We’re seeing people booking tours that are distanced with smaller groups: CEO

Paul Melhus, CEO & Founder of ToursByLocals joins the Yahoo Finance Live Panel to discuss the state of the tourism industry amid COVID.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Well, Thanksgiving weekend, it's historically one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, but millions of Americans are changing their plan because of the pandemic. So for more on this, we want to bring in Paul Melhus. He's the CEO and Founder of ToursByLocals. It's a private tour marketplace.

And Paul, great to have you on the program. We just heard from CDC Director Robert Redfield. He was on Yahoo Finance urging people to stay home, not travel, given what's going on across the country right now. I'm curious, what are you hearing from your travelers, from your customers, just in terms of what their plans were this weekend?

PAUL MELHUS: Well, certainly, our customers are avid travelers, and they're-- they're keen to travel. Right now, of course, domestic travel is the only option that is available for people. And we're actually recommending that people try to travel or take tours in their own community.

I think our customers are-- they want to celebrate the Thanksgiving season, but they're looking for different sorts of activities to kind of-- because it's not going to be a normal year, for sure. So what we're seeing is people booking walking tours, things that are outdoors, distanced, and just with your small family group. So maybe you're taking a ghost tour in Charleston, something in New Orleans has a, like a foodie tour.

And the other thing that's very popular is our live virtual tours. So this would be where the whole family can get together virtually anywhere in-- that they happen to be from the comfort of their living room and take a walk around the old town in Dubrovnik together as a family, learn how to make pumpkin ravioli from a cook in Ravenna, Italy, or walk about the streets of Reykjavik in Iceland. So lots of different types of activities than we might normally see this time of year.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Paul, these are-- in normal times, this is the best way to see a city you've never been in is you hire a local to take you around and you get the tour. I'm curious, you can pull these tours off of YouTube. What are the most popular destinations people are going virtually?

PAUL MELHUS: Oh, I think the most popular ones are our food tours. They're very experiential, very hands on. And we're seeing, you know, extended families getting together, mom, dad, kids, grandparents, maybe a couple of related families in different locations, and they-- they all come together through the meeting software that we've got set up. And then basically, it's a private tour, just like our regular tours would be face-to-face, so you get a better experience than-- than you might if you just kind of watched a YouTube video because it's very interactive.

SEANA SMITH: Paul, it's interesting, I was going through your notes, and a recent survey from you in October showed that 55% of travelers that you surveyed that they're excited to travel internationally again in 2021. I guess I might be a little bit surprised that it's not higher, given the fact that a lot of your customers, and I'm sure your survey base, are such avid travelers. But when we take into account that there are 55% of people looking to go somewhere, any idea of where they're looking to go first? Is there a popular destination right now?

PAUL MELHUS: Well, we're-- our main market is Europe. And so, you know, the usual places that you might expect like Italy and France. So we're starting to see some return of demand. People are booking either for very short-- short-notice tours, you know, in the next couple of days, and also in wide open spaces.

So over the summer, we saw, you know, an 88% increase in our tours of Yellowstone National Park. But now we're starting to see bookings coming in for next summer all through Europe. And people are really excited to get out of-- get back traveling internationally.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Paul, I don't know if you recall, there was a play a billion years ago, and I'm hoping it comes back to Broadway when it opens, called Lettice and Lovage about a licensed tour guide in the United Kingdom who embellishes the story about a very boring castle. It's a riot. It's a comedy. The people on your platform, are they licensed or are there all kinds? Can you choose through the platform I want the licensed officially government sanctioned tour guide or just the local?

PAUL MELHUS: Well, we have both on our platform. We're a big tent. But you know, we do also follow the local regulations. So for example, in many places in Europe in the historic center of the cities, they will require that the guide be licensed. But you know, if you're wanting to have, say, a tapas tour of Barcelona, you just get a passionate local or a pub tour in Dublin. You don't need to have a license to do that, just somebody who knows all of the really excellent places to have a beer.

SEANA SMITH: Well, we've seen a couple of airlines talk about the importance of COVID testing, some of them offering COVID testing before their flights. How big of a boost do you think this could potentially provide the travel industry if more airlines adopt this initiative?

PAUL MELHUS: Well, certainly, you know, right now it's impossible for the American public to go to Europe or to go many places except perhaps Mexico and some spots in South America. So I think this will be really important. When we surveyed our travelers and asked them what it would take to get them booking again, the second-- the most important thing was flexibility in cancellation, because I think everybody is remembering how hard it was to get your money back last-- last spring when everybody had to cancel. So that's number one.

Number two is the presence of a vaccine, they've said. So I'm not so sure that testing will be that important to our travelers. I think they're more looking for the vaccine, and we're-- we're certainly encouraged that current reports suggest that April will be the time when it is commonly available to everyone.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Well, with all the pent-up demand, I'm curious, what's your first destination when we can all start traveling again?

PAUL MELHUS: Well, I'm heading off to Iceland and then to Norway. So hopefully, I'll be able to do that next-- next summer. It was really disappointing to have to cancel it this year.

SEANA SMITH: That sounds like an amazing trip. I wish I could go with you. But Paul, real quick before we let you go, I'm just curious just to get your thoughts just on the cruise line industry. I don't believe that you work directly with them, but do you see cruises ever returning to the levels that we saw pre-pandemic, just given what's gone on over the last several months?

PAUL MELHUS: I think it's going to take a long time before the cruise industry comes back. But certainly, people who like to travel-- or who likes to cruise, they're very passionate about it. So I think that there's a strong cadre of people that-- that will cruise. And also, there's a younger group that is interested in cruising as an option as well. So I think in two, three years, we'll see them back, and that'll be good for ToursByLocals, because we certainly do offer a lot of shore excursions from cruise ships.

SEANA SMITH: Two to three years. I guess not as long as I was expecting you to say. But Paul Melhus, great to have you on the show, CEO and Founder of ToursByLocals, we wish you all the best. Happy Thanksgiving.

PAUL MELHUS: Great. Thank you.