Sell More Experiences: Why the Best Operators Are Getting Connected with Bokun

If you’re still managing tours through email threads, spreadsheets, or a “Contact Us to book” form, you’re not just adding admin, you’re likely leaving revenue on the table. In this Company Spotlight, Dan sits down with Sam Jeffries, Senior Growth Marketing Manager at Bokun, to break down what it really takes to sell more tours and activities in 2026: instant booking, smarter distribution, and the connectivity needed to show up wherever travelers are searching and buying.

We start with Bokun’s origin story during Iceland’s tourism boom and how it has evolved into a global booking platform used by both independent operators and major attractions. From there, we get practical. Sam explains why expanding your reseller network can unlock step-change growth, how to choose the right mix of local, niche, regional, and global partners, and how to ease into OTAs by allocating only a portion of your inventory. He also shares what the data shows when operators move from direct-only to a multi-channel strategy, and what realistic performance gains look like.

We also explore how travel discovery is changing. AI planning tools and generative search increasingly favor businesses that are widely referenced online and fully bookable with live availability. We discuss Bokun’s AI-assisted onboarding, the importance of open APIs and standards like OCTO, and where collaboration across travel tech is heading. Plus, we touch on Bokun Launchpad, an initiative designed to help bring new experiences to market in partnership with the industry.

Learn more at Bokun.io.

The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 

https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

Transcript

Welcome To The Spotlight

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Travel Trends Podcast. This is your host, Dan Christian, and we have a really special spotlight episode for you today. I think most of you know how much I love the tours and activity space, how much time I spend going to arrival conferences over the course of the year, and how I very much believe this is the most compelling part of travel is the experiences you have in destination. So I'm thrilled to present to you a company that I have had a great fascination with over many years, Boken, which started in Iceland way back in 2012. It was bought by TripAdvisor in 2018, and they have continued to be the number one booking platform company globally. And uh it's really incredible to when you look at the growth of the business, the number of partners they have, and I really wanted to do a deep dive into the world of Ocen. And I've brought onto the podcast the senior growth marketing manager, Sam Drefferies, to join us, who's based in Oxford. And so, Sam, welcome to Travel Trends. Thanks so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, no, thanks for having me, Dan. Big fan of the podcast. So pleased to be here. Thank you.

Iceland Tourism And Bokun’s Origin

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Thank you. And thanks a lot for the partnership. Obviously, it's been great working with Maya, yourself, and the team, and we clearly see each other at all the conferences. And I know a lot about uh Bokan, especially over the years of you know getting to know the TripAdvisor team really well. But I'd love to start at the beginning, if you wouldn't mind, and share just a little bit of the origin story uh of Bokan and give a little bit of overview of the company.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah, sure. Going back to 2012, as you said, that the company was founded then, it's important to look at the Icelandic tourism industry as a whole. Back in uh around 2011, 2010, a few years before, Iceland saw a massive ramp up in tourism. And if you remember, there was a big volcano that went off in Iceland. Now, before that volcano went off, there was actually a much smaller amount of people visiting the island each year. So that that volcano erupting in a way acted as a little bit of a catalyst, and it put Iceland as a whole on a bit of a billboard. So adventure tourists started coming, more and more people started coming, and then it sort of evolved into a bit more of an adventure-seeking uh destination. Uh and with all these people coming to the country and also at the same time people coming online, all these small tour operators suddenly had bookings coming in from new places, and they had a lot of demands that they didn't used to have. So they needed some way to manage this, manage these bookings. So BoCum was basically uh forged out of that environment by uh two Icelandic entrepreneurs at that point. So that's the origin story, essentially.

Sam’s Travel Path Into Experiences

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that because I mean when we think back to 2012, which doesn't seem like that long ago, but in the grand scheme, when you look at Viator and the companies that are now within the TripAdvisor portfolio and the growth of this category, you know, it d despite the pandemic setback for all of us, uh the growth has been remarkable and there still is so much connectivity. And obviously, I know we're there's a lot we're gonna cover today about distribution and travel, but specifically around connectivity, since that's such an important part uh of uh Boken's role in the industry and how you guys fit into the whole ecosystem. But before we get into a bit more about Bocan, tell everyone about your background because uh I know you went to the University of Bournemouth. My uh I was born in the UK and lived uh in Portsmouth, and so not too far. Yeah, and I've spent some time in in Bournemouth, but I know that you're an avid traveler and you spent uh six months traveling through Southeast Asia, and then you joined uh both TripAdvisor and Bokoon around 2021, which obviously is kind of at the end of the pandemic. But yeah, tell everyone a bit about your background, interest in travel, and and the role that you now have with uh with with Bokin.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yeah, sure. So the the world of experiences and tours basically didn't exist in my mind until I started going traveling in my 20s, like you said. So I did quite a lot of extensive travel at that point. I had uh my own business for a while, which allowed me to be a little bit more flexible, and then I ended up in Australia managing a hostel in a town called Cannes. It's kind of like a gateway to the coral reef. And whilst I was there, we started selling day tours and multi-day tours of experiences. So that started planting a seed. Uh, then I left the hostel and I did pretty much every major tour down the east coast of Australia. Uh, I came back, um, I had a couple of positions in marketing, and then one of which was on the same business park as TripAvisor. So I'm probably one of the few people in the company that uh actually saw the physical office and then started looking for jobs there. I thought that would be a really cool company to work for. The only problem was we're in the middle of uh the global pandemic, a somewhat strange time to join a travel company, who can itself was going for a little bit of a transition as well. Uh so it looked like an exciting time both to work in the experience industry and get under the hood. So yeah, that that was that was the point at which I I jumped in uh with both hands, and I kind of had two beliefs, as you sort of alluded to. One was that COVID would pass, and the other that post-COVID we'd see this explosion in in experiences and people coming online.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah. Well, one of the things I was really interested about your background too is that you're into wakeboarding and the board sports, because that's was my world before travel. And in university, I ran uh the world the Western Snowboarding Federation. I created a snowboarding club and we went traveling uh regularly as a group of avid snowboarders. And so clearly there's there's a I just noticed that a bit of commonality between the two of us. So clearly you were into adventure style travel and then obviously travel itself. So those are do activities. This is this is your world. This is obviously your passion.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Yeah, exactly. Very, very much into board sports, uh, particularly at uni, part of the snow sports club like yourself, weight boarding as well. Uh, more recently has been cycling, running, and hiking. I was just in the the Visit Scotland event and managed to bag a couple of Monroe's for those familiar with the term uh in the Highlands after, which was good fun. So, yeah, it's very much part of that world and the background very much in marketing and growth as well. So join the company really to help grow brand awareness and grow marketing of the company.

