Is your business ready for the "Vacation at Home" Wave?

Over the past few days, the media has published numerous reports and surveys on the subject of summer holidays: Where will people spend their holidays? Which destinations are being considered? Which countries are opening their borders? How much money will people spend? etc.
From this we can now deduce two positive trends for tours, activities & attraction. On the one hand, the whole tourism sector is slowly – but perhaps just in time for the summer season – regaining momentum. And on the other hand, the vacation opportunities within one’s own country are increasingly coming to the fore. This is because, as a result of the Corona crisis, even with absolutely optimistic estimates, at least some people will have to spend their well-deserved holidays at home, and remain yet unplanned. 

Tourist destinations become more attractive through experience offers

This is now an opportunity for the tours and activities sector, as three decisive effects are now being added to the already existing pent-up demand for leisure experiences after the lockdown:

1. Experiences take the place of long-distance travel

Whether due to the situation in the target destination, to organizational difficulties or to a peek into one’s own wallet – many international long-distance trips will simply be cancelled. However, the “holiday vacuum” that arises can be replaced very flexibly and spontaneously with booking experiences in one’s home country. A Japanese cooking course, for example, could replace a holiday in Japan, a guided adventure tour through nearby mountains replaces the view of the Grand Canyon, or a stay in a leisure park replaces a club holiday in Egypt. Even if a little melancholy feeling remains, perhaps one will still discover completely new sides of his or her home country or region.

2. Tours and activities help uncover new facets of well-known domestic destinations

The larger cities in particular offer such a wide variety of tours, experiences and attractions that even the most die-hard Berlin, Paris or Rome residents / connaisseurs can still discover new hidden gems within one’s ownr home town. And same goes for any other destination in your country – a visit to a town or region can be experienced in a completely different way each time with a pub crawl, a historical city tour, a culinary class or in combination with sport.

3. Domestic trips consist of or are supplemented by several experiences

Each country has a lot to offer in terms of history, arts and cuisine. Why not combine city tours in several cities or tastings and workshops in different regions into one holiday? Why not marry a trip to the shore with a surf course – wouldn’t you have done the same on Tenerife? As more and more experiences can be booked online and individually planned, there are no limits to the combination of the two.

How can providers of tours, activities & attractions benefit from this?

In order to actually benefit from the “Vacation at Home” wave, some important precautions are necessary and additional measures are recommended. These measures are primarily concerned with your visibility, networking and service. Here are the most effective steps you can take now:

Staging your experience as a “holiday experience”

In order to be perceived by potential customers as a “holiday replacement” or “holiday supplement”, you should of course describe and illustrate your offer accordingly and, if necessary, create your own variants. You can be creative and have a sense of humor.

Combining your experience with other offers from the region

One experience alone does not make a holiday? Then network with colleagues in the region, either directly or officially via regional tourism associations or digital marketing organisations (DMOs). If you want to sell additional experiences from your region together with your offer or if you want to market your offer on the websites of your colleagues, then take a look at the bookingkit function “Market local experiences” or the corresponding help article.

Add “holiday-style” offers

What makes a vacation? Special treatment! The right service, the special extras and special feel-good offers are not only relevant for international tourists, but will also put your guests in a holiday mood within their home town. From a simple welcome cocktail, a souvenir photo to VIP treatment – all this not only adds to the holiday flair, but can even be sold! With the module “additional sales” you can conveniently integrate all these things into the checkout. Here you will find comprehensive help.

Be bookable via Google and marketing platforms

If you want to put together your holiday from a series of experiences, you will of course use (Google) search and most likely also research on platforms that offer a sufficiently diverse selection of different possibilities. Therefore, we recommend that you always use Reserve with Google to be highly present and bookable. It also makes sense to be available on as many suitable marketing channels as possible. However, you can use the Channel Manager of bookingkit for this purpose – then your effort will be reduced to a few clicks. Here you can get help with Reserve with Google and learn more about the bookingkit marketing network.