Experiential travel might be defined as tourism that immerses a traveler in the experiences of a place, from its culture and food to its history and people. Events of all kinds are included in this, including athletic games, concerts and festivals.
But navigating a wildly popular event domestically or abroad — including procuring tickets and accommodations when demand is high — is usually better off left to the experts.
Enter On Location Experiences, which was originally started by the National Football League (NFL) in order to book packaged travel (flights, hotels, tickets, on-the-ground transportation) connected to mega events such as the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft and the Pro Bowl. When entertainment agency Endeavor acquired On Location and Premiere Sports Travel in 2020, the travel agency’s scope widened. Today, the company curates luxury live event experiences — think itineraries that center the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Ryder Cup and more — and often gets clients the kind of access the typical consumer cannot get.
We spoke with Kier Matthews, luxury travel sales consultant for On Location, to get a better picture of the business. Having joined the team in August 2023, Matthews has his eye on helping advisors impress their clients with thrilling and bespoke trips to some of the world’s largest events.
What should travel advisors know about On Location and how it works?
The key thing is that On Location is the officially licensed hospitality partner for over 150 event brands, [including the U.S. Open, Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Final Four, etc]. What that means for the frontline travel advisor is that they don't have to worry about, say, if the event tickets are legitimate, or from the secondhand market and being marked up. We are getting tickets from the source. Even if you go to Ticketmaster and buy tickets for the Olympics, they limit the inventory, and you're subject to fees. If the advisor buys that ticket from us, there are no additional fees.
For an advisor, this is one-stop shopping.
The guarantee of ticketing [is notable, too]. It's so hard to get tickets to anything anymore. And it's a risky space. We actually have inventory because of the partnership with those major brands. And right now, we've got the next three Olympics; we're focusing heavily on the Paris Olympics right now, but also on Milan in 2026 and L.A. in 2028.
On Location advisors help procure tickets to major events, including the Olympic Games.
Credit: 2024 Iliya Mitskavets/stock.adobe.com
What do On Location’s itineraries look like?
Our trips are exclusively around the event date. So, let’s say I wanted to go to Paris for three days of [Olympics] competitions; we're covering the accommodations on the ground during the Olympic events, the hospitality and, obviously, the ticketing. And as the official licensed hospitality partner, we are the only ones that can give clients access to exclusive hospitality venues.
What is a hospitality venue? And who gets to use them?
For a sporting event, a hospitality venue is typically a secure place that you've paid to get into, or that you've been invited to. There's food and beverages, interactive activities or experiences, and so forth.
This is the first year that the Olympics is allowing the general public to buy into hospitality venues. Previously, companies like Coca Cola or Google would say, “We need tickets for 1,000 people, we need a hotel, and we need our own hospitality that only our people can use.” So, if you were in the general public and not a part of Coca Cola or any other company, you didn't have access to hospitality. You had to kind of entertain and engage yourself.
What we've done is created three different levels of hospitality: gold, silver, bronze. If we're in a stadium and somebody wants a suite, we’ve got that. And we have Team USA house, which is more “museum-meets-international-food-court.” And this is the first time people can actually buy into that.
The idea is to make things less overwhelming. If this is all set up for you, then you know exactly where to go, and where to be, and you're not wandering around in masses of people.
Imagine traveling with a partner and your teenage kids, and you’ve got a sporting event in the afternoon. You need a meal, but you don't want to be walking around the streets of Paris. Now, you can get tickets to any one of these hospitality venues. We’ve also bought out hotels, from three stars to five stars, and 30 restaurants; we're controlling those reservations. We’ll run the restaurants like cruise lines, with 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. seatings, for example.
On Location clients might attend special activations or access reserved venues, in addition to attending a major event.
Credit: 2024 Gorodenkoff/stock.adobe.comAnd hospitality venues would offer different client perks, depending on the event?
Right. At Formula One, they may bring in a retired Formula One driver to take pictures with the people who are in there. The idea to make things less overwhelming. If this is all set up for you, then you know exactly where to go, and where to be, and you're not wandering around in masses of people.
We do this for the Superbowl, the NCAA Final Four, the Ryder Cup, the Masters, the U.S. Tennis Open and Wimbledon. For an advisor, this is one-stop shopping.
What’s your own experience working with the advisor community?
I have worked closely with this community. As an account manager at Virtuoso, one of the accounts that I managed was Premier Sports Travel, which is now wrapped up with On Location. I left Virtuoso, went to Europe Express as the vice president of sales, went to Classic Vacations as the senior director of sales, went to Hilton as a global managing director. In 2022, I started my own travel agency, and then this opportunity came along.
The guarantee of ticketing [is notable, too]. It's so hard to get tickets to anything anymore. And it's a risky space.
And it sounds like engaging the advisor community is a new move for On Location. In which case, you bring great experience to the table.
Right. Prior to my arrival at On Location in August, there was no travel agent distribution program. I think that’s because they did very well selling to big groups — 20 friends going to NASCAR, etc. But that didn’t really open them up to the travel community. I was brought on to actively engage the travel advisor community.
What I've been doing is working with the team internally on processing, everything from documents to commission, which is at 10%. And from a staffing perspective, we moved 25 people (there’s someone in every time zone) who had [formerly] been doing direct consumer and small groups to working with travel advisors. We can provide custom quotes, or you can look at set packages and bring those straight to clients.
We are a wholesaler — that's the closest supplier category that we fit into. We don't get involved in the pre- and the post- [travel of an event-centered trip]. Our sweet spot is the ticketing, the hotel, getting people to and from the venue and the airport, and then the hospitality. And people need the help in these situations. We want to excel at delivering a really good experience.
