Revolution in tourism marketing: HEBERI

In the tourism industry, tourists are considered invaluable assets. Every country desires to attract them, yet generating a steady inflow of tourists is challenging due to the global competition in welcoming them.

The value of tourism and its impact are universally recognized. Tourists are new customers for goods, create job opportunities, and bring revenue to local economies.

Traditionally, tour operators have been the main facilitators, bringing large groups of tourists to destinations. This has been the standard flow of the tourism system and is unlikely to change.

However, online booking platforms have emerged, allowing some clients to contact hotels and arrange transportation directly. Despite this option, holiday bookings through such platforms represent a small fraction of the total, as most people still prefer traveling with tour operators.

Tour operators offer comprehensive services, including transportation, guided tours, and assistance when needed. During a holiday lasting 1-2 weeks, unforeseen issues may arise, and tour operators ensure support is readily available.

The key challenge is how to attract tourists when competition is fierce. Questions arise about marketing strategies, the target audience, and who should take responsibility for the marketing efforts.

What is new with HEBERI?

Heberi introduces a groundbreaking approach to tourism marketing. It proposes that hotels should actively market themselves and collect clients for tour operators, rather than passively relying on tour operators to undertake marketing efforts.

Hotel owners have a vested interest in attracting tourists to their establishments, whereas tour operators prioritize filling any hotel within their portfolio.

For tour operators, the specific hotel is less important as long as the client books accommodation. Thus, if hotel owners take an active role in marketing and direct clients to tour operators, they ensure that their hotel is chosen as the accommodation. Tour operators would still facilitate the bookings, resulting in mutual benefits.

This approach offers additional advantages for tour operators, such as reducing marketing expenses. Hotels within a tour operator's portfolio would conduct their own marketing, potentially attracting more clients.

Moreover, Heberi enables hotels to offer optional commissions to booking agents if the reservations are made at their establishment. This provides hotel owners the flexibility to decide whether to offer commissions and, if so, determine their value. Tour operators already pay booking commissions for every reservation, so agents face no downside.

Another benefit for tour operators is the elimination of complaints from hoteliers about insufficient client bookings or bookings concentrated only during peak seasons.
Tour operators can now respond by encouraging hotels to collect their own clients, with the assurance that they will facilitate the bookings.

To simplify this process, Heberi has created a platform that connects hotels and booking agents directly. It acts as a marketplace where hotels can present their offerings to booking agents.

Hoteliers can create online advertisements using predefined templates and send them directly to agents in targeted countries. They can specify the authorized tour operator for bookings at their hotel and request agents to channel reservations through their preferred tour operator.

Additionally, hoteliers can choose to offer extra commissions to agents to incentivize bookings at their property.

Heberi goes further by enabling booking agents to arrange excursions for their clients during their holidays. Agents can book excursions directly from their desktops and earn commissions from these bookings as well.

Since clients often participate in excursions during their holidays, allowing booking agents to organize these activities creates additional earning opportunities.

Tour operators can open their excursion bookings to booking agents, further incentivizing agent involvement and increasing revenue. Ultimately, Heberi recognizes the importance of booking agents as a vital part of the tourism business due to their role in sourcing clients. Tour operators depend on these agents to thrive.

The Heberi online platform is designed to enhance booking agents' earnings while also empowering hotel owners to connect directly with agents to promote their hotels.

Finally, it is important to note that client contact details (e.g., full name, phone number, email) must be provided when agents complete a booking form. These details remain confidential and are only disclosed to the service provider once the booking request is approved. Upon approval, the service provider gains access to the client's contact information automatically.

Everybody knows the value of tourism and tourists. Everybody knows that a tourist is a fresh client for goods, creates jobs, brings money, etc.

Traditionally, the tour operators bring a massive number of tourists to tourist destinations. This is how the tourism system flows, and it is unlikely to change.

However, there are online booking platforms available, and some clients prefer those platforms in which they contact the hotel directly, organize transportation on their own, etc. However, holiday bookings via booking platforms are a small percentage in total. Most people prefer traveling with Tour Operators. Because Tour Operators provide enormous services such as transportation, guiding, assistance whenever needed, etc. Many things may go wrong during your 1-2 weeks of holiday, and you may need help simply.

The question is how to make them come when everybody around is a potential competitor. How to make marketing, to whom the marketing is, and who should make marketing.

HEBERI MARKETING STRATEGY

Heberi has a revolutionary suggestion in tourism marketing. We think the hotel should make marketing and collect clients for tour operators instead of waiting for tour operators to make marketing.

First of all, the hotel owner wants tourists to come to his hotel. But the tour operator wants the client to stay at any hotel that is among his offers. For the tour Operator, it is not important where or which particular hotel is booked for the holiday, so the client will go.

In that case, if the Hotel Owner markets and collects clients to Tour Operator, he will collect through his hotel, and the Hotel Owner will host them when the tour operator brings them. Naturally, the Hotel Owner is collecting for his Hotel. If Hotels generate clients, the Tour Operator will bring them anyway.

The secondary advantage for the Tour Operator is its decreasing its marketing expenses. Every hotel in the Tour Operators portfolio will do more marketing and will generate more clients.

With HEBERI, the Hotel can offer some commission from its side too if the booking is conducted at its hotel. Eventually, the Hotelier will decide whether to offer a commission to the Agents or not, and if so, how much to offer. The Tour Operator already pays the booking commission for every booking, so the Agent has nothing to lose.

The third advantage for the Tour Operator is being free from hoteliers' complaints of not bringing clients to their hotel, but bringing other hotels, ending the season too soon, etc. In that case, the Tour Operator can simply say, "Collect clients at your hotel, we will bring them".

There are cases that hotelier blaming the Tour Operator for bringing clients in very high season only, when the hotel doesn't need clients from them, but not bringing them when the hoteliers desperately need them.
 
To do that, we made everything simple. We brought hotels and booking agents together on one platform. Buyer and seller in one place. The seller presents his product straight to the buyer. In Heberi, the booking agents (buyer) and hotels (seller) are together.

The hotelier prepares his hotel's advertising online from his hotel's predefined settings with ready templates and sends it directly to booking agents of the country that he checks. Clarifies the authorized Tour Operator for booking at his hotel and asks agents to make bookings to his hotel via the tour operator that he works with. Agents make bookings at his hotel based on what the tour operator pays as booking commission.

But with Heberi, the hotelier can add (optionally) some booking commission from his side for the agent to increase the agent`s earnings for his recommendation. That makes his hotel more attractive for bookings.

We made even more. We made the booking agents able to make excursion bookings too for their clients for their holiday time, from their desktops, and earn some booking commission from excursion bookings too. Let’s be clear, holiday booking is a business for booking agents, and clients are attending excursions anyway. So why not the booking agent who made his hotel booking already, should make his excursion bookings too? If Tour Operators open their excursions booking too, to Booking Agents in the client's country, who already make hotel bookings, the Agents will make excursion bookings too for Tour Operators. That will increase the booking agent's earnings from his clients.

We believe that for the Tour Operator, the booking agent is the most important part of the business because the Agent is the source of clients. And Tour Operators need clients.

The Heberi online system is developed to increase the Booking Agent's earnings on one side, but also to enable hotel owners to make their hotels directly to booking agents.

Finally, I would like to clarify that certain contact details of the client (e.g., full name, phone number, email, etc.) are needed to fill the form for every booking when the agent makes but those details are not visible to the service provider unless the booking request is approved. When the booking is approved then client's contact details are automatically made visible by the service provider.