You Are Only Booking Half of What You Can Be - Here’s How to Book It All

It turns out that many travel consultants are still content to just get their clients from A to B. Every trip may start with a flight but selling a good airfare is hardly the most lucrative segment of any travel itinerary anymore. Do you know what is?

According to recent consumer insights conducted by Phocuswright for Google, the tours and local activities sectors are growing faster than the total travel market, estimated to reach $183 billion by 2020. 

Encouraging news for those who feel their airline commissions have been on a downward spiral for years. The news would be even better for consultants if travellers purchased their tours and activities before they depart for their destination, which is not the case almost half of the time.  

Google’s research found that 48% of tour and activity bookings are being made in-destination through the tour/activity provider directly, meaning that consultants are missing out on these high-margin holiday components entirely. If you’re a glass-half-full consultant, you’ll see this trend as a great opportunity rather than a setback.  

Using Umapped to Get the Most Out of Your Bookings

Now that we know more about our clients’ travel habits, we can deliver what they are looking for, and judging by the latest figures, it’s the flexibility to ‘play it by ear’. With Umapped, even if your clients fly by the seat of their pants and want the flexibility of booking local experiences while travelling, you can still be the hero that delivers a solution.      

Umapped’s collaborative itinerary tools offer a convenient way of leveraging your expertise, serving up local options your clients might not have thought of until they reach their destination. The app’s chat feature also keeps you top of mind, giving your clients access to you to help them book as they go.

Umapped’s Trip Publisher Features 

Once a local activity is booked, your clients, you or a travel provider (tour operator, for example) can all add information, booking confirmations, etc. to their Umapped itinerary, keeping a central, easy-to-follow record which comes in handy during a trip. 

- Add tickets for a show to their itinerary, allowing travellers to breeze through the box office with tickets on their app

- Include a prepaid car rental voucher for quick and easy pick-up at the depot  

- Confirm a local walking tour with meeting spot and full itinerary

Since almost half of all travellers are still planning their travel experiences while on holiday, imagine how integral collaborative itinerary tools like Umapped can be. The trend of booking activities while travelling won’t go away - local experiences are the reason people travel. As travel advisors, the best thing we can do is to adapt and improve, and Umapped makes this not only possible, but easy, too.

There are countless ways your team can use Umapped to boost productivity and wow clients. Be confident that you’re using our travel solutions to their full potential, and register for an interactive webinar today.