Navigating the intricate dynamics of group travel can be both rewarding and challenging. As a travel advisor, your expertise and insight become crucial to smoothing the journey for your clients. Collette’s Ron Lonsdale, Director of Strategic Partnerships – Canada, and Paul Holly, Partnership Marketing Manager, have practical tips and tricks to assist you in the process.
Get a group leader
“Getting a person that will be the face of the trip and can rally others to travel is the single most important factor to successfully organizing a group tour,” says Holly.
Key traits of a strong group leader are:
- They have a large network (like an email list, social following, or local community).
- They have a passion for travel.
- They are willing to be a walking billboard for the trip, inviting everyone they know and speak with to join.
The group leader can be a funeral home director, a restaurant owner, a yoga instructor or church pastor. And, of course, in many cases it is you!
Motivate your group leader.
When travel advisors have their designated group leader, offering them incentives or perks can be a highly strategic decision. Remember: it’s not about giving up your hard-earned commission, but rather incentivizing your group leader to bring more business your way. The incentives you offer should be contingent on their contributions, commitment level, and individual needs.
“If it is someone who can fill a coach for you, offering free trips and a commission share may be worth it. But make sure it comes on the back end and not as an upfront promise,” says Holly.
Plan in advance.
When putting together a group of, ideally, 15 to 40 travellers, it takes much more time, effort, and resources than planning a couple’s all-inclusive vacation. Everyone in the group needs enough advance notice to block the time in their calendars and budget for the trip. Holly recommends planning 10 to 18 months ahead, but stresses that with Collette, advisors can plan trips as much as two years in advance, which offers greatest flexibility.
“When you have your group leader, it’s best to allow them to select the date. Unless you have a long-established group that is travelling together on a regular basis, I don’t recommend polling the group to choose a date or itinerary because often, you will end up with a plethora of answers and people will be disappointed if you don’t choose the one they selected,” he advises.
Lonsdale adds that it’s important to continue the travel dream alive throughout the consideration phase of travel planning.
“Keep them motivated and inspired, just like we did through the pandemic, but now they’re ready to book. I always say, it’s like public transit – it has to come frequently and often,” he says.
“Get it on their Facebook or LinkedIn, do a dedicated e-blast, provide fun facts on the destination, share suggested reading.”
Create a snowball effect.
It can take time to build momentum around a group trip. Holly has three tips to speed up the process:
- Offer incentives (i.e. the first 10 people to book get an added perk).
- When a traveller signs up, send them a thank you note and encourage them to invite others.
- Make sure you’re connecting with your group leader often to discuss networking opportunities or ways you can support them with promotion.
“The most successful groups I have worked with are able to create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out), which allows them to fill up trips quickly after they’re announced,” he advises.
Leverage the resources Collette provides.
From coordinating schedules to managing logistics, organizing a group travel experience on your own can quickly become overwhelming. Working with Collette makes it easy.
“I think sometimes, advisors think it’s more complicated and difficult to organize group travel than it is. We assign a local BDM, we have a groups department, and we assign internal group specialists to help support them,” says Lonsdale. “Also, we do the air and with an air-inclusive group booking, provide hotel transfers, and offer 24/7 customer support.”
The BDM can help advisors choose the right tour and date based on their group’s needs. Plus, Collette offers comprehensive, personalized, and free promotional and marketing material, ensuring your have all the tools needed to effectively showcase and sell your group tour.
Leveraging Trends to Boost Sales and Satisfy Clients
Collette’s deep understanding of the market dynamics helps travel advisors tailor their messaging for group trips based on the latest travel preferences and client expectations.
For example, Lonsdale notes the travel preferences of Canadians across provinces.
“Western Canada seems to be a bit more adventurous and more exotic. Eastern Canada is more into Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Iceland. When it comes to guided tours, I think most people are looking to do something more unique, like our new Essence of Thailand program, which is a small group tour where you stay in unique accommodations and get off the beaten path and do things that you wouldn’t typically do with a larger group.”
