Booking.com's entry into the tours and activities sector and TripAdvisor's likewise move to add a software company into its mix certainly caused a stir in 2018.
The expansion of the market, at least in terms of availability of distribution channels and the tools that they want to offer suppliers, could be considered a sign that the sector is maturing if it's caused the so-called giants of the wider industry to take note.
And then you can now also throw Google into the ecosystem, with its Touring Bird product.
It makes for an dynamic and fast-moving sector - one which still has plenty of technical complexity to unravel at the supplier end.
Four of the important players in the market took the stage at Phocuswright Europe in Amsterdam to discuss what's going on.
The panel (listed below) was proceeded by some hard and fast facts from Phocuswright's Alice Jong.
- Javier Arévalo, managing director for Beyond The Bed at Hotelbeds
- Ram Papatla, vice president for global experiences at Booking.com
- Alessandro Petazzi, CEO at Musement
- Lax Poojary, founder and CEO at Touring Bird (Area 120 - Google)
Here is a clip of the research presentation and panel discussion (also check out our one-on-one chats with Poojary from Touring Bird and Booking.com's Papatla in the PhocusWire Studio):
Phocuswright Research & Executive Roundtable: Experience This! - Phocuswright Europe 2019