how travel company

How does the travel industry actually work?

You may be new to the travel industry, investigating a career in travel or just trying to research a bit about the industry ahead of your next adventure. There’s a mass of information out there and it can be overwhelming to wrap your head around. Lucky for you, our team of travel experts have been hard at work to give you a bird’s eye view of the travel industry as a whole .

The travel industry has gone through many evolutions with a variety of external factors contributing to who has access to travel, where they are travelling to and what the travel industry looks like overall.

A few important travel industry statistics

Let’s start by setting the scene…the travel industry is HUGE and the numbers certainly prove it .

Source: Statista

A brief history of the travel industry

We are fortunate to live in a globalised world meaning that travel is reasonably accessible. At the press of a button, most people are able to book a flight and jet off to wherever our wallets will take us. 

But, it hasn’t always been so easy. To help you understand how the industry has developed to the point it has today and where it might head in the future, here is a travel industry timeline.

Before the mid 20th century, travel was reserved for the extremely wealthy. It was expensive and it was time-consuming (can you imagine having to travel on a boat for 3 weeks…. or 3 months!). The concept of a ‘travel industry’ had not yet formed; it was more a collection of hotels, restaurants and coachlines who all operated independently from one another.

1950 – 2000

After the Second World War, travel suddenly started to become accessible for many more people due to the development of commercial airlines. Although they were originally still very expensive,  costs started to reduce over the years and more people were able to invest in seeing the world.

The industry grew and grew, and many saw a gap in the market for people wanting to travel but not having the knowledge, or time to organise it themselves – travel agents and tour operators started to establish themselves!

2000 – 2019

The travel industry has undoubtedly boomed, and the way that people travel is almost unrecognisable from the early 20th century. With smartphones, we now have unlimited apps at our fingertips, specifically designed to make every aspect of travel easier. 

For travellers, there are websites and apps to help them plan their travel, help them while travelling and to give them inspiration for their next trip! For travel agents and tour operators, itinerary software has streamlined much of their processes, from itinerary planning to customer relationship management. Now all this technology is amazing, and helps our lives in many ways, but has also resulted in fragmentation of the travel industry with travellers choosing to plan and manage their trips themselves or online increasingly.

 2020 and the future of travel

Due to the pandemic and the pause in travel, both countries and travellers worldwide re-evaluated travel and how it should be conducted. Countries who experienced over-tourism considered ways to encourage more sustainable travel in their destinations . For travellers, Covid triggered them to start thinking about their bucket list destinations and working with travel designers to plan and book them. This resulted in tourism returning with a significant rise in 2022, although the industry is indicating it might be plateauing in 2023/2024 .

How does the industry actually work?

You may be thinking to yourselves, how does travel actually function as an industry . How does it all fit together? You are not alone, it’s a complex industry notorious for its jargon, terminology and abundance of acronyms!

As you can see there are a few key players to remember:

Tourism Boards and Government organisations: Usually run or overseen by local or national governments. These boards set in place regulations for the other players in the industry. They also market countries or cities as tourist destinations for potential travellers

Suppliers/Vendors: Suppliers (or Vendors) are the hotels, the restaurants and the activity providers that travellers eat, stay and partake in on their travels. Travellers may liaise with and purchase from suppliers directly if they are organising their own travels, or communications with suppliers may be managed entirely by a middle-man (AKA, the tour operator, travel agent, travel wholesaler or DMC).

Tour Operators: Tour Operators design itineraries, often tailor made, for their customers, liaising with suppliers to organise and book the travel itinerary (partially or start to finish)

Travel Agents: Travel agents liaise with tour operators to book packages and tours for their clients. As such, tour operators will often focus on a certain destination or market area, whereas travel agents can focus on selling the whole world – with a comprehensive list of suppliers in their books

Destination Management Companies (DMC’s) : Organisations that specialise in offering tours, logistics, and planning services for a particular destination. They often re-sell their services to tour operators

Ground Handlers : A ground handler takes care of some day to day operations and tour management such as picking customers up from the airport and arranging sightseeing tours

Associations and Memberships: These organisations exist to provide support, promotion, and opportunity to other players in the travel industry. All of them operate with a slightly different mission, whether it’s to promote sustainable business practices, celebrate the luxury travel market or to connect travellers with LGBTQ friendly travel businesses

Travellers: Arguably the most important cog in the wheel. Everyone in the tourism industry sets out to meet travellers’ needs – to ensure they keep coming back for more!

The beauty of the travel industry supply chain is how all of these key players work together creating one of the worlds biggest industries.   

 Interested to learn more?

The ultimate A-Z glossary for the Travel industry. Understand the different terms, jargon and acronyms.

For a taste of the luxury end of travel, explore our list of Exclusive luxury travel communities

To discover more about sustainable tourism, download our ebook focusing on how to elevate travel design with sustainability.

Travel designers- meet the influencers you should work with.

Understand the role travel influencers play in the industry and why tour operators should be following, interacting and collaborating with them. Explore eight global travel influencers who are inspiring travellers daily.

Tourism news websites you can trust

In the tourism industry it can be hard to differentiate the reliable travel news sources from the not-so-trustworthy ones. In this blog we summarise the top travel news websites that tour operators, travel agencies and DMC’s should pay attention to.

How to set your team up for success when introducing new software

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How can tour operators contribute to sustainable tourism?

Sustainability is a key pillar of tourism, with a growing number of people interested in travelling responsibly and sustainably. We explore the easy ways in which your tour operator business can make a positive change. You can help to encourage economic growth and protect our environment whilst also watching your business flourish… could it get better?

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The 2024 guide to corporate travel management

What is corporate travel management, what does a corporate travel manager do.

• Booking trips for travelers (not only c-suite executives, but employees in any role).
• Helping individual departments track their travel spend so they can stay under budget.
• Providing travel support to travelers before, during, or after their trip.
• Selecting and managing any travel vendors or travel tools used.
• Working to negotiate corporate rates on hotels that the company uses often.
• Booking group travel.
• Organizing ground transportation like rental cars or rail
• Analyzing company travel spend, or delivering travel spend reports to the CFO for analysis.

What does a travel buyer do?

Stakeholders in the travel management process.

• In-house corporate travel manager
• Office manager or office team
• Head of operations / COO
• CFO and finance managers
• Panel of frequent employee travelers
• Current corporate travel agency or company

What solutions are companies using to book their business trips?

Consumer booking sites, traditional travel agencies, travel management software.

Save your company time and money on business travel

What are the drawbacks of each solution.

• Need to compare various websites and pay out of pocket in order to secure the best price
• Many hidden costs, with fees for cancellations and changes
• Many back-and-forth emails when booking for companies
• Need to pay upfront
• No support for issues on the road
• Time-consuming manual reimbursing and expense tracking
• Impossible to ensure compliance with company travel policy
• Online booking tools are typically buggy, with bad UX
• Employees end up calling support or book, when they’d rather save time by booking for themselves, with the options they want
• Costly service
• Above-market transport/accommodation prices
• Company policy compliance is difficult to guarantee
• Lack of travel inventory and options
• Clunky user experience that travelers don’t enjoy
• Offshore customer service, typically ranked as the top frustration in customer reviews
• Often overly complicated and feature-laden
• Impossible to control travel when travelers can’t or won’t use the tool
• Lacks low-price flights and hotels available online
• Impossible to guarantee company policy compliance

The pillars of modern travel management:

• Trust – Trust travelers to book using the approved process and policy, and make it easy for them
• Transparency – Let travelers see what they’re allowed to spend and choose accordingly, and let finance and administrative teams see what is being booked and why.
• Simplicity – Create a process that works and meets everyone’s needs.
• Impact – Measure the impact of business travel on the company and reduce unnecessary trips that leave travelers exhausted and businesses with needless expenses.
• Duty of care – Ensure a thorough duty of care strategy is in place to mitigate risks for employees when traveling
• Sustainability – Being aware of the impact of travel on the environment and adopting good practices to reduce the effect

How can a good corporate travel program help companies to save money?

Ensuring compliance with company travel policy, access to more affordable flight options, stay on top of travel spending trends, six steps to managing corporate travel effectively.

• Choose a smart booking tool
• Assure 24/7 travel support
• Create policies and approval workflows
• Organize and utilize travel spend data in real-time
• Improve collaboration between admin and finance
• Reduce your company’s carbon footprint

1. Choose a smart booking tool

• Self-booking within policy – Trust your travelers to book what they need, and set up policies and parameters
• Consolidated invoicing – The ability to get one monthly invoice for all travel from one vendor, instead of having it spread across the web
• Travel spend reporting – Easy access for all finance and administrative team members who need to track travel itinerary details and spend by cost centers, tags or labels
• Easy booking process that travelers love – Invoice consolidation and accurate reporting are impossible if employees want to cheat on the approved tool, so choose a tool that’s easy to use with consumer-grade UX. Make their entire travel experience, from booking to coming home, as easy and smooth as possible. Introducing a mobile app is just an added bonus!
• Great inventory – Inventory is not a side note. Make sure the platform you use has every available option you can find online and that the company is committed to adding more inventory
• Travel support – You need travel assistance that’s available 24/7 in your native language so that employees can get help even when the internal admin team is unavailable

2. Assure 24/7 travel support

Here are the requirements to look for in travel support:.

• Available 24/7
• Easy to reach a real human
• Guaranteed follow-up and follow-through
• Native language support
• Fast escalation for big issues

3. Create policies and approval workflows

• Maximum cost of airfare
• Maximum cost per hotel per night
• Minimum amount of days booked in advance
• Hotel star rating
• Flight class allowed

Travel Management: The Ultimate Guide

Approval workflows.

• No approval required for any trip
• Approval required for some trips
• Approval required for every trip

4. Organize and utilize travel spend data

• Cost centers – Does your company use different payment accounts for different geographical regions? How many cost centers does the company have? Make sure that travel spend is getting charged to the right accounts and that you're making accurate expense reports.
• Tags and labels – Beyond cost centers, are there any important filters that the finance team would have to have when viewing travel spending reports? For example, would they like each trip tagged by team or by project? Decide upfront so that the tagging system can be implemented clearly from the get-go.
• Keep all travel in one place – to get accurate travel data, you need to keep all travel in one place—whenever possible. Work with a travel management solution that integrates with providers that matter to your company, such as budget airlines, AirBnb or European train lines. If your company has negotiated hotel rates, you want your corporate solution to be able to book those rates for you, so you don’t lose the travel data by booking directly.

5. Improve collaboration between admin and finance

• Streamlined approvals process – If your approval process requires action from the admin and the finance team, try to make this as seamless as possible.
• Easy access invoices – The finance team needs to grab all invoices quickly so they can reconcile expenses and set clear reimbursement processes. The best way to do this is to use a platform that consolidates travel spend into one monthly invoice.
• Ability to track spend instantly – Consolidate all travel spend into one platform so that they can generate reports on what is being spent, by who, and why (when using tags and labels). Same as with the invoices, determine whether you need to send them a monthly report, or if they want to download it themselves.
• Cost savings on trips – Fixing travel isn’t just about saving time. Many businesses are still using travel booking platforms that were built in the 80s and 90s. This means that they markup the inventory so that the company is paying more than a consumer would! Impress the finance team by reducing travel costs and introducing consumer-grade prices for trips.

6. Reduce your company’s carbon footprint

• Work out your starting point by calculating your company’s travel carbon footprint
• Design a green business travel program, which creates data-driven strategies to increase employee commitment
• Choose economy class
• Reduce your fuel consumption where possible
• Pick low-emission airlines and avoid layovers
• Vet your accommodation for sustainability practices
• Utilize green travel tax breaks

The bottom line: it's time to upgrade your travel management

Let’s bring it all together.

