous tourists to a particular destination.

List of Activities that can be included in the historical tour:

• Educational tour to the museum.
• Visit historical monuments.
• Old town trolley tours.
• Learning about the history of a place by classes.

Adventure Tours

In the past few years, the travel industry has been through numerous changes. The essence of traveling has completely changed as per the demand and leisure of travelers. To attract potential customers the industry is making massive advancements, and as an outcome, adventure tours have become a tourist attraction business idea for various entrepreneurs.

Adventure travel activity tours like water sports, aero sports, mountaineering, trekking has gained popularity among travelers. Therefore before making any travel plans, most of the travelers look for places that offer adventure sports and activities.

Adventure activities have been attracting several tourists who want to experience an adrenaline rush. For an entrepreneur, building adventure activities booking platform and listing adventure tours in their businesses can be beneficial as they can connect with travel activity enthusiasts all over the world.

Adventure tours can include:

• Ground activities
• Underwater activities
• Above water activities
• Air sports activities

Conclusion

There are lots of options available in the market. It depends on you if want to attract those who are already visiting the target destination or attract people by spreading awareness. Keep in mind the target market and design your travel tour and activity website accordingly. The above-mentioned points will give you a clear idea as to which activity can be included in your travel activity website.