Picture a walking food tour that charges $75 per guest. On a Saturday in July, it sells out weeks in advance. On a rainy Tuesday in November, it runs at about 20% capacity. Same tour, same guide, same price… vastly different profit margins.
But November has nothing on July, so what can you do?
Quite a bit, as it turns out. Although most tour, activity and attraction operators still set one price before the season starts and leave it there, travelers themselves are further along with acceptance of different pricing strategies than many operators may expect — and savvy operators are catching on.
That shift is the focus of The Arival Guide to Modern Pricing in Experiences, based on Arival research of both operators and travelers, and written in partnership with travel marketing and consulting agency BlackDog. The guide — which is available at no cost to Arival Insider Free and Pro members, thanks to report sponsors from TourIQ, Aloja AI, BlackDog, and Walkway — examines where pricing stands in the experiences industry today, how travelers feel about changing prices, how to build a pricing strategy and the technology now available to operators seeking to implement smarter pricing.
1. The Industry Is (Slowly) Catching Up
First, some good news: the industry is moving. When Arival first measured pricing approaches in 2019, more than 90% of operators used static pricing. Today, according to Arival’s Global Operator Landscape survey of more than 5,000 operators worldwide, that figure has dropped below 70%.
Most of that shift has gone to variable pricing, where prices are planned in advance around predictable patterns: weekends versus weekdays, peak season versus shoulder season, morning versus afternoon departures. One in four operators now price this way. Just 6% use true dynamic pricing, where software adjusts prices automatically as bookings come in and seats fill up.
Global Operators 2025 Using Variable or Dynamic Pricing
Source: Arival, Global Operator Landscape, 4th Ed. (Jan 2026)
In 2025, 44% of enterprise operators used variable or dynamic pricing, compared with 27% of small operators. By region, the Middle East leads at 43%, followed by Europe, the U.S. & Canada at 33%, while Australia and New Zealand trail at 23%. Source: Arival, Global Operator Landscape, 4th Ed. (Jan 2026)
Not surprisingly, the most competitive markets are moving first. The Middle East leads, with more than two in five operators using variable or dynamic pricing, followed by North America and Europe, where one in three operators have moved beyond static pricing.
The takeaway? Smarter pricing doesn’t mean an overnight leap to airline-style algorithms. It’s a spectrum, and operators that are taking steps towards developing a pricing strategy that includes some form of variable or dynamic pricing will gain a competitive advantage over their peers still fixed on flat rates.
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2. Travelers Are Already There
Are you worried your guests will feel gouged when prices change? The data suggests they’re more relaxed about it than you might think.
Arival’s latest Experiences Traveler consumer survey of 2,550 U.S. and European travelers found that nearly half of attraction visitors have noticed ticket prices change over time, with similar results for tours and activities. Among those who noticed, roughly three in four feel positive or neutral about it. After years of changing prices for flights, hotels, concerts and ride-sharing, it just isn’t a shock anymore.
That doesn’t mean travelers ignore price. Four out of five say they would accept or adapt to dynamic pricing, whether by choosing the cheapest day or time (26%) , booking their preferred departure as long as the price difference was modest (31%), or booking their preferred slot no matter the price (16%).
How Travelers Would Respond to Dynamically Priced Tickets
- I would avoid operators that do this20%
- I would choose the lowest-priced day or time26%
- I would choose my preferred day or time as long as the price wasn't too much higher31%
- I would choose my preferred day or time regardless of the price16%
- Not sure6%
There is a caveat: older travelers and less affluent households are more likely to view changing prices negatively, and more likely to shift their plans to save money. Younger and affluent travelers, on the other hand, are generally happy to pay for convenience. If your customers skew value-conscious, communicating clearly about why prices vary matters as much as the prices themselves.
And this is where that rainy Tuesday in November comes in. Lower off-peak rates give flexible guests a reason to move away from sold-out Saturdays, while higher peak rates capture what Saturday guests are already willing to pay. Pricing becomes a tool for managing demand, not just a way to raise revenue.
3. Start With a Calendar, Not an Algorithm
Most operators already have the ability to change prices. The bigger challenge is knowing when they should, by how much, and why. In other words, pricing intelligence is the new competitive advantage.
But it doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need expensive software or a data science background to get started. The Arival Guide to Modern Pricing in Experiences lays out a simple framework that begins with steps like these:
First Steps to Smarter Pricing
• Look at last year’s bookings. Which departures sell out first, which regularly run under half full, and how far ahead do most guests book?
• Set three tiers. A peak price 10% to 20% above your standard rate, a base price for normal times and an off-peak price 15% to 20% below base.
• Draw a floor and a ceiling. The lowest price must cover the cost of each guest; the highest should stop before guests start complaining or leaving bad reviews.
• Try it by hand first. Apply peak and off-peak prices manually for a couple of months before adding a single automated rule.
Help is also arriving from the technology side. Several specialist pricing platforms have emerged specifically for the experiences sector. Meanwhile, booking systems are rapidly expanding their own capabilities by adding rules-based pricing, pricing analytics and, in some cases, AI-powered pricing recommendations, so many operators may already have the tools they need to take that first step.
So, About That Rainy Tuesday in November…
Same tour. Same tour guide. But with a weekday price that brings in deal-seekers and a Saturday price that matches demand, the revenue starts to look very different.
Not every operator needs fully automated dynamic pricing. But almost every operator can benefit from moving at least one step beyond a single static price, and with travelers already on board, there’s no better time to start.
About the Author
Dig Deeper with The Arival Guide to Modern Pricing in Experiences
The full guide goes well beyond these highlights, with a step-by-step pricing framework any operator can follow, real-world examples, four common pricing mistakes to avoid, key questions to ask when evaluating pricing technology and an overview of selected pricing and revenue management providers serving the sector.
Download The Arival Guide to Modern Pricing in Experiences at no cost with your Arival Insider Free or Pro membership.
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Header image: Pexels / Catalin M.
