Destination Wedding Industry Innovator Offers Travel Agents Top Five Tips For Success

Destination weddings are one of the most lucrative niches for travel agents, what with the large group air/hotel bookings, higher than average per person spend and other revenue streams that come from mastering this market. 

Some say Ed Cotton, the preeminent voice in this market and now a partner with MeWed Events, created the industry when he co-founded Destinationweddings.com. 

After Cotton left Destinationweddings.com and joined Araminta Castilla de Arrigunaga and Kitzia Morales Torres, who founded MeWed Events in 2008, Cotton has enveloped himself again in the bliss that can often surround a perfectly planned destination wedding. (MeWed organizes events and business for romance tourism on a global level.) 

Cotton will speak about destination weddings at TMR’s annual conference, Travel MarketPlace, in Toronto, June 13-14. Here offers his top five tips for travel agents looking to enter or expand this niche. 

1. Don’t try to be all things to all people. “Many Canadian agents will be the agent and the wedding planner. Meanwhile, you have to market yourself, create a brand, deliver extremely good service consistently. It’s hard to be all things to all people, and be extremely successful. Work with your partners. Let an on-site wedding planner plan the wedding. You should focus on what you do best, plan the travel elements.” 

2. Be on the lookout for referrals. “You’re dealing with so many guests, bride and grooms, relatives, peers who are engaged or soon to be engaged. Be a good listener when you are booking the wedding, and look for hints about who is getting married next. When you learn who, don’t be ashamed to ask for their business.” 

3. Listen first. Speak second. “Yes. You need to market and sell yourself. But when you are talking to a potential client, when you are dealing with a newly engaged bride, let them talk about themselves. Engage the bride in conversation. Ask ‘How did he ask you to marry him?’ Compliment him for his proposal and ask how she felt. Then sneak in things about yourself. Tell a story about how you have done something similar for another wedding and how that went.” 

4. Let her feel like she is the only client you have. “You are dealing with many weddings. But you need to keep them all separate. You cannot talk about another wedding with the client who is on the phone now. She wants to think she is the only bride in the world.”  

5. Remember, you are the expert. “Get out there and learn about the properties you are selling. Know how far a walk it is from the honeymoon suite to the beachside chapel. Where are the quiet spots nearby the couple can get away to the next day? For many of these engaged couples, they have never been to these resorts. That’s where your experience and knowledge gives them comfort and adds value.”