• Choose a smart booking tool – Meet everyone’s needs
• Share the burden of travel support – Don’t try to do this alone
• Set up cost centers and labels – Let the tool reflect the business
• Create policies and approval workflows – Put the policy inside the booking process
• Improve collaboration between admin and finance – Grab invoices and reports

Make business travel simpler. Forever.

• See our platform in action . Trusted by thousands of companies worldwide, TravelPerk makes business travel simpler to manage with more flexibility, full control of spending with easy reporting, and options to offset your carbon footprint.
• Find hundreds of resources on all things business travel, from tips on traveling more sustainably, to advice on setting up a business travel policy, and managing your expenses. Our latest e-books and blog posts have you covered.
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The 10 Best Group Travel Tour Companies for 2023

Caroline Morse Teel

Caroline Morse Teel is the Managing Editor for SmarterTravel Media. Follow her adventures around the world on Instagram @TravelWithCaroline.

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For those truly epic, once-in-a-lifetime destinations, you want to leave your itinerary to the experts. Whether your dream is to see the Big Five on an African Safari, trek tall mountains, explore European cities, or something even wilder, a group tour is the easiest way to do it.

However, picking the wrong group tour company is the quickest way to ruin your trip. Make sure you choose a tour company that aligns with your goals and travel styles. Do you want an intimate group tour or do you prefer to make lots of new friends in a big group? Does the price line up with what you like (luxury vs. budget)? Is the itinerary going to all the places you want to see? 

We’ve done the research and found the very best group travel tour companies for 2023 for every type of traveler.

Best Overall Group Travel: Exodus Travels

With trips on every continent, Exodus Travels covers anywhere on this planet that you could possibly want to go, from popular destinations like the Amalfi Coast to well off-the-beaten path adventures like Tajikistan. This award-winning group travel company boasts thousands of repeat customers who sign up for trips year after year (97% of past participants would recommend Exodus Travels to a friend). 

These small group tours operate with only around 12-16 people, and always feature experienced local leaders who can give you a unique insight into your destination. Exodus Travels caters to any type of travel style, including trips broken down by type of activity (think walking, cycling, multi-adventure, winter, or cultural) as well as type of traveler (family, age group, etc.). There are curated collections (coastal, “away from it all”, European wilderness, and trips of a lifetime) to inspire you, as well as self-guided options for when you want all the benefits of a group tour planner without the actual group. Looking for that special safari? Exodus Travels just partners with the African Wildlife Foundation to create carefully curated luxury adventures that go above and beyond the standard safari. 

Exodus Travels tours work for almost any budget, with options that range from affordable to premium. 

Top Trip: Explore under-the-radar Europe by foot on Exodus Travels’ Lakes & Mountains of Slovenia walking tour .

A Taste of the Sweet Life in Slovenia

Best Adventure Group Travel: World Expeditions

World Expeditions has been taking adventurous travelers to remote locations all over the world ever since its first group trek through Nepal in 1975. Today, World Expeditions offers active itineraries on every continent. Intrepid travelers can opt for trips themed around mountaineering, rafting, cycling, hiking, and more. 

World Expeditions aims to leave communities and places where they operate tours better than they found them. Trips are created using the company’s Thoughtful Travel Charter as a guideline, which emphasizes respect for the environment, sustainability, having a positive impact on local communities, protecting wildlife, and more. 

World Expeditions’ trips are capped at just 16 people to provide a good experience for participants, and there are no single supplements for solo travelers willing to share a room with someone of the same gender. 

Top Trip: Summit Africa’s tallest mountain on a fully-supported trek up Kilimanjaro on World Expeditions’ eight day trip up the beautiful Lemosho Route . 

Best Budget Group Travel: G Adventures 

For travelers on a budget, G Adventures offers cheap group tours that make dream destinations accessible to nearly anyone. (Think: sailing the Galapagos for just $1,124 , criss-crossing India’s Golden Triangle for $559 , or spending 8 days in Bali for less than $800.)

G Adventures is one of the best tour companies for solo travelers as well, as most trips don’t have a single-supplement. You can choose to share a room with another G Adventures solo traveler, or pay extra to have your own space.

G Adventures keeps costs down by opting for cheaper hotels and local meals, and making certain activities optional (for an additional cost). Pick your travel style—options range from “basic” to more luxe tours run in partnership with National Geographic. Family tours, local living tours (featuring homestays), and wellness-focused tours are also available. 

Top Trip: G Adventures’ China Express trip is a great way to see the highlights of China if you’re short on both time and budget. 

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Best Educational Group Tours: EF Go Ahead Tours

When you really want to learn about a destination, consider a group trip with EF Go Ahead Tours . EF is the world’s largest private education company, and the Go Ahead Tours arm capitalizes on the company’s relationships with local educators, historians, and tour guides to create group trips that take you deep into a destination. 

These small group tours generally cap at 38 travelers, and feature unique educational experiences. For a bucket list trip, EF Go Ahead Tour’s special event tours are particularly enticing, as they offer behind-the-scenes access to tough-to-plan trips like Oktoberfest in Munich or Cherry Blossom season in Japan. 

Intimidated by solo travel? EF Go Ahead Tours is a great option for solo travelers, since it offers designated trips for solo travelers , where everyone is traveling alone, making it less intimidating.  

Top Trip: Bring the tastes of Italy home with you on EF Go Ahead Tours’ Food & Wine: Piedmont & Tuscany tour (operated in partnership with America’s Test Kitchen), where you’ll learn how to make local dishes. 

Best Responsible Group Travel: Intrepid Travel

Looking for a responsible group travel operator that focuses on bettering the communities and destinations they visit? Intrepid Travel is the world’s largest travel B Corporation, a certification for companies doing good. 

Intrepid Travel’s tours focus on sustainability, diversity, inclusion, and sustaining communities. The company has its own charity, The Intrepid Foundation , which has donated over 7 million dollars to over 130 community organizations. 

Intrepid Travel’s small group tours attract a wide range of travelers, but they are especially great for younger travelers, as they have a large number of trips designed for people aged 18-29 . (Other trips, including family-focused trips, are geared toward any age.)

Top Trip: Experience unforgettable wildlife encounters on Intrepid Travel’s Premium Uganda & Rwanda trip which includes time with the mountain gorillas of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. 

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Best Private Group Travel: Kensington Tours

Whether your group consists of just two people or involves taking the entire extended family, Kensington Tours will take all the hassle of planning out of the equation. This private group operator creates personalized trips and itineraries tailored to your preferences, while their experts handle all the logistics and bookings. 

Plans are entirely flexible, and can even be changed while on the trip on a whim. Need some inspiration? Browse Kensington Tours’ travel ideas , to get some ideas for your next adventure. 

Top Trip: Sail around the stunning shores of Croatia and the Dalmation Islands on a private luxury catamaran on Kensington Tours’ fully customizable tour . 

Best Polar Group Travel: Chimu Adventures

Whether you’re headed north to the Artic or south to Antarctica, Chimu Adventures has the perfect polar group trip for you. Chimu Adventures has some of the most variety for polar trips, with options to fly, cruise, or a combination of both to get to your destination.

For an ultra-unique Antarctica trip, Chimu Adventures offers cruises departing from Australia or New Zealand (most Antarctica trips depart from Argentina). Can’t stay long? Book one of Chimu Adventures’ scenic flights to Antarctica , which fly as far as the south pole in one spectacular 16-hour day.

Chimu Adventures is one of the cheapest group trips to Antarctica, with rates starting under $5,000.

Top Trip: If you’re pressed for time (or simply don’t have the stomach for the Drake Passage), Chimu Adventures’ Antarctica Fly Cruise will get you to the ends of the earth quickly and smoothly.

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Best Group Tours for Solo Travelers: For the Love of Travel

Group tours can be a great way to meet new people, but they can sometimes skew on the older age range. If you’re between 25-39 and a solo traveler looking to meet new people, you’ll love For the Love of Travel . All participants on the trips are between 25-39, and according to the company, 80 percent are solo travelers—so you’ll make friends fast. Hoping to meet someone who will be more than just a friend on your next trip? Trips include a balanced number of “gal and guy spots” to ensure an even balance of genders within groups (and of course, non-binary genders are always welcome). 

For the Love of Travel offers weeklong (or longer) international trips as well as shorter weekender trips to nearby destinations like Mexico or Denver—perfect for people without a lot of vacation time.

Top Trip: Sleep in a glass igloo under the Northern Lights, go sledding with huskies, and warm up in traditional saunas on For the Love of Travel’s Lapland tour , already booking dates for 2024.

Best Biking Tours Group Travel: DuVine Cycling

Biking through the rolling hills of Italy or across the mountain roads of Chile sounds like a dream, but the logistics seem daunting (especially if you don’t want to haul all your own stuff from point-to-point). Enter: DuVine Cycling , a luxury small group tour company that specializes in bike trips. 

With trips across Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the United States, DuVine Cycling is a cyclist’s dream. Choose from all-biking trips or mix things up with a cycle and sail bike tour or a multi-sport adventure —no matter what, everything is included, from luxury boutique accommodations to top-quality name brand bikes. 

Top Trip: DuVine’s Holland Bike Tour promises “tulips, windmills, beer, and cheese”—what more could you need?

Best Luxury Group Travel: Abercrombie & Kent

Abercrombie & Kent has been delighting discerning travelers since 1962. Today, they take travelers on unforgettable adventures across over 100 different countries and all seven continents. Although Abercrombie & Kent’s trips are pricey, they encompass once-in-a-lifetime experiences like private jet tours around the world or luxury chartered cruises .

There are trips designed for solo travelers and families , and the small group journeys max out at around 14-18 guests.

Top Trip: Swim with whale sharks in the Philippines, feed proboscis monkeys in Malaysia, and photograph wild tigers in India on Abercrombie & Kent’s Wildlife Safari: Around the World by Private Jet trip , already booking dates into 2024.

Book Your Stay With SmarterTravel Hotels

For independent explorers who don’t want to miss out on these amazing destinations, book your hotel stay for a great rate with SmarterTravel Hotels .

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A travel boom is looming. But is the industry ready?

An increase in travel is expected between countries which have moderate COVID-19 caseloads and vaccine access. Image:  Unsplash/William Hook

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Darren rivas, steve saxon.

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Stay up to date:, united states.

• A new age of travel could be on the horizon, as vaccinations increase and caseloads become more manageable.
• A McKinsey survey reveals that travel is the second-most-desired activity in the U.S., after eating out.
• However, if the travel industry is not prepared, it could buckle under this new pressure.
• Building capacity, investing in digital innovation and revisiting commercial approaches will be key if countries want to seize value from this surge.

If things go well, we might be at the threshold of a new age of travel. Although COVID-19 variants may affect conditions, it seems only a matter of time before travelers in some parts of the world hit the road and take to the skies again, thanks to rising vaccination rates and manageable caseloads. Some countries have begun gingerly relaxing travel restrictions and reopening borders.

As the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ebb, most indicators point to travel coming back—with a vengeance—as people look to reconnect, explore new destinations, or revisit reliable favorites. Many just want to get away from the confines of their homes. A McKinsey survey reveals traveling to be the second-most-desired activity among respondents (in first place: dining out). In the United States, air travel has hit two million daily passengers, closer to the prepandemic level of around 2.5 million than to the low of around 90,000, in April 2020. Hotel reservations and rental-car bookings are surging.

All these trends should taste sweet for the industry, but ill-prepared companies may find themselves facing the wrath of a cohort of leisure-focused vacationers who might already be struggling to keep up with new travel protocols. If the industry doesn’t work to increase capacity now, the ecosystem may buckle under the pressure, forcing travelers to endure long wait times and inflated prices.

