How Can You Compete with Travel Startups?

The tour operators I meet with often deal with a variety of challenges, but keeping up with competitors is one of the most difficult, and certainly the most demanding.

In many cases, these competing tour operators are startups that are able to spend nearly all of their time developing and growing their business operations. They dedicate 100% of their energy into developing new products and importantly tend to be technology-led from the very beginning.

Let’s compare this to existing tour businesses, many of which are bogged down in administrative work, and it’s easy to see the problem. Know what I mean? You have ideas to take your business in new directions, to attract new customers but never seem to have the time…

The solution? Investing in tools and travel software systems that allow you to compete with the challenge head-on.

Taking Advantage of New Tech

I’ve found it’s easy for businesses to get stuck in the familiar, especially when it comes to technology. Many tour operators that I’ve seen, for example, will still be using basic spreadsheet software to manage tours, bookings and other aspects of their services. This poses a number of issues.

It’s time we take a look at some of these problems, and how dedicated software that’s been created specifically for the tour industry can help.

Firstly, there’s the issue of functionality. These spreadsheet programs haven’t been designed for the nitty-gritty of running a modern tour company, so your staff will be losing time trying to make the software work effectively.

When using a solution that’s designed specifically to handle these tasks, your staff won’t have to worry about navigating complex spreadsheet software. Of course, this isn’t the only issue.

Have you ever thought about the fact that your staff can only access or share tour information from a single computer? Or about how you can’t see any useful metrics? Using a spreadsheet means there’s little insight into these important metrics, as well as a lack of mobility.

Thanks to the improving scalability of online server hosting, small business can now access programs and on the go without any hassle. With the right software and devices, staff can log into a tour system wherever they are, updating files in real time with full management reporting.

Using solutions that aren’t designed for the job also means there’s a lack of metrics, and that leaves your business pretty much in the dark. Dedicated travel software shines a spotlight on these processes, making it easy to see accounting, supplier and client information, as well as making it easy to effectively managing reports.

Using the Right Software

Taking advantage of new software means you can cut down on the daily administrative tasks that so often slow down operations. Of course, it’s important to use the right tools. Ideally, such a system should be capable of managing bookings and itineraries.

I think that it’s really important to take advantage of capable new software solutions, especially when the benefits are so diverse. In an industry where a startup has the ability to surge ahead, you can keep up by using the right software.