Flytographer is hot right now. It seems to be constantly in the news. Founded in 2013, the company was recently named one of Canada’s 50 fastest growing businesses, has been covered by oprah.com, New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Instyle and many more. What makes them unique? The company offers a service that allows travelers to book a photography session in popular destinations around the world.
Say you are traveling to Paris, you can simply book your photography session via Flytographer’s website, securing a photographer who will meet you at a popular location like the Eiffel Tower and take great photos of you and your family. You then get the digital file to download, share or make prints to frame on your wall.
Flytographer is not cheap. Consumers have to pay a significant premium to get digital photos taken of themselves while on vacation. The company charges $250 for a 30-minute session that includes one location and 15 digital photos. If customers want more time or more photos, prices increase significantly; $350 for 60 minutes and 30 digital photos, $500 for 90 minutes and 45 digital photos. If you want the photographer to romp around the city with you, that’s $650 for 2 hours and 60 digital photos. All digital photos are delivered via the cloud.
Flytographer’s most popular plan costs $500 for 45 digital photos. In contrast, the average ticket price for a tour or activity is around $100.
In face of and with the rapid rise of smartphones, Flytographer has discovered a big demand for vacation photos that consumers cannot get themselves. When people are traveling there is a real need to capture their unique moments and memories forever in a way that a selfie or smartphone cannot. They want to stand out. Consumers are paying a premium for these types of photos.
As a result, the company has seen rapid growth and now claims to be the largest vacation photography service in the world. Investors see the demand too and have funded the company with $1.85 million to help it push even further.
What does this mean for tour and activity operators?
Flytographer is just another indicator in the tourism industry that there is strong demand and growth within the vacation photo market that is part of the $150 billion US photography service industry.
Tour and activity operators are perfectly positioned to capture a large portion of the growing travel photography market and rely on a consistent revenue stream that compliments their ticket sales. They are also able to benefit from the free marketing that comes with guests sharing photos on social media.
Consumers are demanding unique photos that they cannot take themselves on their regular, everyday smartphone. They want to stand out and they are willing to pay a significant premium to do so. They want to remember their unique experiences and to share photos that make them look and feel good. Without the photo, did it really happen?
Operators are providing truly unique photo opportunities for guests through one of a kind tours and activities. Guests are experiencing true emotion, showing real smiles and get to do it with their loved ones. It doesn’t get more unique and genuine than that!
Guests are not going to pay for a photo that they can get themselves on their smartphone or is of the same quality of their smartphone. Flytographer’s pricing, and success demonstrate that people are willing to pay more for photos, sometimes in lieu of even going on a tour.
By capturing these moments in the right way, tour and activity operators are perfectly situated to leverage this increased consumer demand for quality vacation photos and sustain itself with a profitable revenue stream on top of its ticket sales.
Knowing that there is a strong and growing demand for a quality travel photo product should ease concerns for operators if they were hesitant in either improving their programs or starting a new one.
It is critical to invest properly in a tour photography program to participate in the growing $150 billion industry. Guests are not going to buy and share just anything.
If done correctly, an operator is able to capture this travel photo demand with a quality product that consumers will purchase at high rates. As the focus is on producing a quality photo that makes guests look and feel good, they’ll invest in it and proudly share it with friends and family back home showcasing your business.
A tour and activity operator will only then be able to truly grow its business with tour photos via an exciting product offering, an additional revenue stream and via social sharing.
Implementing a photo program can improve your tour business’ profitability while allowing you to invest the necessary resources required to produce a product that your customers will want to buy and show off! Photos also provide auxiliary benefits that many are not aware of like an easy way to cross promote or even compensate the rarely upset guest. To learn more read this blog post.
To learn more about what types of photos guests want to buy and how to capture them, please reach out at info@picthrive.com. PicThrive has done extensive research, facilitated millions of photo sales and generated millions of social referrals for tour and activity operators.
Our team takes a hands-on approach and coaches tour and activity operators with existing operations on how to adapt to changing consumer demand and has helped others start successful revenue generating photo programs from scratch. We take a guest first approach to ensure you are providing a five-star experience that your guests are going to tell the world about.
