Betting on local agencies: the new trend of post-pandemic tourism

Travelling: yes, but differently, a prerequisite on the forefront in the world of tourism since the pandemic transformed our habits. In 2021, global tourism progressed by 4% vs 2020. Nevertheless, international touristic arrivals (visitors that spend the night) have remained inferior to 72% to those of 2019, the year before the pandemic, according to OMT’s first estimates. Operators had to be flexible and determined.

It is the case of the travel platform Evaneos, also impacted by a brutal stop of travel in 2020. Founders Eric La Bonnardière and Yvan Wibaux had to recapture the audacity of their beginnings when the platform was launched at the end of the financial crisis in 2008. These two Frenchmen passionate about travelling met on a university forum, sharing the same observation: the access remains difficult when it comes to information regarding local touristic gems, far from standard tour operator proposals. The idea of Evaneos emerged then: a platform which allowed travelers on the European market (Evaneos speaks to a French, Italian, Swiss, German, Dutch, Austrian and Spanish clientele) to get directly in contact with small local agencies worldwide.

“No one better than a local agent knows their territory and can therefore take travelers outside of beaten tracks. The objective is also to support local agents in the measured and sustainable exploitation of regional assets, in order to preserve heritage, on the contrary to occasional aggressive actions of some big international mass tourism players, explains Viola Migliori, Country Manager Evaneos for the South of Europe. The success of destinations has of course fluctuated depending on sanitary measures in different countries. Mexico and its colonial cities, the Yucatan coast or Tanzania and its luxurious lodges were the big winners of this pandemic period, as they never closed their boarders to tourism, on the contrary. Asia, however, was strongly impacted, with a strict sanitary protocol jeopardizing the hotel industry in the entire zone. Travelers’ tastes have also evolved: big crowds and far-away destinations were no longer needed. Island, with its few inhabitants and small urban areas, its wilderness and astonishing landscapes of lava and ice, was very sought after.”