Insightful International

Strategic advisor for tour & travel businesses at their most important growth moments

Lori Timony has spent her career on both sides of the table: operator and strategist, buyer and seller. Most recently SVP of Global Trade Sales at Go City, the world's largest attraction pass company, leading global trade across the US, UK, and Asia.

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Channels covered OTAsWholesalersTour operators Travel advisorsDMCsCruise linesPass companies
About

End-to-end expertise, from supply and contracting to global trade sales leadership.

Lori's career in tourism started on the ground: tour director, operations leader, then buyer and product developer launching tours worldwide. She's spent the bulk of the last two decades in the experiences industry, the same space she works in today.

She partners with tour and experiences businesses to build or strengthen distribution strategy, assess and grow supply, or expand into new markets.

Most recently SVP of Global Trade Sales at Go City, the world's largest attraction pass company, overseeing global trade across the US, UK, and Asia, with a P&L that peaked at $160M pre-pandemic.

Lori Timony
Practice areas

Across trade, supply, and market launch, not just distribution.

Engagements span trade, supply, and market launch, and most blend all three. From contracting supply and structuring product to building distribution and standing up the commercial function, the work meets a business wherever the leverage is.

01

Trade Channel Structure

Distribution audits, channel architecture, and partner strategy across OTAs, wholesalers, tour operators, and advisors, plus margin frameworks and trade-vs-direct conflict management.

02

Supply & Product Development

Hotel, activity & attraction contracting, net-rate and commission structuring, bundle architecture, merchant sourcing, and supply acquisition roadmaps.

03

New Market Launch

Destination viability, attraction sourcing & onboarding, launch-phase distribution planning, product mix by market, and margin protection at launch.

Approach

How I work.

Every engagement starts in the same place: understanding who the business is, what it sells, where it operates and where self-perception diverges from operational reality.

From there, it’s about the commercial function. What’s working, what’s missing, and where the real leverage is. Not a generic audit, but an honest read of the business as it actually operates.

That leads to prioritisation, quick wins, strategic bets, and the things worth pushing back on. And where relevant, leaning on a network built across two decades in the experiences industry to move things forward faster.

Structured offering

The Trade Channel Playbook

For businesses looking to assess and grow their trade channel, I offer a structured audit covering channel architecture, contracting, technology, content, and sales enablement, with a parallel buy-side lens throughout. Once the audit is complete, clients receive a practical playbook with recommended actions and priorities for moving the channel forward.

See how the audit works  →
● Proprietary Tool

The Trade Channel Audit & Playbook

A structured audit and playbook covering the full trade channel, assessing what a business has, identifying what's missing, and defining a clear path forward. It runs across five layers, applied in sequence, with a parallel buy-side lens woven through. The end result is an audit of the business and a practical playbook with recommended action points, available as a standalone engagement or as the foundation of a broader advisory relationship.

Layer 1

Channel Architecture

  • Deliberate channel mix vs. accumulated relationships
  • Direct vs. trade split & trajectory
  • Channel conflict management
  • SKU & pricing differentiation
Layer 2

Partner Portfolio

  • Partner tiering & concentration risk
  • Strategic / active / managed / dormant
  • Performance thresholds & pruning
  • Portfolio managed as an investment
Layer 3

Commercial Economics

  • Margin & commission frameworks
  • Net-rate vs. tiered structures
  • Buy-side contracting lens
  • Bundle & tier architecture
Layer 4

Connectivity & Operations

  • API vs. manual booking processing
  • Channel manager & system fit
  • Hidden cost quantification
  • Connectivity as an acquisition argument
Layer 5

Commercial Function

  • Named ownership & KPI accountability
  • Partner review cadence (QBRs)
  • Variable compensation design
  • Board-level reporting on trade

The output: a clear, evidence-based audit of the trade channel as it stands today, what's working, what's missing, and a prioritised playbook with recommended action points. The foundation for what comes next.

Commission an audit & playbook →
Who I'm working with

Current engagements.

Trade channel development, supply contracting, and commercial architecture across tour operators, experience platforms, and global attractions.

Unlimited Biking
Unlimited Biking
Global Bike Tour Operator
Ongoing Advisor · Trade Channel Development
Groupon
Groupon
Supply Contracting & Merchant Negotiation
GetOut
GetOut
Annual Attractions Membership Platform
Trade Readiness Playbook & Reseller Channel Strategy
City Unscripted
City Unscripted
Private, personalized city experiences with carefully matched local hosts worldwide.
Trade Audit and Advisory
Selected past projects

Past projects span the full arc of the experiences industry, from launching the first attractions track at Arival, to building out sales, marketing, and res tech for a new boat company, to growing the trade channel at Oceanário de Lisboa and building a historical audio tour for the NY Harbor Conservancy.

National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy
Oceanário de Lisboa
The Friki Tiki
Arival
Experience This!
Travel Show
On air

Co-host of the Experience This! Travel Show.

Lori co-hosts the Experience This! Travel Show alongside Bruce Rosard (founder of Arival), Christian Watts (founder of Magpie Travel), and Oliver Green (founder of OliverGreen.io), conversations with operators, platforms, and the people building the experiences economy. She's also a regular moderator at Arival conferences.

Listen to the show Latest episodes
Insightful International

Let’s talk about your next growth moment.

Advisory, project-based, and retainer engagements. Strategic and commercially grounded. Builder mindset, executive presence.

📧 lori@insightfulinternational.com 📞 617 959 7446 💼 linkedin.com/in/loritimony
Lori Timony on an Arival conference panel
Frequent panelist at industry conferences