This article projects two broad trajectories of how travel will likely bounce back, comparing countries that have near-zero caseloads with those that have more, but manageable, caseloads and higher vaccination rates. In both scenarios, travel companies that don’t prepare themselves for the forthcoming influx of travelers risk missing out on a valuable opportunity to recoup losses incurred during the height of the pandemic. On the flip side, we believe that by focusing on four key areas—building capacity, investing in digital innovation, revisiting commercial approaches, and learning from critical moments—travel companies can seize value as they exceed the needs and demands of their customers.

The tale of two travel recovery paths

Wherever in the world you look, you’ll see people itching to travel. Most high-income earners have not lost their jobs. In the United States, the savings rate among this demographic is 10 to 20 percent higher now than before the pandemic, and such people are eager to spend their money on travel. Leisure trips are expected to lead the rebound, with corporate travel trailing behind.

A recent survey of 4,700 respondents from 11 countries around the world, conducted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), revealed that 57 percent of them expected to be traveling within two months of the pandemic’s containment, and 72 percent will do so as soon as they can meet friends and family. In our China travel survey, we see more and more respondents yearning for leisure trips further afield; 41 percent say they want their next trip to be outside China, the highest level we’ve seen, despite borders remaining sealed.

Yet it’s worth noting that despite the near-universal desire to travel, countries will likely manage their plans to reopen differently. Two main factors come into play here: current COVID-19 caseloads and vaccination rates. People living in countries with limited access to vaccines and uncontainable levels of cases—such as a number of countries in Africa and Southeast Asia—will continue to be bound by tight travel restrictions for some time to come.

Have you read?

These could be the most popular travel destinations after covid-19, covid-19 could change travel – but not in the way you think, how the travel industry can influence sustainable growth, travel will take off in and between countries with manageable caseloads.

We can expect a surge in travel in (and between) countries with manageable and moderate COVID-19 caseloads and vaccine access. These regions are willing to accept rising case levels as long as death and hospitalization rates stay low. In many European countries and the United States, a significant portion of the population has been inoculated. Such people feel safe enough to travel both domestically and internationally, especially with the introduction of safety measures such as the EU-issued digital health certificates given to people vaccinated against COVID-19. Despite fluctuating rates of new caseloads in these regions, the efficacy of the vaccine so far (to reduce the spread of the disease and avoid its worst effects) gives many people enough feeling of security to travel.

Countries in Europe that have gotten used to living with manageable caseloads of COVID-19 have begun to welcome visitors without asking them to quarantine: Iceland (March 2021), Cyprus (May 2021), and Malta (June 2021). In addition, Europe is open to vaccinated US travelers. After the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started approving cruise vessels with conditional sailing certifications to enter the country, a Florida federal court ruled in June 2021 that CDC-issued regulations should serve only as nonbinding guidelines, further reducing restrictions on tourists.

If past instances serve as indicators, we’ll see travel demand soaring once travel restrictions are eased and freedom of mobility returns.

Domestic trips will lead the recovery of travel in near-zero countries

However, a slightly different picture is emerging for countries with near-zero caseloads. Countries in this group include Australia, China, New Zealand, and Singapore. Their governments face a difficult trade-off. They can open up national borders without quarantines—which will almost certainly lead to increased local transmissions of COVID-19 and an increase in new cases, especially in countries with low vaccination rates, such as Australia and New Zealand. Or, they can choose to continue imposing strict restrictions and quarantine measures until the pandemic has truly passed, which would deter all but the most determined of travelers. Unlike places that have adjusted to living with COVID-19, even a moderate increase of cases in countries with caseloads near zero would likely be unacceptable to the public.

That’s not to say there are no travel opportunities in these countries. First, we’ll likely see increased interest in domestic travel, especially for large countries with sizable home markets, such as Australia and China, which have traditionally been net exporters of tourists. With few international destinations open to visit, this group of travelers will likely seek out vacation experiences within their nations’ borders. China has seen hordes of tourists flood many scenic destinations and tourist sites, especially during peak travel seasons.

Second, even though travel bubbles have had only limited success so far, it may soon be possible for territories with very low COVID-19 caseloads and no local transmissions to open up access to each other. Mainland China, for instance, has been allowing citizens to travel to and from Macau without quarantine requirements. Hong Kong and Singapore have also restarted negotiations on a potential travel bubble between the two cities. The key is establishing common standards and trust in the public-health protocols and testing regimes of the participants in the travel bubble.

Four actions travel players must consider

Despite these promising signs, the tourism industry will likely struggle to capitalize on the imminent spike in travel demand, especially in Europe and the United States. From airlines and car rentals to hotels and airport restaurants, the entire travel supply chain is already showing signs of strain. Wait times at security checkpoints are stretching into hours at some airports, while popular vacation destinations, including Arizona, Florida, and Hawaii, are facing rental-car shortages.

Needless to say, bad news travels fast, and a negative experience can quickly become fodder for a viral video and bad publicity, leading customers to look for alternatives more in their control, including nearby drives and rental properties.

While the process is daunting, clear-sighted travel leaders know that preparing their organizations for a surge of travelers is also an opportunity to redefine their value propositions and make their offerings distinctive. This will not only reinstill confidence in travel but also increase customer loyalty. Leaders and executives would be wise to focus on the following four areas.

1. Bring back capacity

The most pressing imperative for all companies across the travel supply chain is bringing back capacity or, at the very least, ensuring that they’re able to do so. Many contract and temporary workers in the restaurant industry who were laid off during the pandemic have found other employment and are reluctant to go back to their former jobs, resulting in a labor crunch. In the United Kingdom, more than one in ten workers left the hospitality sector last year. In the United States, there was still a shortfall in April of around two million leisure and hospitality jobs—far greater than before the pandemic. Global aviation capacity levels are still well below prepandemic levels as many planes remain in long-term storage and staff remain furloughed. We believe that even though reactivating airline pilots and cabin crews, preparing grounded aircraft for service, and rehiring and training service staff can be pricey, the cost of standing by and doing nothing would be higher.

2. Invest innovatively to improve the entire customer journey

While cash might continue to be in short supply, an area still worth considering for overinvestment is digital operations. Remember that the customer experience is shaped across the entire end-to-end journey, from booking to travel to the return home. Even seasoned travelers will have to adapt to new protocols, such as digital health certificates and safety measures. Travelers now need more, not less, assistance. Furthermore, certain critical journeys and moments—such as a family vacation, an important business trip, or a last-minute emergency—carry a disproportionate weight in consumers’ minds when they plan their next trip. The anticipated volume of traffic during the summer and peak holiday periods will only compound these issues and bring about greater inconvenience in the overall system.

In our work in this sector, we have found that if even one pain point in the customer journey is not satisfactorily resolved, the entire perception of a travel company can be degraded. The industry needs to make sure that processes are smooth for reopening and that adequate assistance is available for travelers to help them adapt to new ways of traveling. It is likely that international trips will need additional documentation for some time. These requirements will vary by country and potentially by transit hub. They may include proof of COVID-19 vaccination (when, as well as which vaccine) and testing requirements (type of test and recency).

As the long wait times at airport checkpoints attest, manually navigating these complexities at the check-in desk is highly inefficient and prone to human error. Some airports are testing camera-powered and AI-based digital technologies to monitor crowd densities and reduce time spent standing in line—which makes the airport experience more bearable for travelers and ensures safe physical distancing. Autonomous robots are also being deployed to maintain hygiene standards; some are equipped with UV-light cleaners to disinfect areas, and others are outfitted with body-temperature sensors to help minimize the risk of virus outbreaks.

3. Reimagine commercial approaches

Travel companies may rethink their commercial approaches. The profiles of airline passengers and hotel guests will be different: more leisure guests, later booking windows, and higher demand for flexible tickets. Historical booking curves are no longer a good indicator of current behavior. Travel companies need to use every source of insight they can to anticipate demand and optimize pricing . Flexible pricing models can also ease customer discomfort with today’s heightened levels of unpredictability. For example, EasyJet now offers a Protection Promise program that gives fliers free changes up to two hours before the flight.

Hotels will need to find new purposes for meeting and conference spaces, which will be slower to fill. Airlines need to figure out how to fill intercontinental business class, likely with premium leisure promotions. For all travel companies, the boom may be higher in traveler numbers than in profits, as the most lucrative corporate business has been slow to return.

One year on: we look back at how the Forum’s networks have navigated the global response to COVID-19.

Using a multistakeholder approach, the Forum and its partners through its COVID Action Platform have provided countless solutions to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, protecting lives and livelihoods.

Throughout 2020, along with launching its COVID Action Platform , the Forum and its Partners launched more than 40 initiatives in response to the pandemic.

The work continues. As one example, the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs is supporting 90,000 social entrepreneurs, with an impact on 1.4 billion people, working to serve the needs of excluded, marginalized and vulnerable groups in more than 190 countries.

Read more about the COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, our support of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemics Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI), and the COVAX initiative and innovative approaches to solve the pandemic, like our Common Trust Network – aiming to help roll out a “digital passport” in our Impact Story .

4. Learn from critical moments—and the wider ecosystem

Aside from streamlining processes and personalizing the customer experience, investing in digital analytics can allow companies to identify opportunities to differentiate their services. Companies would also be able to discern emerging trends and hiccups before they turn into nightmares. Industry players, such as online travel agents, may also be a trove of useful insights pertaining to how the external ecosystem is evolving; their experiences may be beneficial for hotels and airlines to explore potential partnerships with them.

The various parts of the travel industry have to work together as a whole to usher in a safe return of travel. Even as individual companies improve their internal operations, they should also keep a close eye on industry-wide developments, watching for collaboration opportunities. The industry and governments will have to reach consensus on safety standards and requirements. The IATA travel pass is a plug-in that could be used on airlines’ mobile apps, for example. Currently being tested by many airlines as a way to ensure passenger health, the app would allow travelers to manage verified certifications for COVID-19 vaccines and test results. Governments, in turn, could consider accepting and embedding the app into the flight check-in workflow.

It’s been a long time coming, but we see several factors aligning that could lead to a short-term travel boom, although not all countries and customer segments will boom at the same time. With continued perseverance, travel companies can ensure that travel is not just back but better.

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Best Online Travel Agencies

Booking.com is our top choice for making your trip arrangements

Ligaya Malones is an editor, blogger, and freelance writer specializing in food and travel. Ligaya's work has appeared in publications including Lonely Planet and BRIDES.

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more .

Planning a trip can be easier through an online travel agency than if you handle each aspect of the planning separately. You can book hotels, air travel, rental cars, and more through a single site, and booking everything together sometimes results in discounts. By inputting a destination, a range of dates, and other preferences, you will see a list of options for each aspect of travel.

The best online travel agencies offer options from the largest number of airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, and more. Look for sites that offer discounts for combining reservations for different aspects of your trip. For example, the best sites will have lower rates if you book both plane tickets and a hotel through their services. The best sites also provide reviews from customers who actually have booked through the service. These are our top picks.

• Best Overall: Booking.com
• Best Budget: Skyscanner
• Best Price Predictor: Hopper
• Most Innovative: Kiwi.com
• Best for Eco-Conscious: Kind Traveler
• Best for Social Impact: I Like Local
• Best for Design-Forward Homestays: Plum Guide
• Our Top Picks
• Booking.com

Kind Traveler

I Like Local

• See More (4)

Final Verdict

Frequently asked questions, methodology, best overall : booking.com.

 Booking.com

This industry leader offers one of the most comprehensive trip planning platforms on the Internet.

Lots of options to choose from

Interface is easy to use

Numerous filters to customize your search

Tricky to tell whether changes/cancellations can be made with Booking.com or the vendor directly

Booking.com was founded in 1996 and has grown into an industry leader that stands out for being one of the most comprehensive trip planning platforms out there. From one website, you can compare and book accommodations, flights (including one-way and multi-city flights), sightseeing activities, and even airport taxis. The website lists more than 28 million accommodation options, from hotels, hostels, and B&Bs to vacation homes and luxury resorts—you can browse more choices per destination on Booking.com than other online travel agencies. The website also performs well on cost and typically returns lower-than-average prices for flights and hotels. 

