DESTINATIONS HOW TO SELL | ESCORTED TOURS
FROM FAR LEFT: (top) Intrepid Travel walking tour in Petra, Jordan; a Topdeck customer in Santorini, Greece; Insight Vacations guided walk in Alberobelli, Italy; diving in the Galápagos Islands with G Adventures; local celebrations in Kolkata, India, with G Adventures
PICTURES: Topdeck/Nicola Easterby; G Adventures/Shereen Mroueh, Omar Medina
trips of yesteryear. Shearings Holidays managing director Jane Atkins says: “There are so many USPs – the seat pitch is better than an airline, coaches have free Wi-Fi and entertainment on board, plus there is tea and coffee for European destinations.” And Parton adds: “With Cosmos and Globus, clients spend less than 20% of their time on a coach, and even that time is well-spent, relaxing and taking in the sights.”
KNOW THE PRODUCT There’s no way to become an overnight expert in every itinerary on the market, so choose a few operators that suit your clientele, look at a handful of their tours in-depth, and build from there. Rachel Coffey, sales and business development director at Trafalgar and Insight Vacations, says: “Get to know the huge depth and breadth of product and destinations available. Touring goes to every corner of the globe in a
host of different ways and budgets. I really believe there is a guided holiday out there for everyone.” A key selling point is that tours
offer a well-researched, tried-and- tested itinerary so you can sell even the most complex destinations by relying on operators’ expertise. Titan’s head of trade sales, Edwina Coppock, says: “Touring really is the quickest and safest way of selling a multi-centre holiday to a client’s chosen destination without all the hard work, as the touring operator has done all the planning already.” That’s especially true of less- familiar destinations. Ben Ittensohn, head of global sales for Explore, says: “Our BDMs generally tell agents if they’ve not heard of a destination, go to our website and we probably travel there. If you don’t know anything about Ethiopia but you know Explore goes there, call your BDM or our customer service team and ask them about it so you can better sell it to your customer. That’s what we’re there for.”
SELL THE SPECIFICS Knowing your stuff is all very well, but the next step is translating it into sales. Many operators recommend highlighting the value of a tour, rather than the price, by breaking it down into a per-day rate and explaining what’s included, so clients see how much they’re getting. There’s no need to wait for a specific touring enquiry either – you can offer a guided holiday as an option on mainstream requests. Great Rail Journeys’ head of trade sales, Lindsay Dixon, says: “The first thing we advise agents is to think about rail as an option on destination-led enquiries. Customers may not even be aware they can travel by rail, so if you can familiarise yourself with where we operate, you can suggest a rail tour when customers enquire about a particular country such as Vietnam, where rail is the best way to see the fantastic scenery.” If you want to create specific demand for touring holidays, however, there is support available.
Richard Forde, head of trade sales at Newmarket Holidays, says: “Ask the company’s BDM what the top sellers are – you may be surprised as it might not be what you would pick yourself – then promote this holiday in your window, on your A-board or on social media. Touring companies will happily give images or artwork to support you.”
Once you get those initial enquiries, you can gently edge to close the deal. Kerry Golds, managing director of Abercrombie & Kent, says: “Adventure travel is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the industry and now, more than ever, experiences are the gold dust. “For some of the most incredible experiences in the world, it’s vital that agents convince clients to book with a sense of urgency. For popular departures such as cherry blossom in Japan, you really will need to get that sorted sooner rather than later, and gorilla-trekking permits in Rwanda need to be booked up to a year in advance.”
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travelweekly.co.uk
30 APRIL 2020
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