The travel industry is a complex web of companies and organizations that depend upon each other to create enriching travel experiences for guests while supporting the local destinations upon which they are built. Some relationships are transactional, like a tour operator’s contract with a local hotel, while others are integrated and multidimensional, like the strategic partnership between National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions that I led for several years as a Vice President at National Geographic.
What distinguishes a strategic partnership from other business relationships is that it is a committed, mutually beneficial relationship between two enterprises based on a long-term shared vision. Strategic partnerships enable companies to leverage each other’s strengths, resources, and expertise to create mutual added value. They can drive business growth by helping to build brand reputation, drive bookings, enhance the traveler experience, and expand the product.
Strategic partnerships can also support the needs of local communities and their natural resources, such as the Rhinos Without Borders Project, a collaboration among &Beyond, Great Plains, and Africa Foundation dedicated to the survival of Southern Africa’s wild rhinos. For travelers, strategic partnerships can lead to more integrated and valued travel experiences that minimize logistical hassles and maximize the opportunity for unique moments and new discoveries, such as the integration of a travel app like PackPoint into a tour operator’s pre-trip process. Strategic partnerships can also serve as a powerful tool for leading the travel industry into a brighter future, demonstrated by ATTA’s partnership with Tomorrow’s Air and the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund, and other partnership organizations such as the Future of Tourism Coalition.
This year’s Adventure Travel World Summit in Hokkaido, Japan, is around the corner. As you are setting your priorities for the event and preparing to meet current and future industry partners, here are some best practices for establishing and nurturing strategic partnerships that make a difference.
1. Set Clear Big Picture Goals
Whether you are a tour operator, accommodation, tourism board, travel advisor, or industry partner, identify what you want to achieve through the partnership and how it aligns with your central priorities for the business. Your goals may include supporting local economies, reaching a new customer segment, enhancing the traveler experience, collaborating on a conservation initiative, or expanding your product offering. Partnerships can take time to develop – from selection and vetting to contracting to implementation. Think big, focus on your top priorities, and integrate your partnership strategy into your mid- and long-term goals.
2. Choose the Right Partner
Seek out potential partners that share your values and are like-minded in their vision for the future. Each company will bring different perspectives and priorities to the partnership, and some partners may even be competitors in certain areas. Building your partnership on explicitly stated shared values will create a strong foundation for collaboration and help you navigate challenges when they arise.
Beyond shared values, identify partners that complement your business and align with your objectives. Seek partners with strengths that your company can benefit from, and consider factors such as brand reputation, customer segments, geographic footprint, and product differentiators. A local tour operator with a sterling reputation but limited marketing budget may pursue a partnership with a global tour operator with a powerful marketing engine and aspirations to enhance its operational quality, for example.
Use exploratory conversations with key players to gain a deeper understanding of the company culture, its commitment to collaboration, its strategic priorities, and biggest pain points. Do your research in advance so that you are prepared to articulate your needs, goals, and the value you can provide in the partnership.
Before committing to a new partnership, vet your potential partner thoroughly. Evaluate their track record, reputation, financial stability, and their standing in the industry to ensure that the partner meets your standards.
3. Create a Shared Vision and Mutual Value
Creating and nurturing a strategic partnership is a multi-year commitment that requires creativity and investment. Take the time early on to explore ways to maximize the mutual value of the partnership. Approach the design of the partnership as an opportunity for innovation and creativity. Provide the chance for both teams to share ideas, knowledge, and expertise. Tap into diverse perspectives to create a collaboration that enhances both businesses in unique, compelling, and competitive ways that they couldn’t achieve on their own. A local supplier, for instance, might pursue an innovative co-marketing opportunity with a destination marketing organization to pool resources and reach new audiences.
Develop mutually beneficial terms and align incentives and risks so that partners will invest in each other’s growth and success. Even with the most innovative and aligned partnership design, successful partnerships hold a healthy tension between sometimes competing interests – those of each individual partner as well as of other impacted parties. Developing a strategic partnership means embracing that tension and finding an effective balance between representing your company’s best interests and holding firm on your non-negotiables while maintaining a spirit of creative collaboration. Understanding both your company’s and your partner company’s values, priorities, and challenges is essential to knowing when to stand your ground and where to compromise.
4. Engage and Empower People to Drive Partnership Success
Beyond the selection of an aligned partner and a thoughtfully designed partnership plan, people are key to the success of all strategic partnerships. During the partnership exploration and development process, ensure that each partner’s senior leaders are fully aware and supportive of the initiative. Appoint a dedicated partnership lead for each partner. Empower those individuals to lead the overall partnership relationship – promoting collaboration, facilitating smooth communication, pursuing untapped opportunities, and navigating challenges. Develop well-defined roles and responsibilities across all facets of the partnership to maximize efficiency and minimize confusion.
Provide opportunities for partnership teams to meet in-person to celebrate successes, tackle challenges, and socialize. When individual partnership players develop strong interpersonal relationships, they can help defuse pressures that arise around conflicts and collaborate on creative solutions to challenges.
5. Establish Clear Communication Channels to Build Trust and Respect
As the partnership is established, cultivate open communication and develop shared expectations for communication methods and frequency. Partnerships often involve companies working in different parts of the world with different cultures, languages, and working styles. Encourage curiosity around these differences and embrace them as opportunities for learning. Find common ground and thoughtfully scope out mutually agreeable workflows and timelines. Create shared systems and processes, and connect regularly on updates and challenges.
Creating an open dialogue will lead to a relationship founded on mutual trust and respect, more effective problem-solving, and fewer misunderstandings and missed opportunities.
6. Learn and Adapt Together
Like all aspects of the travel industry, partnerships will evolve with time due to shifting partner priorities and changing industry dynamics. Together, regularly monitor and assess the progress of the partnership using agreed upon measures of success. Celebrate the wins and embrace failures as opportunities for learning and enhancement. Directly address challenges when they arise and identify ways to overcome them together.
There is nearly unlimited potential to create unique, innovative, and impactful partnerships that benefit travel companies, destinations, travelers, and the industry at large. Strategic partnerships build important bridges across a dynamic travel ecosystem. They can help companies achieve sustained growth, address complex industry problems, create enriching travel experiences, and support local communities, wildlife, and environments.
Creating a strategic partnership is like embarking on a great travel adventure. We know that when we approach it with a spirit of curiosity, kindness, and adventure, we will adapt to challenges as they come, learn continuously along the way, and ultimately achieve the growth and fullness of potential that we so crave.
About the Author:
Deb Friedman is an executive coach and facilitator who supports purpose driven leaders so that they can navigate change with greater clarity, confidence, and impact. In her previous work as an executive at National Geographic and The Walt Disney Company, Deb spent 15 years designing and leading innovative strategic partnerships for National Geographic Expeditions.
A graduate of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching program and an ACC-certified coach with the International Coaching Federation, Deb helps her clients develop their leadership competencies to inspire, align, and serve teams – and deliver breakthrough results – amid change and uncertainty.
Deb lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two young boys. In her personal time, she enjoys early morning swims, meditation, exploring local hiking trails, and making music.
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