Headquarter Happenings: Travel Leaders Network Is Optimistic Amid Surging Demand, Tight Labor Market, Supply Issues
byMarilee Crocker/在流行后旅游业聚会的特征的高能量和兴奋的心情中,旅行领导者网络在6月12日至15日在盖洛德落基山脉度假胜地的2022年边缘会议上发出了自信,乐观的信息co。
Travel Leaders Group总裁John Lovell告诉Travel Market报告,网络对顾问的信息是:“首先,我们回来了。”beplay客服“我们在组织方面表现良好。我们继续投资于他们的计划,教育,技术。
“Thebig takeaways are: We’re here, the past is the past. We’ve all learned from it; we’ve all been through it together. It’s been challenging, but better days are ahead.”
好时机
会议前夕,疾病预防控制中心(CDC)放弃了对Inbound Internation Travelers的COVID-19测试的要求,这一宣布的宣布使人们的情绪增强了。紧随其后的是邮轮线公告,他们也在放松测试要求。
“These barriers to travel were just dropping right in front of us,” Lovell said. “It was that sense of relief and optimism, and brighter days are here, and they’re only going to get brighter.”
New best practices groups
Travel Leaders announced expansions of several existing advisor programs during the conference, which was attended by 1,500 advisors and suppliers.
扩展的计划之一是领导人联盟,这是一个仍然是与共同利益的顾问的仍未达到的网络和最佳实践计划。Travel Leaders网络于2021年推出了该计划,其中包括两个小组,一个针对豪华的顾问,另一个用于主机机构。
Now it has added three more groups – one for the honeymoon and destination weddings segment, another focused on agency technology needs and a third called Building Better, a business strategy group for mid-size agencies.
Prospective advisor members are selected through an application process, and Alliance groups are facilitated by subject matter experts from Travel Leaders Network.
Lead generation for ‘Super Agents’
Travel Leaders also announced the addition of a “Super Agent” category to Agent Profiler, its consumer-facing lead generation tool. Advisors who qualify as Super Agents will show up higher in search engine results on TravelLeaders.com. To become a Super Agent, advisors must meet performance criteria, including engaging in certain network programs and tools.
Currently, some 9,000 Travel Leaders Network advisors are active on Agent Profiler. In 2019, a record year, participating advisors received more than 170,000 customer leads through Agent Profiler, Lovell said. “This year we’re on pace to exceed that by 8% to 10%.”
他评论说,这是顾问的好兆头。人们想以第三方确认或确认购买旅行。看到[客户潜在客户的飞跃]说明了旅行顾问提供的内容。”
Training for new entrant advisors
To help agency owners and managers address staffing needs amid a surge in demand and an extremely tight labor market, Travel Leaders Network is launching a training program for new entrants on July 1.
“Coming out of the大流行,有人力资源的挑战在穿越s every sector. Within the travel advisor community, everybody’s trying to replace agents that left the industry. Sometimes the best salesperson might not have been a travel advisor. So how do you get somebody up to speed?” Lovell said.
他强调说,该培训计划旨在补充而不是替代代理商所有者提供的培训。“我们希望尽一切可能为他们提供支持,并且我们了解,寻找新人才对于顾问社区的未来发展至关重要。”
国际预订平台
当被问及新闻中,旅行领导人的母公司国际旅行集团正在开发一个单一的预订平台,以供所有旅行顾问使用时,洛维尔指出,北美“大约40%”的旅行顾问属于Internova Group Company。
“从聚合器级别上,我们有很大的力量。我们希望将预订交易合并为一个平台。这对我们在组织上是有意义的。”单个预订平台将使Internova可以实时查看其所有公司的数据。
洛维尔说:“这对我们很重要,我认为这对我们的机构也很重要。”“我们希望在任何国际旅行集团公司的顾问中提供最佳产品,最佳促销活动,最适合其客户的价格。您这样做的方式是将其融合在一起的正确技术。”
Interova目前仍处于RFI舞台上,预计将首先推出空气,汽车和酒店预订的平台,然后再推出Cruise,Tour,Insurance和其他辅助产品。
Looking ahead: sales & services
Despite the many challenges posed by a scarce labor market, related service issues, surging demand, tight supply, rising prices and recession fears, Lovell said that Travel Leaders anticipates exponential growth for the remainder of 2022 and into 2023, largely because of post-pandemic pent-up demand.
"We have never entered a bear market, a recession, with people not having traveled for the prior two years. So we’re entering unprecedented times,” he said. “We’re in a very good position to have 2023 be that standout year. It’s really how do we fulfill the demand that’s out there?”
To support advisors struggling to serve customers during a period of extensive air service disruptions and long supplier hold times, Travel Leaders hopes to expand use of its air service desk by making the program “more simplistic and easier for advisors to adopt,” according to Lovell.
Travel advisors can’t afford to spend hours of each day dealing with cancellations and re-bookings, Lovell said. “It’d be much easier if you didn’t have to call an air desk, if we provided service on air bookings, hotels when people get walked, that sort of thing. We’re looking at creating programs and services that will alleviate that need, because in a tight labor market everybody is going to be stretched thin.”
旅行领导人的2023年边缘会议将于5月8日至11日在纳什维尔举行。