What Percentage of Tour & Activity Bookings are Coming Within the Last 24 Hours? [Discussion]

The Tour & Activity Marketing Group on LinkedIn is chalk full of insightful discussions amongst those working this sector.

Group founder, Matthew Newton, reached out to its members to ask what percentage of bookings are coming within the last 24 hours, and whether last minute bookings are increasing.

Here are the responses (because the group is private, we have left the authors anonymous).

The responses come from tour and activity suppliers, as well as companies whose clients are tour and activity suppliers (marketing agencies and booking technology companies).

1.

“I would think that as mobile bookings continues to rise, the percentage of last-minute reservations would as well, especially in more urban areas where people are more likely on the go with their phones.”

2.

“This is a great topic! Given 2/3 of bookings happen in destination, last minute bookings are always strong. It’ll be interesting to see how much of these move from cash based payments via walk ups and hotel desk referrals to direct mobile bookings. Anyone noticing a drop off in people coming from a local partner, like a concierge?”

3.

“Rezdy actually released some data on this. We noticed that 51.5% of bookings were being made less than 7 days in advance BUT in terms of booking dollar value, they only made up 33% of dollars spent. Smaller activities are booked last minute (eg. bike and kayak rental, hop-on and hop-off city tours). There is a huge opportunity in the 7-30 day range, because it yields the highest dollar value compared to other booking windows (Source).

Also interesting re concierge topic. When we surveyed 200 American & Australian tour operators they all said that concierges contributed to 5% or less of total bookings (Source) – would be interesting to understand how this is in other countries though. I imagine especially in developing countries the role of the concierge is still pretty integral and traditional.”

4.

“What’s interesting to me is if that 50%/33% breakdown holds across various businesses.

My guess would have been that the lower the value, the higher the percentage of last minute bookings.”

5.

“We only have small numbers (60 people a year) but we are getting smashed by airlines reducing number of flights (to regional Western Australia) and increasing fares. This means we need to get to our market at least 10 months out and really encourage to book early to get cheaper seats. Otherwise booking 7-30 days out can mean adding an additional nearly 50% of the cost of our product from an airfare.

Tempted to get my licence and buy an old DC3 or Fokker Friendship and have a crack!”

Join in the conversation about last minute bookings!

Participate in the discussion and get tips from industry peers by joining the Tour & Activity Marketing Group on Linkedin.