How to find resellers that are right for your tour business

As a tour operator, you may be looking for ways to generate more bookings, gain more exposure, or simply broaden your revenue streams. What if we told you that you can successfully achieve all three when you find resellers that are right for your business?

A reseller’s main goal is to help their customers find and book experiences that interest them. The more successful they are at this, the more bookings they’ll capture and the more money they’ll make. There are thousands of resellers out there and there are many factors to consider when choosing what resellers will work best for your business. 

In this article, we’ll go through different ways you can find resellers that fit your business and can help you gain more bookings.

Do it yourself

One simple way to get started is to try and do your own research. When visiting different cities and countries, try and book similar tours to your business through resellers. By doing so, you’ll see a list of the most popular resellers that may be best for your type of product.

Ratings and reviews may also give you insight into which resellers provide great customer service. Working with resellers with positive ratings and reviews will help you set appropriate expectations for your customers.

By following through with the booking process, you’ll be able to experience the reseller’s overall customer experience. After all, these resellers will be representing and promoting your services. You’d want to make sure exceptional customer service and support are provided for your customers at all times. The more the customer feels satisfied with the reseller’s services, the more they’ll rebook both your reseller’s and your services again.

Constant awareness

Having constant awareness as an operator will help you not only grow your business but your overall career. The more knowledge and understanding of the industry you have, the more you’ll be able to make better business decisions. 

Experiencing and increasing your exposure to the industry is one way to become a successful tour operator. Whenever you’re booking entertainment or activities for yourself, take note of the resellers that constantly come up.

When you engage with these resellers, look out for the ones that retarget you. Retargeting can be done through paid ads, follow-up emails, or even a personal reach out. This proves that they’re actively promoting their services, which in hand, promotes yours too. Consider it free marketing.

Your local tourism organization

Local tourism organizations are established to help every tour operator and business within the tourism sector flourish. Your region will likely have a local tourism organization that should be able to provide you with helpful information.

Since local tourism organizations are well connected with hundreds of businesses within the tourism industry, they’ve often already done the research to create useful resources for tour operators. This research usually contains reports, guides, contact details, and other helpful resources for your tour business.

By getting in touch with your local tourism organization, you’ll be able to find resellers within your area. Some even offer more information on resellers within the surrounding regions.

For example, if you’re in Australia and you’re looking to target customers from a specific location such as Denver, Colorado, your local tourism organization should be able to provide you with the best contact information or website to get in touch with. From there, once you’ve reached out to the provided destination representatives, it’s usually an easy step to find resellers perfect for your business.

Channel Manager

One way to boost your bookings and instantly connect with thousands of resellers is by joining a channel manager. A channel manager is an online platform that connects tour and activity operators with thousands of resellers looking for services to promote and sell to their customers. With the help of an effective tour channel manager, you’re able to simplify and centralize your distribution channels into one place. Furthermore, you’ll have the ability to open up and broaden your revenue and booking streams.

For instance, The Rezdy Marketplace is an all-in-one distribution channel manager that offers you instant distribution strategies for your tours and activities. By using the Marketplace, you can access the reach of 20,000+ reselling agents all over the world and sell to an audience of millions.

Rezdy’s tour operator marketplace also lets you avoid the costs associated with finding and developing new distribution channels in tourism. That way, you can save both money and time.

Listing your products on Rezdy Marketplace is as simple as:

• naming your price
• setting your rates
• letting resellers sell and promote your products.

On top of that, you don’t have to worry about collecting payments and paying commissions as Rezdy automatically organizes payments for both parties. This reduces the need to chase your agents for payments.

So, how much does Rezdy Marketplace cost and what are the fees involved?

Joining Rezdy’s Marketplace is completely free! You’ll only be charged a small fee per booking and the commissions you’ve set for resellers. When it comes to your commission, you have the freedom to set your rates. You can either set your commissions as a percentage of your tour price or as a fixed rate. Within your account, you can also select negotiated rates with some of your preferred resellers. Alternatively, you can also set a standard rate across or a mix of both.

Either way, Rezdy allows you to stay in full control of how you set your commissions and the resellers you wish to work with.

Curious to see if Rezdy Marketplace is the right fit for your business? Request a demo from our friendly team today.