About

Summary 

 

Every day, millions of tourists use Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and other online travel platforms to plan and book their holidays and business trips, to destinations all over the world.  OTAs selling trips, tours and experiences represent the fastest growing sales channel for tourism products of this type today. More and more tour operators are adding their itineraries to these platforms and competition is fierce. For local tour operators in developing countries, OTAs offer a convenient and quick way to reach a global market but it is important to understand how they differ in order to work with them to best advantage.

Commissioned by the CBI, the Netherlands Enterprise Centre, Acorn Tourism’s comprehensive business guide provided extensive guidance to SMEs to find the right OTAs for their business and how to work effectively with them. Part of a four-year market research programme with Acorn Tourism, this guide added to this extensive series of product development business guides to support SMEs in developing countries to enter the European market for tourism.  

Our Approach 

Acorn Tourism undertook comprehensive research into the huge market of OTAs, providing context to the marketplace structure and the difference between OTAs, online travel marketplaces and aggregators, an estimate of market size and growth forecasts, and a focus on OTAs in the tours sector. The OTA marketplace is large and dynamic and is constantly evolving. While OTAs offers easy access to the online sales market, there are many factors to understand before committing to joining an OTA platform, including not relying on OTAs for all sales. 

The study highlighted the benefits and disadvantages of working with OTAs and included case studies of two of the largest and high profile OTAs in the tours sector, Viator (a Tripadvisor company) and Airbnb Experiences.  Detailed practical advice was given, including how to choose an OTA, how to prepare a product for listing depending upon the OTA, and pricing products.  The study also provided an overview of some of the largest and best-known OTAs specialising in tours and covered innovations in the market, driven by technology. 

Developing skills to work effectively in this complex segment is essential to compete at a high level. Acorn’s research aimed to define the differences between the many OTA types in the segment and provided a practical step-by-step process to help with the research and decision-making process.  

Outcome 

Acorn Tourism’s study into the OTA market for tours offered practical insights and tips to SMEs in developing countries to identify suitable OTA partners and prepare relevant products for the platform. European markets are heavy users of OTAs and there are many opportunities for SMEs attract the market as OTAs continue to evolve in today’s competitive marketplace.