Green tourism battle lines are being drawn

Tour operators v OTAs v Destinations who has got the biggest punch?

TUI goes for vertical integration while google goes out to grab the market, but which option is the greenest?

Last week TUI told the market that it was to sell HotelBeds for $1,4bn signaling that it was going for vertical integration – in other words creating and selling package holidays and leaving the OTAs to fight amongst each other for the rest.

At more or less the same time Google threw a giant spanner into the works by trialling Trips

So all the OTAs – Tripadvisor, Booking.com, all of them, are focusing on fulfilling all visitors needs. What used to be called ‘Dynamic Packaging’ or in other words potential and actual visitors can build their own holidays through apps on their smartphones. Each time anything is booked – restaurant, hotel, B&B, tourist attraction the good old OTAs get a nice little (or big commission).

And the destinations, who should be protecting their community revenue and are, after all the magnets that attract visitors – what are they doing? Very little.

So the big players, the intermediaries, are set to slug it out.

On the one hand there is a bunch of tour operators – of which TUI is the biggest – who will create, manage and market packages. Generally tour operators work on net rates – negotiating with hotels, bus companies and tourist attractions then adding a margin before selling. The tour operators are moving inexorably towards all-inclusive packages but (certainly in the case of TUI) they are developing partnerships with destinations that can help them towards sustainable futures. Above all the tour operators are sensitive to the marketplace and to their long term relationships and images. And at least they understand what sustainable development means.

On the other hand there is a bunch of OTAs whose greatest assets are the smartphones in your hands their mega-billion marketing and their algorithms operate as barriers between guests and hosts. The net result – a transfer of wealth from destination communities to OTAs fattening up their investors a bit more.

Any form of green tourism, or sustainable tourism development would mean that the destination should benefit culturally, socially, economically and environmentally from the tourism activity.

Apart from Tripadvisor’s Green Leaders initiative (which seems to have gone rather quiet lately) none of the OTAs have shown any interest in ploughing back a big slice of their revenue to fester sustainability. Why would they, after all? They’re currently on a mega-billion dollar roll. Airbnb shareholders have enhanced their net worth by $20bn or so, Tripadvisor is now worth $9bn and the granddaddy of them all – Priceline – is worth a whopping $62bn.

Clearly the tour operators are clearing the decks of unnecessary assets ready for a fight.

The entities with most at stake, of course are the destinations, their tourism businesses and their wider communities. They need to act now to protect their revenues and make their cases for sustainable futures.

But what can they do? The current SustainableTourism2016 folio may offer some answers. at SustainableTourism2016

Valere Tjolle

New industry Italy green guide out: HERE

Green masterclasses series unveiled for autumn: HERE