According to Amadeus, experiences require standardization and increased technology resources

The COVID-19 crisis changed when and how people will feel comfortable traveling, but it did not affect why people travel. Living a new destination for the first time through the richness of its culture, or simply escaping from everyday life and discovering less crowded places, is what drives many people's love of travel.

Not surprisingly, destination activity spending is the third largest travel segment after flights and hotels, accounting for 10% of global travel revenue. In 2019, the market for tours, activities and attractions represented US $ 254 billion and was growing at an accelerated rate before the start of the COVID-19 crisis.

But while the destination experience market is growing rapidly, fragmentation, limited technological advancement, and lack of standardization in this sector represent some obstacles. In fact, it would be fair to compare the industry to the challenging early days of online hotel reservations, before pioneers in hotel content aggregation began facilitating the integration of boutique and independent hotels.

Today, with the growing interest in local destinations and activities, there is a great opportunity to streamline this sector and bring new experiences to travelers.

That's what we want to achieve with Amadeus Sherpa, a B2B distribution platform for connecting, aggregating and delivering destination experiences through the most appropriate channels, at an affordable cost. Just as no mountaineer would think of climbing a peak without his trusted Sherpa at his side, the Amadeus namesake hopes to become a helper, guide and facilitator for every single player in the rides and attractions ecosystem. To see how:

Opening new income opportunities for hotels
Although it is not the only channel for promoting and selling activities, the hotel is one of the most important, which is why Amadeus Sherpa started working with them.
The potential for distribution of tours and activities offers hotels an additional source of income in the current and challenging situation, as they can charge a fee for the activities booked thanks to their recommendations. Considering that most travelers book their tours and activities at the last minute, usually after check-in, and rely on hoteliers as a reliable, local source of information on what to do, hotels are ideally placed. to earn customer loyalty by offering this valuable service.
Amadeus Sherpa is a simple and efficient platform that allows hoteliers to bring together the main activities of a place and many other lesser known activities. As a complete catalog of destination experiences, it eliminates the various brochures and maps commonly found at receptions.

Putting attractions providers on the map
The market for tours and activities is highly fragmented and underdeveloped from the point of view of digital distribution. With a diverse set of local players mostly offline with non-standard content, 80% of gross bookings are still made offline and in transit. This is a great missed opportunity for activity providers to grow their business as they need to adapt to the expectations of new travelers such as online reservations and payment resources.
A platform like Amadeus Sherpa will help players gain more visibility with travelers and get more bookings.

Ayudando a los agregadores de contenido a crecer
Los tours y actividades son un sector diverso y complejo con más de un centenar de subcategorías. Es difícil esperar que un solo agregador cubra de manera integral las opciones disponibles en un destino determinado. De hecho, la mayoría de los agregadores buscan continuamente funciones de curación, diferenciación y personalización de contenido, así como nuevas fuentes de ingresos.
Como centro de integración, Amadeus Sherpa brindará a los agregadores de contenido acceso a una plataforma más grande, agregando funciones de personalización y administración de datos para garantizar que las ofertas de contenido se envíen al viajero de una manera contextualizada y personalizada.
In short, Amadeus Sherpa will accelerate the digital transformation of the tours and activities industry, enhancing provider connectivity, enabling information sharing across the ecosystem, and providing highly personalized resources for resellers. Ultimately, what is the most important thing for today's travelers? It means having easy access to a wide range of local and authentic activities. Amadeus Sherpa will help make this traveler's journey from start to finish more meaningful and complete.