TourRadar launched its commissionable Adventure Booking Platform in 2021, and as of May 2022 close to 2,000 travel agents have signed up, says TourRadar’s Chief Marketing Officer, Christian Wolters in this edition of Take 5.
- For travel agents who don’t know, what is TourRadar and what can you tell us about your product portfolio?
“TourRadar is the world’s first Adventure Booking Platform, where you can effortlessly book private, group, and tailor-made multi-day organized adventures. TourRadar makes booking multi-day tours seamless and timely, partnering with 2,500+ operators to offer more than 50,000+ adventures in 160+ countries. The adventures range across 10+ categories from River Cruises, Tailor-Made adventures, wine tours, or even multi-country Europe explorers to mention a few.
“For agents, the TourRadar Partner Portal is free to join and is designed to enable travel advisors to easily manage all of their bookings in one convenient place with dashboard features allowing you to track your sales and earnings, and stay on-top of communication with tour operators. Multiple agents can join from one agency to create a team account.
“Our industry-leading Adventure Booking Platform offers travel agents new revenue opportunities and improves the way they find and book adventures for their clients.”
- TourRadar launched its commissionable Adventure Booking Platform in 2021. Do you have any stats showing that agents are using it?
“Currently we are growing at about 50% month over month. As of May 2022, we are close to having 2,000 agents signed up. Approximately half of those are in North America and we see interest growing in the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Denmark.
“The feedback we are receiving thus far is very positive. Agents are reporting that it has simplified the process of booking adventures and tours tremendously and has been saving valuable time researching the best options for their clients.”
- Some travel agents may not realize that TourRadar is now B2B and not just B2C. Why has the company gotten onboard with the travel agent distribution channel?
“The pandemic has revealed a big need for travel advisors around the world to have better access to quality and niche operators and therefore, we decided to build a platform specifically for advisors to book adventures through us.
“A majority of the industry is still operating offline and we see the benefits for some people to work with their trusted advisor. More than 60% of our inventory can be booked instantly, which is a huge selling point for travel advisors looking to save time and confirm bookings at the time of sale. With staffing shortages in any call centers around the world, agents can avoid long hold times by booking via our Partner Portal online.
- What are the benefits for an agent to booking a client’s trip via TourRadar vs. direct with the tour operator, and how does commission work?
“Agents have a direct connection to tour operators and access to TourRadar’s in-house Travel Experts via live chat, so there is no more waiting for four hours on the phone to place a booking.
“We offer 2,500 different operators in one unified platform, making it simple and fast to find the right product for a client. The Adventure Booking Platform also includes innovative payment solutions that offer a variety of different options for agents including company credit card, payment links, or direct input of credit card when an agent is with the client.
“The operators define the commission level but on average it is 8%. In addition, for those agents that join between now and July, we are offering a 1% bonus as a starting incentive. So we are offering 9% commission through July 2022. On average that’s around Cdn$400 per booking!”
- TourRadar is working hard to connect with travel agents, and recently wrapped up a great contest offering a trip to Egypt. Should travel agents keep an eye out for more exciting trade incentives, new product announcements, etc. in the months ahead?
“That’s right, we recently concluded the first contest with a home-based agent from Manitoba winning a great adventure with the operator, Beyond the Nile, to Egypt.
“We will continue to build innovative solutions to help agents scale their business with our Travel Advisor Program. There will be more exciting incentives and contests for new and existing agents in the coming months.
“The best way to stay in the know and learn more about the TourRadar Partner Portal is to visit us at https://www.tourradar.com/agents and sign up to the partner platform in order to be added to the email list.”
