GetYourGuide’s Evolving Approach to Curating an Experience Marketplace (w/ Tao Tao, COO)
Jan 22, 2025
auto_awesome
Tao Tao, Co-founder and COO of GetYourGuide, shares insights from his extensive experience in scaling an online experiences marketplace. He discusses the significant shift in traveler booking behaviors, with many opting for last-minute arrangements. Tao highlights the importance of curating unique, high-quality tours to meet evolving traveler needs while navigating the challenges of supplier relationships and commission structures. He also explores how AI is being integrated into the marketplace, ensuring a balance between customer satisfaction and supplier interests.
GetYourGuide has successfully sold over 200 million tickets, emphasizing the importance of quality curation in a competitive experience marketplace.
The shift towards spending on experiences highlights the rise of 'modern explorers', who prioritize unique and authentic travel experiences over traditional logistics.
Innovative use of AI is crucial for enhancing consumer experiences and supplier interactions, promising personalized journeys while maintaining essential human elements.
Deep dives
Overview of Get Your Guide's Marketplace Success
Get Your Guide has achieved significant milestones since its inception, including the sale of 200 million tickets and partnerships with 35,000 supply partners across 12,000 cities. The platform offers a diverse range of 150,000 experiences in 37 currencies and languages, demonstrating its wide-reaching impact in the travel industry. Its ability to successfully curate a marketplace amidst skepticism has surprised many, establishing itself as a leader in the experience-based travel sector. The journey highlighted the challenges faced, including pandemic impacts, but ultimately positioned Get Your Guide as essential for future travel dynamics.
Shifts in Consumer Behavior Post-Pandemic
Recent trends indicate a significant increase in consumer spending on experiences, which has grown by 32% compared to pre-pandemic figures, unlike slower growth in traditional retail. This shift has led to the emergence of a new demographic characterized as 'modern explorers', who are more likely to spend extravagantly on unique experiences. In this evolving landscape, online travel agencies (OTAs) are increasingly becoming the go-to platforms for discovering and booking activities, offering enhanced convenience and choice. As travel habits evolve, many consumers now begin their trip planning based on available experiences rather than traditional logistics.
The Importance of Unique Experiences and Curated Quality
Operators are advised to focus on providing unique experiences that cannot easily be replicated, steering away from merely duplicating existing popular tours. Innovative ideas, which tap into local culture and interests, are encouraged as a way to differentiate from competitors. Get Your Guide emphasizes the need to offer high-quality experiences that generate positive guest reviews, establishing a strong reputation in an otherwise fragmented market. The platform's recent shift back toward more stringent curation practices reflects a commitment to ensuring that only quality offerings are presented to consumers.
Navigating the Challenges of Multi-Day Tours
Multi-day tours present a unique set of challenges and opportunities compared to single-day experiences. The purchase journey for these longer trips often requires extensive storytelling and marketing efforts to engage potential customers effectively. As part of its growth strategy, Get Your Guide is investing in the development of this category, acknowledging the need for tailored features and diverse offerings. Operators are encouraged to innovate within this space, creating memorable journeys that reflect consumer aspirations while adhering to the platform's heightened standards for quality.
Leveraging AI to Enhance Customer and Supplier Experience
Get Your Guide is actively exploring the integration of AI technologies to improve both consumer experiences and supplier interactions. AI can aid in discovering tailored experiences for users, as well as enhancing operational efficiency, such as translating customer service interactions. For suppliers, AI may provide insights into how to increase competitiveness by analyzing factors like pricing, quality, and customer feedback. While AI will not replace the personal touch of in-person guided experiences, its role as an augmentation tool is anticipated to grow, promising a more personalized and streamlined journey for travelers.
GetYourGuide has recently surpassed 200 million tickets sold. Co-Founder & COO Tao Tao sits down with Tourpreneur's Mitch Bach, Peter Syme and Chris Torres to talk about the challenges and surprises of 16 years of scaling an online experiences marketplace.
As always, we focus on takeaways for tour operators as Tao Tao shares data and insights. We examine the tensions inherent in balancing the needs of both suppliers and travelers, especially when it comes to curation—and Tao Tao shares news of new steps they're taking to curate their tour offerings and ensure quality.
We covered a lot in a one-hour conversation:
what he's seen as changing customer behavior and how this impacts operators
what kinds of tours GetYourGuide is really looking for, and what sells wel
how to handle late booking windows, and how customers are discovering tours much earlier in the customer journey
thorny supplier issues like commissions, late bookings, cancellation cut-off times, and more
how to balance customers' evolving needs with the needs of suppliers
why there is polarization in the industry regarding the opinion of OTAs
how an experience marketplace is different than other travel OTAs
how a brand like GetYourGuide can inspire customer loyalty
pricing: how do you create a marketplace that doesn't just compete on price
how to make sure you have enough tours to serve a variety of customers, but enough curation to ensure quality
thoughts on how AI is and will be used behind the scenes and in front of customers in the future to discover and experience travel
multi-day travel: is it a future avenue they're thinking about?
