As European tour directors for Trafalgar Tours, Romano Epifani and Graham Smith bear extensive knowledge and experience of the region. As demand for travel to Europe continues to remain strong for 2010, the two recently shared some of their insight on selling escorted travel to the region.
There’s been a lot of industry buzz about Europe being in high demand for 2010. What makes Europe so unique as a travel destination and how should agents capitalize on this?
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Epifani
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Epifani: Europe has always been a top travel destination but in 2009, travelers were hesitant to go anywhere, so there is a good amount of pent-up demand that Trafalgar is seeing actualize into bookings to Europe this summer. Also, right now, the currency exchange rate is fairly favorable (both for the euro and the U.K. pound) to the U.S. dollar so, for the time being, that is also creating demand among savvy travelers. Further, late last year and through the month of February, Trafalgar has been running some terrific airfare promotions. For instance, right now, companions fly to Europe free or for $99 on air-inclusive tour bookings. That has created a record number of bookings for our 2010 Europe tours this summer.
Why should travelers book escorted tours to Europe? What are the advantages of escorted tours as opposed to a more independent FIT tour?
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Smith |
Smith: The advantages of escorted tours have always been the convenience and value that escorted tours offer. Convenience because, with one phone call, you can save all of the hassle of planning, and have your transportation, accommodations, most of your meals and daily sightseeing all taken care of. And on a Trafalgar tour, our tour directors are also with you every step of the way to take care of all the details, like checking you into your hotels, enlightening you about the culture and history of the destinations you are visiting, giving you the best advice and insight on how to spend time on your own exploring the destination. Trafalgar’s tremendous buying power will always save clients up to 30 percent off the cost of traveling independently if your clients were to plan and book the same itinerary themselves.
What are some common misconceptions that agents and travelers have regarding travel to Europe and how do you dispel that on your tours?
Epifani: That it is too expensive — our tours always provide savings up to 30 percent off the cost of booking an identical itinerary on your own.
Smith: That it is a hassle to plan a multi-city/country trip and fit it all in. We offer more than 150 unique and exciting European itineraries in a variety of paces and styles that allow clients to plan multi-city/country vacations with a single phone call, and we ensure on each tour that clients will never miss any of the destinations’ highlights.
Epifani: Another misconception is that it is difficult to get around the language barriers and local transportation, etc. Our multilingual tour directors make sure your clients never have any issues with understanding local languages, and they escort them every step of the way onboard our luxury motorcoaches, trains and cruise ships as our primary means of transportation.
What are some “hidden treasures” that you typically share with your guests?
Smith: All of our tour directors — myself included — have many years of experience and knowledge of the destinations that they specialize in, and on every tour they share hidden treasures that most travelers would never see or experience if they were traveling about on their own. But, if we told you what they were, they wouldn’t be hidden anymore!
What kind of advice do you give to people considering a trip to Europe?
Epifani: You should have some idea of where you would like to go, and then do the research to see who offers you most or all of what you would like to do at the best value with the most convenient way to book your ideal vacation. Trafalgar’s Web site is a terrific way to research the depth and breadth or our European (and other) destination vacations, or order our brochures and read through them. Compare our value to the same destinations by going online and seeing what it would cost you to book hotels, rental cars (and gas), meals, admission to major attractions, etc. throughout Europe and you will see the value that a Trafalgar tour can offer.
What do you think travel agents should be doing now in terms of booking European travel?
Smith: Travel agents should be doing several things. One is to look for the best values to offer their clients, and realize the value that escorted tours represent in terms of hassle-free planning and savings for their clients. They should also realize what a tremendous revenue opportunity escorted tours represent for themselves, with high commissions and no non-commissionable items built into the package.
If a travel agent has clients that have previously taken a cruise to Europe where they’ve sampled certain destinations, the travel agent owes it to those clients to book them on an in-depth, immersive destination experience that a land tour can provide. Cruise clients and tour clients are quite often the same person, but if a travel agent only focuses on selling cruises they are missing out on a huge opportunity to sell additional vacations to those same clients.
Travel agents should also take advantage of the tools that companies such as Trafalgar offer to help them sell: training and weekly Webinars, online eLearning, marketing support, etc. They should really try to be the expert that their client is looking for.
What is your outlook for escorted travel in 2010? And in 2011?
Epifani: We are seeing a terrific rebound in 2010, and are up 50 percent year-to-date over 2009. Furthermore, we see this trend continuing and strengthening into 2011. The interesting pattern shift has been that, while 2009 was all about late, last-minute bookings, 2010 has been a mixture of close-in and farther-out bookings, so we are very optimistic that this trend will continue, and Trafalgar will continue to focus on serving the needs of travel agents and their clients whenever they want to travel.
Trafalgar Tours
www.trafalgar.com
