For much of the tours and activities industry’s history, growth has been treated as a marketing function. More bookings meant more ads, more distribution, and more visibility. Operations, by contrast, was seen as a cost center, essential, but rarely strategic.
That dynamic is changing. As acquisition costs rise and competition intensifies, leading operators are discovering that the fastest way to grow revenue isn’t attracting more demand, but extracting more value from the demand they already have. Increasingly, operations, not marketing, is where that value is being unlocked.
Below are four ways operational excellence is becoming a primary driver of revenue growth for tour operators.
Editor’s note: This article is a preview of an upcoming Arival | Elevate session, led by Josh Halpern on the same topic. Find more details and register below:
1. Build Revenue & Trust with Channel Awareness
Not all guests are equal in how they should be communicated with. A direct-booking guest, an OTA guest, and a travel agent booking each come with different expectations and relationship dynamics. Treating them the same creates friction and missed opportunities.
When you are able to segment and customize messaging per channel, you can now limit messaging for guests booking through an agency channel to utility-only content. Better yet, for OTA bookings, you can send guests upsells and even cross-sells for products listed on the specific OTA each guest booked on. This idea that you cannot cross-sell an OTA guest is misleading. You absolutely can, if you sell a product on that OTA’s site. In fact, OTAs benefit when operators sell complementary products already listed on their marketplaces.
The issue, again, is operational. Segmenting communication by channel helps you ensure your guests receive critical information without undermining your partner relationships.
The key here is automation: systems must know where each guest came from and trigger the right messages at the right time, without manual effort. When done well, this delivers happier guests, better reviews, and better relationships with your channel partners. Operational excellence becomes your best B2B retention AND revenue growth strategy.
2. Convert Cancellations Into Rebookings with Speed
Cancellations are often seen as unavoidable losses, but in many cases they’re simply a failure of timing. They happen because operators fail to reach guests quickly enough with a compelling alternative.
Enter multichannel outreach. If a tour is disrupted by weather, political unrest, or a pop-up street fair, don’t just send an email and hope for the best. Top operators use instant, multichannel outreach, WhatsApp, SMS, email and their own app, to deliver alternative options proactively. By reaching the guest instantly with a unique rebooking link, you pivot them into a different slot before they even think to browse a competitor or ask for a refund. A speedy intervention is the only thing that saves that capital.
Furthermore, when you have an entire tour or time slot canceled due to a disruption, the ability to quickly send a single message to the entire manifest and know it will be delivered across all channels to all guests in that group, you can easily and quickly shift guests before they consider cancelling.
Personalization helps too, such as communication from the actual tour guide that makes people feel an instant connection. Add to that some free content, like a self-guided audio tour or some destination tips, and people feel they’ve already received something and are already connected to you. How can they cancel when you’re already taking such good care of them?
In this model, your operational responsiveness can preserve revenue that would otherwise disappear.
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3. Increase AOV by Shifting Upsells to “The Logistics Window”
While many operators try to increase their Average Order Value (AOV) at checkout, this is primarily because they have limited access to their guests who might only take that first look at their email before it is buried in their inbox. However, there are more effective windows to offer an upgrade.
The most effective upsells happen later, both in the follow-up confirmations shortly after booking and in the “Logistics Window”, the 24 to 48 hours before the tour. This is when the traveler’s brain shifts from excitement to planning. They start wondering, “How do we get there?” or “Where will we eat?”
Operators that do this effectively have systems in place that enable these upsell messages to be automatically customized per tour and per guest:
- If an upsell is at capacity, or it’s a foggy night and the “fireworks by the shore” was canceled, those messages need to be suppressed or paused.
- Inversely, if the winds pick up and the evening sailing regatta and wine tasting is back on, the operator needs a way to message everyone in the manifest for the specific tours that end down by the docks at 4:00 PM today.
- The guest profile also matters: what are you offering to which guests? Evening mezcal tastings are not the best upsell for a party of five with three kids under 10 years old.
The key is operationally triggered offers that are relevant. Families get different offers than couples. Large groups get private transfer options. Morning tours trigger afternoon pairing offers. When upsells are driven by timing, guest profiles, and live operational conditions, they feel helpful rather than promotional and increase AOV at a much higher rate.
4. Protect Reviews With Preemptive Guest Communication
Your operations play a bigger role than you might think in ensuring positive reviews. Of course, the guide plays a huge role, too. But most 1-star reviews aren’t about bad guides: they’re about an “expectation gap”, like waits caused by long security lines or seasonal crowds. Or lack of communication that sees guests going a long time without updated information, and not knowing where to go or when.
Don’t leave your guides to handle that fallout on-site. Elite operators use preemptive messaging. An automated alert sent 24 hours in advance to warn guests of potentially crowded conditions, for example, manages the guest’s expectations before they even arrive. This proactive touch preserves the 5-star review, which keeps the OTA algorithm pushing your product to the top.
Managing this effectively at scale requires automation:
- First, you need to map high-volume times and tours and set those automations.
- Then, you personalize this with specific guides per tour so that the messages come from the actual guide, though automated.
After all, would you rather receive a generic “be patient” message? Or this:
“Hello Lauren, this is Josh, your tour guide. I’ve noticed the Kennedy Space Center is pretty packed today. I’ll do what I can to reduce the wait on the VIP line, but we are definitely not the only ones there. Also, you might want to bring headphones to listen to our audio guides. I’ll put this in your ‘My Trips’ section so that it’s there when you arrive.”
By managing guest expectations before arrival with preemptive, personalized communication, operations can play a direct role in preserving five-star reviews… as well as the OTA visibility that follows.
Operations Is the New Growth Engine
As businesses scale, complexity grows faster than headcount, and scale can create chaos. Operators that rely on manual processes eventually hit a ceiling.
The fastest path to growth for most operators today isn’t more leads—it’s better execution of the bookings they already have. With a tech stack designed specifically for, and intimately aware of, the nuances of the tour operator space, the “back-office” can get in the front seat as the revenue driver.
In a margin-constrained market, the profit isn’t just in the booking. It’s in the process.
About the Author
Josh Halpern is the Chief Commercial Officer at TourOptima, an integrated communication and location-sharing platform that connects travelers, guides, and office staff. Halpern, a former U.S. diplomat, led international expansion for B2B ecommerce platforms BigCommerce and Shopline and founded the Getting to Global Initiative with funding from Meta, Google and eBay to support cross-border ecommerce exports, established a multiday outbound tour company to China, created a K–12 global literacy program called Culture Agents, and hosts The VanBassador show exploring the intersect of commerce and culture.
Learn More about Operational Excellence with Arival
Join us at the next Arival Elevate online event, where Josh Halpern will share more about how to optimize your post-booking communication and operational touchpoints to drive repeat bookings and reviews, and turn everyday operations into measurable revenue growth. The session is open to Arival Insider Pro Access members.
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