Nobody doubts that the pandemic forced the travel, tour management, and activity industries to struggle for most of 2020 and the first part of 2021. The businesses in these sectors that survived the challenges brought on by COVID-19 almost universally did so by building up their online presence and revenue streams. These actions were necessary because tour and activity operators needed to maximize returns during the global downtrend in travel and put themselves in a strong position to take advantage of consumers' post-pandemic appetite for in-person experiences.

According to David Schlep, the CEO of TUI Musement, online booking platforms will enjoy rapid recoveries in the months ahead. According to Schlep, 2019, the previous banner year, will pale against business growth expected by 2023.

It's also important to note that even before the emergence of the coronavirus, well over 80 percent of bookings for these kinds of businesses occurred online, with no direct human interaction.

With good progress being made on vaccines and consumers more prone than ever to engage with tour and activity operators through the web, now is the ideal time for SaaS companies that serve these industries to improve and expand on their existing product suites and services.

HOW TOUR & ACTIVITY MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS CAN INCREASE CUSTOMERS & MAXIMIZE monetizable TRANSACTIONS

There are a few key areas in which tour and activity operators are looking to make improvements when it comes to their online presence. SaaS companies that wish to take advantage of this increased interest in their digital products and services should address these customers needs as soon as possible.

The three main areas of innovation for SaaS companies to focus on are:

• Better search visibility — Consumers regularly search online via Google and other large search engines to find travel, tourism and booking services. However, few searchers will look past the first search engine results page (SERP). Helping your customers achieve higher search rankings increases their revenue and monetizable transactions with your proprietary software. It's a complete win-win. 
• Improved end-customer experience — At this point, the vast majority of consumers expect an excellent experience when engaging with any kind of business or organization online. Tour and activity operators need beautiful, robust websites that are seamlessly integrated with all of the tools they need (like your technology solution) to increase their bookings and enable customers to pay online.
• Easy online presence management — Odds are most tour and activity operators are not tech-savvy web professionals that have the time to manage numerous online profiles and tools. Whenever possible, the goal of SaaS companies should be to consolidate online presence management features and offer customers a streamlined experience. For example, if an operator updates the list of tours and activities inside their booking technology, these items should also update automatically on any corresponding pages of the website.