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Travel And Tour World – AdventureLink is primarily your brainchild; would you like to brief your experiences that inspired you to open AdventureLink?
Kelly Tompkins: I got the travel bug as a competitive cyclist and had the opportunity to travel extensively. I realized that I was experiencing something unique and years later it inspired me to start AdventureLink to see if I could inspire others to travel differently.
Travel And Tour World – There are various notions about the authenticity of adventure trips among travellers. What was the key to innovate a seamless platform to satiate the needs of adventure travellers of the world?
Kelly Tompkins: Adventure travel is really all about the cultural connection in a unique, small group setting. The key for AdventureLink has been to create a broad platform of a variety of experiences and destinations that appeal to a wide audience and that push people to get slightly out of their comfort zone to experience something unique!
The key innovation that AdventureLink delivers is that we provide the best portfolio of operators from large to small around the world that gives our customers the best source to book these types of unique experiences, risk free. Each operator is carefully vetted based on years of operation, accreditation & reviews.
Travel And Tour World: Every start-up company goes through a rough patch at some point or the other. Would you like to describe some of the challenges that you faced during the initial days? How did you tackle them?
Kelly Tompkins: AdventureLink is been a pursuit of passion with lots of ups and downs, but we are finally scaling the business and getting large distribution partners to sign-up. Initially we faced significant technical challenges in developing a single data schema that could represent both day and multi-day operators around the world. Our second biggest challenge was to get distribution partners to realize the opportunity in selling small group, speciality tours.
Travel And Tour World: AdventureLink is one of the most profound platforms for adventure travel enthusiasts all over the world. Share some of the new measures taken up by AdventureLink to assist travellers worldwide?
Kelly Tompkins: We have been working on the development of the first dynamic packaging engine that provides consumers and agents with the ability to book adventure tours as all-inclusive packages. We are also adding group booking functionality and recently AdventureLink has launched a Software as a Solution [SaaS] platform that allows any travel organization to take advantage of the AdventureLink platform for their own purposes.
Travel And Tour World: Would you like to share some new and major collaboration stories of AdventureLink with our readers? How will they change the outlook of adventure travelling?
Kelly Tompkins: Adventure is in the process of launching some major partnerships that we will be announcing shortly. Adventure travel in general is an $89 billion dollar global industry and growing at 17% per year as aging baby boomers and millennial travellers seek out more authentic travel experiences. For the travel industry, adventure travel represents the largest commission opportunity available today with average bookings over $5,000.
Travel And Tour World: Technology and sustainability should work in sink to improve the standards of trips. How is AdventureLink catering to these two pillars of the global travel industry?
Kelly Tompkins: AdventureLink supports local operators that are contributing to the local economy and AdventureLink works closely with Planterra, which supports sustainable, social and environment programs around the world.
Travel And Tour World: What will be your take on the future of adventure travelling and what are your plans in making AdventureLink a contributor and supporter in the growth of this niche travel sector?
Kelly Tompkins: Adventure travel will continue to grow and more and more travellers seek out unique travel experiences and AdventureLink’s goal is to play a part in helping people find and book these types of extraordinary travel experience. Our goal is to make AdventureLink the dominant platform for booking adventure travel globally through partnerships with key affiliates that can help distribute our platform globally.
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