Tour Operator Booking Patterns Are Going Through a ‘Seismic Shift’ in 2016
Photo Credit: Tourists visiting Roman ruins in 2014. This year, though, there's been a shift to new destinations for traditional tour brands. Flickr / Larry Miller
Skift Take
Shifting consumer demands for new destinations and more experiential trips may have finally caused a big impact on the way tour operators sell vacations.
For decades, tour operators have seen standard booking patterns surround the top destinations for global travelers. Classic European destinations like Italy and France dominated the landscape, with vacations being booked four to six months in advance.
But tour operators have seen an unexpected change in bookings this year, with tourists choosing alternative destinations and booking their vacations much closer to their date of departure.
"We have seen a seismic shift in historical booking [patterns]," said Gavin Tollman, CEO of Trafalgar. "It's almost as though consumers got together, distributed a memo, and they just forgot to copy us on it. Because we have just seen the enormity of the shift, in two different ways: where people are traveling
