Gert Nieuwboer, CEO of “Our business model will change because we have to play a different role in distribution. In order to stay relevant we will have to move in two directions: closer to our customers to be able to give the super service that differentiate us from the anonymous offerings on the internet and at the same time closer to our incoming agents with whom we have to work more strongly together in order to create services that are matching the needs of the adventure traveler better and better. We have to move fast: change within the next five years or diminish…”
Dan Austin, Director of “No, we will just continue to do what we do and build on our brand and long term relationships.”
Maria Elena Price, Co-Owner of “Our company has never fit perfectly into the outbound/inbound model. In fact, we’ve always been our own outfitter and inbound operator in Europe and therefore we won’t likely be changing our model much in terms of how we sell directly to the customer and how we manage our own tours. We are local in Europe, and we were founded as a direct sales company so we have an established direct sales process. As part of our marketing strategy, we continually define our ‘style of travel’ to help ensure we match the expectations of our travelers. In the locations where we do work with another company as the inbound operator, we strive to define what our added value and branding difference is so that travelers understand the difference between traveling with us or traveling with someone else. In our own role as an inbound operator we make sure we work with partners that have a clear added value and we try and make that relationship as solid as possible by understanding what the outbound operator’s brand wants first and foremost.”
Manfred Häupl, of Germany's “Not fundamentally as we believe that a sustainable trip with high quality needs more than some smart deals in the internet. As long as we can transfer the benefit and the extra values to our clients we can keep our business model. But the forms of traveling will change more to individualized trips. Most of the (organized) adventure travelers will look for a kind of basic trip and design around their individual needs.”
Andy Levine, President & Founder of “Our DuVine model has not changed since day one, the customer always is the 1st priority. Travel is theater - the curtain rises, you’d best be ready to amaze and bring laughter.”
Alexandra Greenwood, Head of Sales of “No, the type of guest we attract will always feel more comfortable making their travel arrangements with a ‘trusted’ company based in the UK. Plus many of our guests are single and one of the [Unique Selling Propositions] of HF Holidays is that guests get to travel in an active and sociable group.”
Robin Weber Pollak, President of “The more important changes that we make will entail the formats in which we deliver information, better using technology to enhance our relationships with travelers. We will need to know how to update our materials constantly to keep up with the information that travelers can access in other places, and find new ways to add value that goes beyond information that anyone can find by searching the Internet. Changes won't happen at one fixed point in the future; we are always evolving.”
James Thornton, Managing Director of “As Intrepid through PEAK already runs its own operations there will be minimal changes to our business model. However we will always look for new and innovative product that we can deliver to our target market. Intrepid has always communicated that our key benefit is the fact we use local transportation, local accommodation and local leaders.
Intrepid will continue to develop local operations through PEAK and constantly offer new and exciting product to our target market. As we also have local sales & marketing offices around the world we are well situated to reach out to our target market and to adapt to their communication methods. Intrepid is well setup for the future.”
Jimena Barrera, AMERICAS Division Manager of “Indeed, it is constantly changing as everything changes rapidly in a more globalized world. Hotels and services are holding more and more inventory for online direct sales and have easier access to reach international travelers through their websites and GSA teams spreading across the globe. However, our main source of business and working model is to attend the experts that have the most reliable connection to the international traveler. Our business model is to constantly innovate our ways to provide rapid and up-to-date information to feed our international tour operator partners.”
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