After 12 years at Tripadvisor and four years as president of Viator, Ben Drew announced Tuesday he has made the “difficult decision” to step down.
“Through the four toughest years of my career, I was honored to stand alongside the team at Viator,” Drew wrote on LinkedIn, calling his time there “the journey of a lifetime.”
Drew pointed to the beginning of his tenure as president, rooted in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and shared some of the company’s successes under his leadership.
“We didn’t just survive – we thrived,” said Drew. “In 2023 we hit $737M in revenue, growing at 49% YoY, and became profitable. Moreover, we helped millions of people discover experiences they’ll remember forever and thousands of businesses make a living.”
He continued his list naming the creation of Accelerate, customer satisfaction rates, the polishing of travelers’ experiences from discovery to booking, partnerships, financial marks and consumer brand development as pride points.
Drew said he is pursuing a new opportunity following his departure from the company on April 12.
PhocusWire has reached out to Viator for further details.
Viator has progressively accounted for a larger and larger percentage of Tripadvisor’s revenue.
Drew spoke on the experiences sector during a center stage panel at The Phocuswright Conference on tours, experiences and activities in November. While discussing Tripadvisor’s positive financial results driven by Viator, Drew touched on another marker of success: The company’s expectation to be profitable on a full-year basis in 2024 for the first time.
But his vision went further than the next calendar year.
“We’re actually on a much longer term journey toward kind of long-term sustainable, [online travel agency]-like profit margins, so the way that we’re doing that is through focus on repeat business,” said Drew.
Watch the full conversation, which also features CEO of GetYourGuide Johannes Reck and Douglas Quinby, co-founder and CEO of Arival, below.
Tours, Activities and Experiences – Aiming High with GetYourGuide, Viator and Arival – Phocuswright
This story is developing.