Trekksoft claims a survey it carried out this year revealed only four out of ten activity suppliers will use online travel agencies for sales.

The study found a variety of reasons why OTAs fail to capture the attention of operators, with awareness of the model coming out on top as the main excuse (“I’ve never thought of using an OTA”).

Trekksoft’s survey solicited responses from a number of business types within the tours and activities sector, including outdoor excursions, multi-day trips, bike and walking tours, boats and cruises, coach tours and helicopter/balloon rides.

It found that just over half (53%) of bookings are coming through online channels, but bookings on an operator’s own website is deemed to be the most important to a business (39%).

This was followed by incoming tour operators (19%), direct offline bookings (17%), OTAs (15%) and local point of sales (9%).

Despite the low use of OTAs as a distribution channel, some 69% claim to report an increase in bookings when doing so, Trekksoft says.

Still, those that do use OTAs are not throwing their content exclusively at one brand, with the average number of websites being used already hitting four (Viator, GetYourGuide, Expedia and Musement).

Interestingly, the commission angst that affects many hotels in the industry is also a concern for activity suppliers.

Four out of five providers claim they are only willing to work with an OTA if the commission level is less than 15%.

Again, similar issues as hotels litter the responses with activity suppliers when discussing the OTA model.

Nearly 40% in the survey argue they want the organic traffic to go to their own website rather than an OTA.

Nearly a quarter (23%) claim OTAs require too much for too few bookings and a fifth say it is hard to maintain live inventory and have concerns about overbooking a product.

The report says:

“It’s crucial to balance your distribution network if you want to protect your business in an ever-fluctuating market.

“Distribution channels come and go, local inter-supplier politics may come into play, and economic and political crises are unavoidable.

“To be prepared, listen to the age-old wisdom and avoid putting your eggs in one basket.”

Here is an infographic with more of the results:

NB: Activity image via FreeImages.