What Growth Marketing Means Here

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah, very cool. And tell us about your role then, because I mean, for me and my background, you know, a growth marketing manager is such an important role today in most companies. And you know, you look at a company like Anthropic that I have mentioned in some of my keynotes, then you've likely heard this as well. You know, the marketing department is one growth marketing manager that manages you know six or seven uh agentic agents that work on that person's behalf to help with paid media. So the the growth marketing role has been around for you know five or ten years, um, but it means slightly different things in different organizations. But ultimately, the name, the title is growth and therefore you know, finding growth, whether it's from owned, earned, or paid. Um but tell us a little bit more about your role and obviously the fact you are based in the UK.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Yeah, no, definitely. So my sort of original 4-0 into marketing was very much an SEO. So I was an affiliate marketer, was a full-time affiliate marketer in SEO, very much in the Wild West days. So uh growth is still quite a new term. I think it was coined by um Meta, and really to me, it it's more like measured marketing, I suppose is how I see it. So uh for me, in growth in Bokan really is is doing marketing that's measurable. Um, very much I was at that bottom of funnel, so paid ads, conversion, um SEO, and so on. And as my career has grown, I've probably gone a little bit more up funnel to the point I'm a lot more interested in things like brand and how that can impact your your growth now as well. So, yeah, that that's me in a nutshell, both growing the awareness of the brand, but also building the full funnel marketing.

