"The purpose of the journey": Nicole Bursey on the benefits of pre-booked experiences

The shift from sightseeing to immersive experiences is reshaping how travel advisors approach trip planning, with pre-booked tours and in-destination services emerging as both a client expectation and significant revenue opportunity.

According to Nicole Bursey, head of agency sales for Canada at Project Expedition, a booking platform for curated in-destination experiences, today's travellers are seeking deeper engagement with their destinations. 

"People are stepping out from being just an observer and going more in depth into the destination," she tells PAX.

The focus is on cultural immersion and hands-on participation. Bursey notes that travellers are looking for "more culturally rich or experiential things" rather than passive observation.

This desire for deeper engagement also shows up across all types of travel experiences. "Instead of just doing a wine and food tasting tour, people want to do cooking classes, so really diving into an experience," says Bursey, who joined Project Expedition last November.

Health and wellness activities are particularly trending.  "Whether it's a real adrenaline rush or just being at one with nature," she says. "It's e-bike tours and guided hikes and those kinds of wellness activities."

This evolution in travel preferences is transforming the advisor's role. "We're finding that it's really still increasing," she says of the trend. "The travel advisor, instead of just being the booker of the components, they're being tasked with curating the experience."

Why pre-planning matters now

Pre-planning has become essential for practical reasons beyond client preferences as destinations implement crowd-control measures and manage tourist flow. 

Bursey points to popular attractions like the Vatican, where advance tickets with skip-the-line access can make a significant difference in the visitor experience.

"People want to make the most of their time and reduce any potential hassles while they're in destination,” she says. 

According to Bursey, pre-planning has become "a must-discuss topic," with advisors needing to be present at every stage of their client's booking journey—from initial research through post-booking and even while clients are in destination.

She emphasizes the importance of advisors being available to help clients "at the beginning, when the client is doing the research, when they've actually booked, after booking, before travel, and even being able to have the conversation or finding a way to help the client, even if they are already in destination."

Revenue opportunities remain untapped

Beyond ensuring client satisfaction, there’s a compelling business rationale.

"There's a huge revenue opportunity in offering things like this because not every advisor spends a lot of time on this,” she says. 

She points to cruise shore excursions as a particularly underutilized opportunity.  "Most people, when they take a cruise vacation, they're going to get off the ship and want to do something locally," she says. "There's a lot of lost revenue for the advisors, because often the clients are just doing this on their own."

The missed opportunity is significant. 

“It's really untapped. Millions and millions of cruise travellers that are booking shore excursions and the advisors are earning nothing on it," says Bursey.

Project Expedition addresses these needs through a booking platform for in-destination experiences. "We're really carefully vetting the local companies that we work with, so it's very much a curated list," Bursey says. 

The platform offers flexibility for different client preferences, allowing advisors to book directly or create wish lists that clients can customize independently.

"We have something as simple as the option for an agent to share a referral link with a customer," says Bursey. "At least the agent is still playing the role of the expert. 'If you want to do it yourself, here you go.  This is someone I trust.''"

Project Expeditions has also developed solutions to help advisors navigate the growing complexity of experiential travel planning.

"If an advisor is being asked to create this magical journey of experiences, it can be a bit overwhelming," Bursey says. "They have to find local operators that are doing these sorts of things, someone who's trusted that's going to show up, that's going to be there if something goes wrong. It would take a lot of time for an advisor to do that."

The answer, she says, is working with the right partners. 

"Advisors are really searching out a partner that has done that leg work for them who they can work with so that they can provide that high degree of trust and support for their clients," says Bursey.

As travel continues evolving toward personalized, experience-driven journeys, advisors who embrace pre-planning and partner with reliable suppliers stand to capture both enhanced client satisfaction and substantial revenue growth.

“The thinking sometimes is that this is the extra stuff, when really this is the reason why people are travelling,” Bursey says. “The flight and the hotel room are just the logistics. This is the real purpose of the journey.”

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.