Viator’s New President Wants to Help Experiences Grow Up

Last week online travel agency (OTA) Viator announced the appointment of its new president, nearly a year after former president Ben Drew stepped down from the helm. 

Pepijn Rijvers is a former Booking.com marketing chief who worked at the accommodations sector OTA since its early days. He saw a 12-year period of explosive growth: the team grew from 530 employees to around 20,000 by the time he moved on to work with companies on developing sustainability measures and strategies. 

The choice is a significant one for parent company Tripadvisor. Viator has been the growth driver as Tripadvisor’s core business has slowed. Viator accounted for nearly half of Tripadvisor’s revenue in 2024. Viator’s new president will play a critical role in the next stage of Tripadvisor Group’s growth, as experiences becomes its strategic focus going forward. The choice of Rijvers — someone who drove growth at Booking.com — signals an emphasis on accelerating Viator’s growth. 

So what can operators expect from Viator going forward? We recently connected with Rijvers to find out.

The Road Ahead: Bringing the Marketplace to Maturity

One of the key themes of our conversation with Rijvers that hints at a direction, is his focus on helping experiences mature as a sector. In other words, the father of three wants to help experiences grow up.

“Coming in what I see is that it’s still a very immature marketplace,” says Rijvers. “That immaturity sits in the mash between what customers need and how operators operate.” Customers are often booking last minute, on mobile, and in destination — which can be a challenge for operators. 

But what does it look like for the experiences sector to mature? Rijvers says one key opportunity is reducing friction and improving the connection between supply and demand. He highlights the importance of customer flexibility, and specifically last-minute availability and cancellation policies. Both have been sticking points for operators, which Rijvers acknowledges.

“This is a really good example of something that has potentially negative effects on the supplier,” says Rijvers, adding that it’s a place where more innovation is needed. He believes Viator can facilitate collaboration between operators to address availability challenges in “a technical way.”

Another area to reduce friction is making it easier for customers to choose the right experience for them. Do we really need 1,000 different options to see the Coliseum? “In the first week of August, yes, we probably need 2000,” says Rijvers. 

Where Viator hopes to improve on the challenge of “choice stress” is in the “look-to-book” journey. “We’re investing quite a lot in our sort and how we make sure customers are able to find what they need,” says Rijvers, explaining that while some customers come onto the platform looking for general inspiration, others come looking for a specific food tour in a specific location. Finding a better way to serve both of those will be essential to maturity. 

Viator’s sort order — how it ranks results — has been another point of curiosity and contention among operators. While Rijvers doesn’t reveal the secret sauce, he does acknowledge one factor will be increasingly important — it comes back to flexibility. 

“The minute there are certain operators that are able to offer flexibility and others that are not, it will be the flexible ones that are able to capture that demand,” he says. 

Finally, in order to reach greater maturity, the experiences sector simply needs more people to know it exists. We need to “massively increase the awareness of the category,” says Rijvers. 

Will we see a big consumer marketing push from Viator? Not anytime soon, says Rijvers, noting that the business and the industry still isn’t mature enough, and that they need to address some of the technical frictions still affecting the marketplace.  “I would also be more than happy to let other brands do that on our behalf,” he quipped.

The OTA-Operator Relationship

Rijvers acknowledges there’s been challenges and strains on the OTA-Operator relationship, and expresses a desire to work more closely with operators going forward. 

“The type of relationship I would hope to establish with the operators is to connect frequently and to listen and learn what types of issues they’re running into,” he says. “I would be very happy with seeking a very interactive relationship with suppliers, large and small. That’s something that I’ve always done at Booking [.com] and will continue to do here.”

Rijvers, who formally steps into his role on 1 April, is joining an experienced executive team, alongside CCO Sarah Dines who has over seven years in senior roles at Tripadvisor and Viator, and Kristin Dorsett, newly promoted from CPO to COO, who has over eight years of experience at Tripadvisor and Viator. 

Connect with Viator & Other OTAs at Arival

Several senior members of Viator’s team will be joining us at the upcoming Arival 360 | Valencia event in late April, where distribution and working with OTAs will be key topics discussed during main stage and breakout sessions. We also expect incoming president Pepijn Rijvers to join us on the Arival main stage at Arival 360 | Washington DC in October. Register now to get the best rates!

Also, you can learn more about OTAs and distribution strategy in general in the Arival Guide to OTAs & Digital Distributors. 

Header Photo: Provided by Viator