NTA Year-end Survey: Business success and challenges

Challenges

• Among the challenges operators face when building tours and itineraries with tour suppliers, hotels are cited as the top challenge by a narrow margin over motorcoaches, followed closely by airlines.
• Ranking a separate set of challenges, operators overwhelmingly cite higher rates as their biggest concern, with suppliers’ staffing shortages and unfavorable terms also noted as problematic.
• DMOs agree that higher rates, followed by staffing shortages are the biggest challenge they face in helping tour operators include their destination in itineraries, and suppliers cite the same impediments to buyers’ business.
• NTA also asked supplier members to rank five factors as their biggest challenges to helping tour operators include them in operators’ itineraries. Two factors are at the top. Rates and staffing shortages clearly surpass three other factors: having revenue managers who don’t value group travel, reduced services offered, and higher employee wages.

Costs

• We asked buyers to rate whether they see supplier costs continuing to increase in 2024 or believe they have returned to pre-pandemic levels. The category of suppliers considered by most operators to have rising costs next year is motorcoaches, followed closely by hotels. Other categories that operators see as still rising are air travel, restaurants, and attractions and experiences. Prices for 2024 cruises are mostly viewed as comparable to those in 2023.

Sustainability plans

• More than half of buyer respondents (53%) say they are developing a sustainability plan. Only 16% currently have such a plan, and 31% do not anticipate developing one.
• Asked if their clients are willing to pay more for a tour that incorporates responsible travel practices, fewer than half (41%) believe their clients wish to do so.
• More than half (57%) of responding operators ranked “Having an itinerary that supports local communities and small businesses” as most important to them, surpassing other factors that include using companies that reduce single-use plastics or carbon offsets, using public transportation, and using suppliers that publicize their sustainability plan.
• Four in 10 DMOs say they have sustainability plan, and 42% say they are developing one. Fewer than a fifth (18%) do not anticipate creating a plan.
• Most say their plan includes a focus on supporting local businesses and spreading visitation to shoulder seasons.
• Similar to buyers, DMOs rank supporting local communities and small businesses as the practice most important to their visitors.
• Suppliers are even more progressive, with 52% already having a sustainability plan and 33% developing one. Only 15% have no plans for developing one.

NTA partners

• We asked operators what percentage of partners and vendors in their supply chain are NTA members, and estimates range from a low of 7% to a high of “nearly 100%.”
• Asked if they prioritize NTA members when building itineraries, nearly all operators say yes. 51 percent of operators say they do so as much as they can, with 28% responding “sometimes” and 12% saying “always.”
• Rates were cited by two-thirds of responding operators (69%) as the factor that would lead them to choose a nonmember over a member, followed by terms (49%), slow response (31%), and no response (20%). (Respondents could choose more than one factor.)

Asked about a list of education topics that most interest them, more than half of responding tour operators (52%) said they want to learn more about technology, followed by succession planning, and accessibility.

“Those buyers should welcome the news that at Contact ’24, our annual tour operator retreat, they can opt for a specialized education track that focuses on artificial intelligence,” Prather says. “Other attendees can pursue more traditional education offerings, and everyone will join together for plenary sessions and keynotes.”

The event is May 20–23, 2024, in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here for more information.