Research

Everything Is Storytelling: Bringing Emotion and Connection to the entire Customer Journey

The "wow moment" is really the soul of the tour. It's the moment when a place comes alive; it could be a story or a shared experience, but it always…

The Future of Experiences: Empowering Guides and Engaging Guests

TripSchool is a training company focused on helping guides and operators create and lead phenomenal travel experiences, from storytelling to product development to guest experience. We'll start this Boot Camp…

Which ‘R’ are you?

Today's the day to rethink, reboot, restart, and rebound. Day 2 of Arival 360 delves deep into the outlook for Europe, the future of distribution, product design, pricing, operations, metrics,…

The Mindset and Daily Habits of Successful Business Owners

Join this Buzz Session to discuss ideas about how to grow your company. Starting with a brief presentation from Josh Oakes and then a lively discussion, this is a topic…

Hot Topics

The Mindset and Daily Habits of Successful Business Owners

Join this Buzz Session to discuss ideas about how to grow your company. Starting with a brief presentation from Josh Oakes and then a lively discussion, this is a topic…

Diversity: Serving the Black Traveler

From the Americas and Africa to Europe and the world, there is a large, diverse yet distinct segment of global travelers whose travel aspirations and ambitions have been changing and…

Keynote: Sunny Skies or Cold Winter? The Outlook for Europe

After a spring season decimated by the global travel lockdown, Europe’s travel industry showed signs of life as countries eased restrictions and the open borders of the Schengen region facilitated…

Reality Check: Operators Respond

This panel assembles leading operators for an in-depth reality check on the state of tours, tourism and distribution for our industry. We’ll take stock of 2020, assess the outlook for…

Ask Me Anything with Viator

After spinning off from TripAdvisor, our industry’s oldest OTA has rolled out new pricing and commission policies, new product quality standards, and more.  Join us for this candid interview with…

Operator Voice: Digging Deep to Stay Inside Out

Operator Voice: Digging Deep to Stay Inside Out Stacey Toussaint, Founder & Chief Tour Guide, Inside Out Tours Stacey Tourssaint gave up a legal career to pursue her passion for…

Operator Story: The Great Escape

From bike-riding as a child in Iran to completing a Ph.D. in Canada to fulfilling her dream as an entrepreneur and bike tour operator, Maria Rasouli has faced and overcome…

Small Operators, Big Decisions

Close. Re-open. Hibernate. Furlough. Scale back (but not too much). Every travel business owner has been faced with the toughest of decisions this year. In this special roundtable, we have…

View from the Top: The Empire State Building

Fresh off the completion of a $165 million renovation, New York’s most iconic attraction, along with countless tour and attraction operators across the country and around the world, was forced…

How a Top Attraction Reworked Its Tech to Reopen

The world-famous Gardens By The Bay has re-opened with great success and fanfare. Hear their story about re-opening, drawing crowds, and even with 1-2 hour wait times how they are…

Experiences in APAC: Ask Me Anything with Airbnb

Experiences in APAC: Ask Me Anything with Airbnb Airbnb’s head of Experiences for Asia Pacific Parin Mehta and a leading Experience Host sit down with Arival an in-depth discussion on…

From the Frontlines: Ask Me Anything with James Thornton, CEO, Intrepid Group

One of the world’s largest operators of multi-day and day-tour brands was forced to process some 35,000 cancellations and suspend trips through September. In this candid interview, we’ll discuss how…

Learnings from Reopening: Nightly Spirits

This not-so-small, multi-city ghost and pub tour operator has adapted its tours to smaller groups, adjusted itineraries and more safety and sanitation. We'll discuss how its going and what they've…

Balancing Between Safe & Amazing

Lockdowns may be easing, but uncertainty isn’t. When should you reopen? And what steps should you take to ensure the health and safety of your guests, your staff, and your…

Learnings from Reopening: The Florida Aquarium

One of the first large attractions to reopen, Tampa's Florida Aquarium welomed back guests on May 15 with capacity limitations and employee masks. We'll hear from the institution's CEO on…

Revival Marketing: Certain Tactics for Uncertain Times.

Learn how to watch the trends so you can stay a step ahead of competitors, and how to watch your own data to determine how much to invest and what…

Revival Marketing: Certain Tactics for Uncertain Times

Learn how to watch the trends so you can stay a step ahead of competitors, and how to watch your own data to determine how much to invest and what…

Think Differently: DMOs to work with Local Operators

Think Differently: It is time for DMOs to work with Local Tours, Activities, Attractions & Experiences Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are typically government-funded tourism marketing offices for cities, states, and…

The Path Ahead for Ticketed Attractions

The Path Ahead for Ticketed Attractions The world’s greatest monuments, amusements, museums, observatories, and cultural sites have gone from over-tourism to no tourism in a matter of days. Now they…

Ask Me Anything: Rod Cuthbert, Founder, Viator

Ask Me Anything: Rod Cuthbert, Founder, Viator Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 12:00 Sydney, 10:00 Singapore (Monday, 6 April at 10pm EST) Interviewer: Douglas Quinby, Co-founder & CEO, Arival The Melbourne,…

