“Boosting the uptake of digitalization, innovation and new technologies in tourism through transnational cooperation and capacity building”. COS-TOURINN-2020-3-04 GRO / SME / 20 / C / 07

Do you wish to develop and deploy a global, transnational ecosystem support for building momentum in digital transformation, innovation and sustainable tourism solutions for SMEs operating in this sector, then there is a “ready-made” platform available just for that!

Bos4.tours is a brand new, unique cloud platform enabling quick and efficient digital transformation, particularly suitable for SMEs, tour operators and DMCs, but equally adaptable to activity organisers and related service providers (i.e. accommodation units, transport companies, etc). The implementation of this innovative technology will in no doubt provide any such business with desired online sales boost and fully automated processes.

Furthermore, this platform unites multiple touring programme offers by creation of special distribution channels i.e. websites operated by local or regional tourists boards, DMOs, clusters, incubators, accelerators and other business support organisations – thanks to its own web site builder and affiliate partner programme. The implementation of Bos4.tours can facilitate tourism management both at destination and industry level, contributing to well-balanced and sustainable growth of tourism model. Our off-the-shelf solutions and tools are at easy disposal, but can also be developed further according to needs and requirements of users.

The BOS platform allows each user full admin access the local language of the tour and activity organizer (or distribution channel), while site’s front-end can also be displayed in the language of the market where the product offering is to be placed. Local languages for promoting on regional markets are English by default.

Our expert team at Bos4.tours will not only provide travel service providers and tour & activity organisers with infrastructure – modern technology for product placement and booking management, but more importantly with multiple training modules and knowledge banks (skills + know-how transfer) for engaging marketing activities with distribution channels.

We believe that Bos4.tours fully meets the objectives and criteria of the EU tender – COSME Program, Call for Proposals: “Boosting the uptake of digitalization, innovation and new technologies in tourism through transnational cooperation and capacity building”, ref. COS-TOURINN-2020-3-04 GRO / SME / 20 / C / 07

BOS is particularly suitable for:

  • reinforcing transnational and cross-border cooperation, in particular integration of tourism businesses and stakeholders in transnational and inter-regional innovation ecosystems to enable smart and sustainable growth of tourism SMEs;
  • fostering SMEs’ capacity and skills to improve their use of new digital technologies, resulting in new business models in tourism;
  • fostering innovative solutions for improving tourism management and the tourism offer through cooperation within the tourism ecosystem, including public-private partnerships.

BOS4.tours is already used by approx. 60 tour operators and activity organizers in Serbia. Most prominent distribution channel has been operating under www.SerbianAdventures.com brand successfully for several years now, enjoying full support of the “VisitVojvodina” Association for Regional Tourism Development, as fulfilment organisation for booking tours online.

Each reservation arrives directly to the tour operator who then confirms the booking through the system, which automatically triggers customer’s booking confirmation with payment instructions. They issue the payment for services directly to the organizer, while distribution channel is paid a commission for marketing activities on a monthly basis for all realized reservations.

If Bos4.tours platform was simultaneously used by the neighbouring countries, those tours & activities can be featured on either by geographical region (e.g. Balkans) or theme (e.g. sightseeing, adventure, cycling, walking, etc).

Benefits would therefore be multilateral:

  • tour operator from each country can have online sales tool engaged on their website (“book now” button or “white label” click trough), but would get all bookings in one central system
  • system has enormous opportunity for back-end developments and minimising administrative task, providing user friendly CRM and easier online billing and invoicing process
  • connecting tours & activities in BOS system could be easily made with major global reservation systems, industry partners and trade affiliates, which increases exposure

As an original creator of this innovative technology, we recommend forming new business models, including public-private partnerships, where the leader-partner in such projects would be an organisation with potential to unify local tour operators and service providers for ensuring top quality promotion and placement of tours. From past experiences, we recommend using leading media houses or marketing consultancy agencies, as well as institutions that deal with educational aspects of digital marketing.

