To celebrate World Tourism Day, we thought we'd share some incredible results we gathered from our latest Travel Trends Survey!
Before I carry on, I would like to thank all 958 participants who filled out the survey and to give us a good snapshot into the sector.
Also, you can now signup for early access to our Travel Trend Report 2019. It's set to be our best report yet filled with the latest trends and statistics for the tourism industry.
Download your copy of the Travel Trends Report 2019:
1. Booking tours and activities online is now the new normal
As of August 2018, 3 out of 5 bookings are made online!
Compared to our earlier findings, online bookings have grown from 53% in 2016 to 65% in 2018. The tour and activity industry has come a long way since then and we're excited to see how travel tech continues to evolve and grow in the years to come.
2. Tour and activity companies are small but incredibly efficient
An overwhelming majority (56%) of companies operate with less than 5 full-time employees. Small teams require each person to work as efficiently as possible to ensure that day-to-day tasks are executed, while delivering a great experience to customers around the world. Streamline your bookings and increase the efficiency of your team.
3. Guides in the sector are really, really experienced
Considering how small most companies are, it should come as no surprise that guides in the sector have a lot of experience. Almost 50% of guides have more than 5 years of work experience while another 24% of guides have between 3 - 5 years of experience.
Given that the sector is predominantly experience driven, guides should be able to deliver better customer experiences as they continue to grow in their profession.
4. Growing number of female guides
Today, 2 out of 5 guides are female. In our 2018 travel trends report, we noted how the Arabic outbound market and the solo female travel market continue to grow. As these markets grow, the need for female guides continue to grow too.
5. Europe seems to produce the largest number of guides
Interestingly, we found that 37% of guides come from Europe, followed by South America (18%), Asia (16%) and North America (14%).
Get this infographic to find out more about the dynamic tour and activity sector!
