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Nico Zenner, president of Travel Bound// © Travel Bound 2010 |
Last year, Travel Bound saw a 15 percent increase in bookings compared to 2008, with the highest gains in bookings for travel within the U.S. and to Greece. TravelAge West recently sat down with Travel Bound’s president, Nico Zenner, to talk about what it takes for tour operators and travel agents alike to succeed in a down economy.
What attributed to Travel Bound’s success last year despite of the economic recession?
The flexibility and depth of the products we offer is certainly what travel agents and consumers at large are looking for. We only sell FIT and customized groups, letting agents customize everything that they book. Our products are also available until the very last minute, and we don’t have minimum-night stay requirements.
What promotions have been effective for Travel Bound?
We’ve been successful in highlighting cruise port cities during Wave season, European cities during the key booking season and featured hotels with which we have great deals. We also offer more commission, free night stays and rate reductions for momentum throughout the year.
The expansion of your U.S. hotel portfolio last year has helped you capitalize on the current trend for shorter vacations closer to home; do you foresee this trend continuing into the next year?
Absolutely. Our portfolio of domestic hotels in the last year or two has tripled; we have between 5,000 and 6,000 domestic hotels, whereas we started with 2,000. Travel agents are realizing that there is money to be made in capitalizing on domestic hotel sales, and booking those hotels through us gets them higher commission and larger rewards than booking through other sources that those travel agents have historically used.
In addition to “piggybacking” on cruise bookings to make a profit, what other opportunities for profit are there for travel agents?
The cruise is an off-the-shelf product that anybody can sell, but to really customize it by adding something exciting before and after the cruise will secure repeat business. The next big opportunity we see for agents to be successful is selling domestic, and we conveniently consider Canada as part of our domestic offering.
Can you give us some insight on why Greece saw some of the highest gains in booking last year?
Greece has done a remarkable job in positioning itself as an exciting tourist destination. We have added quite a bit of product in Athens and the islands there and our buying power has greatly improved in Greece.
We have an anecdotal explanation from our travel agents who have told clients, ‘Since you’re not 100 percent as to where you want to spend your vacation, it would cost you X number of dollars to get you to France, Italy or Spain, but I can get you even farther away to Greece, and you’re going to save a few hundred dollars.’ The price point to take people to Greece is very advantageous.
Can you guess which country will be the next hot destination?
The core European markets have shown a strong comeback, such as Italy, Spain, France and the U.K. We’ve also seen a growing interest in South America. Our Brazil business is taking off strongly, though in smaller numbers than Europe. I’m hopeful Brazil and other South American markets will show a good performance this year in addition to the traditional markets.
In addition to being on Twitter, in what other ways does Travel Bound keep in touch with agents?
We reach out to our agents in a number of ways — through online seminars, trade shows and our Web site. Agents can go on our Web site for definition guides by region and city, so they can be qualified and educated not just to sell Paris and London, but to also sell more difficult destinations that aren’t sold in big numbers.
What characteristics, in your opinion, make a successful travel agent?
You have to listen to the consumer and come up with a product that is competitively priced. However, you should never be in the market to over or under sell the wishes of the client. It is a matter of dealing with reliable suppliers and making sure that you deliver what clients are actually in the market for.
What have been Travel Bound’s greatest challenges last year and this year?
We were surprised by our success last year and, in a way, it caught us a bit off guard. We’ve had issues with answering phones in a timely fashion, which is a good problem I would have to say. We’re not afraid to meet that challenge this year. We’re looking forward to making 2010 another successful year by giving our agents the tools to make it happen.
Travel Bound
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