Tiqets Regional Director for Northern Europe Floor Remarks on the Company’s Role in the Industry’s Recovery

Floor Rameckers began working for Tiqets in 2015 when the Dutch-based travel and tourism startup had only 25 employees. She started as a City Manager for Amsterdam, she then moved onto being a Regional Manager, and in 2018, she stepped into the role of Regional Director of Northern Europe. 

Floor Rameckers, Regional Director for Northern Europe at Tiqets

Tell us a bit more about your role as Regional Director for Tiqets.

Well before becoming Regional Director for Tiqets, I worked as Tiqets’ Regional Manager for the Benelux region, where I spent time building Tiqets’ Portfolio in countries like the rest of Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Germany. Back then we didn’t have much of a presence in Scandinavia or Germany, and seeing as I was involved in the first stages of talking to venues in those countries, it made sense for me to take on building portfolios there. As a regional manager you’re really the first point of contact for venues. So I spent a lot of time flying out to different cities, setting up meetings with various venues, and expanding what Tiqets has to offer.

As we took on more venues in more countries, we hired more regional managers, and so in 2018 I moved into the role of Regional Director for Northern Europe. I sometimes miss being a regional manager because I liked being involved in those first steps of welcoming new venues to our platform. Luckily I still sometimes work on getting venues on board!

What are the main benefits of connecting with Tiqets for TAA (Tours, Attractions and Activities) providers?

Tiqets offers TAAs a global platform, an international audience, and additional marketing and sales channels. We’re also experts when it comes to online booking for tours, attractions and activities. Compared to a lot of other online partners, I think we offer a lot. 
The real benefit of partnering with a company with a global platform lies in the fact that we have multiple reasons and opportunities to connect with a customer – it’s not a one-off transaction. Someone might travel to Madrid and book a ticket to visit the Prado Museum and when they get back to their home country, we can continue to appeal to their interests by suggesting culture experiences and activities in their hometown. So, we automatically attract international audiences, but we can also tap into local audiences. 
I also mentioned that partnering with Tiqets provides access to additional sales and marketing channels. Tiqets has partnered with a wide range of companies, from Google to local bloggers. This means we can offer venues the opportunity to connect to Reserve with Google and we can secure coverage in local-level content outlets. 
We’re also very tech savvy, we are a tech company after all! So we can help TAA providers get their booking systems online, we can help set up things like timeslot-based booking. This has been incredibly important over the last few months, where TAAs have had to keep up with new Coronavirus safety measures and are constantly required to update their booking systems. 

How does Tiqets compare with other platforms?

I think we strike a good balance between offering quantity and quality. We work with over 2,500 partners, but we don’t over-offer when it comes to products. It can be overwhelming for a customer to face a choice of 20 very similar products, we try to curate the products so that customers have a choice, but they’re not overwhelmed by options. 
A good example of this is our Amsterdam canal cruises products. We work with one supplier, and we only offer their range of tours, so it’s easier for customers to make a choice than if they had similar options from a range of suppliers. We also try to present the product or the venue first, and the tour second, so that it’s easier for the customer to find what they’re looking for. 
Something else that I believe sets Tiqets apart from other platforms is that we have good local knowledge, because our regional managers are based in their regions. I’m pretty sure that this isn’t the case with other platforms like ours. It’s hard to be on top of everything with just one central office, our regional and account managers are able to cover more based on their local placement. 

Tiqets in numbers

What are your plans for developing Tiqets in the near future?

My personal goal within my team is to further develop our range of products in Germany, the UK and Scandinavia. I’d like to be able to offer more of the key domestic attractions in these regions in time for Spring 2021. Tiqets overall mission is to offer more ways to culture, and I want to make more progress on this mission in Germany, the UK and Scandinavia!
We also need to focus on keeping the tourism industry alive in the face of COVID-19. One of our goals is to reassure customers that museums and attractions are working hard to make it safe for them to visit again. 
We want to responsibly encourage customers to return to museums and attractions by highlighting the safety measures venues have in place. We’ve already started doing this on the Tiqets website; visitors can see what safety measures venues have in place, they can check if they need to wear masks, they can also book to visit during a specific timeslot to make sure that there are not too many visitors in a venue at any given time. Reassuring and encouraging the public about visiting museums and attractions will be key to kickstarting the industry again. Venues can learn more about how we’re doing this with our Recovery Package here.

What do TAA providers need to do to be part of your platform?

It’s really easy. All you need to do is sign up right here and your local Tiqets Regional Manager will get in touch with you and do the rest of the work. 

Are there any limitations or prerequisites in terms of country, region or vertical?

There, of course, needs to be a bookable component of the venue, something that can be sold on the Tiqets platform. We also look at entrance fees in combination with commission that can be earned, and we assess and proceed based on that. Finally, we like to be sure that the new product adds value to our customers and to our platform.  
We are enthusiastic about working with a lot of different partners, venues and TAAs, so get in touch with us and let’s see how we can work together! 

Why are you and the team at Tiqets interested in partnering with bookingkit?

bookingkit’s API is something that the Tiqets team has been very impressed by. It’s stable, reliable and professional. Additionally, bookingkit offers us a different vertical, which means access to new partners and venues. We’re very pleased to have a trusted API partner in bookingkit!

Tiqets is now listed in the bookingkit backend. 

The Tiqets Mission

Tiqets offers more ways to culture in order to make culture more accessible by giving customers flexibility, well-priced products, great selection and a trustworthy service. 

If you would like to find out more about bookingkit and how it can help you leverage partner channels like Tiqets to expand your reach to new potential audiences, then arrange your free demo now.