Partner Article

Niche is key to travel business success

It’s travel focus week on Bdaily. Here Alistair McLean, founder of The Activity Travel Company, explains niche is key to a successful travel business.

The Activity Travel Company operates under three clearly differentiated brands.

The Aurora Zone www.theaurorazone.com – Northern Lights hunting holidays for people aged 18 and over

The White Circle www.thewhitecircle.com – Winter adventures such as dog sledding safaris for people aged 18 and over

Activities Abroad www.activitiesabroad.com – Family activity holidays winter and summer

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply operate one brand?

It probably would but in this industry, niche brands are increasingly successful as traditional sun, sea and sand holidays become far easier to replicate on the internet. For example, if you fancy a week sunning yourself on the Costa del Sol, it’s no matter to book a “low-cost” flight, a taxi and an hotel for seven nights. What extra does a tour operator provide? A representative and financial protection which is probably covered by your credit card anyway?

It’s a lot more difficult to arrange a stay above the Arctic Circle then find the best Northern Lights guides to take you out safely into the winter wilderness in search of the Aurora Borealis. That’s where we come in. We ensure that we make our trips as niche and, you could say, as complicated as possible so they can’t be easily replicated.

Of course this also means that we have to deliver in the destination which is why we have always developed strong relationships with our partners rather than trying to squeeze them for every cent in hard-nosed business fashion. We have to make a living, our suppliers have to make a living and our clients have to have a great time, it’s a simple formula and, having very recently scooped three British Travel Awards it is a formula that seems to work very well.

Promoting three brands involves higher costs in terms of website development and marketing but it also allows us to more closely target certain demographic groups and that yields better conversion rates and hence, we sell more holidays. Through the recession, this strategy has seen the company more than double its turnover from £2.95m to £6.8m, take on additional staff and increase profitability fourfold.

For small tour operating companies, niche is absolutely key.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alistair Mclean .