Tourism in Latin America is growing, driven by digitalization and the personalization of travel experiences, a key factor for the future.
Latin America has seen a significant increase in international tourist arrivals in recent years. According to data from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), in 2023, Latin America’s travel and tourism sector exceeded the 2019 figure for contribution to the regional economy by US$3.7 billion.
The sector accounted for 7.8% of the regional economy in the same year, contributing US$367.4 billion.
This tourism rebound is driven by several factors, including the relaxation of travel restrictions, the rise of sustainable tourism, and the popularity of destinations combining nature, adventure, and culture.
Latin America has gone from being a niche destination to becoming a magnet for travelers worldwide. Among the most popular destinations, Mexico and Brazil stand out as the countries that have led this growth, attracting international tourists and a growing number of local travelers.
In 2023, tourism accounted for 7.8% of Latin America’s regional economy
Tourism trends in the region
The profile of the tourist visiting Latin America has changed over the last decade. Travelers are increasingly looking for personalized experiences, nature getaways, and destinations with a focus on sustainability. In addition, the proliferation of low-cost flights and the digitization of tourism services have facilitated access to many of the region’s hidden treasures.
An important trend is the rise of “adventure tourism” and “ecotourism”. Destinations such as the Amazon in Brazil, the Atacama Desert in Chile, and the national parks of Costa Rica have captured the attention of a growing number of travelers seeking closer contact with nature. In addition, iconic cities such as Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Lima continue to be cultural and gastronomic attractions.
Another notable trend is the growing demand for “contactless” tourism solutions and the preference for online transactions. According to a Statista report, more than 70% of travelers in Latin America prefer to plan and book their trips online, and that figure continues to rise year on year. This is where bus ticketing and transportation services play a crucial role in ensuring a frictionless experience.
With the changing traveler profile and the amount available about their behavior, bus companies can get to know them better and offer them a personalized ticketing experience.
Data such as the reasons for their trips, who they travel with, what times they prefer to travel, their favorite seats, or their payment method, are just some of the key aspects that, combined with local trends, generate a solid database for bus companies. The data provides insight into where the user is in the process, from their first interaction to their next purchase.
This information not only helps improve service but also enhances the personalization of the online shopping experience, making it closer, more efficient, and tailored to the specific needs of each user.
For example, in Reservamos SaaS, when a user interacts with the eCommerce of one of our partners, the system can automatically adjust the information displayed on the website, offering a unique experience in each search and digital purchase process. The digital purchase experience for a traveler located in Mexico City will be vastly different from that of a traveler in Lima or any other city in Latin America.
+70% of travelers in Latin America prefer to plan and book their trips online
Mexico and Brazil: the favorites in the tourism industry
In terms of growth and popularity, Mexico and Brazil are positioned as the tourism giants in Latin America. In 2023, Mexico reported the arrival of more than 40 million international tourists, consolidating its position as one of the top destinations worldwide.
By 2024, Mexico will be positioned as the favorite international destination for leisure and business travel, surpassing even Caribbean destinations such as Jamaica, Aruba, and the Dominican Republic, according to data from Marriott International’s Travel Trends Forecast study in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA).
Mexico is positioned as the favorite international destination for business and leisure travel.
The diversity of its tourism offer, ranging from the beaches of the Mexican Caribbean to the cultural richness of its colonial cities, has made Mexico a favorite for foreign and local tourists.
On the other hand, Brazil has once again captured the attention of tourists worldwide. Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival, the beaches of Copacabana, and the Amazon rainforest are just some of the attractions that have kept Brazil on the wish list of many travelers, especially attracting a new type of tourist: those interested in conservation and ecotourism.
Both countries have not only proven to be attractive destinations. Still, they are also leading the way in adapting technology to meet the growing demand for tourism services, where the sale of transportation tickets, especially bus tickets, plays a central role.
The importance of being prepared for demand
This tourism boom presents a significant challenge for service providers. As more travelers seek digital solutions to plan their trips, transportation companies, particularly bus lines, must accelerate their capacity for innovation to be ready to meet demand.
The role of the bus in Latin America’s tourism industry is essential, due to its territorial extension, and mainly because the bus remains the most accessible and used means of transportation in the region.
+90% of travel in Mexico is by bus
In Brazil, bus routes connect cities and regions that do not have airline coverage, making this service a fundamental pillar of tourist transportation. In addition, many of the region’s most popular attractions are not located near major airports, making the bus the best option for travelers.
Is your eCommerce ready to deliver digital shopping experiences that match each traveler’s needs?
