INTERVIEW COMPANY WORLDWIDE OLLET TE NAME In Person with...
TRADE CONTACT:
colletteworldwide.com
PETER TRAYNOR
Excellent value. Good hotels. 'Must see' sights. Good commission levels. Agents should tap into the potential of escorted touring
PETER TRAYNOR General Manager Collette Worldwide
Give us a brief description of your role and responsibilities I am responsible for the sales and marketing of Collette’s outbound tour programmes. This includes commercial agreements with travel agencies and airlines, the Collette sales force and UK call centre, brochures, website, advertising and PR activity, etc.
Give us an overview of Collette’s long haul programme We specialise in escorted touring and our programme offers tours to all seven continents, even Antarctica. Although initially known for our tours to North America we now have very strong sales to the rest of the world. Our programme features over 60 itineraries.
What kind of a start has the company made to 2013? A very encouraging start! Call volumes and bookings were higher in January than for the same month last year, except for a slight blip when the snow caused some disruption. We have aggressive growth targets for 2013, and if
February and March mirror January I am confi dent we can attain them. We are getting strong support from our independent agency partners.
Are there any destinations that are selling particularly well? We are seeing strong early sales for New Zealand and Australia. The USA is also selling well, and destinations like Costa Rica and Indochina are defi nitely improving on last year.
Tell us about your new RHS Garden Holidays programme This is a very exciting development for us. One of the attractions of an escorted tour is that you can travel with companions who share your interests. Our research shows that gardening and horticulture is an interest shared by a high proportion of our customers, so to be able to partner with the world’s oldest horticultural charity enables us to offer some compelling tours. The RHS’s network of contacts in the horticultural community worldwide has allowed us to include many truly unique experiences on each of our tours.
Travellers are looking for more personal adventures and ‘cultural immersion’ experiences on their holidays. Is this possible on an escorted coach tour? Absolutely! A key goal of all of our tours is for clients to feel that they have really experienced the destination, and
54 February 2013 •
www.sellinglonghaul.com
“We are seeing strong early sales for New Zealand and Australia. The USA is also selling well, and Costa Rica and Indochina are on the up"
not just ‘observed’ it from a safe distance. Examples are homestays in New Zealand, lunch in a private home in the ‘hutongs’ of Beijing, or a visit to a local primary school in South Africa supported by Collette’s own charitable foundation. We also include plenty of free time on all of our tours, when clients can pursue their own particular interest.
What should agents say to clients who until now have shied away from a group coach holiday? I would encourage them to dispel any preconceptions of a coach tour based on faded memories of their parents doing frantic tours of six countries in fi ve days! Today’s escorted tour is far more likely to have a series of two- or three-night stays, with well-planned itineraries to ensure nothing is missed or rushed. A variety of transport is used, you have the services of a tour manager and you are with others who share similar interests.
How do you work with travel agents? Our tours are excellent value, with good hotels, many inclusions, meals and all the ‘must-see sights’. There are no ‘hidden extras’ to surprise the
client, but we rely on good travel agents to sell the benefi ts of such a tour, over other operators who may appear cheaper on fi rst glance but do not offer the same value. We offer good commission levels on the total package price, provide marketing support and have a dedicated sales manager to help with local promotions, client evenings, etc.
Are you confi dent that demand for long haul travel will hold up in these tough times? I believe our sector of the market is more recession- proof than most. Our clients tend to be ‘empty nesters’ with a low mortgage and less demands on their discretionary income, so holidays remain almost an essential purchase.
What’s your idea of the perfect holiday? Last July I took my wife and son on Collette’s ‘Canadian Rockies By Train’ tour. A long weekend in Vancouver was followed by an overnight train journey through the Rockies to Jasper, then stays in the Fairmont properties in Banff and Lake Louise. We ended with the Calgary Stampede. Fabulous, and an example of a typical Collette tour!
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