Technology

Solving the Pain of Payments

Payments are one of the biggest challenges that every tour operator faces, both small and large, both custom or scheduled tours. This session will teach you how to  minimize expensive…

5 Minutes of Fame: TourAmigo & Tackling the Lack of Tech

TourAmigo hopes to help operators with new online software to automate their back office and connect to distributors.

Reposite & Automating Supplier Bookings

Reposite is a new startup seeking to solve classic back-office problems for tour operators: efficiently managing bookings with their suppliers.

How to Choose Your Tech (and Not Spend a Million Bucks)

With all too many tour booking systems, online booking engines, itinerary builders, and quote development tools, multi-day tour operators – both inbound and outbound – face many tough questions when…

Innovation Lab: Tell your story with STQRY

Watch STQRY CPO, Glen Barnes demo the leading platform for interpretative content. In this video, Barnes will demonstrate how to make your content more accessible and gain a competitive edge…

Innovation Lab: Learn how Lemax enables DMCs and Tour Operators to create, sell, operate multi-day tours

With more than 100 customers globally and 20+ years in the market, Lemax is leading the innovation and changing the way Tour Operators and DMCs do their business.

OTAs, Tech & the Outlook for Tours & Attractions

Digital, distribution, and online platforms are ushering in dramatic change, from how travelers plan and book to how operators and distributors connect. The pandemic has only accelerated the need for…

Revenue Expansion with Direct Booking Automation Tools

This unit highlights different automations that can drive more direct bookings. Instances of these concepts in ecommerce will be reviewed along with specific examples in use in the tours, activities…

Getting Ready to Grow

With uncertain skies still ahead, when do you invest, when do you hire back? This workshop helps you set your strategy to get your tour or activity business in the…

Google, Digital & the Pandemic (or How Tech Is Changing Everything)

Tours, activities and attractions have ridden a wave of digitization over the past year as the pandemic has fueled new traveler behaviors and forced changes on operators. In this session…

The Great Tech Debate: Do Standards Matter?

With hundreds, if not thousands, of reservation systems, OTAs and other distributors, and more coming on to the scene, more and more tech needs to connect to help tour, activity…

Curation for the Curious: Content & Usability Considerations for Self-Guided Experiences

Mobile app-based self-guided tours allow tour designers to enrich the experience with a range of content and features, from photos and videos to route selection, maps and more. But how…

Sound that Moves You: Audio Design for Self-Guided Experiences

Self-guided tours without great audio won’t end being all that… great. This session will delve into the essential do’s and don’ts of creating great audio content. What You’ll Learn: Best…

Grow Revenue & Lower Costs with Self-Guided Experiences

While many operators worry that self-guided tours will compete with their in-person offerings, self-guided options in fact create opportunities to upsell and reach more customers. This innovation Lab from Junket…

A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Tour on a Self-Guided App

Wondering how a platform for creating self-guided experiences works? Join us and we’ll show you step-by-step how to build a great self-guided tour, we’ll cover key do's and don’ts, and…

Choosing a Self-Guided App

There are dozens of self-guided app platforms to choose from. In this session, the head of systems and administration for San Francisco’s Extranomical Tours walks through their process for developing…

Game Time: Cracking the Self-Guided Code

Self-guided tours offer several important benefits, such as flexibility, accessibility, and privacy for the traveler. However, many tours still fall short in two important ways: they lack immersive experiences, and…

Telling Engaging Stories On-Demand with Audio Tours

Learn what makes an audio tour engaging, and how to design and stream audio tours on-demand, in any language, to extend your reach to a wider audience, even as a…

Look Beyond the App

Most think self-guided tours is a small niche in tours and activities, but in fact the vast majority of travel is just that: it’s self guided. This unravels the misconceptions…

Going Virtual, What’s Working with Online Experiences

Virtual tours have become a much-discussed possibility not only as a short-term option for earning income, but as a new way to engage your customer even when we return to…

Meet the Operator | TravelCurious

Guides, come meet the guide recruiter from Travel Curious. Research their platform in advance; they are looking to recruit guides from around the world. Stop in and introduce yourself! Feel…

Meet the Operator | ToursByLocals

Guides, come meet the guide recruiter from ToursByLocals. Research their platform in advance; the are looking to recruite guides from around the world. Stop in and introduce yourself! Feel free…

Making Your Virtual Tours Engaging, Strategies and Advice

Thinking about offering virtual tours, but wondering how to make them just as effective or as engaging as an in-person experience? In this workshop we'll share and discuss best practices…

Why Your Tour needs a Theme!