Bokun Today And Industry Perception

SPEAKER_01 7:35

And then let everyone know a little bit uh about where Boken stands today in the industry. I know we see each other at the conferences, you guys always have a large presence at all the big events. And so when we think about Bokan in 2026, I know you've just done uh a rebrand, and even some of the things you're doing with your marketing activity, you know, from an outside looking in, it's really exciting. So it obviously would appear to be, you know, you guys are having great growth. But yeah, tell us a little bit about where Bokan is in 2026.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, very much so. So I I joined about four and a half years ago, and we've seen um big growth both in the industry and as the company is itself. So I have personally seen both anecdotally and non-aneecdotally uh a big increase in our brand awareness. For example, if you put in the amount of people that search Bokan uh in Google every month, that's dramatically increased. So we're certainly a lot bigger than what we used to be, uh, and our brand presence has grown quite a lot as well. I think historically people saw us very much just aligned to the smaller side, the smaller experience providers. Um, and I would say to an extent that is how we were created for those small Icelandic experiences. But as those those experienced companies have grown, we've grown as a company as well. Uh, so we now have you know large attractions and theme parks as customers as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Well, and one thing I just want to share with our listeners too, because it's amazing to see how things evolve and change and uh adapt and grow. One of the the controversial moments, and I'll I'll speak to this because it was before your time, but um, when uh Dermot Halpin worked at TripAdvisor and used to over oversee the activity side of the business, he had uh at the arrival conference, many of our listeners know this fairly well. They're like, I don't know where you're going with this, Dan, but um there was a there was a moment seven or eight years ago where someone had asked if there was a benefit to being uh displayed on TripAdvisor or via Tour by virtue of using uh their boken. And he basically tipped his hand and said, Yes, that you should be, if you want to get indexed well, you should be on the bo uh Boken platform. And this was shortly after the acquisition. And obviously it made sense from a strategic point of view, but you could imagine it got a lot of pushback from the crowd. And I was standing backstage as this was happening and and seeing this play out on stage, and I've talked to a few of your colleagues and they've said we're still recovering from that at that moment. And um, and this is where we can laugh about it now because obviously it's it's in the rear view mirror, but I was just gonna say to you, Sam, that I was uh backstage and I was there with um Tao Tao from Get Your Guide. Yeah, yeah. And we saw the reaction or the hostility. I've often referred to the arrival conferences as you know, an angry town hall, like an angry mob, because if they could they you know, the uh a lot of these smaller mom and pop operators, you know, this is such an important part of their business. They rely so much on these platforms, and so they're very sensitive to commissions and and the cost it takes to get prioritized. And so uh Tao Tao was like, yeah, I'm not gonna touch that at all. And he went on and he did just fine. It was like, um, and Dermot took all the heat. And I spoke to Dermot afterwards, and he stood by his comments and said, you know, I I meant what I said and and the all the power to him. But it was one of those moments where Bokan was just breaking through and getting on you know to the limelight uh with the TripAdvisor acquisition, and then all of a sudden it kind of put a chill into people of like, um, wait a second, now I need to move across to this platform. So anyway, that was one of the bumps in the road, if you will. But but you guys have managed not only to navigate that, but also just to finish off, Sam, and I do have a question here for you is that um a lot of people at the time saw that when BoCan was acquired by uh TripAdvisor, that's at the time when you know Fair Harbor was acquired by booking, and there was a question of who's Expedia going to use, and um, is it does it make sense to uh you know acquire uh the reservation of the booking platform? And ultimately Expedia decided they wouldn't, and you know, companies like Res D and others have merged together and you know this this space. But what's really interesting to me is that although Bokan is a TripAdvisor company, you guys are a very successful standalone business that not only do you work with TripAdvisor, you work with so many other platforms as well that are actually competitors to your parent company, TripAdvisor and Viator. And I find that really interesting. I just want so I wanted to kind of say full circle to all of our listeners how Bokan, from my vantage point, has very much become channel agnostic, partner agnostic. You'll work, you know, your focus is connectivity, not being exclusively beholden to TripAdvisor and Viator, because you obviously want your tour and activity providers around the world to use Boken successfully for however they want to distribute their product. Is that is that is that a fair assessment from the outside looking in?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Yeah, so so we work with I think at over two and a half thousand resellers uh you know at point of recording, and that includes Vartor and all their competitors. So we're in a somewhat unique position. You mentioned get your guide there as well. Get your guide, for example, have very high standards to to achieve what they call uh advanced and above that premium connectivity partners, and we we are a premium connectivity partner with with Get Your Guide for a number of years running. Yeah, we we work with uh with all partners, and um we certainly know Tao Tow obviously still with with Get Your Guide today as well.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Exactly, yeah, and you guys work closely then. That's the one thing I found interesting when I was at Get Your Guide's office and some of the Bokoon team members are there. So so yeah, so that's in the the much the distant uh past. And so as far as Boken today, um when we look at the global uh role, because I know you still have developers in Reykjavik, is that right? So tell us a little bit about where you guys stand today, and especially from a competitive point of view.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah, definitely. So we still have uh an original office. Um we have recently moved, but still in Reykjavik with with a number of uh developers of some of our product team still there, uh, which is great to have. And then we've got other team members all over the world. I'm particularly based in Oxford. We have an office here um and in uh London, probably the the two ones I know the most. But yeah, very much a global company. Um we're in pretty much every country worldwide, uh, which is great to see. You were talking about competitive advantage where we stand in the market there. So obviously, we have that benefit of being part of TripAvisor and Virtual that carries a number of benefits. We don't charge on Vietnam bookings, for example. You can do a one-click import. Um, and then our marketplace tends to be uh one of the biggest on the market as well. So not every uh booking platform has that distribution side. And actually, we do work with a couple of other booking platforms without distribution behind the scenes. They connect in with us and we push them on to those other platforms. Um, and then our price, we tend to be one of the most competitively priced platforms. So we charge zero to one point five percent on each booking. Um, yeah, overall, those three things combined tend to make us uh a pretty decent pick.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Well, and one of the focuses, obviously, for this episode is selling more experiences. And the best way to be able to do that is connectivity and and distribution. So tell us a little bit more uh about the connectivity that you offer. Since as you mentioned, obviously one pipeline passed uh past that point of when it was a controversial thing to say, being owned by TripAdvisor and having some sort of uh advantage just on the Viator platform if you use Boken, but clearly you work with all the major players in this space. So tell us a little bit about when a tour or activity provider is looking at the different options that are out there. You started to speak to some of the reasons they would choose Boken. Tell us a little bit more about, from a connectivity point of view, what the advantages of partnering with Boken.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah, definitely. So I mean I when I speak to tour operators, I tend to recommend they connect with at least 10 different partners. And our top uh customers are often connected with 40 plus, but I recommend starting with 10. Um and where I look at is looking at different spheres. So look at partners locally, that could be a local hotel, local hostel, then look at niche resellers. You mentioned um board sports, for example. There's a number of like adventure-specific OTAs like Manoa, then regional. We have love to visit here in the UK for the domestic market, and then the uh then the global partners like uh Viator and Get Your Guide. But what we tend to find is a lot of the tour operators they'll work within just one of those. So they'll work with just one local um hotel, for example, or they just work on say get your guide. Uh and what we see when we analyze our data is that we see there is a dramatic increase in gross booking value if you go from one to two resellers and then again two to three. So um, yeah, I'd recommend starting to connect with at least 10, would be my my first suggestion there.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Well, and just on this, when you're thinking about connectivity, obviously you're you know, the tour operators that use your platform. Maybe I should actually just take one step back and you can actually help our listeners since we have a lot of global tour operators. You know, we're a partner with Adventure Travel Trade Association. There's a lot of smaller and medium-sized operators that are still work, you know, running off of spreadsheets and and still trying to make decisions on how they connect and what platform they use. So I guess tell everyone who Boken specifically appeals to if you kind of look at the profile of the the customers that you bring in. And then I I the reason I wanted to ask this is because I want to talk about all the suppliers that are still not connected. Because this is the part that has shocked me. For 10 years, we've been talking about the fact that that uh we need to connect this industry, and even as we have this conversation in 2026, it's like less than half the industry is still connected. It's not like there's no reason why they shouldn't be anymore, but aside from they haven't prioritized it yet. So tell everyone who what um a typical boken client looks like.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, Toron Experience providers are essentially looking to reduce their admin and grow their bookings. So, how do we do that? Uh, we have a number of sell tools. So, for example, if you just have a contact us form or a phone number on your website, we have a bookable uh widget that can replace that. And we have some customers wake up rec of it comes to mind, they increase their uh bookings by 400% just by replacing that contact us form with an actual bookable widget. Then you can connect to the OTAs that we mentioned. Uh, you can send out payment links on um social media like Instagram, uh, TikTok, for example, and then you can also automate a lot of your admin. So all that time spent handling uh cancellations, uh modifications to tour start dates, review requests, all of that can be pushed out through a booking system um automatically. Um and the during the rebrand you mentioned in January, we we've got some new bright distinctive colours, but the premise behind that rebrand was that we are the how to your well. So, what we mean by that is that we are literally we have a partnership team in place that are going around signing new resellers all the time. We have an engineering team working on resolving API issues, and we're doing all of that so you can help grow and scale your business. We're sitting on the background growing this for you. Like we mentioned a moment ago, if you just have a small tour business and you sell one tour a day, one, two tours a day to local people that are turning up, you can probably handle that uh just offline. But if you want to grow your business, that's typically the inflection point. If you want to start selling on uh your own website as well as offline and on an OTA, then you need something in the middle of that that's gonna handle all your availability. And that's where a tool like Boken really steps in.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Yeah, and I know since you work with a lot of really niche operators, because a lot of it is in solving the complexity of their uh the way their businesses operate, and whether it's you know, multi-currency or how they're loading their prices and and managing availability, but every company to be successful today needs to be able to have a powerful platform and uh for uh for making those reservations. And the reality is it doesn't make any sense for any company today to build their own. They just need to choose who to work with. You started mentioning about some of the reasons, and I wanted just to hit on those again now because someone coming into this space, they're gonna look around. Obviously, I'll just mention a few of your competitors because when people come into this space, they're trying to figure out well, should I be using Fair Harbor? What are the factors I need to consider when using a Reservoir or Peak, of course, is another kind of competitor in this space. And interestingly, their business model has been much more B2B than B2C. And what I typically find with these companies, Tripworks being another, that's a more recent entry that's been following the Fair Harbor playbook and kind of going after Fair Harbor customers, as I understand it too, because if you have some dissatisfied customers, so like there's opportunity for new growth, there's opportunity to bring in clients from other platforms. And the reason I ask I specifically ask you this because what I have seen is that Boken has gone from strength to strength. More people are talking about Boken, more people are clearly embracing the platform as you guys uh continue to expand your marketing activity. You guys are really taking a leadership position in this space. W why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Yeah, I mean, ultimately, something I bang the drum on is that tour operators need to be everywhere their traveler is. So everywhere their traveler is, you need to be able to book, even to the point of inspiration. So we're trying to build our booking system around this to try and make it the best, most usable tool by tour operators to get more bookings and you know ultimat ultimately uh reduce their admin load as well. So we've done a uh a lot of work in trying to grow the brand as well. We're being a lot more present in events like arrival to get to meet the operators. Uh we've grown our product team and we've grown our UX team. So we're we're sitting down with more uh customers than ever before and really trying to understand and get into the nitty-gritty of how they're working and what we can do uh a better job of doing. Um and then, like we mentioned, as well. I've got the partnership team as well. They're the ones on the road building those relationships, uh, resolving those API issues to really get as many resellers on the platform as possible. And I think all those things combined, we're starting to see the market really recognize that now, which is really good to see.