Booking.com's interface is also easy to use. On the home page, search for a hotel by entering your chosen destination and dates. Then, use the extensive list of filters—such as price range and distance from the city center—to narrow the results down and find the best fit. You can also search for a specific hotel, or seek inspiration by clicking through options grouped by destination or property type or by topic such as the country’s best Michelin-starred hotel restaurants or the top cities for vegan travelers. The flights, car rental, and other tabs are just as intuitive. 

Best Budget : Skyscanner

 Skyscanner

You can compare prices across airlines, hotels, and car rentals.

Simple interface

Option to toggle searches between specific dates or by monthly calendars

Search Everywhere button is great for spontaneous planners

Extra clicks are required to make a final purchase

Must read fine print for changes/cancellations—may need to deal directly with the vendor

Ads on the sidebar can be distracting

Find deals on airfare, hotels, and car rentals with an aggregator site like Skyscanner , which uses a metasearch engine to compare prices from all online travel agencies and the airline, hotel, or car rental company in question. Run searches with fixed dates, opt to compare airfare prices month to month, or click “Cheapest Month.” Searches also include options for nearby airports or non-stop flights only. With hotel searches, you can choose to select only from properties with free cancellation, a cleanliness rating of 4.5/5 or higher, or 3- or 4-starred hotels only. Car rental searches include an option to select “return car to different location.”

Once you’ve found the best rate, click on the link to be redirected to the third-party site to make your booking. Feeling spontaneous? The Search Everywhere button on the homepage offers a list of the cheapest flight deals for destinations both locally and across the world—just plug in your departure airport first.

Best Price Predictor : Hopper

The company claims a 95 percent accuracy rate at predicting when flights and hotel rates will be cheapest.

Color-coded system makes it easy to determine cheapest days to buy

App is easy to use

Option to track flights and receive alerts when the best time to buy arises

Some have mentioned the app functions better as a research tool than a booking tool

Unclear whether Hopper will price match if you find a cheaper flight elsewhere

Hopper is a travel app available on iOS and Android that aims to help travelers save on airfare by usng historical data and their own algorithm to predict when flights will be cheapest. Just type in where and when you’d like to fly and Hopper will present you with a color-coded pricing calendar indicating how much tickets are likely to cost. (Green is the least expensive, then yellow, orange, and red for most expensive.) Hopper will also recommend you either buy now or wait, or you can choose to watch a trip and receive notifications on the best time to buy. In addition, the app has expanded to offer hotel and car rental price predictions, too.

Some newer features since the app’s inception in 2009 include an option to freeze a price for a limited time—for an extra fee—as well as exclusive app-only discounts. Hopper is free to download, and you can choose to book directly through the app, though some users mentioned they use Hopper as more of a research tool before booking directly with the airline or hotel. The company claims a 95 percent accuracy rate at predicting flight rates up to a year ahead.

Most Innovative : Kiwi.com

This metasearch engine scours the web to piece together the ideal itinerary using planes, trains, buses, and more.

Creative itineraries get you where you need to go, especially if you’ve got a multi-stop trip

Kiwi Guarantee offers rebooking or cancellation protections

Nomad option appeals to travelers with a lot of flexibility

Creative itineraries mean you may not fly out of the same airport you flew into

Kiwi Guarantee has an additional fee

Charges all-in-one fee for booking flights, trains, buses (though you can always purchase a la carte)

Travelers planning multi-city destinations and seeking a bargain, as well as those looking to take planes, trains, and automobiles to get there, might consider Kiwi . Kiwi is a metasearch engine that scours and pieces together itineraries from various airlines (even if they don’t have a codeshare agreement), considers multiple airports (even if your arrival airport is different from departure), and offers booking options, whether you’re looking at very specific dates or more general ones (up to 60 nights).

Some will find the ability to make multiple bookings for a particular trip more convenient than going at it manually several different times, though note that you must opt into the Kiwi Guarantee program to access rebooking and refund protections should your reservation change or be canceled. Kiwi’s Nomad option allows you to plug in a bunch of destinations you’d like to visit and the length of your intended stay, and the website will churn out the most affordable itineraries for review.

Best for Eco-Conscious : Kind Traveler

A give-and-get business model means booking accommodations with exclusive perks, a donation to environmental organizations, and more.

All participating hotels include a local give-back component

Exclusive savings and perks

Participating hotels are located in some of the most beautiful places in the world

Inventory is much smaller compared to other booking platforms

Some of the amenities mentioned are based on availability only

In 2022, Kind Traveler (an online trave agency focused on hotel bookings) announced an increase in environmentally and socially conscious hotels, charity donations, voluntourism opportunities, and additional perks like waived resort fees or a welcome amenity.

Unlock exclusive hotel rates and perks from participating Kind Traveler hotels with a minimum $10/night minimum donation to a local charity. For example, stay at the Six Senses Laamu in the Maldives and receive up to $33 off the nightly rate and perks such as a food and beverage credit and an Earth Lab or Alchemy Bar workshop when you make a donation to Manta Trust. The organization funds coastal research to protect the island nation’s large yet fragile population of reef mantas.

Select from more than 140 participating hotels from the Hawaiian Islands to Bozeman, Montana, and the Maldives. Charities include wildlife, human rights, arts, education, and environmental preservation organizations.

Best for Social Impact : I Like Local

Choose from a host of travel experiences with the peace of mind that 100 percent of the cost goes directly to local partners.

Social impact mission woven into organization’s business model

Immersive experiences led by local guides

Range of experiences offered

May not be best fit for those seeking upscale, luxury experiences and stays

Can’t sort experiences by a list of countries (though an interactive map is available)

No experiences outside of Africa and Asia

For an online travel agency with a booking platform designed to route dollars spent directly to the communities travelers intend to visit, consider I Like Local . Visit the website to browse a host of travel experiences in countries including Indonesia, Kenya, and Cambodia. Experiences include homestays and farmstays as well as wellness and culturally oriented experiences—from cooking and cycling tours to weaving classes.

To search for an experience, select from drop-down items like travel dates and experience categories, or view a global map and click on a country to view experiences that way.

The platform got its start in 2014 and has grown to 4,000 local hosts across nearly 20 countries. As a social impact organization, 100 percent of each booking fee goes to local hosts. To date, 16,000 travelers have booked with I Like Local.

Best for Design-Forward Homestays : Plum Guide

Browse and book seriously vetted, design-forward vacation homes.

Highly curated inventory of vacation rentals across the world

Design-forward

Thorough vetting process

Does not publish guest reviews

Other platforms have homes available across more destinations

When it comes to booking a vacation home, serviced apartment, or condo, travelers are spoiled for choice. Plum Guide is an online travel agency that specializes in accommodations—though not just any home makes its directory. The company claims that each potential home listed on its site must jump through 150 hoops to be included, from internet speed and mattress and pillow quality to the showers’ water pressure and the home’s proximity to dining, shopping, and attractions.

Search by a featured collection on the website such as “ pet-friendly homes ” or “one-of-a-kind homes in Palm Springs.” Scroll to the bottom of its homepage to view its top destinations, as well as a list of all destinations where Plum Guide homes are available, including Barbados, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, the U.S., and Turkey. Note: From the top right-hand corner of the site, use the dropdown menu to select currency of choice.

As long as you know what you value most out of your travel experience—such as affordability, social impact, or luxe accommodations—there’s an online travel agency to help plan your next trip. Be sure to read the fine print, as some agencies are third-party websites and not direct vendors. If you're not sure where to start, Booking.com is your best bet for a smooth user experience and hard-to-beat offers on flights, hotels, and other travel arrangements.

What Is the Biggest Travel Agency?

Our choice for best overall, Booking.com, is known as an industry leader with listings for all major hotels, airlines, car rental companies, and more. It boasts more choices for accommodations per destination than any other site, and we found its interface to be user-friendly.

Are Online Travel Agencies Worth It?

This depends on your needs and priorities. The best online travel agencies certainly can save time by booking everything all at once. However, if you're someone who is good at haggling and enjoys the details of planning a trip, you might be able to find better deals by reaching out to hotels or other destinations and speaking to someone personally.

Is It Cheaper to Book Online Than With a Travel Agent?

Not always. A travel agent you know and trust should have the experience and connections to find deals that can match or surpass what you'll find online. Additionally, if something goes wrong, travel agents provide you with an actual person you can use as an advocate to correct the problem . But if you don't have access to a good travel agent, online sites still provide plenty of ways to streamline planning and save money .

We considered dozens of online travel agencies and narrowed down the options based on user experience, volume and quality of inventory, unique offerings and specials, and customer reviews. We also assessed travel companies’ environmentally and socially conscious policies.

Catherine Falls Commercial / Getty Images

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8 Ways to Choose the Perfect Tour Company

Last Updated: November 3, 2023

That idea of tours being bad is an old and outdated perception.

These days tour groups have become more adept at the changing landscape. They feature smaller groups, more authentic experiences, a better environmental impact, and more local guides.

I love group tours.

Even though I am an independent traveler, I find group tours super fun, a great way to meet people, learn more from an informed guide, go to places you normally can’t, and wet your feet in travel. My first trip overseas was on an organized tour. I didn’t know the first thing about travel and that tour gave me the confidence to travel on my own. It was the taste test I needed to become hooked on travel. Tours give a lot of people time to adjust to the “travel lifestyle.”

Unlike in the past, today’s tours are eco-friendly, cater to all travel styles, over cheap, and make a point to use local transportation and guides. And many destinations (like Halong Bay, the Galápagos Islands, the Serengeti, Machu Picchu, Antarctica, Everest) are virtually inaccessible without an organized group tour!

In this article, I am going to tell you how to find the best tour company so you get one that is inexpensive, eco-friendly, provides local guides, and gives back to the local community:

1. Research the costs

With tour companies, it’s not always true that you get what you pay for. Many tour companies nickel-and-dime you, while some are really good at maximizing value for your every penny. Ask how your money is spent to find out if you are really getting the best value for your money. How much of your fee is their overhead? Are you paying for top-notch hotels but staying in two-star guesthouses? You want a company that is transparent with why prices are the way they are.

Moreover, make sure you ask if there are added fees to pay when arrive. Many companies require you to pay additional money when the tour starts or don’t include park or attraction entrance fees. That cheap tour won’t be so cheap if you have to pay for everything while you’re there!

2. Make sure you are the audience 

Is the tour geared toward older couples? Young people? Families? You don’t want to end up on a loud Contiki tour full of drunk twenty-year-olds when all you want is a quiet holiday.

There’s a tour company for everyone — just make sure you don’t end up on one that isn’t yours. Most tour companies list their guest demographics on their “About” page, and you can usually see from the photos of their tours who goes on it.

You can also tell the audience based on accommodation: if it’s hostels or guesthouses, it’s usually for backpackers and budget travelers; if it’s fancy digs, it’s for older travelers and families.

This is very important because these are the people you’ll be traveling with so you want to make sure it’s the kind of people you are traveling with. I’m still friends with the people from my first tour in 2003 because they were people like me. The tour in Japan that was filled with older families? Not so much. We didn’t have much in common. Wonderful people but we didn’t connect.

So, I always look for tours that have my demographic in them.

3. Get local guides

Guides can make or break your trip. They are going to explain everything to you and keep the flow of the tour going. I don’t want them hiring some young kid, non-expert, or someone who doesn’t know the place well. I’ve been on tours where the guide was a walking encyclopedia, and on somewhere the guide was a glorified timekeeper.

Make sure the company uses knowledgeable, local guides. The guide should be a local or at least a long-term resident, know the local language, have travel experience, and know life-saving techniques.

If you are unsure about the guides, call the customer service line and ask them about their guides.

