Smaller Tour Operators and Hotels Get New Tools to Drive Direct Bookings
Photo Credit: An image of a zip-line "forest flight" tour across Redwood trees run by Sonoma Canopy Tour, an operator that uses Xola as an online booking service. Smaller tour operators and hotels have lacked the tools to grow the direct share of their online bookings, but tech vendors like Xola aim to fill the gap. Sonoma Canopy Tour
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Direct bookings have been harder for smaller hotels and mom-and-pop tour operators to get than for the big guys. Still, tech providers, such as Sojern, Xola, and Destinia, aim to democratize online marketing tools.
For years, the travel industry's largest players have urged travelers to book directly. But smaller players have often lacked the know-how to do the same. Recently, tech vendors have debuted tools that strive to level the playing field for tours-and-activities operators and for smaller hotel companies.
Look at the tours and activities sector first. For years, well-capitalized tours and attractions operators have bought display and video ads programmatically. "Programmatic" is a wonky term that means they use software to target consumers based on internet-browsing behavior.
Programmatic is a foreign notion for many local sightseeing and experience operators. While anyone can buy ads on Facebook and Instagram, few mom-and-pop operators know how to coordinate campaigns across different digital channels to build brand awareness cost-effectively.
Sojern, a travel-focused ad tech firm, will debut this week a subscription-based direct marketing service. The tool can help smaller oper