Why Operators Still Aren’t Connected

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I definitely I've seen that I've been at the ITB conference earlier this year, and there definitely continues to be existing operators that are moving over to Boken. And but there's also a lot of people coming into the industry still, and there's a number of people that aren't connected. So uh to broaden out a little bit and speak to them as well, for those people listening to this that don't have a reservation platform or they've got something that's workable right now, uh, why do you think the industry still is so fragmented? And and where do you think is the biggest disconnect? Like what is is it um regionally? Is it is it specific to certain regions? Is it specific to just this style of operator? And given that a lot of them are uh smaller mom and pop operations or family run businesses, uh what do you think is uh holding some of them back? And I guess what are you saying to those people that are you know looking at Boken f as the very first booking solution that they're gonna implement?

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Yeah, no, absolutely. So you mentioned arrival. In their research earlier, I think their latest report showed 30% of the industry that responds to the survey still doesn't use a system. I would argue it's probably higher than that, because I think they probably skew to a little bit more sophisticated suppliers. So yeah, that'd be think thinking on that side. So to answer the question to the smaller operators, I think sometimes there's a combination of um just having a little bit of fear, particularly around selling on OTAs, they're nervous around commission ratings. Uh, and I would say uh a couple of things on that. One, consider what you're paying on marketing to get the booking anyway, because you're essentially that's what you're paying the commission for. Um, and the second one is by using a booking system like Boken, you can uh use tools like our allocation manager to just hold a small percentage back to an OTA. So you could continue to just sell 90% direct and just dip your toe in the water, sell 10% on an OTA. You can also set different prices on different channels as well. So I think that's where a booking system can help. But I think if someone's new to the industry, they're just not aware of that. So there's that that fear piece, which I think has to be overcome. Um, and the second one is just a uh like my time is constrained, I'm doing everything, I'm new to this, how do I how do I find the time to do this? And I think that's a challenge for all small businesses, particularly in the early days. So is trying to tap into uh registering with the system and getting going in a shoulder season typically. Um, and I would say like setting up on a tool like Bokan is a lot easier than it used to be. Uh when you sign up, for example, we have an AI agent go onto your website, if you list it, and automatically find your products and add that to Boken, and then you can in a couple of clicks then push those experiences onto an OTA. So it's a lot easier uh than it used to be.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

So I want to further that a little bit because actually what I found really fascinating when I did the panel at Get Your Guys Headquarters and we did a spotlight episode on that as well because of the research which indicated that that uh nearly 75% of the visitors to Italy only visit 4% of the country. And one of the big challenges that we need to overcome as an industry is the fact that we need to spread out travelers across the cities they're visiting, specifically in Europe. And part of that is actually making more experiences bookable online, so they're not just going to this, you know, the top five. Clearly, there's you know, if you're going to Paris, you're going to see the Eiffel Tower. Um, or if you're going to Barcelona, you're going to want to see the uh Sagrada Familia. Like there's you've you there's certain things that are just a must on your list. But the reality is there's a lot of places and neighborhoods that could be explored by travelers that are going to have a lot to offer. And but the challenge is that was highlighted is that they're just not connected. And so when you will look at the challenges of when they're not connected, obviously for me, the biggest one is it's just a massive missed sales opportunity. They could be doing a lot more business, but some of them are doing okay and they're kind of concerned about being overwhelmed. But uh when you see operators that aren't connected, what do you think are the main reasons that they aren't? And then what would you say to them now that would kind of consider them opening their minds to be like, you know what, this is the year we need to make sure we, you know, choose the right partner and get on board with a company like Bulkan?

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Yeah, so I mean this is this isn't an issue constrained to one geography. I mean, up in Scotland, there's a huge amount of incredible uh experiences, particularly in more rural areas that aren't online. And I think in many cases, they're just unaware of the global potential that they can have. So there is a lot of potential. Um, American tourists, for example, they could pull in by going on a platform like Viator that may not find their experience otherwise. Uh they may be nervous about selling on a on an OTA, uh, but those travelers have that OTA as an app on their phone and they're going to open it and dial straight in. So I agree, definitely is a missed sales opportunity, and that's definitely where I'd focus those conversations and definitely dip the toe in as well. You don't have to go all in. Um, so yeah, I I think it's a combination of being unaware of the potential of the business. And for some people, to be frank, like they're quite happy just having a small business. But I think the kind of tour operators that are going to uh industry events, they are the kind of business that does want to grow, does want to scale, and that's exactly where a booking system can help.