4. Safety record 

Make sure the company follows all the proper safety requirements and is accredited by the local government, the government where they are registered, and any other appropriate trade organizations.

5. A balanced schedule 

You’re paying for them to fill most of your day. How do they do that? Are they doing that? Do they have a lot of activities organized, or do they leave you to your own devices?

That said, you don’t want a schedule that is crammed with things to do. Make sure you get a schedule of all the activities and pick a tour that is balanced. Running around will leave you wishing you had a holiday from your holiday, but you don’t want to be sitting around all day, either.

I love taking small group tours because they generally have a good balance. Any tour that requires you to be on a huge bus and hits 6 cities in 5 days is not a tour to take!

6. Environmental impact

There’s a growing trend among travelers called ecotourism . It’s about more responsible travel, not only toward the environment but also toward the locals in an area. This means using local guides, hotels, and services, and making sure to reduce waste and your footprint on the local habitat.

Moreover, these companies tend to offer better and more interactive tours that also give you a good degree of autonomy.

I think it’s important to pick a company that provides great value and gives back to the place you are visiting. After all, did you go there to ruin it for others? Doubtful.

Check with groups like the International Ecotourism Society for a list of companies that have been certified “eco-friendly.” With so much money pouring into the industry now, you have a lot of companies fraudulently saying they practice ecotourism but end up being involved in terrible labor practices, animal abuse, and waste.

7. Group size

Tour companies that have smaller groups tend to be much more mindful of the environment and the impact they are leaving. It’s a lot easier to meet people in a group of 10-15 than it is in a group of 60. I don’t like to go on tours with more than 15 people on them. However, I have friends who love Contiki tours with 40-50 people. Know what you are getting yourself into, so you don’t find yourself with a group too small or too large for your tastes.

Just remember larger groups tend to stay at bigger, more impersonal accommodations (they can only accommodate the numbers), eat at more touristy restaurants, and tend to travel to more destinations quicker.

In my expert opinion, small group tours are the best.

8. Check their reputation

How have other travelers enjoyed their time? Look for online reviews to see what a company’s reputation is. It might not always be what they claim, and it’s important to find out the truth before you book.

Remember that MOST people only write a review if something goes wrong. Someone might give a tour company one star just because their eggs were runny. Find the average. Someone might hate a tour because the weather was hot. Seriously. These are actual negative reviews from the tour operator company, Thomas Cook:

“On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.”

“We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.”

“We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price.”

“No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared.”

“Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg-slicer in the drawers.”

“When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners.”

“We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning.”

So how can you trust the reviews you read online?

Take them with a grain of salt. You can read reviews on websites TrustPilot . The approval rating should look like a bell curve but with more A’s and B’s than C’s. I look for companies that average 85% or higher (or 4 out of 5 stars). If a company is that highly rated, the negative reviews are probably just outliers.  

My Recommended (Best) Tour Companies

Here are some of my favorite small, day-tour, or backpacker bus tour companies:

• Take Walks – This is my favorite walking tour company. They run a wide variety of insightful and entertaining tours around Europe and the US. What makes them so good is they get you inside access to attractions and places you can’t get elsewhere. Their guides rock too!
• Get Your Guide – A massive marketplace for tours, activities, and excursions. If you’re looking for something niche, you’ll find it here!
• Devour Food Tours – My go-to tour company for tasty food tours around Europe and the US.
• Kiwi Experience – A hop-on, hop-off bus tour company in New Zealand for backpackers!
• Baz Bus – A hop on, hop off again bus tour company in South Africa for all travelers.
• New Europe – Free walking tours throughout Europe.
• Free Tours By Foot – Pay-what-you-like tours throughout Europe and the United States. They are one of my favorite free walking tour companies in the world!

THE #1 COMPANY FOR MULTI-DAY SMALL GROUP TOURS

When it comes to multi-day, multi-week tours (think trips through Morocco, sailing in the Galápagos, etc.), I highly recommend using Intrepid Travel .

Intrepid is my favorite and best small group tour operator out there! I really love their guides, their small groups, off-the-beaten-track itineraries, and their commitment to the local environment and community. I always have an incredible time on their tours. They are my favorite multi-day tour operator and the only one I use now (the picture at the top of this page is me on their Patagonia trip). Intrepid is environmentally friendly, uses local guides and transportation, doesn’t rush their tours, and are quite inexpensive. I don’t even consider anyone else when it comes to multi-day trips.

I love tours. They are a great way to meet people, get a local to add value and knowledge, and see places you can’t get to alone! I don’t take them often but I do take them. And, since I follow the above rules, I always have a good time. Some of my favorite travel memories were when I was on a group trip. If you follow my tips above, you’ll never go wrong either.

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The comeback of corporate travel: How should companies be planning?

It seems that, finally, the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel is in sight—at least in some parts of the world. In 2020, total global business travel expenses contracted by 52 percent, while managed corporate-travel spending in the United States plummeted 71 percent, or $94 billion. Last year, when we reported  on the impact of COVID-19 on corporate travel, we projected that the road to recovery would be a long and uneven one.

Much has changed since then, thanks largely to progress on the vaccination front. Even though there’s much debate  surrounding the timing of herd immunity in the United States, it’s indisputable that vaccination rates are on the rise across the country. At the time of writing, more than 40 percent of the US population has been fully vaccinated , with more than 50 percent having received at least one dose. Companies are starting to bring employees back to offices. Corporate executives are planning in-person meetings and gatherings with customers and colleagues.

In light of new developments, to what extent will videoconferencing replace business trips? How should corporations prepare for the next phase of business travel? While our insights from last year still hold, we’ve sharpened our understanding of how business leaders could be thinking about the postpandemic role of corporate travel. In this article, we identify four categories of business travelers—the “never left,” the “never returning,” the “fear of missing out” (FOMO), and the “wait and see” segments—and provide recommendations for how key players in the corporate-travel ecosystem can make effective plans in this context.

What’s changed: Increased vaccination is expanding flexible work arrangements

The most significant change shaping our thinking about the return of corporate travel is the rising vaccination rates in the United States and Europe. We project that the United States and the United Kingdom will slowly transition toward normalcy in mid-2021, with the rest of the European Union following shortly after (Exhibit 1).

Notwithstanding the risks presented by new virus strains and limited visibility into the duration of vaccine immunity, rising vaccination rates are ameliorating some of the travel anxiety. Many organizations are now proactively figuring out the future of work —which includes the role of business travel.

For many companies, COVID-19 has proven that more workplace flexibility is possible . Around 70 percent of executives said their companies will employ more temporary workers than before the pandemic, and 72 percent of executives report that their companies have started to adopt permanent remote-working arrangements for a subset of their employees. Nearly 40 percent of the workforce in the United States has the potential to work from anywhere. These signals and others suggest that many organizations are reevaluating working and organizational arrangements , including when, why, and how their employees should hit the road.

There’s no consensus, however, among business leaders about what to do with this newfound flexibility, and many organizations have not yet clearly communicated a vision for postpandemic work: around 30 percent of executives in a recent survey  say they have not heard about specific plans for corporate travel after the pandemic, while another 28 percent described their companies’ plans as vague.

Four key segments in the return of corporate travel

Breaking down corporate trips into different segments can help travel planners and suppliers plan for the return of corporate travel. We’ve identified four different business-travel profiles, each sitting at a different point on the travel-resilience spectrum. Three indicators were used to define each archetype and determine its position on the spectrum: sector, travel purpose, and whether the trip was domestic or international. For travel purpose, if in-person interactions remain critical for a company, then the more resilient such business trips are. Some assumptions were made on how likely it was that some forms of corporate travel would recover rather than be substituted by videoconference technology.

The profile mix varies from company to company, and it’s possible for all four to coexist within the same organization, although some might feature more prominently in some companies and less in others.

• The “never left” segment. On one end of the spectrum, employees for whom travel is deemed essential for conducting business resumed their trips as soon as lockdowns eased. This category accounted for around 15 percent of all corporate travel expenses in 2019 and includes managers in manufacturing companies with a wide distribution of factories and plants and field-operation workers. Those who were reluctant to fly opted for rail and private cars instead.
• The “never returning” segment . On the other end, business travelers that contributed to one-fifth of business travel spending in 2019 present an enticing opportunity for corporations to permanently slash their corporate-travel budgets. Digital adopters who are able to maintain high levels of effectiveness while working remotely may never return to corporate travel. Furthermore, advances made in digital technologies that enhance oversight of outposts have paved the way for corporate travel to be further reduced. For instance, many chain restaurants found ways to minimize corporate travel by replacing in-person visits with virtual alternatives, as well as establishing more local oversight systems. They are likely to want to keep these significant cost savings; although a certain number of business trips will continue after the pandemic even in this segment, they will do so at much lower levels than before.
• The “fear of missing out” (FOMO) segment. The bulk of business travel (60 percent of business-travel expenditure in 2019)—which will likely drive the rebound of corporate travel—will be fueled by the FOMO segment: those traveling to cultivate important client relationships. Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) will likely increase corporate travel at much faster rates, as they are not subject to the heightened approval process that large enterprises have to follow. SMEs are likely to trigger a domino effect where one company’s resumption of business trips will catalyze its rivals’ return to work-related travel. Faced with intense competition, different players in the company (leadership, management, staff) coalesce to reinstate corporate travel at scale to seize a first-mover advantage over rival businesses. An April Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) member survey reported that more than 50 percent of respondents are developing or plan to develop a timeline for resuming travel, updated travel policies, or new safety resources and information for travelers.
• The “wait and see” segment. This segment consists of workers in relatively noncompetitive industries and roles; it contributed 5 percent of total business-travel spending in 2019. These corporate travelers tend to come from the public sector, professional associations, and nonprofits. During the pandemic, many professional associations were able to hold virtual events to replace in-person conferences and will likely be more cautious in their return to travel.

Taken together, the trajectories of the four travel categories confirm our earlier projection of an uneven recovery for corporate travel. Overall, we can expect a 20 percent reduction in corporate travel spending by 2023.

In addition, it’s worth noting that even within these segments, business-travel recovery will vary depending on the purpose and distance of the business trips (Exhibit 2). For instance, even for firms in the “never left” segment, overseas travel to attend international conferences has not returned because of government-imposed restrictions due to public-health concerns. Furthermore, given the uneven rollout of COVID-19 vaccines internationally, the return of international travel may be further suspended in regions with limited or delayed access to vaccines due to sustained public-health restrictions and/or disease outbreaks. On the flip side, “never returning” business travelers may still make exceptions for key events that are held regionally.

In the United States, a comparison of a multinational conglomerate’s internal and external travel spend and that of a private health insurer provides an example of how the recovery trajectory may differ from business to business (Exhibit 3). Internal travel encompasses trips taken for intracompany purposes, where employees participate in activities such as training, team building, or inspection of field operations. External travel, on the other hand, refers to trips employees take for engagements outside the company, including in-person meetings with clients and suppliers, trade conferences, and customer sales calls.

The multinational conglomerate we examined, a manufacturer of building products, had a total travel spend in 2019 of around $80 million. As a customer-driven business, the company spends the majority of its travel expenses on external travel. Much of this falls into the FOMO segment, which is already recovering at a faster pace this year relative to internal travel even though the overall travel expenditure remains depressed. The bulk of its internal travel was for the purposes of internal collaboration in 2019, a third of which is expected to be permanently eliminated, while the rest should gradually return over the rest of this year and 2022.

A McKinsey Live event on 'Returning to corporate travel: How do we get it right?'

Approaching the future of corporate travel: Four steps

Charting a safe and effective road map for future corporate travel requires all players to collaborate. Key players in the ecosystem—suppliers (including airlines, hotels, car-rental and rideshare companies), corporate-travel planners, travel intermediaries such as online travel agencies (OTAs), global-distribution-system (GDS) providers, and travelers themselves—need to master four critical skills: leveraging real-time data, planning with agility, aiming for comfort and safety, and communicating with clarity.

