How to Best Use the Tour Competition Checker

  • Updated

The tour competition checker shows how much interest there is in particular tour packages, as well as the level of competition. Tour packages have the most potential to generate business if the balance between interest and competition is optimal. We, therefore, recommend using the Tour Competition Checker before deciding which tour packages to upload.

 

How to access the tour competition checker

Sign in to your SafariBookings Profile, then the tour competition checker can be accessed from your dashboard page:

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Understanding the basic features

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  1. Filter by country or destination
    This filter option enables you to narrow the list of tour packages to a specific country or destination. It is possible to filter by multiple countries and/or destinations. By default, the Tour Competition Checker will pre-select countries based on the tour packages you have uploaded.

  2. Other filters
    The other filters enable you to further narrow the list of tour packages. You can filter by comfort level, tour length, level of client interest, and level of competition from other tour operators.

  3. Checkbox: ‘Only show tours that include all selected destinations’

    If you select this checkbox the Tour Competition Checker will only return tour packages that include all selected destinations. If you, for example, have selected both Kenya and Tanzania as filters and then select this checkbox, the Tour Competition Checker will only return combo tour packages that visit both Kenya and Tanzania.

  4. Selected filters
    The filters you select will be listed here as tags. You can clear filters by clicking the corresponding tag or click the ‘Clear All Filters’ tag.

  5. Sorting option
    This option enables you to sort the list of suggested tour packages by potential, interest or competition. We determine the potential by looking at the balance between interest from clients and competition from other tour operators. The higher the interest is and the lower the competition, the higher we consider the potential to be.

  6. The list of suggested tour packages
    This list is composed by looking at how often clients request quotes for certain tour packages. We have differentiated the tour packages by tour length, country or major destination, and comfort level.

    Please note that only major destinations are considered for the tour packages. If you click the ‘View’ link in the ‘Competition’ column, you can see which minor destinations are often offered in combination with the major destinations.

    The list also includes an indication of the tour rates. This indication is based on the quote requests that clients made for this particular tour package. This indication will give you an idea of the tour rates that clients are willing to pay for this package.

  7. Interest from clients
    The level of interest that clients have in these packages. The more clients have requested quotes for a particular tour package, the higher we consider the interest to be. The interest levels are: very high, high, normal, low, and very low.

  8. Competition

    The level of competition from other tour operators. The more competing tours there are for a particular tour package, the higher we consider the competition to be. The competition levels are: very high, high, normal, low, and very low.

 

Best approaches for new and experienced tour operators

We have different recommendations on what approach is best to use, depending on whether you are new to SafariBookings or already have a lot of experience with generating business through SafariBookings. Generating business using SafariBookings requires a different approach as compared to using other sales channels, such as overseas travel agents or clients that approach you directly through your website. For new operators, the beginning will be trial and error as they learn how to become successful in converting quote requests into bookings.

The three best approaches for the Tour Competition Checker:

  1. Target tours with high potential (recommended for all tour operators)
    Please click here or use the filters to select tour packages that have high to very high interest from clients and normal to very low competition from other tour operators. Next, select the country or countries to which you offer tours. The competition for the tour packages that you will see is low. This means that you can offer a low payment per quote request and still rank high when clients search for these tour packages. As a result, these tour packages can generate a lot of business at low cost.

  2. Target tours with low competition (recommended for new operators)
    Please click here or use the filters to select tour packages that have normal to low interest from clients and low to very low competition from other tour operators. Next, select the country or countries to which you offer tours. As the competition is low, you can offer a low payment per quote request and still rank high when clients search for these tour packages. But as the interest level is normal to low, the number of clients who search for these tour packages is limited. Therefore, you will need to upload more tours to get a decent amount of business. We recommend adding 25 to 100 tour packages to SafariBookings when using this approach. A big advantage of this strategy is that competition for these tour packages is expected to remain low. So once you have invested the time to upload many packages, you can benefit from getting business at low cost for a long period.

  3. Target tours with high competition and high interest (only for experienced operators)
    Please click here or use the filters to select tour packages that have normal to very high competition and high to very high interest from clients. Next, select the country or countries to which you offer tours. Many clients request quotes for these ‘high interest’ tour packages, but as the competition is also high, you will have to offer a high payment percentage to get quote requests. Furthermore, you will be competing against tour operators who are experienced in using SafariBookings. That is why we only recommend this approach if you are an experienced tour operator yourself and have been able to convert many quote requests into bookings.

Try it out yourself now: Go to the Tour Competition Checker

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