Onboarding Fast With AI Tools

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Well, and I want to make sure that in addition to you you started to talk about the AI and the setup, but I want to make sure we provide some practical recommendations today for operators not only to get connected, but some of the benefits of once they are. So I think it would actually be helpful. You started to walk us through uh the what it looks like to actually get set up on the platform. And I think it'd be helpful just to finish that off because you highlighted something that I think most people wouldn't be aware of, which is using AI to be able to like make it as easy as possible on your partner to grab the content. And this is one of the things that I know holds a lot of companies back, is that they don't feel technologically that they're ready to do these partnerships. They don't have an API and application interface, and they're not familiar with what APIs are or what you know what uh companies they need to work with to be able to extract their uh their products and availability and pricing. Um so tell us a little bit about that, because I I've I think one of the big unlocks for AI is the fact that these integrations get a lot easier. We used to find ourselves, even in the best circumstances, for a large established operator looking to work with a new channel manager distribution partner, and then ultimately like another OTA. It was always the complexity of trying to figure out, okay, are you gonna write to our API or are we gonna write to your API? And then we get told that you know there's a six-month backlog of in their integrations team. And so then they say, actually, you know what? You should partner with Boken that are actually already connected with us. And so tell us a little bit more about that onboarding experience and how you actually uh navigate that. Um, and then also like what good looks like, because one it's one thing to get set up, it's another thing then to actually make sure you're starting to get bookings, and that is where the challenge also can come in, where they're trying to figure out what is it they need to do to optimize their tours on your platform for partners to actually pick them up and start selling them.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Yeah, definitely. So, largely speaking, if you're a tour operator, to be honest with you, you shouldn't be wasting your time building out APIs unless you are a very large experience provider where you have your own in-house say ticketing system, and then you want to connect with um with distribution partners. And actually, that's where Bogan has another offering called a channel manager. But for most people, they will come in and use our full suite. So, what that looks like is it starts off with a free trial, there's no credit card required, so you can literally sign up with with Google Credentials, you come in. The first step is to create your product, and that's all you mentioned uh the AI product importer. If you put a website address in when you come in, it will automatically go in and fetch your products from your website, and you can just accept to have them imported. If you don't have a website, uh we have a website builder as well. Um, and we also have uh obviously the integration with Viator, so you can import your products from Viator or import from a uh a Google Sheet, or you can literally create them manually in Boken. And when you create them manually, we also have AI tools to help with the descriptions and so on. So you can add them very, very quickly. So that's step one, add your experiences. Um, I would say then step two is getting connected to a distribution partner. So once the products are in there, whether you've added them manually or you've imported them from someone else, you then connect to an OTA like Viator or uh let's say you're an adventure tour company, you might want to connect with Manawa as well. So connect with a distribution partner, then um probably to hit the kind of good mark, I would say make sure you're selling directly on your own website as well. You don't just have a social media platform. Uh, and then to get the kind of B grade plus, I would say connect with at least 10 resellers, and then to get um sort of up more towards and maybe an A minus, uh start doing extras and upsells within your products, and then you can go A star by adding in um connecting with uh our cancellation insurance policies, doing bundling, doing cross-selling, uh, and really go in to increase your average order size and so on. But in the early days, literally you just want to come in, create your experiences in the platform and push those to a connectivity provider. And I think realistically you can do that in an afternoon uh quite easily if you can manage to set the time aside. So I'd I'd recommend starting there.

Setting Booking Expectations With Data

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Yeah, well, that's why I wanted I was very keen to ask you that, and obviously just to bring a spotlight episode together uh with Boken to understand where the industry is, where it's headed. But on this specific topic, I wanted to make sure that our listeners uh can wrap their head around the ease and simplicity because it's not like it was three or five years ago with the technology that's available today. The other thing I wanted to also ask you, too, because I do hear this coming up in conversations, is what does success look like? How many bookings should I anticipate? Um, because there's you know this lack of understanding as to what it's going to mean. Some people may come in uh incredibly bullish and have very, very high expectations of what's going to happen out of the gate. Um, and other companies may be concerned that there's gonna be too much booking activity, they're not gonna be able to manage it and handle it. So to speak to those, to kind of, I guess, set expectations uh and to help describe to listeners what success looks like. Uh how do you manage that part of it and and what should a uh a small to medium-sized tour operator expect once they're connected to your platform and distributing through, you know, as you recommended, 10 partners?

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Yeah, 100%. I mean, the first thing I would say, if you already have visitors coming on your website, but you're not getting bookings and you have that contact us form by converting that to a widget, if you have a reasonable volume of visitors, I would expect an increase in bookings there just by reducing the friction. Um, we spoke a little bit earlier around the statistics we see in our own analysis. So to be specific on that, we see a 4x increase in gross booking value from people going from one booking channel to two. So typically that's them maybe just selling on their own website, and the second one is an OTA. And then we see that double again if they go from two to three. Now that is very much en masse, is obviously going to depend on your uh your region and your tours and your experiences. And obviously, I can't say specifically exactly how many bookings you would see, but uh to go back to my point around being everywhere your traveller is and at the point of inspiration, you know, if you are at that point, um, when the traveler does get that inspiration to book, you can get that booking. If you're not there, simply put, a competitor probably is going to get the booking, not you. So it is as much about defensibility as it is um capturing the full booking share.

How To Manage OTA Distribution

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Yeah, what is interesting because you kind of point out, and as you walk through the steps, there is two key parts. One is the you know, the reservation platform having the booking platform itself and you know instantly making things bookable. And I still remember all the conversations I would have with Travis from Tor Raider on this because we were always keen to uh to get more of our brands on their platform, and they were always pushing us to make them instantly bookable because of the increased conversion rates as soon as you had that option. So obviously there is the managing booking parts uh of this, and then there's the managing distribution. And uh and so just to finish off on the distribution, that's why I just have one more question on that topic is that when you look at the big OTAs and the different marketplaces versus the direct channels, how important do you think they are for a lot of the operators today? And what would be your first couple of tips on managing distribution? Because clearly you're you know, there's an important question is whether or not some of those partners actually do want your product. Um if they're gonna actually bring your product on. You now have a way to give to offer it to them. Um but tell us a little bit more about managing distribution.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yeah, so some other interesting data we saw is that pre-COVID, most bookings on our uh customers boken accounts came through direct. So more people getting direct bookings than any other channel pre-COVID, post-COVID switched to OTAs. So OTAs are getting a much bigger share, and I don't see that slowing down. So there is just a point here that now people are downloading uh the likes of Varato and get your guide on their phones. A lot of people are going into a destination, they're just opening the app on their phone. And so if you're not on these platforms, you're just gonna miss out on that, on that share of bookings. So uh, you know, where would I get going with distribution? How would I start? I would definitely focus on those spheres we spoke about earlier. So I'd look for a local reseller that could be a local hotel, then a niche one. Um we spoke about Manoa earlier for adventure tour companies, like there's surf-specific OTAs for surfing tour companies, then one for domestic travel, and then one for global. And I think until you're in all of those spheres, you're almost certainly missing out on some distribution.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

And the other thing I was also keen to ask you, you know, when people are checking out the website, and I mentioned it in the intro, but um boken.io and understanding how you can use the platform to manage your reservations. Uh, but when it comes to the fact you've aggregated all of this, you know, incredible supply, and you can obviously uh utilize different distribution platforms, if there's people listening to this that are not currently selling activities on their website or you know, we have a large listenership in the hospitality space, and I know there are some companies that have been pushing more and more hotels to offer activities. And there's an interesting stat there, too, that I learned from one of my uh startup colleagues is that if people book a trip and have a great experience, if they book an experience in a destination, they'll give a more positive review to the hotel because there's a halo, there's there's a halo effect of like I went to London, we got just a great food tour, and I just, you know, you just associate it with such a positive effect that you just give the hotel a fantastic rating. And so hotels, interestingly, have become more attuned to the need to offer this, not just in terms of ancillary revenue, but in terms of optimizing the guest experience. And so the other thing I was I was keen to ask you too is whether or not you're seeing partners come directly to you to say we want to sell experiences, and can we partner with uh Boken to do that? How does how does that work?

