🐝 Cycle Cities Buzz - Are you a Tagger or a Collaborator.... For Reel??!


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Hi Reader,

This morning I listened to a tours and activities consultant in the USA say operators should aim for no less than 70% OTA bookings 😑. A consultant! For tour operators!!!

If you don't own the customer, your business is on shaky ground. The more you rely on OTAs, the more they will exploit that reliance. They can take their customers elsewhere at the drop of a hat. We have seen that happen to some of our operators.

Absolutely use OTAs to fill up empty seats... but if your strategy is to rely on them.. you are not your own boss. You might as well work a 9-5.

I know it's hard... but persistance, training, and being hooked in to your community.. it all pays off over time. Make sure the OTAs know who works for who.

And of course... turn an OTA booking into a future direct booking by hooking the customer into your brand, your experience and your social media, so they can tell their friends about YOUR company, instead of the OTA they booked through.

Buzzing ahead on that note...

Reels are Rolling!

After Nicolien (TournΓ© Bilbao's) fantastic Insta reel training last week, we've had a few operators dip their toes in. The results are amazing!

I will showcase more next week.

Nicolien has created a PDF summary of all her knowledge. it's amazing. Download it!

​Instagram_training_CycleCities.pdf​

Don't forget to tag @cyclecities in your reel, or even better, invite us as a collaborator and we will be able to promote it further. We'll be featuring the best member reels in our B2C buzz coming very soon!

Get Reel this Spring and use your community for that extra boost!

And another big Thank You to Nicolien, Elvis and TournΓ© Bilbao for being so generous with their time and knowledge sharing. It's what drives our community and makes it so great.

Discussion

Rob, Thibault and Inigo are continuing a working group behind the scenes, and discussion about Quality Metrics and CC being promoted as a mark of a quality operator. This is a key piece of work, which will help us develop more customer loyalty, and set us up for bigger B2C moves.

Quality Metrics Project - Working Group

Quality Metrics Project - Working Group

Hi Community, Further to Saturday's Buzz, and Stephan's Post about Cycle Cities 7 star quality metrics, we are looking for people to join a working group to deliver this important project. Suggested deliverables (however working group would have the freedom to edit these): Finalise what the metrics are/should be Assess current standards of net...

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Unique of the Week

Check out this eye-catching post from See by Bike in Sevilla. The Orange really stands our in a scroll, and it's definitely the kind of thing you don't see every day.

SAVE THE DATE....

Cycle Cities Symposium 2026: Monday 23 to Wednesday 25 Feb 2026

Join us in a location soon to be announced, for our annual face to face event.

The craziness of April is upon us. I know a lot of you are probably speed-reading this and getting back to the long lines of customers. Go Go Go! Do what you do best and get those customers smiling 😊 - but make sure your guides are capturing those happy faces out on the road to give you content for your posts and reels.

Have a great week.

Steve Kopandy

Steve Kopandy

The Director of Cycle Cities.

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