If taking plane tickets, hotel rooms or entrance tickets to the Louvre on the internet has become commonplace, on the other hand, booking leisure activities, cycling, kayaking, excursions… for your holidays is very common minus: digitizing this fragmented offer poses a challenge to the tourism sector and arouses envy.
To compensate for this lack, the Alentour platform, created a year ago at the instigation of the government, offers travelers activities close to their accommodation, bookable on smartphone upon arrival, and “allows service providers to be booked online “, explains to AFP Timothée de Roux, its president.
Its offer has been expanded thanks to the takeover in May of the online booking site for outdoor activities Manawa.com and the partnership forged with the e-commerce site Veepee, says Mr. de Roux, former general manager. from Abritel HomeAway (Expedia Group).
The platform has also developed partnerships with the holiday clubs Belambra and Pierre et Vacances in particular.
Around today displays 10,000 connected activities – in a potential market of 150,000 leisure activities – and has 2,400 distribution points in France (hotels, tourist offices, etc.) but mainly in Savoie, Haute-Savoie and the Côte d’Azur where she started.
Because as much “buying tickets for the Eiffel Tower online is easy, as much if you want to take a surf lesson in Biarritz, it’s complicated”, small kayak rental companies, paragliders, etc. being not easily accessible on the internet, underlines Mr. de Roux.
Aggregating this myriad of offers is painstaking work, which is why the big international platforms such as Booking or Expedia are currently concentrating on the “sale of ultra-touristy, iconic activities” – visits to the Palace of Versailles, the Musée d’Orsay… – and Around, which also offers them, wants to “make a difference for small activity providers”, says Mr. de Roux, who is aiming for “30,000 referenced activities in five years”.
– “Strategic axis” for Booking –
In La Rochelle, Marie Nevers, manager of the Air Water Loisirs rental base, is delighted with “the visibility provided” over the past four years by Manawa.com and two other platforms, sport-découverte.com and adrenactive.com, which reference its nautical activities (jetski, boat, paddle…).
“We are seen a little more, we have a good referencing,” she told AFP. “The new generations often pre-book their activities before arriving” and “we still have more people live”, she notes.
Majority-owned by the Banque des Territoires, Surroundings also aims to prevent the last segment of the tourism sector not to be digitized from being “totally dependent on the major American platforms” which capture “80% of hotel reservations” today, says M. de Roux, and who are very interested in this niche.
Present in 154,000 destinations and 226 countries, with 29 million referenced accommodations, the giant Booking.com began offering bookable activities on its platform in 2016: still limited, its offer today includes 40,000 “attractions” – visits, sports, cultural activities…
Its ambition is to offer within a few months “activities in 2,000 destinations” around the world, i.e. almost double the current offer: “We are very focused on this strategic axis, we want to do it as quickly as possible”, told AFP Malena Gufflet, its general manager in France.
Partnerships with Musement, the subsidiary of TUI in 2020, and Viator, that of Tripadvisor last year, have enabled Booking to expand its offer; the site wants to establish “other partnerships with large specialized groups” but also to reference attractions of independent structures.
“Travellers are really looking for a multiple, complete offer, with flight, transport, attraction…and everything being linked to a payment network: that’s what we offer,” says Ms. Gufflet.
Questioned by AFP, the competitor Expedia indicated that it would not communicate on the subject.
For their part, the regions are innovating, with the support of the Regional Tourism Committees (CRT) to enhance their tourist offer. Ile-de-France has launched three applications: the “Paris Région Aventure” treasure hunt for children, the nature trail “Bougeott” and a personalized travel diary.
“When you arrive at the tourist information points at airports, Versailles or Disneyland operated by the CRT, you say that you love sport, the Middle Ages or the Impressionists, and they make you a digital travel diary which corresponds to your desires”, explained Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Ile-de-France region, during a recent tourist report.
