[ad_1]
Following its partnership with TUI’s Musement brand last year, Booking.com added a major tours and activities partner, Tripadvisor’s Viator, to its growing attractions business.
In their first partnership in the sector, Booking and Viator announced Wednesday that thousands of Viator’s attractions, tours and activities would soon be available for travelers on Booking.com. The companies said that the integration process would initially focus on experiences in major destinations in North America and Europe “with additional locations and inventory to follow over the coming months.”
In a related development as major players maneuver to advantage, Viator rival GetYourGuide acquired Guidatours, based in Versailles, France, Arival reported. While GetYourGuide is growing through acquisition, Booking.com and Viator are expanding through partnerships at the moment.
Viator offers some 400,000 bookable attractions, tours and activities, and through the deal Viator and its operator partners gain a new source of distribution, Booking.com. Viator is considered the leading vendor in the sector, but well-funded rivals such as GetYourGuide in Europe and Klook in Southeast Asia have been gaining ground.
In late 2019 and early 2020, Booking.com restructured its tours and activities business, trimming staff, and opting to partner with leading players instead of trying to scale the business on its own with the help of its Fareharbor unit. So this Viator distribution deal, following last year’s agreement with Musement, builds on that partner strategy as a means of expanding Booking.com’s experiences business.
As with the TUI deal, Booking.com and Viator advised tours and attractions vendors to contact Viator Supplier Support if they are interested in participating in this Viator-Booking.com integration. Operators can contact Viator through a “chat us” feature in its management center.
Operators who seek to participate in Musement’s integration with Booking.com can contact Musement.
Booking.com essentially off-loads the operator on-boarding work to these distribution partners.
This is a developing story. We’ve reached out to Musement, GetYourGuide and Klook for comment, but they haven’t immediately responded to these requests.
[ad_2]
Source link