The rules of distribution are changing again. After the rebound that brought international arrivals back to pre-pandemic levels in 2024 and pushed them beyond in 2025, the market has not simply “returned to what it was”: it has entered a new phase in which experiences, communities, and data become the driving force of demand and supply. For tour operators, DMCs, travel advisors, and travel-tech startups, the question is not whether to work with platforms, but how to do so profitably, differentiating value and managing costs. According to UN Tourism, international arrivals grew by 33% in 2024 and in the first quarter of 2025 exceeded 2019 levels: the pie is larger, but the slice will depend on today’s Tourism Intermediation choices.
The thesis is simple: next-generation platforms are not just inventory showcases, but co-creation environments where price, content, community, and reputation intertwine. In this ecosystem, intermediation rewards experiential quality and the ability to use data and open APIs; it punishes short-term opportunism, dependence on a single channel, and the absence of narrative positioning. In the coming months, between enforcement of the Digital Markets Act in Europe, growth of “event-driven travel,” and the return of transformative products, those who govern their presence on platforms, and integrate digital with local proximity, will gain a defensible competitive advantage.
The following path combines context and operational tools: how marketplaces are evolving, what opportunities and risks they bring, how to build a hybrid playbook that combines high-visibility channels, co-created experiences, and open data infrastructures.
This new era of Tourism Intermediation demands innovative strategies and a focus on sustainable practices to thrive in a competitive landscape.
From marketplace to the “weaving” of experience
The recovery has set all the levers of distribution back in motion. Phocuswright estimates that global gross bookings exceeded USD 1.5–1.6 trillion, with online penetration rising to about two-thirds by mid-decade. This means the most dynamic part of the market plays out where discovery, content, and payment intersect: platforms.
In the hottest segment, tours, activities, and attractions, the weight of OTAs has grown structurally: according to Arival, in 2024 they intermediated about one-third of global bookings in the sector, compared to 24% in 2019. This acceleration has two roots: transactional convenience on the user side and network effect on the supply side, pushing small and medium operators to get on board for visibility and conversion.
At the same time, demand is shifting towards highly engaging content. Skift has documented the boom of wellness as a cross-cutting experience and the rise of “Live Tourism,” travel oriented around moments and events that catalyze temporary communities: two currents that reward platforms capable of narrating and aggregating, not just listing.
This is the “weaving” of new intermediation: algorithmic discovery, social reputation, editorial content, and smooth transaction. In the middle, the transformative promise. Recent research on the “transformative experience”, from wellness tourism to co-creation practices, shows that people are seeking change, not just services. Those who sell travel, therefore, no longer distribute “slots” but meanings.
Platforms: experiences, creators, communities
The major platforms for in-destination experiences have evolved. Viator has pushed “pay-for-visibility” models with Accelerate 2.0: higher commission in exchange for prominence in listings and promotional placement, a mechanism that makes the channel more performant but also more expensive if not governed by clear KPIs. GetYourGuide has expanded its “Originals” line, curating exclusive and thematic vertical experiences; in 2025 it introduced AI tools for operators and expanded its offer to events and shows. For sellers, this means facing a “demand operating system,” not just a shelf.
It’s not only about mass discovery. Creator travel has moved out of the niche: platforms like TrovaTrip orchestrate groups led by content creators and professionals, with communities already engaged and DMC supply chains ready to operate on the ground. For TOs and DMCs, this is an acquisition channel that brings micro-niches with high affinity and a more experiential product language.
The year 2025 also marks the evolution of a hybrid player: Airbnb. With its summer release, the company decisively relaunched Experiences and announced new services, shifting attention from “where I sleep” to “what I live.” It is a strong signal: intermediation increasingly plays out on the ground of “why go” and “how to participate.”
Meanwhile, the museums and attractions segment sees the consolidation of vertical tech players like Tiqets, which connect inventory with new utilities for travelers (such as with eSIM partners) and are opening to partnerships with DMOs, offering destinations direct levers to activate sales and data. It is an invitation to think of distribution as shared infrastructure, not a zero-sum game.
The flip side: commissions, dependencies, European rules
The other side of this growth is margin erosion if the channel mix is not designed. In 2025 some operators reported commission increases on GetYourGuide, while accelerated models on Viator shift the cost of visibility from marketing to commission. Without control over acquisition cost and cannibalization rate, the platform can become a “tax on success.”
To complicate matters, enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is redesigning search pages in Europe, with direct impacts on how users discover flights, hotels, and activities. The Commission has raised challenges to Google regarding favoritism towards its own verticals (Shopping, Hotels, Flights) and compliance with anti-steering rules; Google has responded by testing new layouts, including the removal of some hotel modules and the inclusion of spaces for comparison sites. For the trade, fewer proprietary widgets may mean more “blue links” and more distributed clicks; but the transition is fluid and effects uneven: some report declines in direct channels, others gains in visibility. Those dependent on a single discovery source are exposed.
Finally, the arrival of “agent” engines in search, capable of booking restaurants and, eventually, tickets and experiences – opens a new front: conversational pre-intermediation that could shorten the distance between intention and purchase. This is an opportunity for products with well-exposed data and availability via API, a risk for those who are not “readable” by machines.
