Gift Shops for Tour Operators: The Numbers Prove the Retail ROI

Identifying the right opportunities for your tour operations

Whether your service-based operations offer bike tours, ziplines, skydiving, rafting tours, or parks and resorts; if you’re thinking about growing, you need to know your options.

So if you have a desire to increase your value per customer, you need to first evaluate which opportunities are the best fit for your service model.

When you look for opportunities to grow, you can choose from a wide list of ideas, including all-inclusive offerings, on-site dining and lodging, entering new markets, adding on new tour products and of course, retail. We’ve outlined more detail for these considerations in another post, 7 Ways to Earn More Auxiliary Revenue as a Tour Operator. 

To determine which of these options are a good fit, Gonski suggests analyzing the risk and reward based on three factors — the potential return, the capital required and the risk.

Compare high returns with high risk

First, as an operator you can explore several alternative ancillary revenue streams. There’s lodging, new markets, partnerships and retail.

Balancing the returns with the risk and required capital can help you decide on the best option. For example, adding any type of lodging can have the highest potential return. It also requires the most capital and carries a lot of risk, especially for those with seasonal activities. If you’re looking for a good return without a ton of risk, lodging is probably not your first move. Maybe it can come later.

Entering new markets is another option that carries a lot of risk because the ROI is hard to calculate. Before exploring this option, you’d want to do a lot of number crunching to find just the right location and audience fit that feels comparable or even better to where your tour operations are now. Plus, how are you going to manage it effectively?

Find the low risk, low investment option to start growing

Now, if you flip the criteria around and look for the lowest risks and the lowest investment requirements, Gonski highlights two options — packaging and partnerships or retail.

Creating new packages can be a great way to increase your bookings. It can require little investment because you’re working with what you have. It also doesn’t increase your margins or your bottom line revenue very significantly. Adding partnerships or co-branding can also be a quick way to increase sales without much risk. Because you can control your choices it’s a low-risk option, if you’re looking to just grow a little as a starting point.

And then there’s retail. Selling additional merchandise and adding new revenue streams outside of your core tour product can be a low risk, low investment option. Gonski highlights in this chart as an optimal choice for those looking to keep costs down and avoid risk. Adding retail to tour operations can be appealing for many, because it can produce a higher overall return than some of the other low-cost-to-enter options.

Why gift shop retail is your highest value option

Adding retail gives a tour operator several advantages, the biggest is the overall value to the customer. It’s also the strongest choice for many small businesses in adventure travel because it is efficient to manage, requires little capital to get started, and retail doesn’t require any additional customer acquisition costs.

When customers choose your operation, they’re looking to enjoy a unique adventure. They don’t want to worry about what they packed and what they forgot. They also don’t always plan very well, and forget how long they will be out in nature, away from restaurants and convenience stores. So it can be a welcome relief to your customers when you provide typically forgotten items. And you can even offer the unexpected when they find a specific tool that will enhance their experience that they didn’t even think of.

We hear from many tour operators who say they just want their customers to be happy. They aren’t wanting to overcomplicate the experience with a bunch of extra selling opportunities. Gonski points out the good news is that some retail can be very efficient and directly related to remembering the experience. Naturally, you’re wondering how to decide the right retail product mix. And Gonski has an answer for that as well.

How tour operators can choose the right gift shop products

Considering gift shops for tour operators takes some planning. A simple starting list of products can be apparel, gifts, drinks and snack foods. To take that even further and offer that surprise and delight, many operations add branded apparel that directly enhances the experience, think sunglasses, hats or waterproof items. And of course, you can also sell memories by setting up unique custom photo and video opportunities.

After you’ve checked off some of the basic necessities for your customers, Gonski says photos and videos are the most efficient product you can sell.

To assess this financial argument, Gonski uses 50% for an average margin on retail, compared to an average 30% gross margin for tour revenue. If a tour operator offers digital photo and video sales, along with self-serve tools, then the investment costs are low, as well as the staffing needs. Plus, it has the added benefit of extending a tour operator’s brand awareness through free word of mouth promotion.

When a digital media gallery is hosted online, it makes it easy to integrate with social sites, so customers can do the social marketing for you! By sharing their favorite memories and writing reviews, your social media-savvy customers will be growing your photo gallery on Google My Business and improving your search result rankings at the same time.

The financial argument favoring media retail for tour operators

• Low staffing – does not require significant staff, bonus – no stocking!


• Low cost of goods (COGs) – photographer, camera, display, distribution


• Simplified storage – a computer, not a storeroom


• Word of mouth marketing – social media is our best way to influence new bookings