Some activities which would be covered by this project include the following:

  • initial meetings with tour operators and activity organisers (campaign for their involvement)
  • training and knowledge transfer by leading tour operators to cover aspects of programme content generation, Search Engine Optimization process, commercial and pricing, system use, integration with BOS platform and its implementation
  • distribution channel workshops in copywriting and content generation for destinations and attraction, as well as populating website’s CMS
  • translation of website content, tour descriptions and video content for publications as well as planning campaigns for social networks in all languages defined as ‘key markets’
  • creating an inclusive marketing team to consist of participants from all participating countries or regions in the project
  • exchange of knowledge and experiences in creating a long-term strategy for rising funds for online and offline campaigns, including educational visits by industry bloggers and influencers from target markets
  • creating database of photos and videos for placement of tours on social networks
  • creating accounts for social networks, compiling joint mailing lists of subscribers for disseminating website news and creative campaigns, with numerous prize draws, chat bot activities and activation incentives

Implementation of Bos4.tours platform offers the following advantages:

General:

  • Boosted skills and knowledge transfer for activities, through facilitated knowledge transfer between tourism companies lagging behind in terms of digitalisation and innovation, and those more advanced
  • training and peer-to-peer learning for SMEs and tourism start-ups
  • technology and know-how transfer for SMEs in tourism
  • technical support activities related to incubation, acceleration and scaling-up of tourism SMEs
  • improved digital, smart and innovative capacity of tourism SMEs
  • fostered innovative solutions for tourism management through enhancing cooperation in the tourism ecosystem (including in public-private partnerships) for the development of new, innovative and smart tourism products, services, skills and new business models;
  • provided direct financial support for capacity building in digitalisation, innovation and smart tourism to selected tourism SMEs.

Specific:

  • significant technology progress for service providers, including the ability to make online reservations while automating processes and saving time and resources, with central management for reservations and tours, monitoring customer satisfaction and business statistics so operators can adjust demand and expectations
  • creation of distribution channel (not defined as “sales channel” since payment is made directly by service providers – with or without online payment), founded on the the Bos4.tours platform and simply building a website where you will not only promote a particular region but also provide unified tour placement module of all tour operators
  • analyse reservations sent to tour operators, gain commercial insight and watch tour exposure (placement) increase through new distribution channels as well as participating industry partners – involving everyone in the product chain (suppliers) and strengthening every single relationship, cross-border cooperation among tourism workers (SMEs) and increased visibility on local, regional and international level
  • created and implemented marketing strategies and subsequent campaigns promoting that particular distribution channel and the tours they wish to promote, adapted to markets for which the activity is planned (local. cross-border, international)
  • enabled capacity building and knowledge transfer in the field of digital and smart transformation and innovation by tourism SMEs (primarily service providers as well as marketing teams)

How do advantages of Bos4.tours compare to similar reservation systems:

  • Bos4.tours offers a complete solution – online booking system with fully automated processes which can be easily adapted to existing websites of tour operators, but also creating a special comprehensive distribution channel for promoting tours from a particular region on a certain market or to specific target group (according to interest). Creating own distribution channel gives you the freedom to influence the quality of promotion and its reach.
  • Bos4.tours provides an opportunity for knowledge transfer and peer-to-peer learning for tour operators and activity organisers as well as for those who manage tourism marketing activities
  • Bos4.tours uses data management for tourism development and offers a more personalized service, therefore enhancing the entire the tourism experience
  • Bos4.tours solution currently offers the best value-for-money on the market and will continue to do so since business model was developed to serve smaller tour operators from areas where tourism potential is not sufficiently exploited and aimed at helping overcome business challenges imposed on the tourism sector by the Covid19 pandemic.

The development of Bos4.tours will continue further by continuing with improvement of system functionality, according to customer requirements and in order to cover wider scope of work specifications. We aim to achieve this with comprehensive series of video tutorials for tour operators, but also towards integrating existing global online booking systems for tours (e.g. Viator, Ctrip, Veltra, etc.), accommodation aggregators (booking.com, airbnb, trivago etc.), as GDS solutions for booking airline tickets, airport transfers, car hire, etc. If our efforts are to be supported by funds from the relevant EU grant, we would also concieve educational modules for an online travel academy and B2B solutions, Bos4.tours solutions could become more appealing to our operators and travel agents across the whole world.