TripAdvisor to focus more on the experienced travel moving forward

A good amount of the business that runs through TripAdvisor's travel planning platform, is still hotel searches, but at the company's core, it's still a wholly tourism and activities search engine.

CEO Steve Kaufer, in answering questions from analysts, said consumers who buy experiences from TripAdvisor book right on TripAdvisor sites, and often become members while travelers shopping for hotels tend not to do so. That’s because, with the demise of the company’s push for instant booking for hotels on TripAdvisor sites, travelers complete their bookings on online travel agency and hotel websites.

Kaufer said the lifetime value of bookers of experiences — whether it might be for a tour or an attraction ticket — is potentially much more meaningful for the company than that of hotel shoppers. He added that these experience bookers, after that initial booking, may also buy another one or two tours and activities in their destinations during their trips.

Hotel shoppers haven’t opted to register and become TripAdvisor members in the way that bookers of experiences have, Kaufer said.

He said the company sees big future opportunities in its experiences business, particularly because TripAdvisor is the leader in such online bookings in many geographies. “We continue to double down on supply and reach going forward,” Kaufer said.

CFO Ernst Teunissen confirmed that the company is leading into performance marketing for experiences and restaurants, which are getting a higher priority than marketing its hotel business. The company is investing heavily in its experiences and restaurants businesses, too, he added.

When TripAdvisor excludes alternative accommodations from the mix, its non-hotel business actually grew at a 40 percent clip in 2018, the company reported. The company’s non-hotel business accounted for 27 percent, or $458 million, of TripAdvisor’s $1.61 billion in total revenue in 2018.

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