Editor's note: this post is an excerpt from our Travel Trends Report 2018, which you can access now.

A search for “Solo female travel” returns more than 2.45 million search results on Google. Google Trends has recorded how interest in solo travel has grown steadily over the past ten years while interest in female solo travel has only gained traction since 2013.

Google’s Keyword Planner Tool reflects this growing interest too. The average monthly search volume for the term “solo female travel” grew by 52% between 2016 and 2017, averaging 2,900 searches between October 2016 to September 2017.

For companies looking to expand their businesses, there are a few ways you can go about this. Firstly, you could start upselling your tours and activities by encouraging people to purchase add-ons at checkout (e.g. insurance, meals, photo packages). Secondly, you could increase the number of trips you sell by working with online travel agents and third party marketplaces. Thirdly, and the focus of this article, you could resell trips from other suppliers and make a commission off each sale.

If you have an established website with a good and steady flow of organic traffic, this could be a good option to take your company to the next level. 

"TrekkPay has been a lifesaver. We now process all our transactions internally and we stopped using a third party since the beginning of 2017. Our records are more accurate. They can easily be compiled and printed at the end of each month which saves us on accounting time. We also take advantage of the TrekkSoft marketplace which we are still exploring by talking to the major vendors being added constantly. The card readers are the only ones that work in our region as well so that’s a super plus!" 

- Dario from Exuma Escapes

TrekkPay is a payment gateway built and designed for the tour and activity sector.

In the last few months, the TrekkPay team has worked hard to build a dashboard that gives you an overview of all your transactions and payouts to help you improve your accounting and reporting.

“Growth in outbound travel is directly linked to economic growth. Indians are creative people, and this has fueled tremendous growth over the last few years. More Indians can now afford to travel abroad.”

– Andrea Schneider, Director of Marketing and Market Manager for India at Tourism Interlaken

India’s Ministry of Tourism reported a 7.3% growth in international departures in 2016, with a total of 21.9 million travellers leaving India to explore the world. The UNWTO expects this number to grow to 50 million in the next three years, making the Indian travel market a crucial segment for destinations and experience providers to consider.

Working with online marketplaces is a good idea for tour and activity companies who would like to expand their reach and establish a "professional" online presence. 

Large marketplaces like Viator and Expedia have long established their presence in the travel industry and are doing a fantastic job at growing their virtual presence, and even successfully bridging the transition from online to offline, real-world customer experiences. 

Last month, we hosted a webinar all about SEO in 2018. The webinar was delivered by Marcelo, our in-house SEO expert who deals with spreadsheets and Google Analytics all day. He also has extensive experience in the area, having previously worked with brands like HSBC and Volvo.

It was our largest webinar to date, with over 600 signups. It was a great session and I thought it would be great to share some insights from the session.

You've asked for this and we listened. We took your feedback on board, turned it into a tangible feature update, beta tested it and released it in all its glory.

TrekkSoft's rental feature now lets you set different rates for your rentals, depending on the duration of the rental. For tour or activity operators who want to make a little extra cash on the side, renting out your spare equipment could be a good idea for you.

Stick around to find out what else our rental feature can do.

A Channel Manager is a feature offered by many booking systems on the market, including TrekkSoft. It's a term widely used in property management systems for hoteliers, but the term has yet to catch on in the tour and activity sector.

So this article aims to break down what a Channel Manager does, and how it can seriously help you run your business better.

Every year, Europe's travel industry giants gather together for 4 days to share trade secrets on the main stage, and to swap insider gossip over beers and coffee. In my head, it's like the Avengers of the travel industry meeting up to discuss what the $7.6 trillion industry will look like in terms of travel experiences, nights spent in hotels and hostels, train rides, plane rides, cruises and more. The discussions and meetings and partnerships struck here will impact how Europe and the rest of the world travel and consume travel services.

For you and me, it'll determine what we see on our Instagram and Facebook feeds for the next 12 months.

So what are some interesting discussions, workshops and exhibits you absolutely cannot miss if you're in town?

Another way we like to engage with the readers of our blog (a.k.a. you) is via our live webinarswhere we answer your questions. We often get questions about marketing your trips or attractions, which are great. However, this question we got from a museum employee was particularly interesting because of the political and social backdrop that this museum is rooted in.

Hi Nicole,

I work in a museum that has a reputation for appealing only to the “old white guy” as a huge part of our museum is on the American Civil War. As times are evolving and a new generation is employed here, we want to rebuild bridges that were burned long ago and move past the “old white guy” perception. How do we move with the times and rebuild those bridges that were destroyed? I would love to market to the LGBTQ community as well as African Americans. What trends are you seeing that can help me attract them? How can we also appeal to a younger crowd (mid 20s)? What can I do for outreach?

Museum Staff