The role of online bus ticket sales
Online bus ticketing has become a crucial element in meeting the needs of modern travelers. Digitizing the purchasing process allows users to plan their trips more efficiently, access promotions and discounts, and avoid long lines at bus stations.
The ease and convenience of purchasing tickets from bus companies’ direct digital sales channels also helps gain insights that help operational teams detect opportunities to improve the customer experience, increase revenue, and reduce costs across the entire operation.
This is where Reservamos SaaS plays a key role. As a pioneer in integrating technology solutions for online bus ticketing, Reservamos SaaS helps bus companies improve their digital operations and deliver a personalized experience to each traveler.
Through the use of artificial intelligence and real-time data analytics, companies can offer their travelers a personalized shopping experience by being tailored to their individual needs.
In addition, Reservamos SaaS technology enables bus companies to anticipate market demands, adjust their prices dynamically, and improve customer satisfaction by personalizing the online experience. This not only boosts sales but also enhances traveler loyalty by delivering efficient, high-quality service.
The growth of tourism in Latin America is creating new opportunities for bus companies and tourism service providers. To remain competitive, they must adopt technology solutions that facilitate digital ticketing and offer a personalized online experience to travelers.
The future of tourism in Latin America is digital, and companies that embrace this evolution will be better positioned to capitalize on the sector’s boom.
In this sense, the Reservamos SaaS technology ecosystem helps companies accelerate their innovation to optimize the way they interact with their travelers and prepare for the digital future throughout the region.
Reservamos SaaS Next demonstrated how AI-based personalization and real-time data enhance the online bus ticket purchasing experience.
On September 5th, the first edition of Reservamos SaaS Next took place, a key event to share with the bus sector in the Latam region our commitment to personalization that makes the online experience unique for each user.
During the online event, the multiple innovation possibilities offered by the use of data to personalize the online purchasing experience for users when they buy their bus tickets through bus companies’ digital channels were discussed. One of the main topics was how companies can optimize interaction with their customers by using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time data to generate unique and personalized experiences.
Reservamos SaaS aims for the system to learn from each user’s interactions and improve the next experience, turning each visit into an opportunity to offer an even more personalized service. The vision is that, instead of always displaying the same standard information, eCommerce becomes dynamic, changing according to the traveler’s location, timing, needs, and behavior.
Additionally, the potential of applying these advancements to digital platforms and all interaction channels, such as customer support, was highlighted. The possibility for a support agent to know the details of the trip the customer is planning enables for more efficient and personalized service, generating trust and loyalty.
Personalization as the future of online shopping experiences
Much of Reservamos SaaS’s work has focused on improving the user experience, especially on mobile devices.
Adrián Cuadros, Chief Product Officer of Reservamos SaaS, recalled how mobile apps became an essential requirement during the pandemic when many consumers were forced to purchase digitally. However, Adrián emphasized that what used to be a competitive advantage—having a good mobile app—has now become an essential requirement and necessity. The most successful companies have stood out by optimizing the user experience at every digital touchpoint, and the future lies in personalization.
Adrián exemplified that it used to be enough to present travelers with the necessary information to make their purchase on the eCommerce platform as simple as possible. However, today, we have access to more information that helps us better understand the eCommerce user. reasons for traveling, who they travel with, their travel schedules, preferred seats, and payment methods. This information, combined with trend data and local events, allows for creating a database that enhances personalization in the purchasing experience, making it closer, more efficient, and faster.
What is the purpose of this personalization database? Its value lies in the fact that when a traveler interacts with the eCommerce of one of our partners or their apps, the content adapts to each user. Instead of displaying the same page, like a printer repeating the same newspaper, the site changes based on the traveler’s characteristics. For example, the experience for someone in Mexico City will be very different from that of a person in another city, or the experience of a traveler in Bogotá will be different from someone in Lima or any other city in Latin America. – Adrián Cuadros, Head of Product for Reservamos SaaS.
Adrián mentioned that routes and discounts vary, and essentially the entire funnel changes. This depends on both the user’s location and the time they visit a partner’s eCommerce. For example, the experience of a first-time user today will be very different from someone returning in three days while already in the middle of planning their trip.
According to Adrián, bus companies must evolve toward a more personalized purchasing experience by using the data and interactions their users already make within their eCommerce platforms. This includes information such as preferred destinations, favorite schedules, seat preferences, and payment methods to ensure more efficient, closer, and relevant purchasing funnels.
