Avanti Sets its New Course
byDavid Cogswell/
This year, Avanti Destinations, a specialist in independent travel, has undergone new leadership following the retirement of founder Harry Dalgaard, last summer. Taking over the helm is Paul Barry, who bought 50 percent of the company in 2014, then took over as sole owner and executive chairman last January.
Meet the operator
巴里在旅游行业有35年的历史, beginning in 1983 when he took a job as a reservations agent with British Rail in New York. Three months later, he joined Travel Bound/GTA, where he worked until 1990, rising to the position of general manager. In 1990, he co-founded Europe Express, a specialist in FIT travel in Europe, and a direct competitor to Avanti.
Barry sold Europe Express to First Choice Holidays in 2005, and continued as president and CEO until 2008. Then he took a hiatus from the industry to observe a non-compete agreement. In 2012, he jumped back into the industry, acquiring卡拉多纳冒险,是潜水和冒险旅行的专家,两年后,在Avanti获得了股权。
Barry is taking over at a good time for Avanti. “Avanti is at a stage where it has grown a lot,” said Barry, “and it’s looking forward to some future tremendous growth. We are already the market leader and we’re looking to increase our lead in customized independent travel to many major international destinations in the world.”
Avanti’s advantage, as independent travel has grown in popularity, is that it provides travel agents with an efficient, reliable system for easily piecing together custom vacation packages — without having to call each individual hotel for each night’s booking, and then having to chase down the commissions from the individual hotels.
Destination expertise
Avanti, which sells exclusively through travel agents, is designed to be an adjunct to the retail business, providing travel agents with an instant plug-in to destination expertise in a wide variety of places. “If an agent doesn’t know a particular destination, we have people here who do,” said Barry. “So, an agent doesn’t have to take so long to put together a package.”
The education and experience level of its in-house travel consultants is one of the major components of the company’s value proposition, so Avanti invests heavily in the ongoing education of its in-house consultants.
“We are increasing the education within the company and the staff,” said Barry. “Sixty-two of our staff will be traveling in the next three months to experience Avanti destinations. Most companies have reservation agents, we have travel consultants. It’s not the same. It’s very different.”
Avanti’s historic edge
Avanti由Harry Dalgaard于1981年成立。该公司的优势是一款名为Tourgate的专有预订软件。虽然大多数旅行社通过设计用于单个旅行的集团旅行的系统进行独立旅行,但图尔盖特是专门为健身旅行而设计的 - 因此,它的结构是允许对不同的汽车,酒店,航空和空中和地面服务功能。该系统为Avanti提供了良好的开端,为不断增长的独立旅行市场提供服务。
No assembly required
自巴里接管公司以来的创新之一是新的Avanti旅行product, which consists of pre-assembled packages that combine some of the most popular components into air-inclusive packages that can be purchased without having to assemble the parts.
Journeys产品线为代理商提供了一个基线套餐,可以将公司在目的地,产品经理和旅行顾问的专业知识以及前往这些领域的客户的积累历史上的专业知识以及累积的历史。beplay银行卡
The multi-destination packages can be customized to match the individual preferences of clients. “Avanti Journeys highlight some of the FIT product that we offer packaged together as sample packages so our agency partners can see the various types of offerings in the multiple countries that we service,” said Barry. “A lot of people customize them to create their own vacations.”
Stopover privileges
Avanti已使用与航空公司合作伙伴的合同不仅提供净利率的价格优势,还提供将空气组件分成单独的零件的能力,从而允许沿途进行中途停留。巴里说:“有了我们与航空公司合作伙伴签订的合同,我们在欧洲或在美国都有停用津贴。
Expanding product offerings
With the addition of Avanti Journeys, the company can provide anything from a fully inclusive package to the simplest post-cruise, three-night trip with transfers and private sightseeing.
巴里说:“我们在我们提供的所有主要目的地中提供全方位的合适服务,这使我们成为当今旅行交易的绝佳资源。beplay银行卡我们在手机结束时提供专业知识,以将独立的定制包装放在一起。与代理商试图单独预订单个组件相比,我们以更快的格式做到这一点。”
Avanti began offering European destinations in 1981, expanded to Latin America in 1990, and to Asia in 2015. As a new market, Asia is showing the highest growth rate by percentage, but Europe is still, by far, the majority of Avanti’s business. Europe accounts for about 80 percent, while Latin America is 13 percent and Asia is 7 percent.
Continued growth in Europe
“Asia has done tremendously for us and it’s still growing,” said Barry. “Percentagewise, it’s the largest increase for us this year, but Europe is still growing tremendously for us.”
作为一个成熟的目的地,欧洲正在以不同的方式发展。“一些核心市场,例如英国,法国,意大利和德国,并没有像冰岛或克罗地亚等新兴或新兴市场一样发展。我们还看到葡萄牙,波兰,斯堪的纳维亚半岛和苏格兰的强劲增长。较小的二级市场增长最大,百分比。”
In the established destinations of Europe, Avanti is expanding beyond the most heavily touristed sites. “This is where Avanti’s advantage really comes into play,” said Barry, “in getting you to secondary and tertiary destinations, and small villages as well as roaming around the countryside. In Europe, it is possible to connect to nearly everything by rail.”
In Europe, Americans now feel increasingly comfortable traveling independently, more so than in Latin America or Asia. “In Europe, people who have been back a few times don’t go to the major cities anymore,” said Barry. “They are going out into the country and exploring.”
Avanti正在与当地的DMC合作,扩大其经验和活动的产品,例如烹饪班,饮酒场所,葡萄酒或伏特加酒品尝,以及其他类型的经验,这些体验可以帮助客户深深地沉浸在目的地中。beplay银行卡
预订更远
Avanti is currently seeing an increase in booking lead times. “Bookings already for 2019 are 40 percent up over the same time last year,” said Barry. “It’s early but we’re getting a tremendous amount of phone calls. Bookings are getting deposited already, so that’s a very encouraging sign for 2019. New bookings are coming in really early in the season. The early signs are extremely good.”
提早预订的原因之一是获得最佳的导游。巴里说:“我们进行了很多私人航班和指南等,而且导游只有有限的导游。如果您想获得最好的指南,请不要在60天前预订,否则您将无法获得最佳的导游。您需要提前预订。”
避免公开主义
As travelers look to go beyond the crowded tourism sites, especially at peak season, new destinations are being developed. “We are creating deeper offerings within countries we already service,” said Barry.
The problem of overtourism has been getting increasing attention lately. “The world has become flatter in tourism,” said Barry, “so more people are coming to Europe, and all parts of the world. But, there are certain parts of all of the major countries, whether Italy, France, or Britain, that have yet to be explored by Americans, where you can get the experience of those countries without the crowds. So, for instance, in Italy, Puglia is an emerging, growing destination, but it doesn’t suffer from overtourism. So, it’s more like tourism was maybe 20 or 30 years ago.”
The same is true of parts of England, such as Devon and Cornwall. “We are working to develop more product offerings in those areas,” he said, “to offer a new type of experience reflective of an aspiration of getting to know the locals, to experience the country without being surrounded by tourists.
“对于那些希望去主要城市的人,我们有很多私人安排,因此您可以避免令人讨厌的人群。我们还有特殊的安排,您可以在某些小时内进入某些旅游地点。我们为个人以及小型家庭团体提供这些选择。”
Onward and upward
“Avanti” is an Italian word meaning “forward” or “come on.” It turned out to be an accurate portrayal of the company as it blazed trails in independent travel. Now nearly 40 years in business, Avanti is determined to continue to live up to its name.