F.Y.I.

Special tourism digital agency Tourism Solved launches

Robin Harnish and Simon van Wyk have co-founded Tourism Solved, a digital agency specialising in the tours, activities, and attractions category.

The announcement:

The announcement:

In the competitive Tours, Activities, and Attractions category, Tourism Solved was launched to help Operators maximise profitable bookings and navigate the fast-changing online world by solving the complexity of digital marketing and optimising the multitude of sales channels available.

With over 30 years of experience in travel and the Online Travel Agency (OTA) Marketplace, the team of Robin Harnish, formerly VP of Marketing at Viator, and Simon van Wyk, a leading Australian digital agency founder, have co-founded Tourism Solved. Their digital agency will help Operators in the Tours, Activities, and Attractions sector of the travel industry maximise revenue and promote direct bookings. “The timing is perfect to bring together this group of individuals and launch Tourism Solved. We’ve combined our years of experience at Viator with the right level of digital expertise setting us apart from competitors in the agency space. We’re passionate about our relationships with Operators and are excited to optimise all of their sales channels including the OTAs, Google, Direct Online, Social Media and more. By partnering with us, Operators can focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience while our team facilitates the marketing”, said Harnish.

The big opportunity for Operators is to take charge of their own digital marketing because that allows them the chance to stand out in a highly competitive space. “This $200 billion sector is largely reliant on online travel agencies and booking aggregators for customers,” said van Wyk. “Those businesses are getting more aggressive on the margins they command from Operators who are actually delivering the experiences for travellers. The bottom line is that there is an enormous amount of uncertainty tied up in these channels, and they are expensive.”

The expertise of Tourism Solved will help Operators efficiently reach their ideal audience, “We understand how the digital landscape is reshaping the way travellers discover and book Tours, Activities, and Attractions,” said Harnish. “There are constantly new opportunities on the horizon. Reserve with Google is a great example and a potential game-changer; allowing bookings to go direct to the operator.”

Along with Harnish and van Wyk, the Tourism Solved team at launch is comprised of Michelle Bassil (formerly a Viator Senior Manager) in the Australia, New Zealand, and South Pacific arm, Amar Koul in Asia (formerly a Viator Senior Account Manager of South East Asia), and Tim Lewis (formerly a Managing Director of Contiki Europe and Regional Director at Viator) covering Europe and North America.

In addition to the extensive experience with OTA’s, Tourism Solved is comprised of seasoned digital marketers – having worked to optimise acquisition costs and maximise revenue across retail,
automotive and financial services. “Our team is made up of the best talent in the Tours, Activities and Attractions sector who truly care about the Operators, as well as some of the best in digital marketing,” said van Wyk. “We’re very lucky to be able to launch Tourism Solved with talent of this caliber.”

By leveraging Tourism Solved’s network of experts, Operators will see the positive results of diversifying in a cost-effective way including unlocking the potential of their own website. “We solve this by understanding how the digital landscape is reshaping the way travellers discover and book online, and bringing our expertise to drive direct leads and sales. With all of these skills aimed directly at the Tour, Activity and Attractions industry, we can optimise and promote online presence across the multitude of travel channels and direct websites – all at the lowest possible cost to the operator,” said Harnish.

Source: Tourism Solved media release

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