Software as a service (SaaS) has popularized over the years, and now it’s an indispensable part of your lives. These apps help us increase our productivity, organize our lives, improve the quality of our work, and save time and money.
This is a growing market that many entrepreneurs are interested in. But developing a digital solution from scratch is not an easy task. As an alternative, many companies are opting for a white label solution.
In this article, we will give you good reasons why you should invest in a white label solution for tours and activities.
Why provide technology for tours and activities?
Nowadays, everything related to travel planning is done online. From getting inspired to booking a tour, travelers use the internet.
But still, the use of digital solutions is uneven in the travel industry. On one side there are air carriers with state-of-the-art technology, and on the other, tour agencies that are still using pen and paper to manage their business.
For years, small travel companies were resisting digital transformation, until the pandemic came and changed the travel landscape. Fortunately, during this crisis, many tour operators opened their eyes to the importance of technology to improve customer experience and satisfaction.
Yet, there is a long way to go. According to Arival, 56% of day tour operators don’t use a booking system, compared to 31% of activity operators and 23% of attraction operators. Although these numbers could be better, they represent an improvement from 2010 when only 25% were using such a reservation system.
Basically, the number of tour operators using res tech more than doubled in the past 10 years. Can you see the potential of this market?
What is an online booking engine for tours and activities?
Do you remember the last flight you took? Or the last hotel room you stayed in? Or maybe the last city tour you did?
If you do so, chances are that you booked one or all of them online. Today, this is the preferred channel for booking travel products.
A study from Microsoft in 2019 found that 90% of customers expect a brand or company to offer a customer self-service option online, and 66% of customers will attempt to use a self-service before contacting an agent for assistance.
That’s no different for travel products. According to TravelPerk, 83% of US adults want to book their trips online.
An online booking engine is the software responsible to manage online payments, product availabilities, customer information, and automating many other tasks related to travel bookings. In other words, it turns the provider’s website into an e-commerce focused on reservations.
A booking software for tours and activities is designed to cover all aspects involved in the process of booking tours and activities, such as day tours, kayak tours, diving tours, bicycle tours, and so on.
How to add a digital solution to your offer
Creating software is not an easy task. This is something that requires energy, money, planning, knowledge and many hours of work.
If you are decided to venture into the software business, the first thing you should know is how to develop one. Namely, you have five ways to do that:
- Depending on the complexity of the project and your programming skills, you could try to do it by yourself.
- Assemble your own team of developers and start your program from scratch.
- Outsource the job and hire an agency that will build the solution your way.
- Search online for an open-source code and use it as the base of your product.
- Buy the rights and the code of a ready-to-use software, rebrand it and resell it as your own. Aka white labeling.
Options 1, 2, 3 and 4 require you to know how to code or to hire someone to do the job for you. Keep in mind that it is almost impossible to code and maintain a commercial software all by yourself.
The last option is the only one you don’t need to get involved in the process of developing a software, and for this reason, it has become very popular among tech entrepreneurs.
Why invest in a white label travel booking solution?
If you make it to this point you already have noticed that investing in a white label solution for travel companies is a good business. But the benefits of this choice go beyond having a fully functional software ready to sell. Below I have listed a few of them.
Faster to deploy and cheaper than developing from zero
If time and money are important for your business, then a white label solution is what you are looking for. This type of product is ready-made, which means you don’t need to go through all the stages of developing it, which are, planning, designing, coding, testing and deploying.
Not to mention the costs related to each of these stages. By investing in an existing solution you are basically outsourcing all technical aspects related to its creation to a third party, which, in the end, will cost you less financial and human capital.
The part left to you is branding the product. Which is not a big deal, once white label products generally are ready to be fully integrated with your brand.
Save your brains and energy for what really matters in your business
Investing in a white label solution means that you don’t need to worry about developing and maintaining a software. So, you can use this extra time to focus on other essential aspects of your business, such as marketing, customer relation, sales, finances, and so on.
If the core of your business isn’t tech, this is another reason to invest in a white label solution. For example, it’s more valuable to the customers of a marketing agency that the business is 100% focused on marketing their business rather than developing a software.
Step into a market that shows no sign that is slowing down
As previously discussed, software for tours and activities is a growing market with no signs of slowing down for the next years. Jumping into it with a ready-made solution will put you in a privileged position compared to your competitors.
While others are dealing with the challenges of developing a new software from zero, you will have something ready to launch in the market. Losing the timing might cost your share of this pie.
Increase your business success by working with a niche
Narrowing your target market brings many benefits. First of all, communication with a niche-focused audience is more effective. That will potentialize your ROI with marketing campaigns.
Secondly, compared to a one-size-fits-all solution, yours will be seen as more valuable, and your company may become a reference to your potential clients. That will not only give you the chance to charge a premium price for your solution but will also help you nurture a loyal customer portfolio.
Lower your risks
Developing a digital product has many risks involved. According to research by McKinsey, on average, large IT projects run 45% over budget and 7% over time, while delivering 56% less value than predicted.
Can your company afford all these risks?
On the other hand, a white label solution has overcome these risks, and its design and quality are attested by real customers. Not to mention that you will have a team of experts ready to solve any unexpected issues.
Conclusion
Travel is an industry with a growing demand for tech. If you are an entrepreneur interested in supplying this demand, first you should decide how to create your solution.
Will you develop it by yourself? Hire a developer? Outsource to a company? Or buy the resellers rights of a product that is ready to be launched in the market?
Investing in a white label software for tours and activities will:
- Save you time and money
- Allow you to focus on your core business
- Open the doors to a fast-growing market
- Turn you into a reference for a niche audience
- Lower your risks
If you got interested in the possibilities and advantages of a white labeled product, the next step is checking out our work to find the right solution for your business.
