Changing scenario of T&A market; an opportunity for rural tourism development

As travelers are looking for more enriching experience than just the conventional “Sun and Sea” vacations, the tours and activities market is growing faster than any other segment of the tourism industry. Although comparatively reluctant to technological changes, the segment is being digitalized rapidly thanks to companies like GetYourGuide and Viator. The changing scenario in tours and activities industry brings both challenge and opportunity to rural tourism, which is often seen as a tool for sustainable rural development.

Since more than a decade, the concept of rural tourism development has been taking an important position in the policies of governments and NGOs in developing nations. Millions of dollars have been invested in programs to develop alternative tourism products to assist poverty eradication. However, these programs merely become a "role model" rather than a scalable business model. As a result, their impact on poverty alleviation is limited. The concept itself is wonderful, but its execution seems to be a failure.

Most of the academic works done in rural tourism seem to focus mostly on product development, while very few have identified marketing as an issue. Consequently, Governments and NGOs, who often don’t have the expertise of developing a successful business model, end up being consumed in product development only. Inadequate focus on marketing severely limits the number of sales of these products on one hand, while giving room for another blunder- trying to sell what you have, rather than developing what market needs, on the other.

Local travel agencies, who themselves are at risk of being kicked out of the industry, are the most commonly used channel for selling rural tourism products. It is very common to see these companies promoting their product for their “sustainable” or “responsible” nature, rather than their core offering of a unique experience. Greenwashing can have appeal to some customers, but for others, it might signal sub-par quality as well. It seems clear that old marketing strategies are going to be obsolete very soon and, thus, there is a need for smarter marketing strategies.

People are willing to plan their travel completely online, and digitalizing T&A market presents an opportunity to solve the problem of marketing in rural tourism. However, digitalization is still too costly for rural travel enterprises and it calls for a synergy between resources of government with business expertise of private sector. Perhaps the high penetration of mobile communication in rural communities gives us a unique opportunity to digitalize the rural travel industry through a platform that not only helps to sell but also guides the product development. However, the platform should have a business model that effectively integrates underprivileged communities in its supply chain instead of just greenwashing the products.