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, we have a number of like hotel-specific resellers, so uh concierge companies, um, we have like car rental companies. Experiences as a sector are being pushed through more channels. And I think the other point to make is that uh gone are the days where people would book a holiday and then they would book the experience in destination. It still exists, but it's not the majority anymore. In fact, we're seeing that flipped on its head in many cases where we're seeing experience versus travel now. So if your experiences aren't online, you are you are going to miss out a little bit there. Um does that answer the question?

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Yeah, it does, absolutely it does, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Yeah, yeah. And then the the other point I would make as well that maybe we we haven't spoken a huge amount about is the marketplace. So when we got going in Iceland, uh we also wanted the end tour operators to be able to bundle their products together, sell them as a unique product, or resell each other's experiences. Uh, and it's got to the point now where we've got a number of suppliers that actually make more revenue reselling other people's experiences than they do their own. So I would I would encourage the tour operators as well to think a little bit on the ancillary revenue side. Uh, what is the next obvious destination someone goes to, and can I sell an experience in that place? That could be another great way to grow your revenue.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Well, one thing I did want to ask you about growth and as it relates to the different regions you operate in. You know, I travel extensively, and you know, there's certain places when you know I went to Patagonia and Chile for the last uh last October, I was amazed at the number of uh local operators that were still uh out there promoting themselves as travelers arrive on coaches, and so that to me seemed so familiar to like 20 years ago in Southeast Asia. Whereas so I know the South America market is a big opportunity for a number of companies to bring operators on and get them connected. Um what stands out to you as far as whether it's regions or even is it is there so much still business opportunity within your existing regions? But where are you guys seeing the growth? Where do you think the opportunity is uh for boken to continue to grow? And yeah, what are you seeing? Is it emerging markets, is it existing markets, or a combination of both?

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Yeah, a combination of both. There's there's certainly been some hot spots in Europe and abroad in specific places. Uh what we tend to see is as often, even on a smaller scale, there might be like a city-specific hub that will grow out, and then the uh the travel will grow beyond that. In Europe, for example, Albania has has been doing quite a lot to push tourism in their area. They were the I think the headline sponsors of ITB last year or the year before. That's certainly getting a lot of attention here, and obviously the experiences are following. Uh, there's certain places in the East as well that are leaning heavily in on that. Um, you mentioned uh people selling experiences as you got off the coach. I live in Oxford, uh, very much an online connected place. But if I walk around the high street, there's still people selling experiences offline as well. So it's not just South America, and some of these are big global companies uh as well, and they do get a sizable amount of bookings from those uh from the offline market. So the offline's definitely still there. Um, but it's just I would encourage you to connect with the online as well.

AI Discovery And Being Mentioned Online

SPEAKER_01 39:19

You've mentioned AI a couple of times, and I want to revisit that for a moment because it's been such a big focus. I mean, at every at every conference in every room, everyone's talking about AI. You know, run our AI summit for the last few years in this year, 2026. In October, we're now referring to as Beyond AI, and our conference is going to be much more comprehensive, and AI will be a key part of it. But the reality is it's almost looking like digital marketing. Marketing today, most of it is digital, so AI touches every aspect. But you mentioned a few things that stood out to me about how you guys are leveraging AI, and one of the things that we've certainly seen on the consumer end is how much it is changing discovery and potentially booking, although that yet hasn't been as disrupted as the discovery process with people using AI planning tools. And I was keen to ask you about that because we have over the course of the season spoken to Fred Bean from Shravelport, and he's working with a lot of his hotel clients to make sure that they remain visible in uh generative engine optimization. And so, how are you looking at that for your partners as it relates to how AI is is impacting the discovery process? And are you seeing anything yet on the booking? I the only thing that I can share on that that I've talked about a little bit is that most companies are seeing a higher conversion rate when someone comes from using a generative AI planning tool because they've done their research and they're ready to book.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

So tell us a little bit how you guys are approaching AI discovery for your clients and for your Yeah, so I mean, firstly, we spoke a lot about connectivity earlier. Yeah, if you're not online, you're simply not going to be found on their AI agents either. And I think the other point to raise is I've spoken a lot about uh being everywhere your traveller is, and I think that extends to being everywhere an AI agent is these days. Uh and 95% of um the weighting to whether you're referenced on a on an LLM like ChatGPT or Gemini uh is actually mentions from uh your from not your website, so off-site mentions essentially. So by being on OTAs like Viator or Get Your Guide, uh you are ultimately gonna be picked up more, you're gonna get more mentions of you online. So there's definitely that. I think the second one is by being bookable and having live availability, uh, an AI agent theoretically can go onto your website, grab that availability, and pull that back to the user. So I think if anything, it's gonna make the connectivity piece even more essential. Um, we are uh, like we mentioned, personally experimenting with a number of uh AI-related features and tools, uh, and it's something we're consistently looking at how we can uh better have Boken serve up our suppliers' websites in these in these platforms as well.

Collaboration Standards And The API Future

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Well, we'll definitely have you and the team back for our summit later this year, because we can certainly spend more time focusing on that when we regroup, and I think that'll be really interesting for our listeners. We we'll pick up the conversation about AI. I also wanted to ask you a bit about partnerships because it is such a big focus of your role. And one of the things that we've seen in the last few years is there was a lot more consolidation in the marketplace. There was you know a time when there was a lot of different ResTech platforms. Given the consolidation that's occurred, I would say by and large it's been a benefit to most of the consumers because you have a few big players. You you don't see a lot of new startups in this space because of how long it takes to get to the level that uh Boken operates today, which is you know, you've been in business now for you know uh 14 years, and the the development over that time to be able to establish these partnerships and the distribution. But clearly you're most people are going to work with an established player, so there has already been consolidation. But one of the things that stood out to me, and obviously it's where we started our discussion, is there's a lot more collaboration happening in our ecosystem. So it's no longer you know just a silo or being vertically integrated. The so my question is do you think we're moving to more collaboration or more consolidation? Do you think there will be more consolidation in the space, or do you think now that's kind of settled and it's gonna be more about everyone collaborating better together?

