The Tour Operator is Dead - Long Live the Tour Operator

Summary

By all accounts, the first organized tour took place in Britain almost 175 years ago. Thomas Cook, founder of the eponymous travel company, operated a short rail tour for a small group of travelers in 1841. However, it was only after World War II that leisure travel entered the global consciousness. An increasingly affluent population with greater leisure time and broad access to affordable air transportation could now explore and travel beyond their local regions. Travel agencies and tour operators sprang up in large numbers to accommodate the demands of this growing class of leisure travelers. In Europe in particular, tour operators fulfilled an important need for travelers seeking to visit different countries by overcoming the challenges of diverse languages, customs and currencies, and the logistics of complex products.

Despite having established brand recognition and a firm presence on the European high street, tour operators have come under successive waves of competitive pressure, forcing many to leave the market, change or consolidate. The first major wave, at the turn of the millennium, saw consumers seeking to build their own travel packages, enabled by access to budget airfares. The second significant wave, still underway, is the tremendous disruption created by new technologies. The web, ubiquitous mobile connectivity and social media, in particular, are redefining the foundation of the travel distribution landscape and the manner in which consumers plan, shop and purchase travel, in general, and tours, in particular.