Tourism Revived: FareHarbor CEO’s Call for Elevating Offerings

I joined the FareHarbor ‘Ohana in January 2023. While I worked at Booking.com, FareHarbor’s parent company, for nearly a decade, I am thrilled to embrace my role as FareHarbor’s new CEO to boost the company into a new era.

Over the past few months, I have been able to immerse myself in a new segment of the tourism tech industry, and am eager to continuously learn and connect with our clients across the globe. Through extensive conversations with operators and the FareHarbor team, I am looking forward to building a strong product that will continue to assist in our client’s success.

Becoming more familiar with tour and activity businesses has inspired me to dive into this topic to better understand the consistent changes that happen within this industry.

Travel and Tourism Pre-Pandemic

As I get acquainted with FareHarbor and the businesses we support, I look to our 20,000+ clients for guidance. Operators are the lifeline of the tourism industry and through my conversations with different sectors over the past few months, I am able to gain perspective on what their world was like before COVID-19.

Clients I have met recalled incredible volumes of customers before the start of the pandemic, yet the influx in travelers also brought about concerns. Some experienced overcrowded tours, boats filled to the brim, food, and beverage items running out, among other issues, which, in some cases, led to a decline in customer satisfaction or the quality of service.

Take for instance Highland Experience, a Scottish client that joined FareHarbor during the pandemic in 2020. In the years leading up to the shutdown, owner Michael Bremner and his team had a booking system that was unable to keep up with their rapid growth. Yet, due to their major achievements, they had no time to look into a new product that worked better for their business.

Highland Experience, along with many other operators, had a chance to take a step back and review their business needs and re-evaluate their ideal customer experience during COVID-19.

Exploring a Post-Pandemic Landscape

As the world and the tourism industry continue to recover, operators are now trying to rethink their businesses. What do your customers want to see in your tour or activity? What aspects will give them a five-star experience? These are the type of questions I pose to our clients as they build out their “new normal”.

Operators have found success by focusing on giving their customers a higher quality of service, even if that means sacrificing a bit of volume. When staff members are not inundated with guests during each tour, the customer experience will naturally improve. I had the chance to discuss this with one of our clients.

“PacWhale Eco Adventures realigned our strategy by reducing capacities on our core trips and raising the rates to offset the revenues and rising operational costs since the pandemic. This also reduces stress on our vessel staff and improves customer service. We wanted to concentrate on taking fewer people and giving them a more enjoyable and impactful experience. In 2022, we ran at 67% of capacity and increased our revenues overall. It has been a win-win situation for everybody”, says John Gaskins, Business Development Director.

It is also no secret that since the pandemic, recruiting valuable, lasting staff has become more and more difficult for operators — which also contributes to this trend. But, even as a pain point, I see this as an opportunity.

When you focus on creating a superior experience, you are able to revisit your price points to match your value proposition. increase your prices. Higher prices and fewer better trained, loyal staff members can maintain the same level of revenue at lower volumes — and continue to give customers more of what they are looking for.

Furthermore, with the automation processes within the FareHarbor Dashboard, clients are able to streamline their operations without feeling overwhelmed by having fewer employees. For example, the custom calendars feature lets you easily keep staff in the loop and improve your team’s workflow.

Your Unique Experience

I want to leave our readers with a question: Have you experienced a similar trend with your own business?

It can be intimidating to increase your tour and activity prices or embrace other changes within your business, but I believe it to be a move in the right direction if you can provide an elevated offering for your customers.

Share your experiences and insights on the FareHarbor Online Community so we can address your concerns, build a better product, and help revitalize the tourism industry in a post-pandemic world.