Four chilling sentences for tour operators

Editorial by Patrick Totty

"If tour operators don't think Expedia and Travelocity have teams of people working right now on replicating what they are doing, they are wrong," a technology supplier warned.

”The tour business remains the least technologically advanced sector in the travel industry. The most ubiquitous piece of automation is an invention of the 19th century – the telephone – and the second most prevalent tool is the fax.

”The lack of technical advancement has been costly for both operators and their suppliers.

”Yet many operators are still hesitant to make the technology investments they require to stay competitive.”

Those sentences are excerpted from “Net Retailers Gearing Up to Take On Operators,” an article that ran in the October 21 issue of Travel Weekly.

That section of  the article laid out as clearly and concisely as can be done the technological threat now facing small (and not-so-small) tour operators.

The threat is conscious: Well-funded, technologically forward and savvy companies are working diligently to find a way to put the traditional tour operator out of business. Their goal is to replace the artistry of the expertly designed tour operator package with a commodity that can be designed and administered by accountants and call center twenty-somethings who have no love for the travel industry or any real connection to it.

It will be like watching the great local Italian restaurant get replaced by Olive Garden, a formula and profit-driven chain that offers exactly the same look and taste to its food no matter where you find one of its outlets.

How the industry can fight back

If that prospect looks grim, it doesn’t have to remain that way. Plenty of small and mom-and-pop places have resisted the big boys by learning how to match their technology while carving out niches that can’t be duplicated.

That means tour operators will have to look for ways to modernize their marketing and marketing reach, including using 21^st century tools in earnest. That means consciously embracing and applying the computer and the Internet, including e-marketing and e-commerce.

How operators acquire the skills to do so can happen through one – or both – of two means. One is the rise of Internet-knowledgeable companies, like Cultural Travels, that exist to enhance and defend the ability of specialty tour operators to “swim with the sharks” and not only stay alive, but thrive.

Second will be the emergence of a trade group that will use leverage the combined resources of small operators to create the means for them to market themselves at a far more sophisticated level. The thousands of independent members of the Best Western Hotel chain have for years resisted the power of the Hyatts and Marriotts by banding together to create a well-accepted product in consumers’ eyes. Tour operators will have to do the same.

In the meantime, we remain committed to offering a means for tour operators to get out their message to an audience of independent-minded travelers who don’t like the pre-packaged, cookie-cutter, commoditized future that Expedia, Travelocity, Abercrombie & Kent, Classic Custom Vacations, Globus & Cosmos, Gogo Worldwide Vacations, Rail Europe Group, et al, are preparing for them.

Next month: The assault on – and from – travel agents