A theme is the glue that holds your entire tour together, and deepens the connection between your guests and what they're experiencing. We'll dive into some of the principles of…

Using Technology Creatively on Tour

It's 2020: time to look at some ways that you can creatively integrate technology on your tours! In this session, we'll run through a wide variety of smartphone apps, little-known…

Creation in Crisis: The JAMNOLA Story

COVID-19 may have put the breaks on a whole lot of travel, but it couldn’t stop the founders of JAMNOLA from fulfilling their dream of capturing New Orleans’ incredible arts…

Multi-Day Tours

If you offer or want to offer multi-day tours, join this Buzz Session to discuss how multi-day tours are different than day tours, issues related to tour guides, and best…

5 Practical Tips to Increase Local Visitation by 20%

Locals have become the cornerstone and lifeblood of tour operators because of recent events. We will discuss practical ways to increase sales by 20% and talk about ways operators have…

Connectivity

Operators are compelled to use tech to connect to the global markets. Join this roundtable to discuss connections between operators, their res-tech platforms who then connect to OTA's and other…

Connecting with Travelers: How, When and Why

Do you connect with your travelers often enough and at the right times using the right systems? Are you using email, text, Whatsapp, etc.? What works best? What about when…

A Realistic Assessment of Virtual Tours – What’s Working & What’s Not

In this workshop, we share the results from over 250 tour operators who took the plunge into online experiences in the wake of the pandemic. We'll look at which types…

Solving the Content Conundrum

TourismSolved and Magpie have partnered to help tours and activities operators improve conversion to increase bookings with professional, high-quality content.  Join our Innovation Lab where we demonstrate how to tackle…

The Self-Guided Traveler

Will smartphones and apps replace tour guides? Or can they amplify a tour and attraction operator’s product portfolio? This talk explores the self-guided tour customer and the opportunity for operators…

The Mobile Self-Guided Tour Landscape

The Mobile Self-Guided Tour Landscape Iain Manley, Founder & CEO, VoiceMap This talk provides a big picture overview of self-guided tours, the landscape of products and providers, and the role…

Virtual Reality (or the Reality of Virtual Tours)

Tech Talk: The Mobile Self-Guided Tour Landscape

Like it or not, technology will continue to change touring. Some predict automation will replace tour guides altogether. Just how much of our industry will software eat? What are the…

Tech Talk: The Self-Guided Traveler

Will smartphones and apps replace tour guides? Or can they amplify a tour and attraction operator’s product portfolio? This talk explores the self-guided tour customer, and the opportunity for operators…

Sightseeing with Your Phone

Join this roundtable to hear the success stories and challenges other operators have experienced when using smartphones and digital technologies as ‘tour guides’. How can these tours be developed? Are…

Covid Christmas: How Operators Should Prepare

How should operators prepare to make the most out of this unique holiday season. Whether for the good or the bad, this Christmas season will undoubtedly be more memorable than…

Going Local

Grow your business with in-market partnerships and targeted local marketing.

How One Operator Chose Their Booking Tech

Choosing a reservations technology system for your business, whether you are large or small, is not easy. Tours and attractions veteran Jason Hackett has done it more than once. In…

AI Chatbots & Growth with Electronic Waivers

TOMIS presents: The First AI ChatBot in the Tours & Activities Industry! Learn how the TOMIS AI ChatBot can 1) save you time, 2) improve your customer service, and 3)…

Earned Media and Word of Mouth Techniques to Earn Domestic Bookings

As the most trusted form of marketing media and the most likely to stimulate a customer to action, Earned Media (also described as Word-of-Mouth) will play a vital role in…

The New Digital Imperative

The pandemic is creating a new digital urgency. It is already accelerating online booking as travelers do more advanced planning and booking, and operators are required to restrict capacity and…

A Tours & Activities Tech Primer

It’s more imperative than ever for operators to get their tech in order. This short presentation and follow-up discussion with technology experts will provide an essential tech overview to help…

Virtual Tours: Should You Do It? (and if so how)?

Virtual Tours: Should You Do It? (and if so how)? Virtual Tours have become the latest COVID-19 fad. Is there really a business here? Is it worth the investment in…

Roundtable: Reservations Tech in a Post-Covid World

Roundtable: Reservations Tech in a Post-Covid World Thursday, 16 April 2020, 11am EST, 17:00 CET, 18:00 Athens Presenters: Maria Aivalioti, COO, Travelotopos Hjalti Baldursson, CEO, Bokun Scott Zimmerman, CEO, Xola…

Workshop: Refresh Your Tech (Now’s the Time)

Workshop: Refresh Your Tech (Now’s the Time) Thursday, 26 March 2020, 12:00 EST & 17:00 CET Presenters: Christian Watts, Founder & CEO, Magpie; Todd Kersey, Founder & CEO, iOutdoor Times…

Tools for Tomorrow’s Operator

How travelers experience a tour, an attraction or activity and the ways in which operators can deliver those experiences are changing rapidly. In this first-time session at Arival, we feature…

Are Asia’s Super Apps Defining Our Future? (Part 1)

From WeChat and Go-Jek to Grab, LINE, Meituan and more, Asia’s rising Super Apps are just about everywhere. They are offering pretty much everything and are challenging every sector of…