From closed intermediation to open architectures
The way out of platform dependency is not isolation, but openness. On the technical side, standards and APIs are consolidating for integration of the experiences sector: from Viator’s Partner API to the OCTO standard, which interoperably describes products, inventory, and bookings. On the institutional side, Europe is building the Common European Tourism Data Space: an infrastructure to share data between companies, DMOs, and public authorities based on common rules, aiming to reduce friction, increase productivity and sustainability, and enable new business models.
In practice, this translates into three moves. First: expose and consume data through open, documented APIs, ensuring every experience has structured descriptions, real-time availability, clear cancellation rules, and machine-readable prices. Second: connect your catalog to multiple demand “hubs,” choosing the role to play in each (pay-for-visibility where scale is needed, curated collections where differentiation is possible). Third: use platform data to improve production and yield, not just to “sell more.”
Destinations are also moving. Programs like Tourism Exchange USA, with U.S. DMO pilots, show how public-private channels can aggregate local inventory and connect it to global distributors, generating sales and insights. In Europe, ETIS and destination indicators are being updated in a “smart” key: measuring impacts and performance is no longer an academic exercise, but a prerequisite to feed discovery algorithms and defend destination value.
Operational playbook for TOs, DMCs, and startups
Let’s start with unit economics. In a context where the average commission on experiences hovers between 20% and 30% and can rise with visibility tools, pricing must incorporate not only direct costs and desired margin, but the expected channel mix. The most common mistake is to set a “flat” price and let commission erode the margin: better to define a price band and a logic of availability per channel, with differentiated inventory and allotment by seasonality, advance booking, and accessory value.
On the product side, it is advisable to think in terms of “backbones” and “petals.” The backbone is the core experience, clear and repeatable, that feeds high-visibility channels. The petals are transformative grafts, moments of community encounters, workshops, exclusive access, wellness or live formats, that lend themselves to curated collections, creator travel, and event programming. Here platforms like GetYourGuide have pushed the Originals, while Airbnb is relaunching Experiences and curated tiers: this is where DMCs and TOs can make their difference count.
Then comes economic management. The advice is to treat “Accelerate” programs as commission-based media campaigns: set cost-per-acquisition goals, minimum ROAS thresholds, limited test periods, and areas to activate the push (shoulder seasons, launches, new destinations). If Originals or curated programs require extra investment, negotiate editorial visibility and data access in return: the best collaborations are not “by list,” but “by project.”
Finally, the data strategy. Making listings “API-ready” increases not only direct sellability but also the likelihood of appearing in conversational agents and partner feeds; connecting to ETDS and European standards reduces friction with DMOs and territories. This is where victory lies in the medium term: the best platform is the one that is not seen, but that connects reliably.
Mini-case: a DMC that “opens the construction site”
Imagine a Mediterranean DMC with a portfolio of 25 experiences, strong in crafts and cuisine. First quarter: maps product, margins, and seasonality; defines three backbones (city food walk, artisan workshops, coastal trek) and five petals co-created with communities (paper-making workshop with a master, farmer’s lunch, wellness session at sunset). Second quarter: integrates OCTO and Viator’s Partner API for availability and dynamic pricing; activates Accelerate only on the two products with the best conversion rate and residual margin; pilots an Originals with GYG on an exclusive workshop. Third quarter: launches a “live” outing linked to a local festival; works with a creator to bring 12 confirmed spots in low season; opens a data channel with the local DMO to feed demand maps and measure impacts. The result is not “more channels,” but a portfolio orchestrated with rules, data, and storytelling
24-month scenarios: digital-local hybrids
The trajectory is clear. Intermediation will become more conversational and more situational. If Google pushes agents capable of booking, those with readable inventory and strong reputation will be chosen “upstream” of comparison; those who remain invisible to agents will slip into the long tail of paid visibility. In parallel, Europe will land the Data Space, with use cases giving destinations levers for sales and measurement: integrating standards and data flows now is an insurance policy for the future.
On the demand side, two currents will remain structural. The first is widespread wellness, not only retreats, but wellness components and attention to mental health embedded in experiences, which compels rethinking product design. The second is “Live Tourism”: journeys built around events, natural phenomena, creative seasons, shared moments. Both push intermediation towards more editorial, more community-based, more transformative models.
For those working in the trade, the future is a hybrid: digital grows visibility, information, and payments; local safeguards authenticity, access, and impact. In between are platforms and shared rules that hold everything together. This is where new forms of intermediation, from creator-led travel to curated collections, to tools for data sharing, cease to be trends and become infrastructure.
It is not necessary to be everywhere: better to excel on two platforms than to be present on five. Design three “backbone” experiences and add two transformative moments co-created with the territory. Launch a visibility test (such as “Accelerate”) with clear objectives, pair it with a curated collaboration and an open technical connection. Then measure, adjust, repeat. Platforms are not the finish line: they are the lever to bring into the world an experience that matters, in a way that is sustainable for both the creator and the traveler.