This is why Reservamos SaaS’s ecosystem has been designed to allow companies to take advantage of this data, offering users an experience tailored to their individual needs, whether through mobile apps, websites, or even support channels like chat and phone.
Another key point of the event was the importance of evolving the direct channel of bus companies. This not only increases customer loyalty but also opens the door to greater revenue opportunities and reduced operating costs, especially when combined with advanced technology such as artificial intelligence.
So join us in discovering the new features that Reservamos SaaS offers for both enterprise and small businesses, to increase revenue while providing a better shopping experience for your travelers.
New functionalities of Reservamos SaaS
During Reservamos SaaS Next, we presented new functionalities and launches focused on personalization for all. These innovations enable bus companies to maintain competitiveness and enhance their market position by anticipating travelers’ needs, improving operational efficiency, and boosting customer satisfaction.
Personalized funnel
We undertook the task of investigating the main challenges that travelers encounter when making an online purchase and suggested personalized solutions to address them.
To achieve this, we started with the search widget, which is an intelligent search engine that takes into account recent searches, and popular destinations, and has an autofill function. In two clicks, the traveler can begin their trip search for today, tomorrow, or a specific date. They can also find the destination they are looking for quickly and easily thanks to the intuitive, data-driven design.
Additionally, we redesigned the results page, highlighting the most important information for users: schedule and price. We integrated tags with:
Recommended trips, where the funnel learns from each search and becomes personalized over time.
Popular trips, based on other users’ searches.
Cheapest and fastest trips.
To make the purchasing process simpler and more efficient, we enabled seat selection and availability directly from the results screen. Users can explore available seats for each schedule, so we added:
A checkmark to let the user know which options they’ve already reviewed.
Customizable options to add the return trip in one click.
Pre-filled passenger data.
Favorite payment method based on user behavior.
For bus companies, this innovation not only improves the user experience within their own eCommerce platforms but also:
Increases conversion rates thanks to faster and more efficient navigation.
Raises the average ticket by offering additional options like the return trip.
Provides a robust data architecture to better understand users and continuously optimize the shopping experience in their eCommerce platforms.
Chatbot
The Reservamos SaaS Chatbot connects directly to WhatsApp and enables users to search for trips using natural language, generating a direct purchase link that takes travelers to the eCommerce platform of our partners to complete their purchases.
It’s the perfect assistant for all traveler queries. From resending the digital ticket more easily to providing information and answering questions about available services.
With a simple setup within the eCommerce platform, bus companies have access to an assistant capable of providing 24/7 support to their travelers. This positively impacts their business by:
Reducing operating costs.
Speeding up service with instant responses.
Boosting satisfaction and loyalty through personalized and fast service.
ReservamosOne
Users interact with bus companies in multiple ways, but without a system capable of storing that data, companies lose the ability to analyze it to better connect with their travelers.
ReservamosONE is an intelligent system that unifies a user’s interactions across the various sales channels a bus company has, whether online or offline, to help companies make informed, strategic decisions based on data.
With this data stored and organized, bus company operations teams can access it to gain insights that lead to actions that solve specific problems or answer key questions.
With ReservamosONE, bus companies can discover the different interactions a traveler has with their brand to ensure unique shopping experiences tailored to what the traveler needs.
Price Suggestion
The Price Suggestion Module, integrated with our Revenue Management System, enables bus companies to analyze historical data on their company and competitors to suggest intelligent pricing strategies, all automatically.
This module analyzes historical data using sales, occupancy, price, and demand information from the last four weeks. It generates accurate demand curves to assign dynamic prices based on forecasted purchases.
With this tool, operations teams can eliminate manual strategies by automating dynamic price allocation, allowing them to anticipate changes in demand more efficiently and quickly. This way, the company can:
Adjust prices based on real-time demand and occupancy.
Respond quickly to market changes to maximize revenue.
Each suggested strategy has a calculated risk level that increases the company’s revenue.
The Price Suggestion Module not only optimizes revenue but also reduces the time and effort required to manage prices, maximizing income through dynamic, accurate pricing, and simplifying price management by reducing the manual workload.
The future of personalization
Adrián also discussed a key trend for the future of eCommerce: the development of multiple specialized artificial intelligences in different areas. Instead of relying on a single omnipotent AI, companies will have AIs that are experts in specific niches, such as bus travel management.
This vision aligns with Reservamos SaaS’s commitment to offering advanced solutions that help its partners remain competitive in a constantly evolving market.
