Online travel agents have a “big opportunity” to secure a larger share of the lucrative European travel activities market by selling multi-attraction passes.
Study touts multi-attraction passes as major opportunity for European OTAs
Online travel agents have a “big opportunity” to secure a larger share of the lucrative European travel activities market by selling multi-attraction passes.
The claim comes from UK-based Leisure Pass Group, which operates the London Pass, Paris Pass and Berlin Pass.
The group is among the sponsors of a new study by global travel research specialist PhoCusWright entitled When They Get There & Why They Go, which examines the in-destination activities, attractions and events chosen by travellers from the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
PhoCusWright estimates that the overall European travel activities market is worth more than €32 billion a year, while the study shows that online is the most popular booking channel.
But fewer than one in four European travellers book their activities – anything from walking tours to museum visits to spa treatments – through their travel provider at the same time as they purchase transport or accommodation.
Around €260 million is spent on multi-attraction passes each year by travellers from the five key European markets, with seven per cent of travellers who engaged in travel activities using a pass, according to the PhoCusWright study.
Leisure Pass Group head of sales Peter Muttitt said: “Activities can be a complex set of transactions and the PhoCusWright data demonstrates that while travellers want to purchase online, it is often a step too far to commit to several different activities at once -which means that OTAs often miss out on this lucrative segment of a booking.
“A multi-attraction pass is the ideal solution: a single product offering a wide range of different experiences that is easy for the OTA to market and sell, and convenient for the traveller to purchase and use.”
