Arival Activate | major event for Scottish tourism experiences

What type of business would benefit from attending this event?

Arival Activate consists of experiential workshops, seminars, plenary sessions, networking and more.

It’s aimed at the tourism experiences sector as a whole. From businesses who are beginning their journey using technology to distribute to those more advanced and want to accelerate their growth.

What a brilliant experience for businesses to learn from each other and share best practice.

What’s the main benefits of attending Activate Arival in Edinburgh this year?

This is the first time Arival has held a conference in the UK.

It’s a great opportunity for Scottish experiences businesses to hear the latest industry insights, trends and growth opportunities, and connect with booking solutions companies and Online Travel Agents such as Get your Guide and Bokun.  

Also, the opportunity to network with like-minded businesses, you can never underestimate the value of face-to-face interactions.

From attending Activate in Berlin, what was your main take away from this event?

I got to hear, first-hand from operators and solution providers like Google about opportunities within the sector, both in the short and medium term. Opportunities such as making the most of “Google Things To Do” and profitably using Online Travel Agents.

There’s a price for businesses to attend, what’s included in the cost?

The price varies depending on the size of your business.

Due to recent feedback, the organisers have also created a single day ticket which includes all of the workshops and one of the evening get togethers. Monday’s day ticket for example includes the shindig on Sunday night and all of the sessions the following day at the EICC.

As a supporting partner at the event, Scottish tourism business will be offered a 20% discount, by using the promotional code VSEDI20X when registering.

You’re presenting at this year’s event, what are you focusing on and why is this important?

Some years ago, we reviewed data which showed that less than 40% of Scottish experiences businesses had a modern booking solution and less than 3% were distributing their products using Online Travel Agents (OTAs). 

Our research detailed that businesses understood the need to adopt a booking solution and distribute through OTAs but three things were preventing them:  
1.    confidence in having the skills to procure the right system
2.    time 
3.    cost 

As a team we have worked with Arival and others to support businesses around these areas and demystify the procurement and deployment of a booking solution. And, importantly, in a way that is cost effective for any tourism experiences business. We’ve delivered workshops and provided content and templates that helps understand this process. 

I've been asked to share our learnings of developing this programme of support and why experiences are so important to the visitor when making their decision to visit Scotland.    

Lastly how can businesses connect with you at the event?

Several VisitScotland staff and I will be attending the conference. Arival have a very useful app which allows you to organise your workshops and also reach out to anyone attending for a catch up. I would recommend you download that once you register and start organising your day/s to make every minute of attending count.