CONFERENCE Travel Counsellors conference: More than 2,000 delegates gathered in Manchester fo
Travel Counsellors reveals trio of technology upgrades
T
ravel Counsellors made a trio of announcements about additions to its Phenix booking system.
Chief technology officer
Rob Snelson said the company is to introduce an Amazon-style recommendation engine and template packages, and will revamp its MyTC app. It has invested about £600,000 in
the recommendation functionality, which suggests holiday options based on customers’ requirements. It will allow travel counsellors
to click on tags such as ‘long-haul’, ‘beach’, ‘kids’ and ‘sun’ to narrow down what their customers are looking for and will “instantly” return recommendations. Te system draws on demographic
details and compares customers to others with similar backgrounds using data from all 1,900 travel counsellors to make recommendations. Quotes
We will help travel
counsellors offer options that they perhaps were not even aware of
can be saved and tailored to a customer’s needs. Te engine, developed over the
past nine months, will be rolled out in spring 2020. It will start by recommending hotels then gradually incorporate other components such as flights, car hire, transfers, excursions, ancillaries, visas and insurance. “We’ve got thousands and
thousands of properties [on Phenix], everything from two star to ultra-luxury,” said Snelson. “We are bringing all of that together to assist travel counsellors to be able to provide options for customers that they were perhaps not even aware of.” Template itineraries will be
available from next year. Currently, travel counsellors build itineraries from product within Phenix. Snelson said the new Phenix
Itineraries could be tailored to fit customers’ exact needs or to offer upgrades and ancillaries. Te MyTC app will have a new
look and feel from December. New features will include flight
alerts and notifications when customers view quotes. “Customers love it,” said Snelson.
“But we want to make sure MyTC doesn’t look old.” He said the app was used by
84,400 Travel Counsellors customers and not used by 251,000. Snelson said 18% more customers
book when quotes are sent via the app compared to those sent by email. “For a travel counsellor who
takes over £350,000 of sales, that’s £2,500 extra net profit margin just for clicking ‘send to app’,” he said.
Corporate travel ‘offers big opportunity’
Leisure-focused travel counsellors were told they had a “big opportunity” to tap into the corporate sector. Corporate sales accounted for £150 million
of Travel Counsellors’ £660 million turnover in the year to October 31, and the conference heard corporate business was more secure in times of political uncertainty. Almost two-thirds (65%) of travel
INSPIRING: Adventure TV star and chief scout Bear Grylls received a standing ovation after his stirring talk on his ‘four Fs’: overcoming fear and failure, and finding your inner fire and faith.
14 21 NOVEMBER 2019
counsellors made no corporate sales in the last 12 months. Te top-earning travel counsellor of the last year, Anthony Guy, specialises in corporate sales. Alison Warren, business travel executive,
told delegates there was a “£2 billion opportunity in this space in the UK”.
She split counsellors who sell business
travel into three groups: corporate specialists; ‘hybrids’, who sell both leisure and corporate; and ‘tasters’, who book it for select clients. “You don’t have to have a million-pound
account to sell corporate,” said Warren. “Small and medium-sized businesses really
value the personal service. “Tere’s a misconception that in
the business travel environment it’s a transactional relationship with your customer. Tat’s just not the case. Corporate is a big opportunity for everybody. “Business travel is exciting; it’s much more
than just men in grey suits flying to New York every Monday.”
travelweekly.co.uk Rob Snelson
Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams talked about digging deep in times of doubt
PICTURES: Simon Wright; Arif Gardner
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