One of the world’s biggest fast food chains is famous for having a secret sauce. For the rapidly growing Travel Leaders Network, there’s maybe 10 or 20 or even 30 of them.
Travel Leaders Network held its Peak regional meeting in Toronto on 17OCT, attracting a record number of members and suppliers. It did the same thing earlier in the month at regional sessions in Calgary and Vancouver.
TLN Vice President for Canada Christine James said they held last year’s session in a hotel near YYZ but had to move to a large convention centre because there was no room at the inn.
Advisors and suppliers were treated to shrimp cocktail, drinks and a lovely dinner following an afternoon that included panel discussions on cruise and luxury travel, both booming for Travel Leaders Network. There was also a fun “Price is Right” game show in which suppliers had to guess the price of various vacation packages.
The Toronto meeting saw 260 members in attendance and 72 supplier booths. In 2023, they had 190 members at the show. It was a similar story at Peak sessions in Calgary, with 99 members and 51 suppliers, and in Vancouver, where the event drew 165 members and 61 supplier booths.
“It’s definitely our best year ever,” James told a group of trade media at the Pearson Convention Centre.
James said the network has added 31 new members this year and is now at 600 across Canada. They hope to reach 625 by year’s end.
“Don’t forget some of those member agencies might have 20 or 30 or even hundreds of advisors,” she said.
Notable additions in the past few years include The Travel Agent Next Door, Onvigo, Nexion, Central Holidays and Travel Best Bets.
“Our secret sauce is not one thing,” James said when Open Jaw asked about her group’s success “It’s not two things. It’s not three things. It’s not 10 things. It’s 20 or 30 things.
“Depending on the prospective member, we’re going to find something in our tool kit that’s going to be better than anybody else can offer them. Because we’re so big, we’re doing so many things so well, it’s really hard for a competitor that doesn’t have the depth and breadth of our organization
“Look at our technology; our cruise booking engine has taken off on steroids. We have our own cruise booking engine. We have our own hotel booking engine. And now we’re just launching our hotel, car and air version in Canada.”
The latter is called SNAP (Simple Navigation Advisor Platform), and should roll out early in the new year for advisors.
“We’ve got a whole technology division … so we’re going out and negotiating directly with suppliers. We’re getting these booking engines in place that are unique, that no one else has.”
Adding air bookings in SNAP is a huge advantage for Travel Leaders Network, James said.
“We have a lot of members out there … we have a lot of cruise agencies that are afraid of booking air. They’re really good at selling cruise but they don’t want to touch air as they’re not very familiar with selling air. With this air booking engine, we’re hosting it, we have our own IATA number, and we have all these amazing contracts, airline contracts that we’ve piggybacked onto with the US contractors.
“It’s going to give those members, in one shot they’ll have access to airfares, at negotiated, commissionable rates they can’t get anywhere else, and then on top of that you can book all your hotels in it. It’s like dynamic packaging. But it takes the onus off the agent as they won’t get debit memos. It’s coming back to us.”
James, who will celebrate her 25th anniversary at Travel Leaders Network in December, said she’s shocked when she hears about advisors who are reluctant to make air bookings.
“I started in Eaton’s Travel, and I would never turn down an air booking. That was part of my training.”
James said some newer advisors aren’t as familiar with the industry, especially in the U.S. and they have a fear of air.
“I think it’s a disservice,” she said.
Not only is the client not being served, but telling someone to book air with someone else could cause them to move their business to another agent.
“With the SNAP tool we’re taking that fear of air and minimizing that fear of air. They’re not going to get a debit memo. It’s a complete, user-friendly search. It tells you which fares are commissionable, and which are net, and then you have the ability at the end of the transaction to add a service fee.”
SNAP also includes a 24-hour help line so advisors can retrieve a booking and service a client without waiting on the phone for an airline agent.
Another huge advantage for Travel Leaders Network is the lead generation that’s provided by their free Agent Profiler program, an online directory where advisors can build their own profile and show off their specialties.
“It’s gotten so much better,” she said. “Year to date in Canada, we’ve 9,900 leads already to our members on Agent Profiler.”
“Because we have such a broad data base of qualified agents, we bubble up on the first page on google analytics.”
Agent Profiler is easy to manage, James said, but some advisors seem to feel they don’t have time to deal with it.
“It’s so easy,” James explained. “You just fill out a template, and now we have this AI system, Toby AI, to write your profile and publish it. We even have staff writers” who can help with writing a profile.
James said one advisor joined Agent Profiler and noted online that she was a Costa Rica specialist. A few days later she got a booking for 90 people for Costa Rica.
The average sale booked through Agent Profiler prior to COVID was $6,000. Now, it’s $10,000 per booking, she said.
Revenge travel has mostly come and gone, and James was expecting sales to level off this year. But that hasn’t happened.
“We’re seeing growth over 2023, which is amazing because 2023 was our best year ever. 2023 blew everything out of the water and we’re still above that in 2024. It’s just phenomenal.”
James said cruise “has gone nuts.”
Twenty five years ago, cruise was only a small percentage of TLN’s business. Now it’s 38%.
“It just keeps growing and growing,” she said, especially river cruising.
“They can’t build enough ships and they can’t find enough rivers to sail,” she added with a smile.
James said cruise lines are beginning to understand that Canada is something of an untouched market.
“They’re willing to invest. They see the demand rising, and it’ s nice to see that kind of attention. When we’re full at a trade show, we can’t take more suppliers because all these major cruise lines that would typically focus on the US want to come into Canada. I keep telling them you’re doing great, but if you wan to go above that you need to invest in a field team. You need to have boots on the ground, and we’re seeing that. They’re hiring this BDM, that BDM.”
Cruise suppliers were out in force at the Toronto Peak session, with participation from AmaWaterways, Azamara, Celebrity Cruises, Globus, Hurtigruten, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas, Royal Caribbean, Silversea, Tauck and Virgin Voyages among the suppliers at PEAK Toronto region session.
In addition to talking with the media, James moderated a panel discussion on travel at the Toronto session.
One of the questions she asked was about the approaching winter season, and how prepared Canada’s travel sector is.
“We’re definitely ready for winter,” said Sevi Anagnostis of WestJet Vacations. “There are more self serve options for consumers and a call-back feature and more resources for advisors to help them adjust.”
Dave Wright of Sunwing said it “would be weird” if geo-political problems didn’t affect the industry, but that Sunwing has been making adjustments, including longer turnaround times. He said he highly recommends guests download the Sunwing app so they can get help more easily if problems arise.
On the subject of sustainability, Lorna Richards from Sandals and Beaches Resorts said 90% of produce at resorts in Jamaica is local. Also done away plastic straws and plastic coffee cups.
Diana Winters of Exoticca said they work mostly with boutique hotels that are locally owned and practice sustainability.
Winters urged advisors to take refresher courses every few months to keep on top of things.
“I think it’s also important to pick a focus,” James said. “You can’t be a specialist in everything.”