The first edition of Reservamos SaaS Next made it clear that the future of eCommerce is focused on data-driven personalization. That’s why every solution integrated into our technological ecosystem is aligned with this approach, ensuring that partner companies have what they need to evolve their operations and face future challenges and opportunities.
Bus companies that, regardless of their size, take advantage of this potential will not only improve their users’ experience but will also be able to optimize their revenue and strengthen their competitive position in an increasingly digital and demanding market.
Optimize revenue and occupancy with Reservamos SaaS Intelligent Alerts. Monitor prices, routes, and competitors in real-time to make strategic decisions.
Every bus company needs to monitor the market closely and track factors such as price changes and occupancy on each route and schedule. Having the right tools can help operational teams broaden their perspective to design and implement pricing strategies more quickly and make the difference between meeting growth goals and falling behind in the process. Proper market monitoring is key to ensuring efficient and profitable operations for your company.
However, this exercise can undoubtedly be complex, time-consuming, and require significant resources from your team, potentially leading to missed growth opportunities. At Reservamos SaaS, we specialize not only in strengthening your digital sales channels but also in providing the most suitable tools to help your company efficiently and effectively monitor market changes, keeping you ahead of the competition.
The Intelligent Alerts and Recommendations module, integrated into our Revenue Management System, enables you to set up all kinds of notifications to monitor your market in real time. One of its latest features includes the ability to create alerts by partners within a competitor’s OTA or Marketplace that you choose to monitor.
This new functionality addresses the need to monitor and create alerts for each available partner within an OTA’s webpage. This way, your company can receive notifications about price and occupancy changes for a specific competitor within an OTA. Regardless of the breadth of an OTA or Marketplace’s offerings and the number of competitors it includes, your company will be able to closely track each one of them.
Other key features of this module include:
– Mass data download: In addition to having a calendar and text summary of occupancy and price alerts within the Revenue Management System, this feature allows you to download the compiled data in an Excel file.
– Configuring and activating alerts for occupancy and price changes: This facilitates the creation and activation of alerts for occupancy and price changes to monitor the market.
– Alert file download: Enables the bulk download of active alerts, allowing your company to take action based on its needs.
– Email download delivery: The downloaded file is also sent to the email of the user who performed the download.
The precision in real-time data collection and analysis provided by the Revenue Management System through its various modules is the key to optimizing your company’s operational capacity. It enables your teams to focus on identifying opportunities, adjusting prices, and increasing occupancy quickly, thereby meeting travelers’ changing demands.
With the Revenue Management System from Reservamos SaaS, and particularly with the Intelligent Alerts module, your bus company can make more informed decisions and always stay one step ahead in a constantly changing market. In this way, you not only optimize occupancy and revenue but also strengthen your company’s competitive position in the market
Optimize revenue and pricing with the Revenue Management System from Reservamos SaaS. Monitor the market and adjust strategies in real-time.
In the competitive world of passenger transportation, properly managing operations and optimizing pricing strategies can make the difference between growing your business and leaving revenue opportunities on the table. With the Revenue Management System from Reservamos SaaS, bus companies can increase their revenue thanks to a data-driven solution that centralizes all the necessary information to make strategic and effective decisions.
This advanced system offers precise and quick answers to the most complex questions companies face about their markets. With a modular structure, the system enables you to monitor and analyze market behavior, receive intelligent alerts about supply changes, evaluate the performance of implemented strategies, and generate intelligent pricing recommendations to maximize revenue.
The modules that make up the Revenue Management System are:
– Competitor Monitor
– Intelligent Alerts
– Pricing Strategy
– Dash Center
– Price Suggestion
Below, we detail the functionalities of each of the five modules to help your company make data-driven decisions.
Revenue Management System Modules
1. Competitor Monitor
Powered by machine learning, this module enables companies to obtain a strategic view of the market. It analyzes data such as routes, schedules, occupancy, and pricing, providing critical information that enables businesses to anticipate the competition and adjust pricing and inventory strategies on time.
It’s used by pricing analysts, data analysts, operations managers, and sales and marketing managers, among other bus company staff, to access updated and automatic market information, such as routes, schedules, occupancy, capacity, and prices. This complete visualization helps make better pricing strategies and inventory optimization decisions.
2. Intelligent Alerts
Set up automatic notifications to receive information about changes in revenue, routes, occupancy, and other critical market variables. This enables companies to respond to market fluctuations and keep their strategies optimized quickly.
One of the latest features includes creating alerts by partners within a competitor OTA or Marketplace you choose to monitor. This new functionality addresses the need to monitor and create alerts for each partner available on an OTA’s website.