Leverage real-time data

Planning for the future can feel like flying through a fog of uncertainty, which makes it even more important for players to leverage real-time data to inform their decision making. Organizations could invest in data capabilities to identify and monitor the first signs of an acceleration in business travel.

Planning for the future can feel like flying through a fog of uncertainty, which makes it even more important for players to leverage real-time data to inform their decision making.

OTAs and GDS providers may be worth exploring as new data sources. Travel intermediaries such as these are uniquely situated to provide aggregate data for each industry. For instance, they can inform a corporate-travel planner how many seats are being booked by the rest of the company’s sector, signaling whether the company is ahead of or behind the curve. Many corporate-travel planners are also concerned about the fluctuations in the cost and availability of tickets, given the volatility of flight schedules during this time. Intermediaries can provide data that suggest which flights are more likely to stay on an airline’s schedule, helping clients build more agility into their decision making. Intermediaries may be able to create a new revenue stream from these data.

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Real-time data also help suppliers of corporate travel, such as air carriers and hotels, become more agile. As corporate travel returns, these suppliers will need to deploy the right resources in real time to match demand, which may shift abruptly. For example, one airline made a costly mistake by being unprepared for the sudden spike in demand for leisure flights over the recent Easter holiday. As recovery will likely be uneven, airlines will have to figure out how to have aircraft, pilots, and crew on standby so they can increase capacity quickly whenever there’s a need. Organizations can meet regularly to discuss data-driven insights and align on next steps.

Embed agility into planning

It pays to have a detailed plan and strategy for different recovery scenarios in place. When demand picks up, many firms may find that they don’t have the time to pause and think through their strategies.

When it comes to organizing business trips for employees, corporate-travel planners will need to take into account four considerations:

• First, the factors that affect whether corporate travel should increase: for example, local and regional infection levels, customer demand, and competitive actions.
• Second, the relevant data sources used to evaluate these factors: these could include public-health indicators, customer surveys, data from travel partners on industry trends and competitor behavior, and real-time pricing from GDSs consistent with typical corporate agreements, even as airline-fare classes go through realignments.
• Third, company policies on business travel: What distance-based policies should staff adhere to? Should they use rental cars, rideshares, taxis, or flights? When should they wear masks or engage in group gatherings? How (and should) companies distinguish between what activities vaccinated and unvaccinated employees can participate in?
• Fourth, information needed by travelers: this includes websites, travel help desks, and messaging.

A US health-products wholesaler and manufacturer provides an example of how these considerations work together. Currently, the company’s factories are open, while corporate offices remain closed and corporate travel is at a standstill. The company recently decided to stage-gate the resumption of corporate travel, starting with executives. Critical sales meetings and conferences will be in the next wave of business trips, followed by general sales and internal corporate activities, and finally, internal training and events. The level of corporate travel varies by state, based on local infection and vaccination rates. The company also set up tracking codes in its customer-relationship-management system to monitor when sales are won or lost due to competitive travel, which involved working with its corporate travel agent to get data on corporate-travel bookings.

The company instituted different policies for each level, including when masks must be worn, the permitted group size for indoor gatherings, and what lodging choices should be made (for example, home shares are avoided for safety and sanitation reasons). The company is developing internal brochures and a communications plan to keep its employees informed.

Personalize experiences based on safety and comfort

Safety and comfort are crucial elements in the travel experience, and they can sometimes pull in opposite directions. More can be done to bridge this gap. Both employers and travel companies could find ways to give passengers peace of mind and improve comfort and convenience. The guiding principle here is giving the traveler greater control over decisions that affect their sense of comfort and security.

For instance, airlines can personalize flight experiences by improving the functionality of their mobile apps to allow passengers to preorder their meals and snacks or make special requests. Hotels may let guests decide on the frequency and timing of housekeeping. They might consider offering initiatives that improve guests’ physical and mental well-being, for example, by offering virtual trainers to guide meditation or fitness practices. Suppliers could also consider offering radically transparent flexibility policies and allow customers a greater range of options with different associated fees for cancellations and changes.

Communicate with clarity

Even the most seasoned travelers have to accept that traveling has changed. Masks have become ubiquitous, and border restrictions, boarding procedures, and hygiene requirements seem to be ever changing. It’s critical that organizations communicate clearly what their corporate-travel policies are at any given moment in time, for every stage of the journey—from pre- to post-trip.

It helps for organizations to be extra proactive in communicating any type of change, whether regarding company-wide strategic policies or more granular details such as the company’s preferred rideshare or car-rental options for corporate travel. When changes in operations are made, companies can take special care to ensure the availability of amenities. Leadership can play a prominent role in modeling how to travel in this new reality by clearly reiterating company policies. Information websites, travel help desks, and easily digestible infographics could all be used to get the message across. Keep channels of communication open and allow employees to give feedback and raise concerns as and when they arise.

Employees, too, will go through an adjustment period as they resume their business trips. Leadership can communicate that it’s OK for them to take it slowly and that they should raise concerns if they ever feel unsafe.

Some corporate travelers will find they have to adapt quickly to the many changes in business travel, while others will have the luxury of easing themselves in over a longer period. Unpredictability will continue to be a fact of life, but one thing is certain: if everyone plays their part well (and smartly, by leveraging the technologies and processes at our disposal), the resumption of corporate travel is possible.

Jenna Benefield is a consultant in McKinsey’s Philadelphia office, Vik Krishnan is a partner in the San Francisco office, Esteban Ramirez is the capabilities and insights team leader in the San Jose office, and Matthew Straus is an associate partner in the Chicago office.

The authors wish to thank Guenter Fuchs, Jennifer Heller, and Jillian Tellez for their contributions to this article.

This article was edited by Jason Li, a senior editor in the Shanghai office.

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The 15 Best Tour Operators in 2022

These are the companies Travel + Leisure readers trust to provide them with travel expertise and memorable experiences.

Note: If you’re looking for our most recent recommendations, check out the 2023 list of our favorite tour operators .

When it comes to an itinerary, Travel + Leisure readers want more than a string of photo opportunities — and the right tour operator makes all the difference in creating a trip of a lifetime versus one that simply checks off a list of sights. This year, our readers were especially drawn to companies that utilize local expertise and experience to thoughtfully design trips that will entertain as well as inspire.

Every year for our World's Best Awards survey , T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Readers rated tour operators and safari outfitters based on their staff and guides, itineraries and destinations, activities, accommodations, food, and overall value.

The top picks were noted for their deep knowledge of destinations and guides who "go the extra mile." One reader who has been traveling for more than five decades said a trip with Classic Journeys (No. 2) was the "very best" they had experienced. Others noted attention to pandemic safety details, while one who went to Norway was charmed by a "wonderful surprise dinner in Bergen out on the water that was fantastic."

Tour operators that seamlessly navigated the logistics of a trip also came out on top. Quasar Expeditions (No. 9) was noted "for really planning out every detail" so that "all you have to do is show up and have a great time." Meanwhile, of TCS World Travel (No. 10), a guest said: "You never lift a finger and just spend your time actually exploring the destination." They even added that they "learned so much" along the way.

Among the five companies on this year's list that weren't on last year's were two women-only tour operators that cater to travelers of all ages. AdventureWomen (No. 14) has multiday tours designed by women from Bhutan to Yellowstone National Park, while Explorer Chick (No. 15) has everything from day trips — like glassblowing in Baltimore and cave rappelling in St. Louis — to full itineraries in Machu Picchu and the Galápagos. One reader said her Everest Base Camp trip with AdventureWomen was filled with "like-minded women" who "bonded so well," while another said she felt it was a "safe tour group for women."

No matter which tour they chose, readers were most taken by the people they met along the way, as one said of Trek Travel (No. 13): "By the end of the trip, a group of strangers felt like longtime friends." Find out which other companies round out the list of the best tour operators below.

1. DuVine Cycling + Adventure Co.

A tour with DuVine goes far beyond just riding a bike — it's a way to really see the character of a destination. Case in point: even those who say they're not necessarily cycling fans have been converted. That's part of what helped the tour operator — which runs trips in Europe, the U.S., Latin America, and Africa — skyrocket from No. 14 last year to this year's top spot. Its "top-notch biking equipment" and "challenging but doable itineraries" didn't hurt either. One reader was especially taken by a guide picking figs off of a local tree in Puglia for an extra energy boost during a tough climb, as well as another guide singing to the group after dinner. As another reader put it simply: "They exceed your expectations."

Score: 99.12

More information: duvine.com

2. Classic Journeys

Score: 99.04

More information: classicjourneys.com

3. Artisans of Leisure

Score: 98.38

More information: artisansofleisure.com

4. (tie) Black Tomato

Score: 98.33

More information: blacktomato.com

4. (tie) GeoEx

More information: geoex.com

4. (tie) Wilderness Travel

More information: wildernesstravel.com

7. Inside Japan Tours

Score: 98.14

More information: insidejapantours.com

8. Kensington Tours

Score: 98.03

More information: kensingtontours.com

9. Quasar Expeditions

Score: 97.84

More information: quasarex.com

10. TCS World Travel

Score: 97.78

More information: tcsworldtravel.com

11. Butterfield & Robinson

Score: 97.33

More information: butterfield.com

Score: 96.95

More information: tauck.com

13. Trek Travel

Score: 96.90

More information: trektravel.com

14. AdventureWomen

Score: 96.11

More information: adventurewomen.com

15. Explorer Chick

Score: 95.87

More information: explorerchick.com

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CWT understands that the relationship between organizations and their traveling employees is changing. Your employees need business travel agents who can help them stay productive, get the best prices, and make travel easier for them. Your organization needs a corporate travel agency that helps you manage your travel program effectively, including:

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Travel Industry Takes Crucial First Step Toward Combating Climate Change

More than 300 travel companies, tourism boards and countries have signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, the first step for a shared road map to cut carbon emissions.

By Ceylan Yeginsu

The travel industry has reached a turning point.

As thousands of scientists, government officials and business leaders met in Glasgow over the past two weeks for the pivotal United Nations climate conference , hundreds of members of the trillion-dollar tourism industry came together and made the first commitment toward a shared road map to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and reach “net zero” by 2050.

More than 300 global travel stakeholders, including tour operators, tourism boards and hotel chains, have signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, requiring them to submit a concrete and transparent plan within 12 months. While the details have yet to be put forward, the companies and countries that signed on, from Germany railway company Deutsche Bahn AG to the country of Panama, will be expected to disclose their carbon emissions and offer clear strategies for how to reduce them. The process is being spearheaded by the U.N. World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council, two industry bodies that have previously sparred on climate matters.

“This is undoubtedly the biggest climate commitment our industry has come together for,” said Jeremy Smith, the co-founder of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency , an initiative that supports climate action and provided the framework for the Glasgow Declaration.

“Our initiative launched two years ago because the industry had no collective plan, and we did well getting over 400 tourism organizations on board without funding,” he said. “But the Glasgow Declaration builds on our work. It’s the coming together of major players in our sector and it’s owned by everyone who has signed it, establishing collective responsibility.”

The travel industry is a large contributor to global carbon emissions, with a footprint estimated between 8 and 11 percent of total greenhouse gases, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, or W.T.T.C . Aviation alone represents around 17 percent of total travel carbon emissions. Each year, a growing number of destinations and communities heavily dependent on tourism — countries like Thailand, India and Madagascar — are hit hard by the impacts of climate change, in the form of rising sea levels, drought, wildfires, deforestation and biodiversity loss.

The pandemic spotlighted the adverse impact of industry growth and overtourism on Venice, Bali and other popular destinations, forcing some places to take stock and pivot toward more sustainable and environmentally friendly business models. Yet with most operators and destinations reeling from the industry shutdown last year, it is unclear how many of those plans will be prioritized over the need for fast recovery.

