While most of the travel agencies, tour operators and destination management companies were struggling to survive during 2020 (and they still are due to the lack of staff ) here’s a very bright example of a tour operator who not only managed to survive, but to grow their business. 

No. 8 Tours is specialized in the day and multi-day excursions for the senior community throughout New Zealand. With hard work and a successful formula, since 2008 they’ve grown to be one of New Zealand’s largest travel clubs for seniors.In order to enable scaling of the business and increase the quality of the service provided to their travelers, they decided to invest in technology and look for software that can support a large number of unique tours that they were doing manually in giant spreadsheets. Soon they implemented Lemax software, which turned out to be an integral part of the business success once the Covid-19 pandemic started. 

When the lockdown occurred, they were facing a large number of cancellations. They gave their customers the option to postpone the tour or to claim their insurance. By managing all that through sophisticated software, they were able to keep track of what’s booked, paid, rescheduling of the tour, or claiming the insurance. This overview and seamless process vastly minimized the negative effect that the lockdown had on their business. 

“Had we not had Lemax, trying to keep a handle on what someone paid, who’s transferring their booking on a later date and who’s claiming insurance would be impossible. Lemax helped us do that seamlessly”, said Andy Somerville, co-founder and CEO of No.8 Tours. 

By doing all of that, Lemax also allowed them to get ahead of the competition. 

“Lemax allowed us to be creative, and put more products out there. Our calendar is now full and we don’t have any room for new tours” says Andy. 

The full Customer case study by Lemax can be found here.