SPEAKER_00 43:17

Yeah, good question. We we've definitely had and we're having more people than ever reaching out to us to collaborate, um, whether that is uh dynamic pricing platforms we've recently integrated with with Walkway and with um Aloha, for example, or it could be payment providers, or it could be resellers. So I think we'll definitely see more collaboration. Um consolidation, like you mentioned, um, you know, there's definitely been some of that, and I think that will probably continue to a certain extent. I think it'll be both. Um if if I can weasel out answering the question directly.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Well, the next one I'm not gonna let you weasel out on. No, I'm gonna now uh when we think about the future of connectivity, because I do think that there is more there has been a reasonable degree. Of consolidation, and I think now we lean more towards uh a world where the expectation is collaboration and that people are expecting their platforms to be to work with other platforms, especially now with this generative AI and agentic AI era, the whole idea now is actually multiple AI agents working together in collaboration, not one can solve for all. So I I do lean more towards the the collaboration, but all of it relies on connectivity. And so I would love to hear from your vantage point where you think that is going over the next three to five years, and specifically within that, do you think we'll reach a point where uh connectivity is fully standardized across the industry? And as you think about the next two or three years, tell us a little bit about Boken's roadmap and what's kind of next for you guys on the future of connectivity.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, we certainly as a company continue to be very, very open in in regards to the technology technology behind the scenes. So we have a REST API, we've got a channel manager API, we're we're part of Octo, we work towards those standards as well. Uh so we try and keep our platform you know as open as possible. And I think that is key moving forward, and I don't really see that changing to answer your question. Uh, do we I think we'll reach a point where we'll see full standardization? I think it'll be very uh difficult based on the sheer amount of like niche operators, resellers, and add-ons. Like if you combine all those things and all the different variations at scales to such an extent that can be quite tricky. Um I I did years ago work for a company called Etsy, which was a standardizations institute in France, and one of the problems they had was that the technology was advancing at such a pace, the standardized standardizations struggled to keep up a little bit. So I think we'll always see that. And I don't think we're gonna see any slowing down, certainly.

Multi-Day Tours Pricing And Payments

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Well, one of the areas that I see great growth is in the multi-day tour side, and you know, it's been a traditionally a challenge to work with ResTech Solutions and distribution platform providers because there's not been the functionality that's been developed. I know it's evolved a lot in the last uh few years. Just keen to see what your take is on that side of the business and how uh if if if you are starting to adapt your platform to also work with multi-day providers?

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Yeah, it's something we offer currently, um, particularly if you have a fixed itinerary, then it works quite well for from one day to the next. I think the challenge that multi-day operators have, particularly when working with distribution partners, is that the absolute amount of revenue that they have to give away becomes quite meaty. Um and so that makes a lot of people nervous. I think to a certain extent, it depends on the commission values. Uh, there is a couple of OTAs available that particularly angled at multi-day operators, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more come up in that area. So I'd I'd be keeping an eye on that, on that side.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

Yeah, for sure. And I completely agree. And I think that there isn't currently a solution that people on the multi-day tour side that people will point to. But I do think more and more as the uh the major players start to offer more multi-day opportunities, it is going to be an exciting era of growth. And one of the challenges we saw, Sam, for context for all of our listeners too, is that if you price in multiple currencies, oftentimes when you're trying to park with a uh booking platform and distribution, you need to load in one currency and it pivots off a day rate for exchange rates, which may not work for some tour operators that have you know defined pricing in Australia and the US, and they've hedged currencies and priced it accordingly so that they can actually ensure that they operate at a profit. If there's a wild currency swings, it's very difficult if you're pivoting off one currency to be able to navigate that. So that's that's one example I just thought I'd share with our listeners. But I and it's one of the reasons that have prevented us from uh expanding with a lot of different uh solutions because there just isn't that that flexibility. Are those some of the things when it comes to your platform and supplier needs, obviously things are continuing to evolve and grow. Do you see that as a as a priority? And how and how do you approach when clients are coming to you with these types of requests?

Bokun Launchpad And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Yeah, I mean it is something we we've already built and worked to, particularly on the uh the multiple currencies, is something we offer, and that that's something we've had to build to with um with particularly trying to attract uh international travelers for our suppliers. And I think that's something we won't necessarily see slowing down in the future. So pricing in particular, uh, you know, is one we've invested in. The other one is payment providers, which is worth mentioning. There's certain regions where it's actually quite hard to accept money, particularly from international places. Uh, so we don't fix you to one payment provider, we keep that very flexible. Uh, and we've onboarded a number of these platforms from all from all around the world, whether that's a major player like uh PayPal or Stripe or perhaps Trust My Travel, uh, there's a number of options there.

SPEAKER_01 48:43

And in terms of connecting with Bokuon, it's one of the things that uh many of our listeners are either going to be in this space or actively looking to get involved in it or consider you know reconsidering um their existing partners. I know we talked about some of the reasons that uh tour operators should be considering Boken, but in terms of connecting with you and the team, I know you guys are at the big conferences. What would be the best way for anyone listening to this to be able to reach out to you or the team and to find the right point of contact?

SPEAKER_00 49:11

Yeah, so we will be uh at all the major conferences, as you mentioned. Um you can also feel free to connect with me directly on LinkedIn. I think Dan will put in in the link notes there, uh, and I can point you to the person you know in the right place, whether that is our US account manager or somewhere over here in Europe as well, and we can we can get moving from there.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

It's great. And I I'll be sure to include that. One last question for you, Sam, and I know we're gonna be seeing each other again in the the near future, and I always look forward to seeing you and the team, but um you're always very positive and upbeat. Obviously, you enjoy this industry as much as I do, and I think that's something that uh bonds many of us in this space because you know there's it's an industry when you work outside this industry, you wanted to come back to it because you're like, I just love the travel industry. And within that, the um the experiences sector is is totally unique. So one of the questions I was just keen to ask you is what excites you most about the future of the experiences sector? What what are the things that keep you motivated, keep you excited about where uh we're headed in this in this space?