“We need a cultural change and we need to move beyond the traditional growth-oriented mind-sets to see a more sustainable, responsible and climate-neutral tourism ecosystem,” said Patrick Child, deputy director general of environment at the European Commission.

52 Places to Love in 2021

We asked readers to tell us about the spots that have delighted, inspired and comforted them in a dark year. Here, 52 of the more than 2,000 suggestions we received, to remind us that the world still awaits.

‘A lot of apathy’

The declaration has four main targets: measurement, requiring companies to disclose all travel- and tourism-related emissions; decarbonization, by setting targets aligned with climate science; regeneration, to restore and protect natural ecosystems; and collaboration, to ensure best practices are shared and financing is available to follow through.

A recent analysis by the W.T.T.C. of 250 travel businesses found that only 42 percent had publicly announced climate targets and many of them were not based on the latest science. The council last week published a road map for different industries within travel, providing concrete guidance on how to reach “net zero” targets by 2050.

“There has been a lot of apathy, with some people not quite sure about what they need to do and how to do it, or some thinking they are not significant enough, and that’s why it’s really important for larger organizations to show the way,” said Darrell Wade, the co-founder and chairman of Intrepid Travel , the only global tour company with a climate target verified by the Science Based Targets initiative , which promotes best practices in emissions reductions in line with climate science.

Joining Deutsche Bahn and Panama in signing the Glasgow Declaration are big companies like Accor, Skyscanner, The Travel Corporation and Iberostar Group , as well as countries that are already affected by climate change, including Norway and Barbados. Signatories hope that more destinations will participate in the coming weeks.

Throughout his experience in the Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency initiative, Mr. Smith found it easier to get smaller, more agile companies and smaller countries involved. When it came to larger companies, there were more barriers and obstacles, he said.

“When you reach a destination, or even a city, it becomes even harder because there are multiple different players with different interests at the scale of a country,” he said. “It takes time.”

Panama, one of only three carbon-negative countries in the world (meaning that it absorbs more carbon emissions than it emits), has taken a lead role in establishing initiatives for economic growth in tourism, which also benefit and preserve local communities and resources.

“Our main plan for our sustainable tourism market is to empower local communities, particularly Indigenous people, so that they can generate an income through tourism that allows them to preserve their ancestral way of life, allowing them to sustainably manage their natural resources like forests and coral reefs,” said Ivan Eskildsen, Panama’s tourism minister.

He pointed to an example of a trail that was built in a national park that was designed to involve local communities in the active management of the area. “Over 30 percent of our land and sea are preserved national parks, so it’s humanly impossible to supervise all these areas,” he said. “The community can benefit economically from these areas and will also be prone to stay and take care of it instead of only coming there for short-term income.”

Visit Scotland, that country’s national tourism organization, which helped draft the declaration, has also taken a lead role. The organization has reduced its own carbon emission by 74 percent since 2008, and more than 850 local businesses have been given green tourism awards for their sustainability efforts.

Challenges persist

While the Glasgow Declaration has garnered great momentum and established common objectives, challenges lie ahead, especially when it comes to setting a global standard for reporting emissions figures for such a wide range of sectors within the industry, from tour operators to destinations, and airlines to cruise ships.

Signatories are expected to hold each other accountable and set common standards throughout international supply chains. Once action plans have been submitted within the next year, a reporting framework will be necessary. Anyone who fails to submit a road map within that time frame will be removed from the declaration.

“It is really important to bring value chains together,” said Catherine Dolton, the chief sustainability officer at IHG Hotels and Resorts. “Hotel developers, hotel owners, investors, franchisees, as well as the operators, are all impacting sustainability at different stages of the hotel life cycle.”

Visibly absent from the list of signatories were members of the cruise industry. The sector made a separate pledge to pursue carbon-neutral cruising by 2050 and reduce emissions 40 percent by 2030 in an annual environmental report, published last week by the industry trade group, Cruise Line International Association. While the report makes detailed commitments to reducing the cruise industry’s carbon footprint using new technology and alternative fuels, it does not address other environmental issues such as discharge of waste.

“Despite technical advances and some surveillance programs, cruising remains a major source of air, water (fresh and marine) and land pollution affecting fragile habitats, areas and species, and a potential source of physical and mental human health risks,” according to a recent report by the Marine Pollution Bulletin Journal.

Though there was some disappointment about the limited participation of some industries in the pledge, the overall sentiment was one of optimism and a belief that the declaration would lead to real change and less “greenwashing,” a term used to describe companies that try to portray themselves as more environmentally minded than they actually are.

“I’ve long been quite pessimistic about travel and tourism’s approach toward climate change,” said Mr. Wade of Intrepid Travel, which recently published a tool kit, available online, to help travel businesses measure and reduce their carbon emissions. “But now I’m really very optimistic because there is broad-level support from the industry to actually reduce emissions, and it’s the first time I’ve seen real concrete commitments from industry and governments.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places list for 2021 .

Ceylan Yeginsu is a London-based reporter. She joined The Times in 2013, and was previously a correspondent in Turkey covering politics, the migrant crisis, the Kurdish conflict, and the rise of Islamic State extremism in Syria and the region. More about Ceylan Yeginsu

15 Best Tour Companies of 2024

Tour companies like Intrepid Travel and G Adventures can help you create the experience of a lifetime. Choosing the right company depends on your destination and travel preferences.

Guided tours can be a great way to experience a new destination, but you want to make sure you get the best experience possible. How can you find the best tour companies to guide your adventure?

Whether you’re looking for group trips, self-guided tours, river cruises, tours for solo travelers, or overseas adventure travel, you want to find a tour operator that can deliver a seamless, enjoyable, and authentic experience, all without zeroing out your bank account.

Here are the top 15 tour companies out there today. I’ll walk you through what each excels at and how to pick the best one for you.

• Best Tour Company Overall: Intrepid Travel
• Best Small Group Tour Company: G Adventures
• Best for Day Tours: Get Your Guide
• Best Tour Company for Solo Travelers: Go Ahead Tours
• Best Tour Company for Families: Adventures by Disney
• Best Tour Company for Seniors: Trafalgar
• Best Tour Company for Europe: Tauck
• Best Tour Company for Italy: Insight Vacations
• Best Tour Company for Ireland and Scotland: CIE Tours
• Best Iceland Tour Company: Nicetravel Iceland
• Best Tour Company for Spain and Portugal: Cosmos
• Best Egypt Tour Company: Exodus
• Best Asia Tour Company: Klook
• Best Tour Company for Israel: Click Tours
• Best Tour Company for Greece: Epos Travel Tours

Intrepid Travel : Best Tour Company Overall

When you imagine travel tours, you may picture massive group tours and a bus packed with 50 noisy, gawking tourists.

That’s not what you get with Intrepid Travel . This company specializes in adventurous and immersive small group tours with an average of 10 people.

Operating on all seven continents, Intrepid offers a huge range of trip types to fit any traveler. You can choose biking tours across New Zealand, river cruises in Europe, trekking in the Himalayas, or wildlife safaris in the Serengeti. There are options for all-female adventures, family expeditions, active trips for adventure travelers, or trips catering specifically to 18-29 year olds.

If you don’t want to spend the trip of a lifetime sitting on your butt looking out a bus window, Intrepid Travel is for you. Their group trips are designed to fully immerse you in the culture and beauty of a new place. Here are two examples of what you’ll get from Intrepid Travel:

With the Alaska: Hike, Bike, & Kayak tour, you are led by an expert guide on a range of active adventures through some of Alaska’s best scenery and national parks. You’ll go sea kayaking, cycle along the rugged Alaskan coast, and hike through Denali National Park.

If you’re looking for more of a cultural experience, the Premium Sri Lanka tour is an incredible journey through the culture, history, food, and wildlife of this island. You’ll explore ancient temples, eat incredible food with locals, and search for leopards in the country’s wildlife preserves.

One last perk: Intrepid Travel is a Certified B-Corp, meaning they are dedicated to doing good in the world. They donate to worldwide relief causes and offset the carbon footprint of every trip they operate.

G Adventures : Best Small Group Tour Company

If you’re looking for small group tours, G Adventures is one of the best in the category. Just like with Intrepid, their tour groups average 10 people, so, with G Adventures, you won’t have to deal with being part of a massive hoard of tourists.

So what sets G Adventures apart? Unlike many tour operators, they focus on helping you get exactly the experience you’re looking for instead of packing every day with a rigid schedule. Every trip offers a wide range of optional activities that you can pick and choose from to personalize your experience. Plus, you can opt for more free time to explore or hang out on your own.

I also love that G Adventures hires all local guides. They put a lot of emphasis on their guides, even calling them CEOs (chief experience officers). That means you get local, insider expertise on your trip. Your tour director will speak the local language, know the best spots to eat, and fully understand the culture.

If you’re looking for big luxurious hotels and resorts, G Adventures probably isn’t for you. Instead of going to the big chain hotels, G Adventures uses locally owned and operated lodgings.

This has two benefits. First, you get a much more authentic local experience. Big hotel chains don’t have the same charm and character as a true local hotel. Second, your money will go toward benefiting the local economy rather than some giant corporation. That’s a big win for G Adventures in my book.

Get Your Guide : Best for Day Tours

You may not need or want a fully guided multi-day group tour, But sometimes it’s nice to have the guidance of a local expert for a truly unique experience that you couldn’t get otherwise. Choosing day tours is a great way to get the benefits of guided group tours without being stuck with a tour group for your entire trip.

Get Your Guide is my favorite resource for finding amazing day tours, entry tickets, and other travel experiences. It’s perfect for more independent travelers who can manage the details of their own trip, but are looking for shorter guided tours.

How does it work? Get Your Guide is essentially an online marketplace where you can search for and reserve tours, museum passes, adventure activities, and more.

For example, let’s say you’re planning a trip to Sweden. On Get Your Guide, you could book a dog sled adventure to see the northern lights, a day cruise on an icebreaker ship, a “ghost-walk” historical tour of Old Stockholm, and a guided ice climbing excursion.

I’m already getting excited about that trip.

Go Ahead Tours : Best Tour Company for Solo Travelers

Solo travel can be a bit intimidating, especially if you don’t have a lot of travel experience. I’ve found that group tours can be a great way to ease some of the stress and make it easier to enjoy your trip as a solo traveler.

Go Ahead Tours is one of the best tour companies that specializes in trips for solo travelers. With their solo trips, you always get a private room at no extra cost, and the other travelers in your tour group will also be solo—so you don’t end up as the awkward 17th wheel in someone else’s family vacation. As a solo traveler with Go Ahead Tours, you get all the benefits and security of a group trip, and you’ll meet other amazing people traveling the world on their own.

Go Ahead Tours focuses on small group itineraries in tour destinations around the globe, from popular destinations to locations off the beaten path. Want a food-centric trip across Italy? Check. Want to visit South America and hike to Machu Picchu? Check. How about a wildlife safari in Kenya? Yep, they’ve got that. Go Ahead Tours offers the best group tours for solo travelers, and you may even make some new friends on the way.

Adventures by Disney : Best Tour Company for Families

Family travel can seem complicated, especially if you have younger kids. Group tours can help simplify planning the dream trip, but tour operators often plan trips focused on adults, so younger travelers may get bored quickly.

Adventures by Disney is one of the few group travel companies that specialize in family-oriented trips and tours, from South America to Scandinavia. Disney Vacations designs their group trips to have something for everyone: wine tastings for the adults, adventure scavenger hunts for the kids, and sights and experiences that will engage your entire family.

Disney Adventures trips are a bit pricier than many other group travel companies, so not all families will be able to afford them. However, if you can make it work with your budget, your family will get an amazing experience that you just won’t find from more mainstream travel.

