Tours & Activities

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PhocusWire's in-depth coverage of the tours, activities and activities sector is produced in partnership with Arival, the essential resource for the in-destination experiences industry.

News / Distribution

The tours and activities sector will be carved up

By Viewpoints | December 9, 2014

I have never been super excited about the tours and activities category. But what exactly made me uneasy wasn’t made clear until recently, when a friend with a tours and activities startup asked fo Read More

News / Technology

Trying to get a handle on 5 years of consumer travel startups

By Viewpoints | December 4, 2014

Numerous consumer-focused travel startups have launched in the past five years. They tackle many facets of travel, ranging from hotel and flight search to ground transport, social travel, trip plan Read More

News / Distribution

TripAdvisor begins integrating Viator listings with tour comparisons

By Nick Vivion | November 13, 2014

After acquiring Viator for $200 million earlier this year, TripAdvisor has begun to integrate Viator into its core platform. The first integration is a direct comparison widget for specific attractio Read More

News / Distribution

One small step for TripAdvisor, one giant leap for tours and activities

By Stephen Joyce | November 12, 2014

I wrote a post almost two years ago to the day titled Putting the supplier cart before the distributor horse in travel. In that article in November 2012, I outlined a basic structure for connecting Read More

News / Distribution

After unveiling API, Viator to move from curated to open platform

By Sean O'Neil | November 10, 2014

Since 2005, CEO Barrie Seidenberg has led Viator, a tours-and-activities marketplace, that has been relatively selective in the products it lists. She's guided the company to a solid foothold as th Read More

News

Startup pitch: IBM's Watson powers new travel advice tool WayBlazer

By Sean O'Neil | October 7, 2014

It’s only been a few years since IBM's Watson technology beat Jeopardy! champions on US national TV. Now Big Blue's supercomputer is taking on an even tougher challenge: coming up with trip-plannin Read More

News

TourRadar just made a bold move to become the Viator of multi-day group tours

By Sean O'Neil | October 7, 2014

Group travel marketplace TourRadar has increased its bookable multi-day tour inventory by five times -- to 20,000. The Vienna-based startup claims that no other company makes as many multi-day tour Read More

News / Distribution

Startup pitch: TourDigger is a new tours-and-activities marketplace

By Sean O'Neil | October 1, 2014

New Ottawa-based startup Tourdigger.com, a B2C aggregator of tours and activities in about a thousand cities worldwide, is off to a strong start. Since its July 2013 launch, 752 tour operators have Read More

News / Distribution

Startup pitch: Advlo connects adventure seekers to locals for tours and activities

By Nick Vivion | September 23, 2014

Adventure travelers are a unique cohort, with some more inclined to plan on the fly (and thus not pre-purchase any activities) and others seeking peak experiences that require pre-planning and organiz Read More

News / Distribution

Where is the innovation in tours and activities?

By Stephen Joyce | September 16, 2014

When PhoCusWright released its When They Get There and Why They Go research study in 2011, I fully expected a glut of new and innovative sites and services to emerge around in-destination experiences. Read More

News / Technology

The wait is over, tours and activities finally hits the big time

By Alex Kremer | July 25, 2014

Our long nightmare is over. Tours and activities finally gets the big market move it has so desperately needed: TripAdvisor has snapped up Viator. First, a hats off to the team: perservering since Read More

News

TripAdvisor acquires Viator, the tours and activities agency, for $200M

By Sean O'Neil | July 24, 2014

Viator, one of the largest online tours-and-activities booking agencies, said today that it has been acquired by TripAdvisor, the user-reviews giant, for approximately $200 million -- mostly in cash. Read More

News / Distribution

TripAdvisor misses estimates, and its call contains clues to weakness [UPDATED]

By Sean O'Neil | July 23, 2014

TripAdvisor tripped today. The sprawling user-review platform revealed its earnings for the second quarter of its fiscal year, and the company has disappointed Wall Street by doing worse than most ana Read More

News

Tying up the loose ends in tours and activities

By Viewpoints | July 22, 2014

The online tours and activities space has gained notable attention from the media recently. We have seen articles covering newcomers on the market in addition to discussions of the current issues and Read More

News / Distribution

Airbnb announces complete rebranding with a "symbol of belonging"

By Nick Vivion | July 16, 2014

P2P rental pioneer Airbnb has announced a new direction and a fresh look at an international event broadcast live from the original Airbnb apartment. The event, which was widely promoted to communi Read More

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