SPEAKER_00 50:12

Yeah, I think we spoke a lot about AI. There's obviously big global turmoil. I won't open that can of worms right now. Um but the the downside of AI and the online world is that it does create somewhat um isolation and loneliness. And I think what personally excites me about the experiences world is that it's the world that straddles both of those places. So it gets people online, it gets them to meet offline, it pulls them out of their day-to-day, uh, and it ultimately creates positive memories. I think that's a fantastic industry to work in. So for me, um, that excites me the most about working industry, creating those memories for people, which is ultimately what matters. Uh, we are um and we have recently launched a major um initiative to support this with uh yourself, Dan from Travel Trends called the Bokan Launchpad. Uh, I believe this is the first time it's been done in the industry. So it's it's a competition for new experiences. Uh, it's being launched with a wide number of partners. Obviously, Travel Trends, we've got Vital, get your guide, arrival, tourpreneur, and grey line. And it's basically a competition for a new experience provider to pitch to us and people in the media uh a new experience, and the winner will be provided with a full package to launch that experience, including a generous cash prize. So I am, of course, very excited about that. I think it's the favorite campaign I've uh I've personally worked on. I can't uh I can't take all the praise. Uh it's really down to uh Charlotte and Ian for my team who've produced that and run with that campaign and MAR as well. So congrats to them on that side.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

Yeah, congrats indeed. It's a great campaign. Obviously, we're thrilled to be involved in it, and I really am keen to see what comes of it. It's some of those things that, like, okay, this is now putting it out there to see what are the experiences that and and when I look at companies that are doing really innovative things in the space, and one of them is Meowwolf, and Meowwolf having these incredible exhibits that you know there are installations effectively, and people are many probably familiar with Omega Mart in uh Las Vegas, probably one of the most visited attractions, but the company is doing really innovative things, and then you see this happening around the world, and then you people see them on Instagram and they wanna they want to book them. They're like, How do I go to that? How do I book that? And so, yeah, so I'm I'm excited to see what other experiences uh come forward during that initiative. Uh the other one thing I'll just finish on a personal note too, Sam, given that you are so active and also um such a passionate traveler. Yes, you go to all the conferences and you have those opportunities, but clearly you travel independently as well. Tell us what else is on uh deck for you in 2026. What's the next big destination you want to go to or the the next big activity you want to do in a destination?

SPEAKER_00 52:49

Wow, that that's a good question. Um I've just come back from Madeira, that was very good. Um, and about to go to Ireland as well, so obviously keep traveling. Um I might have to ease the brakes a little bit as I've actually got a baby on the way in August, first baby due. So uh yeah, we we we are hoping to get away to probably the European Alps, maybe the French Alps early next year uh and do some hiking with the baby. So that'll be a very different type of travel together, but very much looking forward to to experiencing that, you know, together as a family and um yeah, you know, uh helping the child grow up around experiences and around travel and around uh the joys and uh that adventure can bring.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

That's a perfect way to finish off. Congratulations, first of all. But I just want to share share with you, Sam, the advice I'd received from Tony and Maureen when I was working at Lonely Planet when we were expecting what was supposed to be our first, it ended up being twins, and we saw working double on the ultrasound. And the one thing that M Maureen had told me was to not stress don't stop traveling. And in fact, traveling with kids is the best time to travel because what she described to me, and they had written a book about traveling in South America with kids, they did a whole series on traveling with kids, but it never had commercial success because not enough people think that they should be, you know, they'll go to an aisle and all of inclusive vacation, they'll they'll find ways to uh kind of insulate themselves or recreate their reality at home for nap time and all those kind of things. And she she emphasized, you know, the the kids, when it comes to traveling and meeting locals, you're gonna have a much more um you're gonna be much more welcomed with a child than a backpack, because a backpack can sometimes separate you from the locals. But if your kids are playing with their kids at a park, you all of a sudden and we were adamant that we were gonna take our kids everywhere, that we were just gonna keep traveling. And when we found out we were seeing twin, seeing double, we found out from the air, like you only need six weeks when you are not flying, you know, then you can fly again. We're like, oh, okay, we're not gonna be grounded for that long. So I'm sure for uh Sam, for you, you're gonna be very similar. It's just you're just gonna keep going and you're just gonna bring that one along with you.

SPEAKER_00 54:46

And I think that's yeah, no, very much so. And like here in the UK, um, I would say compared to other countries, particularly in like southern Europe, we're actually not amazingly geared up uh to for sort of like you don't see a lot of kids out late uh eating dinner with their family in town squares and so on. So I think certain places actually that's almost a little bit encouraged. See families out late at night, you know, um, in a relaxed kind of setting. So I think it definitely opens up some other doors to, like you said, potentially connect with uh, you know, with other people in a way that's maybe a little bit more meaningful than what a backpack could could allow.

SPEAKER_01 55:19

Yeah, exactly. So no, that's wonderful. I'm excited for you at the next phase of life and all the travel experiences you have. Was my wife and I have said it's the best adventure we've ever gone on, is actually having kids and I'll quote you on that. I'll quote you on that. Especially those hard nights. But no. Um but thank you again for making time for this. Thanks for our partnership uh to yourself, Maya, and the whole team. Obviously, it's uh you know, we're really enjoying all of our collaborations, and uh, we're really bullish on the success of Bokan, and clearly I think many people will now know why, having had this spotlight episode. So thank you for joining us and uh look forward to seeing you again in the near future.

SPEAKER_00 55:55

Yeah, thanks very much, Dan. Thanks for having us on. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

Thanks again to Sam Jeffries for joining us from Bokan. He, of course, is the senior growth marketing manager, and he joined us from Oxford in England. Now, if you want more information about Bokoon, check out their website, b-o-k-un.io, or you can reach out to Sam directly on LinkedIn as well. I hope this was really beneficial for many tour operators out there that are looking for a new platform or to get established with a platform. So thanks again to the team for joining us and for being a part of this special spotlight episode. And if you enjoyed this episode, there are more spotlights that you can find on our website, traveltrendspodcast.com. You can look under spotlights to see our company event and custom series. And we do post clips and highlights on our social channels, which you can find on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at Travel Trends Podcast. Thanks again for joining us, and until next week, safe travels.