NEWS — BIG INTERVIEW
Gavin Tollman chief executive, Trafalgar
The boss of US-based escorted tour giant Trafalgar is on a mission to make the UK a bigger part of the company’s business. He spoke to LUCY HUXLEY
Trafalgar boss Gavin Tollman is on a mission. The UK is the smallest of the guided-tour company’s eight markets and Tollman says: “I don’t like it.” He is determined to make the
UK a key player in the company’s business mix and has begun a crusade to make it happen. UK sales director Julie
Brooker joined from Virgin Atlantic six months ago and sales are already up 30% year on year, with Tollman claiming some of the UK’s largest retail networks are now “reaching out” to Trafalgar, part of The Travel Corporation.
Tollman said: “We grew our
worldwide business 37% in 2013 but we have never done anything really targeted in the UK. We think we can go from the smallest office to a top-level office in three years.” He said Trafalgar had
transformed the escorted-tour sector by “pulling apart old-style itineraries and service levels and offering deeper, richer experiences”. But he accepts UK agents need education and training to understand the differences in a
Trafalgar holiday. “We have to
articulate this so they understand the
Trafalgar difference,” he said. “We need to prove we haven’t just rebranded the same old product with some sexy marketing message, but that we have really shaken up the sector.” Tollman said one of the crucial
factors was the “split from the One Stop Touring Shop umbrella and investing in a robust, standalone team for Trafalgar to build relationships with the trade”. He said: “We spent a lot of
time interviewing to get the right people so they listen to our travel agent partners and treat each of them in a bespoke way.”
Meeting agents’ needs The new UK and Ireland sales team has been tasked with “plugging into” each agent’s system and supplying what they need. He said: “This approach has worked everywhere else in the world. We will identify what each agent needs – whether it be e-marketing support, guest- retention assistance, advice and tools to cross-sell or help with local advertising. Each agent will have a plan designed around their own business model. “We have to ensure we hit each agent’s individual sales and marketing needs.” Tollman claimed Trafalgar is the “perfect partner” for agents because it can provide long-term income “at a time when others are cutting commissions”. “Our single-year repeat guests
have grown by 40%-50% for the last three years,” he said. “We are
❱ GAVIN TOLLMAN 14 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 11 December 2014
Each agent will have a
plan designed around their own business model
seeing a huge explosion in people coming back to travel with us time and again.”
Repeat passengers Tollman said Trafalgar’s high repeat passenger numbers had partly prompted the launch of its Hidden Journeys programme. He said: “I join 20 to 30 trips a
year to try to speak to guests. The overwhelming response is that they want to stay longer in some of the more harder-to-reach places, but believe they can’t because the hotel is too small or the coach can’t get to the location. “The only constraint is size, so the plan is to take smaller groups off the beaten track a bit more.” When it comes to attracting new customers, Tollman is convinced that adding Feefo customer reviews to its site can help agents get clients to try a Trafalgar holiday. He said: “TripAdvisor tells us
89% of consumers look for a third-party review before making a buying decision. Just under 20% of our guests responded to our Feefo review email in 2014, giving us a score of 96% saying they would recommend us. That is really powerful – agents can show customers our high scores.” Tollman added: “In three years’
time Trafalgar will be a ubiquitous brand in the UK but, until then, agents should harness the power of possibly being the only agent in their town to sell Trafalgar. Customers will be impressed by them recommending us.”
BIG INTERVIEW
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