For Travel Agents, Success Comes Down To A Single Word
by Cheryl Rosen /Trafalgar global CEO Gavin Tollman
How do you succeed in business for 70 years? For tour operators, it’s all about not resting on your laurels and creating unique experiences, said Trafalgar global CEO Gavin Tollman, on a press tour in New York to celebrate the tour company’s 70th anniversary.
But for travel agents in 2016, it all came down to a single word: Confidence.
While 2016 “was not our best year”—and in fact was the first down year since 2009—“we saw some agents doing incredibly well while others did not so well,” Tollman told TMR. “The agents who succeeded were those who realized the enormity of the opportunity that was presented to them and adapted.”
In a world that seemed to be beset more than usual by terror and disaster—and even a highly charged and divisive political climate in the United States—“consumers were looking for affirmation that things were okay,” Tollman said. Indeed, after the Paris bombings, perhaps the most surprising thing was how quickly consumers were back, searching for travel options.
For travel agents fighting off competition from online travel sites and direct-booking options by suppliers, the events of the day offered “a unique opportunity to demonstrate the important role they play in giving recommendations for travel, in building confidence and making consumers feel that it was okay.”
With all that in mind, he said, Trafalgar created a “With You All of the Way” campaign to help agents sell—and saw remarkable growth, as high as 30% or more, among top U.S. agents and even higher in Europe. “It was a communication strategy that worked.”
And how are things looking in the U.S. market for 2017? Too early to tell, Tollman said, due in large part to the “deep obsession around the election. But the beauty is that on November 9, America will still be here and want to travel. And we will be here to help them.”
Still, Trafalgar will be rolling out a number of firsts in 2017 to help get guests motivated. Its new Explorer packages take travelers to a given city for a full week of immersive touring. Launched in 2016 Paris, Rome and London, they turned out to be “without a doubt the single most successful thing we have ever done,” and so the company will add another, in Amsterdam, for 2017.
Also coming are new destinations, including Japan, where Trafalgar held its recent worldwide conference, and a new trip to Norway, going farther North, toward the Northern lights, than ever before.
It’s also focusing on unique experiences, including a trip that will allow guests to remain in the Vatican after closing hours for a private tour by the museum curator, followed by a private dinner in the museum.
On the value end of the spectrum, Trafalgar is bringing its roster of CostSaver tours—featuring journeys that begin at $125 a day—to the United States, Canada and Mexico, after the program’s successful debut in Europe earlier this year.
And with the value of the British pound falling against the dollar, Trafalgar this month announced it is reducing its prices for the U.S. market.
In the end, Tollman said, “Nobody owns the customer. The one thing I would tell travel agents is that if they add greater value to the buy cycle, they will continue to do incredibly well.”
Just as a doctor would never allow a patient who looked up his symptoms on the Internet to diagnose his own malady, travel agents must ask the right questions and not just accept a traveler‘s first idea of where they want to go, he said. “It's not about confrontation; it’s an opportunity for travel agents to be the experts, and to ensure they are working with suppliers they can trust to ensure their recommendations fulfill the consumer’s travel dreams. Our commitment to the trade has been unequivocal and that will never change.”