How Tour Companies Are Pivoting Their Businesses During The Coronavirus Pandemic

As with other tourism sectors, during the coronavirus pandemic, tour companies have ceased onsite operations and tour guides have experienced their work levels get diminished. During this time, they’re learning to adapt and change their how they do business in a time when visiting places is not an option. Also, their methods are keeping their staff with a steady paycheck.

Online content is the direction many have headed in, to engage new customers and retain their future travel interests. Here’s what some of them are doing.

Virtual Touring

The tour company Walks has launched “Spotlight Series,” which features limited-time-only content that’s not generally covered on in-person tours but takes with topical, provocative, and globally fascinating subjects tied to destination. The first presentation in this series was a tour from Wuhan, China; its last viewing will happen Thursday, May 14, at 7 p.m. ET. Signups are required; click here.

Other “Spotlight” features include both an insider’s experience of the preservation of Venice, and Darius Arya, a globe-trotting archaeologist, joining viewers live from Rome. The website also features “Tours from Home,” a calendar of on-screen excursions within city tour locations and featuring expert guides, chefs and storytellers in conversation from their homes. The program, which requires a purchase for access, also comes with $25 future travel credit voucher.

“We mainly see the ‘Tours from Home’ program as a way to support our guides who are on lockdown all over the world, and to stay connected with our guests, keeping engagement and brand awareness high,” said Walks CEO Stephen Oddo. “We do expect local guided tours to have significant recovery over the next 12 to 18 months, and we’re working to diversify our offering to cater to more languages, destinations, as well as demographic by adapting some of our products to have a more local and regional traveler appeal.”

In late April, G Adventures launched its Virtual Travel Experiences, with its inaugural online excursion group tour “heading” to Italy. Going forward, the Toronto-based tour company is hosting on its website walking tours such in Florence, Buenos Aires, Antigua in Guatemala, Cape Town and Hanoi. Led by local CEOs and utilizing Google Maps and photos, CEOs will “walk” viewers around their city while sharing insider secrets, history and tips.

“The idea behind this collection is not only to keep travelers engaged and inspired during this time, but also to support our tour guides and spark innovative ideas,” said Ben Perlo, managing director for the G Adventures’ U.S. division. “Our hope is that we can continue to spread excitement and desire for travel and the sense of community and discovery that it fosters, and then, when the time is right, start taking people on trips again in real life.”

Recently, Intrepid Travel rolled out a video signifying the benefits of travel and promoting a new community engagement initiative known as #BeTogether to keep travelers connected during this time when all have to stay come. “We’ve turned our social channels over to 100 percent user generated content,” said James Thornton, the company’s CEO, “encouraging them to share letters to someone who made their travel experience special – the homestay host who made them feel right at home, the stranger turned roommate turned lifelong friend, or the travel agent who made it magically all work. 

Suspending their tour excursions until September 30, 2020, the Australian-based tour company recently rolled out a video tying to #BeTogether, a new initiative focused on community engagement.

According to CEO James Thornton, it reflects the direction the company is taking at this time. “We’ve turned our social channels over to 100 percent user generated content, encouraging them to share letters to someone who made their travel experience special,” he said, “the homestay host who made them feel right at home, the stranger turned roommate turned lifelong friend, or the travel agent who made it magically all work.”

FTLO Travel, a Millennial group travel company, has gone into many directions. The boutique company is holding Travel Trivia Tuesday Happy Hours, where participants can mingle online and earn FTLO Travel credits. The Weekender Series, an online platform marketing domestic trips across New York, Dallas, Denver and other major U.S. cities, encourages planning closer to home trips.

“The trivia nights have been a fun way to keep our community connected,” said its founder Tara Cappel. “We place people on smaller teams so they actually get to make friends as they work together to answer the trivia questions. I’ve even seen teams create group chats on WhatsApp or Instagram to keep in touch after the game is over.”

What’s to Change in Touring

Seeing public venues and attractions open is a positive sign for tourism. On the other hand changes in how business is conducted are anticipated. “We’re expecting to be able to lead small groups in cities and around attractions in the somewhat near future, but can only speculate when international travel will be back online,” explained Oddo.

Oddo added that they will use radio headsets on our tours for guides and guests to be properly “social distanced” while still on a live tour, plus guides will carry hand sanitizer and wipes.

Thornton of Intrepid Travel notes that his company foresees travelers not venturing away far right away. “We predict travel will come back hyper-local to begin with,” sh said, “with people traveling small distances close to the hubs in which they live to go for walks, go to a restaurant, or bike rides for example. After this, we’ll start to see some domestic travel open up, and eventually countries will reopen their borders to each other.”

With what the future of travel might look like once it’s better to do so, G Adventures’ Perlo has noted some trends. Currently, demands from customers range from greater consumer flexibility, to nature-centric trips to destinations such as Peru, Antarctica, Galapagos and parts of Central America, to travel that helps support local communities.

Other areas of interest involve an uptick in interest in smaller-sized group tours and private group travel plus Perlo cited that bucket-list destinations are poised to rebound faster as pent-up desire to travel fuels early “dream” bookings.

“Our strategy now is to keep travelers connected, engaged and inspired, while ensuring that we’re ready for them once we’re able to take them on trips again,” Perlo said.