Travel + Leisure Wants Advisors to Book Through Its New Trade Platform
by Daniel McCarthy /Travel + Leisure GO.
Travel + Leisure (T+L) is getting into the travel advisor booking business.
On Monday, T+L unveiled Travel + Leisure GO, a new travel advisor booking platform, powered by Trispet/Solution, that it says will bring the ability for advisors to go directly from inspiration via T+L content, to commissionable, bookable, experiences.
"The launch of Travel + Leisure GO for Professionals is the next step in our vision to connect the magazine to every touchpoint along the travel journey – from inspiration to planning to booking,” said Fiona Downing, Chief Membership Officer, Panorama and Travel + Leisure Clubs. “Now, we’re giving advisors the opportunity to leverage the trust, authority, and accessibility of the Travel + Leisure brand to their client base.”
The platform is accessible through VAX VacationAccess and, according to T+L, gives advisors the opportunity to earn “customizable commission rates and the potential to turn the world’s most influential travel brand into a powerful sales channel.”
According to T+L, the value-add on the platform is access to itineraries inspired by its editorial content, with hotels on its World’s Best Awards list, and the ability to customize itineraries by adding air, hotel, activities, car rentals, and more into bundled packages. It is calling it “
The plan is for the platform to be updated regularly as new editorial content is rolled out. Right now, itineraries on offer include trips centered around Fashion Week in Paris, Milan, or New York; a trip to Mexico, the T+L Destination of the Year; and other trips to Amsterdam, London, and San Francisco.
Even though Travel + Leisure Go is the first time T+L is allowing advisors to book through a branded platform, the publication has a long history of catering to the advisor community.
Aside from an advisory board made up of travel advisors, Travel + Leisure also publishes its A-List of agents, a directory of the top travel advisors, annually. That list dates back to 2001 and was started during a time when much of the media had written agents off as dinosaurs.
T+L did earn some controversy with the list in 2018 when it announced that it would start charging $4,000 to advisors who wanted to be on the list.
