Package Tours in the Digital Age
"Technically nobody would nowadays need a tour operator"

The main elements of a package tour (transport, accommodation, meals) have long been easy to combine and book online. Geared to individual wishes – in a transparent manner and low priced. That’s what people believe. Booking portals therefore emerge as seminal agents and distribution channels, while travel agents and traditional tour operators who sell through their catalogues may fall behind. That’s how it seems.
At first sight, one might think: The travel industry tries to find a balance between individual services and nonverbal online shops. On the one hand, companies would like to meet the demands of the better-off ”best agers“ (who in some cases are also active online), on the other hand they would like to accommodate the app-affine booking habits of the “digital natives“. And while on tour a tablet replaces the tour guide.
Is that really so? Or aren’t they all in fact in the same boat, because without those who produce travel and tourism services booking portals would have nothing to sell, and without the expertise of tour operators and travel agents customers would have to rely on review sites alone? Last but not least, the time needed, questions of liability, and possible hidden costs are often ignored when tourists book online all by themselves.
The Ammerlander Talk 2015 will take up and address all these aspects. Therefore, the introductory presentations will be made from different perspectives.

Presenter
Klaus Betz

Speakers and Statements
Christian Schmicke
Get to the point! Large tour operators in the age of digital change
Guido Wiegand
Take the meat loaf. It needs to be finished.
Torsten Schäfer
Travel agents of the future – the future of travel agents: Why they will exist anyway!
Michael Buller
Star Trek? – is outdated