Headquarters Happenings: In A Year Of Change, MTravel Steps Up Its Engagement Programs

Editor’s Note: Headquarters Happenings is a regular feature that keeps you updated on the marketing and technology programs of major travel agencies, host agencies, travel agency consortia, cooperatives, travel networks and franchise groups. Top executives detail how their groups grow their businesses and how their initiatives can help travel agents succeed.

It’s been a busy 16 months at MTravel, the 13-year-old hosting division of California-based Montrose Travel. And now things are about to get even busier.

The revved-up pace can be traced to late 2015, when Australia’s Corporate Travel Management (CTM) acquired Montrose Travel, a $350 million agency that had been owned and operated by the McClure family for 45 years. The acquisition triggered a big change for MTravel. Eleven months after the sale, CTM made MTravel the host agency for all independent agents affiliated with the seven North American agencies that the global company had acquired during the previous few years.

And so with the stroke of a pen, MTravel doubled its sales volume, said Andi Myzsa, who heads up MTravel Hosting Services and has overseen Montrose Travel’s independent contractors since 1990. (Montrose does not reveal sales numbers for MTravel.) Today MTravel hosts about 500 independent agents. 

‘A complete resource’
While the changes marked a major turning point for MTravel, they did not alter MTravel’s business priorities or its competitive advantages, said Mysza, whose parents Joe McClure Sr. and Leora acquired Montrose Travel in 1972.

One of MTravel’s key differentiators as a host is Montrose Travel’s in-house leisure division, according to Mysza. The agency’s experienced agents are a valuable resource for MTravel’s independent agents, available to answer their questions, recommend suppliers and provide expert destination knowledge, and “act as a complete resource, which is unique to us versus pure hosts.”

MTravel’s customizable private label consumer website is another core strength. In addition to the usual hotel and cruise booking engines, the consumer website MTravel provides ts affiliates includes booking engines for air, car, packages and insurance. Even seasoned agents value the website, Mysza said. “The only way they make money is talking to customers and booking travel; they do not make money trying to monkey around with their websites. We take that off their shoulders, as we do with the marketing.”

Inclusive pricing
The website, which this spring is re-launching with an all-new design, is included in the annual fee, as are most of the other technology tools, online resources and supports, and turnkey marketing programs.

Rather than nickel-and-diming agents and getting caught up in chasing fees, MTravel bundles nearly everything together—in part because it is helpful to new entrants. “When somebody’s new and starting out, they don’t know what they need,” Mysza said. (Two optional services not included in the annual fee are GDS usage and Group Connex, a group management tool.)

Personal support
In addition to its technology, marketing, training and preferred-supplier programs, MTravel boasts a “deeply personal level of support,” and family feel. That kind of attention is important for MTravel, which since its founding has focused on attracting newcomers to the travel agency industry. About 50% of MTravel agents are industry newcomers.

“Anytime somebody says, ‘I need help,’ we’ll set up one-on-one sessions and coach them through it,” Mysza said. “We’re looking for success-oriented travel advisors that have a strong entrepreneurial spirit. They don’t have to walk in the door with a big book of business, although we love those people; what we want is people who truly want to build a business.”

Whether agents are newbies or established, MTravel helps them develop the type of business that’s of interest to them. As a result, the nature of its independents’ businesses varies tremendously, ranging from agents with narrow specializations to group specialists and corporate travel sellers. “They’re all welcome here, and we do a little of everything.”

Engagement drives success
MTravel will continue to grow its business by recruiting new entrants, but it also is intent on fostering the engagement of its current affiliate agents. “We know that the more we interact with them, the better. There’s a correlation with their success,” Mysza said.

Ensuring that both new and established agents are making full use of marketing, technology, training and preferred-supplier programs is both challenging and critical for any host. MTravel’s approach includes multiple “touchpoints,” among them an annual multi-day conference, an active Facebook group, a full roster of online training (usually three to five offerings a week), and regular check-ins with agents by email and phone. 

New programs for 2017
This year MTravel is ramping things up by expanding its face-to-face offerings with two new in-person training events.

Jump Start Live, in April, is a two-and-a-half-day program of “business-building fundamentals” open to just 30 participants. Designed for agents who recently started their businesses or who are new to MTravel, its includes workshops with the MTravel team, live demonstrations, and networking with peers and suppliers.

Jump Start Live is a sequel to the online Jump Start Series that acclimates new affiliates to MTravel’s way of doing things. “Now they’re going to come out here, see the office, meet the team. They’re making an investment in their business. Those people will be that much more engaged,” Mysza said.

Helping agents who are ‘serious about business’
Agents pay a fee to participate and must cover their own air and lodgings, as a way of ensuring they are truly serious about their business. A similar tactic is being deployed for MTravel’s first-ever MTech Academy, an intensive two-and-a-half day program in June that will be open to just 50 agents. It will be held at the Fort Worth, TX, offices of Virtuoso.

The location reflects another big change for MTravel and Montrose. As part of its transition to CTM, Montrose Travel this year shifted its affiliation from Ensemble to Virtuoso, ending a 44-year-relationship with Ensemble. It was, said Mysza, “a very difficult decision.”