总部的情况:合奏首次亮相新的预订引擎
经过詹姆斯·史林格劳(James Shillinglaw)/
编者注:总部的事件是旅行市场报告的常规功能,可帮助您了解主要旅行社,接待机构,旅行社财团,合作社,旅行网络和特许经营团体的营销和技beplay客服术计划。这些小组的高级管理人员详细介绍了他们如何发展业务以及计划和计划如何帮助旅行社成功出售更多旅行。
它是该国最古老的旅行社团体之一,也是最大的合作社之一,现在专注于提供新的预订技术解决方案,更多的培训和教育以及为其成员提供国际增长。Ensemble Travel Group于1968年成立为巨人队,代理商主要来自美国东北部,于去年10月在圣地亚哥举行了年度国际会议,在那里公布了许多新计划。
在过去的几年中,Ensemble已发展成为最大的跨国旅行社团体之一,在美国和加拿大拥有强大的成员资格。Ensemble的联合主席Lindsay Pearlman和Libbie Rice分别在多伦多和纽约设立,该组织的850个成员机构中的大多数位于加拿大和美国
But over the past year Ensemble also has expanded into Australia and New Zealand as well. The group now has 11 members in Australia and one in New Zealand. Ensemble also has welcomed 77 new member locations in the U.S. and Canada since the group’s conference in Orlando in 2015.
“合奏,它是关于课程和following our strategic plan built around three pillars—product, platform and infometrics,” says Rice. “And looking ahead, 2017 bookings across all business lines are already showing to be quite strong. When you couple that with our momentum in Australia and New Zealand, well the future couldn’t be brighter.
New booking platform
The big news from Ensemble’s conference last October was Navigate, a new integrated booking platform for the group’s members set to debut in the first quarter this year. Ensemble executives say this platform, which they describe as “unlike any other in the consortia space,” will initially provide member agencies with the ability to make cruise bookings from Ensemble’s cruise inventory, but it will be expanded in the future to include air, hotel, tour and shore excursion products.
“In a perfect world you’d want something that…enables you to deliver the right product at the right price to the right customer, saves you time, is ultra-intelligent and delivers data to you like you’ve never seen before,” says Pearlman. “Navigate does all that and will become your lifeline, your go-to, your one-stop source for growing your business.”
Members will not only have access to all Ensemble preferred supplier content on the platform, but they also will be able to add their own groups and special offers. “Navigate’s advanced technology integrates timely marketing, multi-level training and new-hire development with preferred partner goals and objectives—all of which will result in increased opportunities for our members,” says Rice. “We also know that better data means better analytics, which allows us to really capitalize on trends.”
Several Ensemble members have been beta testing Navigate for the past few months prior to its launch this year. The product rollout will happen in phases, with the Revelex-powered cruise booking engine as the first business line to go live in the first quarter.
“The idea behind our new booking engine was to develop a core platform that our members can use to book all travel verticals,” says Rice. “Our members will be able to see all the Ensemble content and they will be able to add their own content. So it’s a huge benefit from a training perspective being on one platform and one system. You can do this through Navigate and our members who do not have a GDS will benefit from that.”
合奏大学
Ensemble also is ramping up education and training for members. While it has long offered a series of educational events, executive retreats and other training opportunities, it has now launched the University of Ensemble to, in Pearlman’s words “take it to the next level.”
珀尔曼说,该小组的新教育计划着重于三个领域的培训:供应商产品和服务;与合奏相关的平台,产品和服务;和技能集,例如销售培训。
珀尔曼说:“这样做的整个想法是给它带来一些乐趣。”“您可以通过这些程序,可以在它们上获得认证,并在某些领域获得认证专家。还有一个E-Perks奖励平台,因此您可以赚取可以兑换教育课程或个人物品的积分。您不必为该计划付费。合奏大学将是一站式商店,适用于合奏和我们的首选供应商。”
Affiliate program
除了技术和培训,整体也是proceeding with a number of other initiatives. Last year it introduced an option under which agents can join the group as affiliates, not as full members. “Our overall growth has been quite strong,” says Pearlman. “In conjunction with that we have an affiliate program that’s really geared to have people come in and see what the organization is like. Based on their business model and needs, as they grow they can become full shareholders. Conversely if they are already shareholder, but want to start winding down their business, they can move from being a shareholder to an affiliate.”
最后,在今年的会议上,合奏首次亮相了一项新计划,以帮助其机构成为ASTA和ACTA的成员。赖斯说:“我们是ASTA的巨大支持者。”“我们看到它们在行业中的作用是我们不想在游说方面涵盖的角色。我们不授权ASTA会员资格,但我们强烈鼓励它。因此,我们提出了一个计划,如果成员注册了两年,我们的成员会享受折扣。我们甚至将从其年度合奏分配支票中扣除会员费。”