Increased focus on hygiene and safety, touchless customer journeys and ‘value-for-money’ products will be the new way forward for tour operators and attractions in the Middle East as they prepare to welcome post-Covid-19 travellers, industry experts revealed.
During a recent ATM Virtual discussion, the panel of experts delved into how the distribution of tours and attractions would be impacted post Covid-19 and the role of OTA's in helping those businesses yield better returns.
"Given the new Covid-19 regulations, tour operators will definitely have to rebuild their products to align with the 'new normal',” said Samir Mehta, General Manager of Arabian Adventures - a UAE-based destination management company.
Private tours/camps and self-guided tours will be the new trend in the coming months, given the social distancing regulations, added Mehta.
With the region slowly opening up its tourism sector, many may be hesitant to travel too far and engage with large groups of people. “In the initial phase, we will most definitely see a surge in domestic travel and local explorations,” highlighted Mathis Boldt, Vice President of Sales and Supply at GetYourGuide - a marketplace to book the tours and activities globally.
“The new regulations will also force companies to revisit their financials, deciding how to best operate with capacity constraints i.e limited operational capacity and restricted number of visitors/travellers and yield returns, while keeping operational costs low and offering ‘value-for-money’ products to customers,” added Zeina Dagher, CEO of Emaar Entertainment.
A major focus for the region's entertainment sector will be rebuilding confidence in the minds of customers about safety and hygiene.
“Even as we prepare to welcome our first visitors post Covid-19, a large part of the our renewed business strategy will focus on ensuring customers about the cleanliness of our facilities, by communicating about our hygiene protocols on social media,” Dagher added.
Digitisation will also be a key focus for entertainment businesses as ‘contactless journeys’ become the new way to travel.
“Enabling touchless journeys will become critical for businesses in a post-Covid-19 travel world. Companies will have to adapt and adopt digital tickets to be in line with the new hygiene regulations,” said Alaa Alkhatib, Managing Director, Priohub – an omni-channel ticketing platform.
Another key change the industry will have to embrace will be dynamic pricing. “Dynamic pricing will not only help suppliers with better yield and capacity management, it will also help customers who are brave enough to venture out post-Covid-19 and are looking for some flexibility with their tickets,” Alkhatib added.
As the region's entertainment sector moves on the path to recovery, online travel agents (OTAs) will continue to be of key importance as they can help businesses predict future demand as well reach out to a much larger tourist market.
"OTAs can help travellers be at ease by providing up-to-date information on travel regulations and hygiene protocols and selecting 'value-for money' products," Boldt highlighted.
“There is no magic crystal ball to help determine if tourism will return to pre-Covid levels, but what we do know is that the ‘new normal’ is here to stay and we have to embrace it,” the panellists chimed.