Trafalgar : Best Tour Company for Seniors

Trafalgar is one of the biggest (and best) group travel companies in the world. They offer hundreds of international trips to popular destinations around the globe.

Trafalgar’s guided tours are great for travelers of all age groups, but they cater particularly to senior travelers. The majority of Trafalgar guests are over 50. It’s also great for family tours to get grandparents and grandkids spending quality time together.

If you’re looking for highly active itineraries with adventure activities packed in, Trafalgar may not be the best for you. They focus more on cultural immersion, history, architecture, and local cuisine. Trafalgar is a great choice if you want to take a deep dive into the essence of your destination.

You can count on having a tour leader who is an expert in the local culture and history, and you will come home with tons of new knowledge.

Trafalgar focuses primarily on land-based tours, but they also offer a range of cruise vacations if you want to travel by sea.

Hotel stays, meals, transportation to/from the airport, and all the logistics are all arranged for you. You can even add on flights, extra hotel nights, and travel insurance so you don’t have to worry about any additional complications for your trip.

Tauck : Best Tour Company for Europe

Tauck is another big name in group tours that operates on all seven continents. While they have guided tours all around the globe, Tauck is an especially good choice if you’re looking for a group tour in Europe.

It’s easy to go to European cities, see the major tourist sites, and head home without really diving deep into the culture and spirit of the place. My favorite thing about Tauck is that their European tours are designed to give you more than just the standard tourist experience. Their Yellow Roads of Europe tours take you off the beaten path for a truly unique European experience.

Every Tauck tour pairs you with handpicked expert local guides who will help fully immerse you in the experience.

Tauck offers both river cruises and land-based group tours. If you want a unique European experience, imagine cruising through Western Europe along the Seine.

Insight Vacations : Best Tour Company for Italy

Almost every traveler dreams of a bucket list trip to Italy. What’s not to love? Amazing food, amazing sights, amazing culture, Italy has it all.

If you’re looking for the best guided tours in Italy, I highly recommend Insight Vacations . Insight offers tours all over the world, but their Italy tours are especially good. Whether you want to see the major sights, learn to live like a local, or sample the best food from around the country (or all of the above!) they’ve got tours for you.

As an example, you could choose their Best of Italy Tour for your next trip. This 11-day tour includes stays in Rome, Florence, Venice, and more. You’ll learn from local artisans, eat farm-to-table meals on the foothills of Mount Vesuvius, and get a VIP tour of the Vatican (including areas normally off-limits to visitors).

Insight’s tours are all led by local tour guides who speak the language and have in-depth knowledge of the culture and history of each site you visit.

If you’re traveling with a group of 10 or more people, Insight Vacations can also put together custom itineraries specifically for your group.

CIE Tours : Best Tour Company for Ireland and Scotland

If you’re into history, stunning scenery, charming towns, or good times at the pub, you would probably love touring Ireland and Scotland. CIE Tours is technically based in the US, but it’s partially owned and operated by the Irish government. It specializes in travel to Ireland, Scotland, and a few other European countries.

This dialed-in focus means that there are no better guided tours for Ireland and Scotland. I highly recommend their Taste of Scotland and Ireland Tour . In 11 days, you’ll experience sightseeing in Glasgow and Dublin, a day cruise on Loch Ness, carriage rides through the Irish countryside, and a feast in a historic castle.

Their tours have a great balance of exciting sightseeing and activities with enough downtime to relax or do plenty of exploring on your own. It’s a great way to get all the benefits of group travel without feeling like you have no control over your schedule.

If you want more freedom, CIE also offers independent adventures. They will build an itinerary for you and book your lodgings, admission tickets to attractions, and rental car (or you can opt for a private driver). You can choose from their pre-packaged itineraries, or build your own custom trip.

I also appreciate that CIE Tours has fairly affordable rates that include all admission tickets and most of your meals. Plus, they often offer discounts on airfare!

Nicetravel Iceland : Best Iceland Tour Company

Maybe you’ve always been intrigued by Iceland’s wild, untamed beauty (I know I have). If you want to experience this first hand, Nicetravel Iceland is one of the best group travel companies in this amazing country.

Nicetravel Iceland by three local Icelandic families, so they have a lot of local expertise. They offer trips ranging from 8 hours to over a week and have itineraries to suit any type of traveler, whether you want to relax in natural hot spring pools or hike along the glaciers and coastlines.

They focus on small group tours, and you’ll never have more than 19 people in your group. Most of their tours start from the capital, Reykjavik, and will drive you to various destinations in Mercedes Sprinter Vans. Way better than the huge tour buses many other companies use.

In addition to standard tours for sightseeing, they also have a range of tour options for more adventurous travelers. You’re in the right place if you want to explore caves, hike on glaciers, or raft down raging rivers.

Cosmos : Best Tour Company for Spain and Portugal

For a tour operator on the Iberian Peninsula, Cosmos is one of the best choices, especially if you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg. Cosmos has been guiding group travel for nearly a century, and they employ expert local guides to help you get the most from your trip.

The Cosmos Best of Spain and Portugal Tour is an incredible 13-day group travel itinerary. You will stay in 7 amazing cities across the two countries and visit a wide range of historical sites.

Cosmos is also a good choice for responsible travel, as they have several initiatives to support local communities and planet-focused nonprofits like the African Wildlife Foundation, The Ocean Cleanup, and Trees4Travel. I appreciate companies that are taking steps toward sustainable travel.

Exodus : Best Egypt Tour Company

It’s hard to visit any travel website without seeing a picture of the Great Pyramids. Egypt has captivated the minds of explorers and travelers for centuries, and it is worth having on your bucket list.

If you want a guided tour of Egypt, I highly recommend Exodus Travels . With destinations on all seven continents, Exodus Travels is one of the most popular group travel companies for adventurous travelers, and their Egyptian tours are particularly good.

With 9 different guided tours in Egypt, you can find the perfect itinerary for your trip. Exodus Travels is a true expert in the industry and hires incredible guides for their group travel excursions.

Plus, Exodus Travels also offers trips that are perfect for family travel.

Klook : Best Asia Tour Company

Whether you want to experience the hustle and bustle of downtown Tokyo or an adventurous trek to Everest Base Camp, Klook is one of the best group travel companies for Asia.

Klook is more than just a tour operator. It is a marketplace for everything travel, from airline tickets to hotels to tickets to museums, theme parks, and more. Klook offers trips for small groups or individual travelers all around the globe, but they are based in Asia, and that’s where they focus.

Klooks South Korea Tour will take you to Nami Island, through beautiful gardens, and into a centuries-old palace in Seoul.

Click Tours : Best Tour Company for Israel

Click Tours specializes in group travel in Europe and the Middle East, and Israel is by far their most popular tour destination. In Israel, Click Tours will offer trips ranging from 3-day highlight tours to 18-day deep-dive cultural experiences.

They focus on small group travel, and your tour group will have 15-24 guests. That means you get more personal attention and a more authentic experience of the country.

A tour of Israel with Click Tours will focus on historical and archeological sites. You’ll visit temples and ruins that are thousands of years old as well as dive into the amazing food and rich culture of Israel.

Epos Travel Tours : Best Tour Company for Greece

If you’re looking for a group travel trip to Greece, Epos Travel Tours is a local company based in Tripolis that offers tours across the country.

Since Epos Travel Tours specializes only in Greece, you can expect catered trips and insider knowledge. They are truly the experts in travel to Greece, and their trip itineraries are designed to help you get the most from your trip, whether you want to visit historical sites or delve into amazing food and culture.

If you’re into history and architecture, their tour of Ancient Corinth is hard to beat!

Best Tour Companies FAQ

Which is the best tour company in the world.

In my experience, Intrepid Travel is the best tour operator. They have amazing small-group tours.

What are the top travel companies?

The top travel companies for tours include Intrepid Travel , G Adventures , and Trafalgar .

Is Globus or Trafalgar better?

Trafalgar is usually the better choice. They offer amazing all-inclusive tours around the world.

Are tour companies worth it?

Group travel can be worth it if you want the stress and planning taken out of your trip.

Who is the biggest tour company?

Disney is the biggest tour company by revenue.

How do you know if a tour company is legit?

It is a good idea to look for reviews of a tour company on TripAdvisor.

Jakob Thygerson

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Is Southwest about to end its free-for-all seating?

The company says it is ‘very seriously studying’ alternatives to its signature open-seating system.

Southwest Airlines fans know the drill: Check in to your flight exactly 24 hours in advance and secure your spot in line to board the plane. What seat you’ll end up in? That’s a mystery until the last minute.

A puzzle to some and an invigorating challenge to others, Southwest’s unique boarding process and one-class cabin are now under the microscope as the airline looks for ways to prop up its financial performance. In a call with investors Thursday, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said executives are “very seriously studying” seating and the way passengers board the planes.

“It’s been several years since we last studied this in-depth, and customer preference and expectations change over time,” Jordan said. “We are also studying the operations and financial benefits of any potential change.”

Unlike most airlines, Southwest doesn’t have a premium section on its planes that commands higher fares. Where other carriers might charge extra for a cushy seat in the first few rows or an extra-legroom option near the front, Southwest customers can grab whatever seat is open. A spot near the front won’t come with any additional frills, however.

In a news release announcing quarterly earnings, a conference call discussing those results and an interview with CNBC , representatives said they were taking a deep look at customer preferences around seating and boarding. The current open-seating system was put in place when airliners were generally less full, the company said, noting that preferences change as planes fill up.

“There’s no decision, there’s nothing to report other than we are seriously looking at this,” Jordan said in response to a question about seating. “But early indications both for our customers and for Southwest look pretty darn interesting.”

While Southwest has contemplated the possibility of assigned seating for nearly two decades at least , the review has accelerated over the past six months, the CEO said. Jordan said the company will say more during an event for investors in September. The company has also recently said that it is preparing to add red-eye flights in the next couple of years.

Today, Southwest passengers can pay more to end up in a better seat, even without picking that seat in advance. Upgrades that provide priority boarding and early check-in give customers the first pick of spots. The airline makes “hundreds of millions of dollars” from those upgraded boarding options, executives said last year.

“They’re in kind of a pickle regarding revenue generation, so they’re looking at everything,” said Robert W. Mann, a consultant and former airline executive. “I think what they have seen is that when they’ve tweaked their existing cattle call … they find it to be very lucrative.”

He said that if the airline could deliver a more “pleasant” boarding process, or seat selection for a fee, it would probably be attractive to travelers.

“There’s nothing about their boarding process that they couldn’t improve,” Mann said.

Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group , said he did research more than a decade ago that found a large number of people avoided Southwest because it did not offer extra-legroom seats, assigned seats or a premium business-class cabin. He said that the airline could make “an enormous amount of money” by adding assigned seating — and that travelers would probably welcome knowing what seat they would end up in.

“I think it could be an incredibly positive thing for the airline, but I recognize that Southwest has a more-than-50-year history of being egalitarian, of having open seating and being different from other airlines,” he said.

More on air travel

Leave flying to the pros: Think you could land a plane in an emergency? Experts say you’re wrong . Here’s what you should actually do if something goes awry during a flight .

Pet peeves: Why do “gate lice” line up early for a flight ? Psychologists explained for us. Another move that annoys airline workers: abusing the flight attendant call button . For more on how to behave on a flight, check out our 52 definitive rules of flying .

Plane mess: Stories about extremely disgusting airplanes have been grossing out travelers. The question of plane cleanups became the subject of a recent debate after a flight attendant allegedly told a pregnant passenger to pick up the popcorn spilled by her toddler.

Frequent flying: Airline status isn’t what it used to be, but at least there are some good movies and TV shows to watch in the air. And somewhere out there, experts are trying to make airline food taste good.

In China, Blinken urges fair treatment of American companies

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