Stop Paying the Middleman: How Tour Operators & Travel Agencies in the Middle East & Turkey Are Sourcing Local Experiences for Higher Margins
A desert safari in Dubai. A Bosphorus cruise in Istanbul. A heritage tour in AlUla. These are the experiences that sell multi-destination packages across the Middle East and Turkey, and they are also where many tour operators and travel agencies quietly lose their margin.
The reason is rarely the experience itself. It is the path it takes to reach your package. Most agencies still source local activities through layers of intermediaries: wholesalers, bedbanks, resellers and online travel agencies (OTAs). Each layer takes a cut. By the time the product lands in your itinerary, your margin has been squeezed from both ends.
With the winter high season starting across the GCC, Egypt and Oman, and Q4 product catalogs being built right now, this is the moment to look hard at how you source. This guide breaks down where margin is lost in the traditional sourcing chain, what it costs in real numbers, and how direct access to verified local suppliers changes the economics of selling experiences.
How the Traditional Sourcing Chain Works
In a typical setup, a local supplier (the company that actually runs the safari, cruise or city tour) sells its inventory to a wholesaler or bedbank. That intermediary may sell it on to a reseller or list it on an OTA. Your agency then buys from one of those downstream channels and bundles it into a package.
Every step adds a margin, a fee or both. And because you are several steps removed from the supplier, you also inherit slower confirmations, less control over availability and limited room to negotiate.
Where Margin Leaks in the Traditional Chain
1. Commission on commission
Tours and activities OTAs typically charge 20–30% commission per booking. Paid-placement and visibility programs can push the effective rate to 30–35%. When several intermediaries sit between you and the supplier, those cuts stack on top of each other.
2. Extra fees on top
Commission is only the headline number. Payment processing and per-listing fees mean the real cost per booking often lands at 25–30% or more, before any intermediary markup is added to the price you pay.
3. Growing dependence on OTAs
According to Arival, OTAs reached 37% of experience bookings in 2025, while the direct share declined. The more of the market that flows through intermediaries, the larger the share of margin the industry pays away.
4. Operational drag
Going direct the old way is no easy fix either. Working with local suppliers one by one usually means separate contracts, separate logins and separate calendars in every market. Teams spend hours chasing availability, and eventually a seat gets double-booked.
What a €100 Experience Really Returns
Here is a simple illustration using a 25% commission, the midpoint of the typical 20–30% OTA range:
Channel | Price | Returned to supplier |
Sold through a typical OTA (25% commission) | €100 | €75 |
Sold direct (after payment processing fees) | €100 | About €97 |
Illustrative. The direct figure is approximate and depends on your payment provider.
That €22 gap is margin that either disappears from the chain or gets passed on to you as a higher net rate. Scale it across a full season and the numbers become significant:
An operator with $400K in annual revenue and 40% of sales through OTAs at 25% commission pays about $40K a year in commission alone.
Moving just 10 percentage points of those bookings to direct channels saves about $10K a year.
For agencies building packages, the same logic applies in reverse: every layer you remove between you and the supplier is money that goes back into your margin or lets you price more competitively.
Why the Timing Matters Now
Demand across the region is at record levels, which means the agencies with the best sourcing will capture the most value this season:
1.52 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2025, up 4% year on year (UN Tourism).
60M+ international arrivals in Turkey in 2025.
19.7M international visitors to Istanbul in 2025.
123M visitors to Saudi Arabia in 2025, domestic and international combined.
With winter high season opening across the GCC, Egypt and Oman, Q4 is when catalogs are locked in. Sourcing decisions made now will shape your margins for the months that matter most.
The Direct Supplier Advantage: What Changes
Sourcing directly from verified local suppliers changes three things at once:
Better economics: fewer layers mean better net rates and more room between cost and selling price.
More control: you work with the operator who runs the experience, so availability and confirmations are faster and more reliable.
Stronger products: you choose experiences on quality and fit for your travelers, not on what happens to be available through a reseller.
The catch has always been effort. Direct relationships across six countries usually mean six sets of contracts, logins and calendars. That is exactly the problem a marketplace model solves.
The Fix: One Connection to Verified Local Suppliers
The Turpal Marketplace connects tour operators and travel agencies directly with verified local suppliers across six markets: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Turkey and Egypt.
Pre-negotiated rates that protect your margin, with no layers to cut through.
A curated selection of top activities, not a long tail to filter through.
One connection instead of separate contracts and logins in every market.
A built-in Channel Manager that keeps inventory and bookings synced in real time, so double bookings stop being a risk.
The result is the economics of going direct without the operational drag of managing dozens of supplier relationships on your own.
What to Do Before Q4 Closes: A 4-Step Margin Check
Calculate your blended cost of distribution. Work out the average commission and fees across every channel you buy and sell through.
Map your top ten local experiences. For each one, count how many layers sit between you and the supplier who actually runs it.
Identify the highest-leak products. Prioritize high-volume experiences with the most intermediaries; these offer the biggest margin recovery.
Switch the top candidates to direct sourcing before your winter catalog is finalized.
Every layer you remove goes straight back into your margin.
Conclusion: Stop Paying the Middleman This Season
Every intermediary between you and the local supplier takes a slice of your margin. With winter high season underway and Q4 catalogs being finalized, the agencies that source smarter will keep more of every booking. The Turpal Marketplace lets you skip the layers and connect directly with verified local suppliers across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Turkey and Egypt, all through one connection.
Book Your Personalized Turpal Demo Today and we'll show you the verified suppliers and rates available in your markets.
