Internova Travel Group is investing in its greatest asset: its travel advisors.
The company — which represents more than 62,000 travel advisors through brands such as Global Travel Collection, Travel Leaders Group, Tzell Travel Group, Nexion Travel Group, Protravel International and more — has announced a new initiative to raise awareness about travel advisors and help its members reach new clients who haven’t used an agent in the past.
The campaign, called “Go Human. Book Human,” kicked off June 16 with a 12-week marketing plan targeting Los Angeles and New York as its first phase. Out-of-home targeting (such as billboards), paid and organic social media, online video and other types of advertising will all be used to highlight the benefits of booking travel through a human being, with the goal of recruiting new clients and helping agents build their businesses back up.
In a virtual briefing about the new strategy, Internova executives said that “the timing couldn’t be better” for this message, as the COVID-19 pandemic has “brought to light the horrors of travel disruption,” according to Brent Rivard, chief marketing officer at Internova.
“The cost of not using an advisor is too great,” added Angie Licea, president of Global Travel Collection. “Why would you not use one?”
Licea noted that during the pandemic, she watched advisors work 24/7, in most cases not getting paid and even losing commission, though they “never failed to focus with love and care on their customers.”
In addition to the marketing campaign, Internova is introducing a new web experience (www.bookhuman.travel) that highlights its travel planners and makes it easier for consumers to search for advisors with certain experience, specific niches, desired locations, etc. New technology will also let advisors and potential clients easily connect via video chat, phone and texting. The site has launched with 33 robust advisor profiles, though the tech is described as “easily scalable” to get more agents from Internova’s various brands up and running on the platform as the company is ready to do so.
“People today have access to a plethora of online booking algorithms to plan their vacations, but artificial intelligence won’t give you a unique, personalized experience, and it doesn’t particularly care if anything goes wrong,” Rivard said in a statement. “Bots are simply programmed to sell, not care. It’s time for humans to take back what’s rightfully theirs.”
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Internova Travel Group
