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

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

News / Distribution

BeMyGuest raises $800,000, wants GDSs to help spread activities to consumers

By Karthick Prabu | June 9, 2014

BeMyGuest, a Singapore-based tours and activities marketplace, has raised $800,000 seed after winning a TV startup competition. The Start-UP Asia competition on regional station ChannelNews Asia sa Read More

News / Technology

Startup pitch: Well funded Musement helps travelers skip queues at top sights

By Sean O'Neil | June 9, 2014

Musement is a new tours and activities site and app that aims to help travelers book tickets to popular local attractions on demand or in advance. This startup in Milan currently offers admission t Read More

News / Distribution

Startup pitch: Booking Boss aims to be the benchmark booking system for tours and activities

By Karthick Prabu | June 6, 2014

Booking Boss is entering a busy market with an integrated reservations system for tours, activities and attraction operators. The company says it ensures real-time inventory and pricing, instant bo Read More

News / Distribution

Voyages-SNCF pursues tours and activities with OpenJaw tie-up

By Linda Fox | June 2, 2014

Voyages-SNCF is working with OpenJaw Technologies to enable the OTA to offer tours and activities packages online. Using OpenJaw's t-Retail platform, the online travel agency has developed Instants Read More

News / Distribution

WaterPlay, reservation system for water T&A, splashes out with $400k seed round

By Nick Vivion | May 19, 2014

WaterPlay USA, a reservation system focused exclusively on water-based tours and activities, has announced a $400k seed round. The company uses TourCMS as the tech underpinnings for the service, wh Read More

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