Travelsmart
ORLANDO — Travel Leaders Group has launched a new consumer travel site that’s being touted as the travel industry’s very first Perpetual Demand Generation (PDG) vehicle.
Simply named ‘Vacation’, the site uses the completely repurposed Vacation.com URL and will initially focus on Honeymoon and Destination Wedding specializations. Since nearly 1,900 Travel Leaders network agents specialize in Honeymoon travel, and another 1,250 specialize in Destination Weddings – making the two categories among the most popular currently listed on TravelLeaders.com – they are being invited to qualify for participation in the initial focus of the new Vacation site.
Eventually, other lifestyle specializations will be included, with other Travel Leaders Group agents invited to qualify. The aim of the site is to provide a space where travellers can research and access valuable information about specific types of travel at their own pace. When they are ready to receive personalized advice, they will then be matched with the most appropriate participating Travel Leaders Group travel agent.
For the upcoming consumer launch, members from Travel Leaders Network, including TL Network Canada, will be the first Travel Leaders Group agents invited to participate.
“When we brought our three agency groups together earlier this year, we did so with the realization that the dormant Vacation.com URL was far too valuable to simply allow it to go away. We have transformed Vacation.com into a consumer brand purveyor of quality counsel and expert information,” said John Lovell, CTC, President of Travel Leaders Network, Leisure Group and Hotel Division.
Vacation will be launched using Travel Leaders Group’s proprietary, science and data-based PDG solution. According to Chief Executive Officer Ninan Chacko, who has personally advocated PDG since taking the helm of Travel Leaders Group, Perpetual Demand Generation is about always being “on” throughout a traveller’s 24/7 search for solid information.
“By powering Vacation with PDG, we will empower travellers to consume informative content from a variety of channels. At each stage of their online journeys, we will provide a level of personalized engagement specifically targeted to them, as opposed to a mass market approach,” he said. “Our goal is for each consumer’s Vacation journey to conclude with counsel from one of our agent experts.”
Brian Hegarty, Vice President of Marketing for Travel Leaders Group, also praised PDG technology. “Because we can track each consumer on their paths throughout Vacation from the moment they first visit our site right through to each closed sale, we are fundamentally changing the dynamics for how agents can sell travel,” he said.
Hegarty also noted that Vacation agents will get the advantage of receiving detailed intelligence on the leads they receive, including where and when prospective clients want to travel, a history of content they consumed, their answers to Vacation’s online quizzes, and what type of planning style they prefer. They’ll also be provided with tools designed to help close sales, including best practice training, consumer call and voicemail scripts, email templates, follow-up collateral pieces and a virtual sales assistant developed to schedule follow-up contact.
Travel Leaders Network Member agencies will find registration information on Agent Universe. Go to TravelLeadersNetwork.com for more information.
Here’s a familiar scenario: a couple comes into a travel agency. They’re newly engaged and can barely contain their excitement about booking a destination wedding. They know all about the cost …
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