Ask Me Anything: Tao Tao, Co-Founder and COO at GetYourGuide

Ask Me Anything: Tao Tao, Co-Founder and COO at GetYourGuide Thursday, 2 April 2020, 10am EST & 16:00 CET Interviewer: Douglas Quinby, CEO, Arival The Berlin-based unicorn with a $600…

Ask Me Anything: Ben Drew, President, Viator

Ask Me Anything: Ben Drew, President, Viator Tuesday, 24 March 2020, 11:00 EST & 16:00 CET Interviewer: Douglas Quinby, CEO, Arival Earlier this year TripAdvisor surprised the industry by announcing…

Arival Town Hall: Coronavirus Pulse Study and Open Discussion on How Are Operators Are Responding

Come Ask and Questions Panel: Douglas Quinby, CEO, Arival; Peter Syme, Managing Director, 1000 Mile Journeys; Sean Finelli, CEO, The Tour Guy Arival has been conducting a survey of the…

Ask Me Anything: Simone Gozzi, Founder & CEO, City Wonders

Since its founding in 2004, City Wonders has emerged as one of Europe’s leading tour operators, featuring tours of Europe’s most iconic cities and sites. Now the company is on…

Ask Me Anything: Airbnb

Experiences, the once-fledgling tours and activities initiative of the online accommodation giant, is growing up fast. Airbnb now boasts more than 30,000 experiences around the world, a new multi-day tour…

Operator Story: Putting People First

Grow grow grow goes the corporate credo, but grow at any cost? Sue Cooper of Lazy Dog Adventures and the author of Millionaire in Flip Flops has a different message:…

The Joy of Growing Pains

Growth in most companies is hardly a straight line up, but more like an adventure course with plenty of downs as well as ups. In this operator story, James Blick…

Operator Story Branding Bad

What started out as a failed business venture finally found its success by having their guests unleash their “bad side.” Hear about the journey YourBikerGang.com took to transition from a…

A Very Visible Impact

Every tour operator wants their tours and experiences to have an impact. But Invisible Cities in the UK, Scotland, seeks to be transformational for its guides as well as its…

Ask Me Anything: TripAdvisor

It’s one of our industry’s biggest online brands, the largest platform for traveler reviews and—for many operators—an important source of bookings. In this one-on-one interview, we (and you) ask the…

Keynote: The Way Forward

Challenges before us. Uncertainties ahead. Yet each of us must plot our path, and find our way forward. CEO Douglas Quinby kicks off Arival 360 with a look at the…

Why This Online Brand Delivers Offline Experiences

Most think of online travel agencies (OTAs) as simply online resellers of other operators' products. But Taiwan-based KKDay is not your typical OTA. They are getting into customer delivery with…

Roundtable: Tours, Attractions or Experiences? An Industry Flux

You’ve heard it many times: Travelers don’t want the same old group tours. Rather, they want authentic experiences served by locals and powered by mobile platforms that make everything accessible…

The Power of Passion (Plus Some Hawker Chicken & Rice)

How in the world does an Israeli journalist arrive in Singapore and within a few short years develop one of the most talked-about food tours that’s featured by the Singapore…

The Guts of Growth

Most tour and activity operators start their business with a passion. But once that passion turns into profit, every entrepreneur faces the same questions: What’s next? How do we grow?…

Roundtable: Operator Talk

No aspect of the travel industry is facing more challenges and change than tour operating. New technology and shifting traveler demands are compelling tour companies to change what they offer…

Winning the Chinese Outbound Traveler

Most tour and activity operators start with passion and follow their instinct and expertise to design great guest experiences. Tomorrow’s operators will use data analysis and careful customer observations to…

There’s No Such Thing as Asia

Unless somehow Korean, Thai, Indonesian and Australian travelers all started traveling, behaving and spending the exact same way, it’s clear there’s no single Asian market. This essential roundtable assembles leading…

Responsible Tourism as Company Culture & Habit

Raj Gyawali, Founding Director of the leading Nepal tour operator socialtours (and Asia’s first Travelife-certified brand), speaks to building a company culture with responsible practices baked into day-to-day operations. He…

Preserving Cultures, Sustaining Locals and Making Profits

Most online travel startups dream of big funding rounds, big profits and even bigger exits. This startup thinks about preserving Thailand’s diverse culture and supporting local communities. Achi Thamparipattra, CEO…

Ask Me Anything: Klook

An overview of the key trends and issues shaping The Best Part of Travel in Asia and what’s ahead for creators and sellers of tours, activities and attractions.

Building a Tour Business, One Beer at a Time

Who would leave a great job to start a tour business? And who on Earth goes to Scotland to drink beer? Well, here’s the impressive story of one founder defying…

The Tour Operator of the Future

No part of the travel industry is facing more challenges and change than tour operating. New technology and shifting traveler demands are compelling tour companies to change what they offer…

A Different Kind of Culinary

Regardless of the traveler or the trip, it’s the one thing that matters most: food. Culinary, the combination of food and drink, is playing a larger role in the in-destination…

What’s Up, TUI?

It’s one of Europe’s most storied travel brands, and one of the biggest in the world. Now TUI has its sights set on our sector: Tours, Activities & Attractions. Following…