Other key features include mass data downloads, setting and activating alerts by occupancy and price changes, downloading alert files, and sending downloads via email.
3. Pricing Strategy
Enables companies to efficiently generate and manage dynamic pricing strategies, significantly reducing operational times. This module also facilitates mass uploads of strategies, price adjustments, and quick deactivation of discounts.
Additionally, this module includes a new feature, Trip List, designed to revolutionize how bus companies manage pricing and make strategic decisions.
The Trip List is a tool that provides a general and comparative overview of fares and availability on different routes and schedules, all in one easy-to-consult table.
4. Dash Center
This dashboard offers a clear and up-to-date visualization of key performance indicators, such as revenue, average ticket, and occupancy. It is a key tool for measuring the impact of implemented pricing strategies and adjusting operations in real-time.
With this tool, bus companies have access to graphs with the following indicators:
– Total revenue
– Daily revenue for the period
– Average ticket
– Daily average ticket for the period
– Tickets sold
– Daily tickets sold for the period
– Tickets per trip
– Average tickets sold per trip
– Advance sales
– Sales with days of anticipation
– Average days of anticipation
– Trips
– Average revenue per trip
– ASK (Seats offered per kilometer traveled)
– RASK (Occupied seats per kilometer traveled)
5. Price Suggestion
Based on historical sales, occupancy, and demand data, this module suggests dynamic prices to optimize revenue without manually designing strategies. It’s ideal for anticipating demand fluctuations at specific times.
The Price Suggestion Module enables the Revenue Management System to generate strategies suggested to the bus company for approval based on controlled risk levels.
With these modules, the Reservamos SaaS Revenue Management System not only improves operational efficiency but also enhances companies’ ability to quickly adapt to market conditions. This, in turn, increases revenue and improves purchase anticipation and occupancy for each route and schedule. In short, it is the comprehensive solution every bus company needs to stay competitive in a constantly changing market.
We improve the bus ticket purchasing experiences with eCommerce innovation, offering personalized results, optimized seat selection, and payment options.
The search process and purchase flow for travelers are crucial to maximizing sales conversion. That’s why the Reservamos SaaS product team is focused on continuously improving our partners’ eCommerce platforms to enhance the purchase experience and consequently increase bus company sales.
One of the key approaches to this optimization has been investing in eCommerce innovation, focused on providing a personalized experience for each traveler who buys their bus ticket online.
Every update focuses on both the eCommerce platforms’ visual interface (UI) and improving the user experience (UX). These enhancements aim to provide travelers with seamless and effective interactions on digital sales channels, enriching the user experience and increasing conversion rates.
Reservamos SaaS has worked on updates to make the online search and ticket purchase process as simple and efficient as possible. That’s why we’ve redesigned the results page of the eCommerce platform and integrated new labels to highlight schedule and price:
Recommended trips, where the funnel learns from each search and personalizes over time.
Popular trips, based on other users’ searches.
Cheapest and fastest trips.
Additionally, we’ve enabled seat selection and availability directly from the results screen, where users can explore available seats for each schedule.
The updates we’ve added include:
Viewed checkmark, so users know which options they’ve already reviewed.
Customizable options, allow users to add the return trip with a single click.
Passenger data autofill.
Favorite payment method, based on user behavior.
Once the traveler performs a search, our system utilizes AI analysis to highlight the most relevant information based on their preferences. This delivers the following information, which is part of the new updates:
Price and Schedule: The new results page now presents the price and schedule upfront, simplifying travelers’ decision-making process.
Recommended Trips:These are based on previous searches, meaning the funnel learns and suggests personalized options.
Seat Selection from Results: Travelers can view and select available seats directly from the results page.
How does this benefit travelers and bus companies?
Knowing each traveler’s history allows us to create a hyper-personalized and unique experience, where users can choose and purchase their trip more efficiently. This personalization facilitates a smoother and more satisfying purchasing process and strengthens the connection between the traveler and the company’s offerings.
For bus companies, this innovation, in addition to improving the user experience within their eCommerce platforms, also increases conversion rates by providing faster and more efficient navigation. It also helps increase the average ticket value by presenting additional options, such as the possibility of purchasing the return trip, enhancing the overall offering for the user.
Through a robust data architecture, companies can better understand their users, allowing for continuous optimization of the purchase experience on their eCommerce platforms. This strategy boosts customer satisfaction and positions the company as a leader in the competitive travel market.
