Industry leaders on the outlook for tours, activities and attractions

The continued threat of a recession, traveler trends and the impact of artificial intelligence on the industry were some of the key subjects discussed by a cross-section of leaders in the tours and activities space during a session at Arival 360 in Orlando, October 9-12.

The session, moderated by Arival co-founder and CEO Douglas Quinby, included panelists Sarah Dines, chief commercial officer at Viator; Chris Atkin, CEO of Rezdy; Michael Zeisser, manager partner of FMZ Ventures; Casandra Matej, president and CEO at Visit Orlando; and Justin Buzzi, founder of Get Up and Go Kayaking.

Overall, the outlook from panelists was positive.

Dines said Viator is seeing customers taking longer and more expensive trips, spending more in-destination and canceling at much lower rates.

“We’ve been talking for years about this shift toward experiential travel — that hasn’t slowed down in any way,” she said.

“And what we are seeing at Viator in the last 12 months is an extraordinary growth in activities that allow people to immerse themselves and get their hands dirty and really get a sense of place. So what we are seeing in cultural tours and private tours in particular is 200% year-on-year growth. We’re also seeing, very interestingly, that the outdoors activities that gained traction during the pandemic have endured, so we are seeing 75% year-on-year growth in that category.”

Atkin, whose company recently completed a merger with Checkfront and Regiondo, reported similar strong performance for clients that now span Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia. And he reassured audience members – many operators in the sector – that the combination of the three companies will result in “the best of each” to provide better local support, products and service to customers.  

From a destination perspective, Matej said Orlando’s visitation in 2022 was 98% of its 2019 peak of 76 million. While it has “tapered off a bit” this year, partly due to an uptick in Americans going to Europe, she said the DMO is expecting growth of 3-5% in 2024.

Artificial intelligence was also a topic of discussion, primarily as a tool for content creation, developing new marketing strategies and for customer-facing solutions such as translations.  

“How can we try to embed it within the product to take some of the heavy lifting away for our operators on a day-to-day basis?” Atkin said.

“Within our teams just internally, how do you make your job easier? You have to be smart. You have to think what you want from it, very intentional. … I’m sure it will become even more used as it becomes more sophisticated.”

Zeisser said all companies, in any industry, should be using this technology as a “productivity tool,” – and it has the potential to dramatically cut the cost of things such as software development. But beyond that, he believes travel is “one of the more future-proof industries” relative to disruption from AI.

“What consumers really seek when they seek these experiences is the human connectivity and the human contact,” he said.

“And fundamentally this industry is still going to be characterized by the human touch and the human connectivity, and I don’t think an AI algorithm is going to disrupt this industry.”

Regarding potential economic headwinds in the coming year, Dines said, “It’s quite paradoxical that on one hand you’ve got all this economic doom and gloom, but on the other hand you’ve got airlines adding capacity, hotels adding rooms.”

And said Zeisser, who at the Arival event in Las Vegas one year ago predicted a recession this year, “We haven’t made the technical definition of a recession, but I think a lot of people in the U.S., in particular at the lower end of the income scale, are really having their disposable income squeezed enormously.

“I’m not wishing for a recession … but I don’t believe we are out of the woods.”

Following the panel, Dines spoke to PhocusWire editor in chief Mitra Sorrells in the PhocusWire studio at Arival. Watch that discussion below.