What I Learned from Vancouver’s Best Travel Advisors
byDaniel McCarthy/上周在温哥华,旅行市场报告的团队在JW Parq Marriott庆祝了beplay客服其旅游市场会议。该会议是有史以来最繁忙的TMP West,为为期两天的演出邀请了250多名特工和100名供应商代表。
On the day prior to the show’s opening, I had the incredible pleasure of sitting in amongst suppliers for our Ambassador program during the conference. The program brings 60-plus of Vancouver’s best travel advisors, vetted by the TMR team, together with 14 suppliers for three hours of small group meetings and then one-and-a-half hours of networking time over dinner and cocktails.
Being able to connect some of the area’s best travel advisors with suppliers, especially after the last three years we’ve had, is something the team looks forward to every year. And having the chance to sit in and talk to those advisors, was equally a great opportunity for the TMR team.
这是我们从这些对话中学到的一些内容:
1. Demand is StillVery高的
世界上不乏旅行需求 - 顾问谈到必须拒绝业务,这是一个很好的问题,仅仅是因为他们没有时间或员工来适当为客户提供服务。顾问还告诉我,通过提高服务费,甚至每次预订的支出最低,他们正变得与客户变得越来越敏锐。
“I’ve been learning to say no to a lot of business that is going to waste my time,” one advisor said.
2. Pricing Isn’t Discouraging Travelers
消费者不满意价格的增加s, but the shift in consumer spending from goods to services like travel continues, according to those I spoke to during TMP West. Advisors are pricing higher-than-average trips for just about every segment of travel, and while some consumers are shifting their preferences, saving some costs by moving airlines or moving cabins or dates, most clients are prepared to spend on travel.
Younger travelers seem to have more flexibility than their older counterparts, the advisors said—destinations could shift depending on price and availability, for instance, or even time of travel—but the vast majority of travelers are set on traveling to a specific place, at a specific time, and are ready to pay in order to do so.
3.供应商需要在顾问面前
Advisors, particularly in Canada, have been struggling with an ever-changing travel trade landscape. The past three years have seen so much change and churn when it comes to the right contacts to have. Ambassador advisors told me that they love coming to events like Travel Market Place because they are able to connect or reconnect with the people that are going to make their business better.
4. Traditional Booking Windows Are Gone
不再有一项交易的“等待” - 顾问告诉客户,如果他们想等待,那很好,但是价格和可用性只会变得更糟。
The last-minute booking calls are still coming in, but they aren’t likely to be successful unless clients are ready to beextremely灵活并准备付款。
The best bet for travelers is to book far out in advance, and advisors are doing whatever they can to communicate that to their clients, but that only goes so far.
5, There’s a New Way of Thinking
Travel advisors are no longer happy to simply go with the ebb and flow of the industry. Advisors are making things happen and the best ones are moving mountains in order to fit into new, profitable businesses.
在大使之夜期间,我有一位顾问告诉我有关坐下来学习如何预订租赁喷气式飞机后,我意识到通过宪章而不是商务舱座位预订小组旅行会更便宜。我有另一个告诉我要深入意大利的替代目的地,建立了他们能够为寻找意大利旅行的客户提供的目的地组合,因为这是由于缺乏供beplay银行卡应或高价而无法使用的。