Ancillaries in Travel Are Being Transformed and You Need to Know About It
Ancillaries are the powerhouse growing travel brand revenues around the world and the industry has only just got started.
Technology is powering a massive growth in partnerships across the travel industry as brands race to enhance their offering to customers and also their bottom lines. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), AI-powered personalization and streamlined booking processes are helping travel brands to cross-sell a growing amount of inventory and make the customer's journey easier.
Ancillary sales are expanding to cover more and more inventory. From trains, ridesharing and buses, to dining, to an exploding tours and activities sector that has drawn the attention of all the largest online travel players. In TripAdvisor's latest set of results from Q1 2018, its non-hotel revenues soared 36% and it is banking on tours and activities to push up results further this year. Clearly their strategy of focusing on the area after acquiring Viator, who are speaking at Eyefortravel's Europe Summit in London this June, is beginning to pay off and indicates the growing importance of new revenue streams.
Elsewhere, rail travel is becoming one of the biggest focuses in travel, with digital giants like Expedia jumping in with their acquisition of SilverRail Technologies, Skyscanner launching a train booking feature for mobiles (both brands are speaking at EyeforTravel Europe), and major existing players stepping up their online presence.
As Cameron Jones, chief commercial officer at SilverRail, who will be speaking in London, puts it: "Rail's time is now. Expedia, Rail Europe, Rome2Rio, Trainline, GoEuro and more are raising the profile and relevance of rail as a key product line in a comprehensive retailing strategy. Rail gives travellers greater choice and flexibility when trip planning and, being a high frequency product, drives traffic and loyalty enabling retailers to lower their customer acquisition costs. And Skyscanner/Ctrip's recent move into rail in Europe highlights the momentum."
The growing realm of potential partnerships means that travel brands can cater to more aspects of the customer's journey, even if they are only a small player – both generating more revenues and greater customer satisfaction.
If you would like to find out more about the expanding role of partnerships across the industry, there's only one place to go – the EyeforTravel Europe Summit 2018.
The Summit features a host of speakers from across the spectrum who can help to transform the ancillaries you sell from a variety of diverse sectors, such as tours and activities, ride sharing, transportation. These include
- Viator
- The Trainline
- Blablacar
- Eatwith
- Withlocals
- SilverRail Technologies
- Hertz
- Amadeus
- com
- routeRank
- Eurail
- Rail Europe
- Insight Guides
- Urban Adventures
- TripCreator
- Livn
Join four cutting edge travel conference under one roof and change how travel is sold. Get your ticket to the EyeforTravel Europe Summit 2018 today!
About Reuters Events
Reuters Events is a community where the world’s top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry.
We know that working in the turbulent online travel industry is as exciting as it is challenging. In this constantly evolving market place, we appreciate that keeping up with the pace of change can be tough, not to mention time consuming. You need the right information, contacts and strategic insight to succeed.
Established in 1997, by Tim Gunstone, we offer a diverse product portfolio including industry analysis, insights, research, webinars, reports and conferences to suit the needs of our clients.
Our clients read as a who’s who of online travel. From major hotel brands to new startups, we help our 80,000 strong customer base make better decisions, build better brands, close the most lucrative deals and ultimately sell more of their product. After all, increasing travel brand profit margins in the cutthroat travel industry is the name of the game!
No other online travel intelligence provider has been charting the growth of online travel as long as we have. We were here at the inception of online travel and we know the industry inside out. What’s more, we’re a small, friendly team. Forget impersonal hierarchies, we like to get to know our customers and work towards their exact needs.
