Avanti Destinations kicked off 2021 with a bang, debuting Egypt as its latest destination offering for custom FIT and group travel.
The company’s new products include five customizable vacations, six destinations, 19 hotels and 38 experiences and activities, which range from visiting the country’s iconic ancient wonders to enjoying modern pursuits such as scuba diving and mountain biking. For cruisers, 11 different four- and five-star luxury ships are on offer for three- to 12-night Nile River cruises, sailing four routes.
A key takeaway for advisors? The customizable trips — including the Nile cruise options — are available for booking and experiencing now, as Egypt is, as of press time, open to American travelers.
Here, Paul Barry, CEO of Avanti, discusses details of the Egypt launch and the program’s success so far, and offers his outlook on the return of long-haul international travel.
Why did Avanti decide to add Egypt to its lineup now?
While the pandemic has slowed things down, it has given us time to accelerate other aspects of our business forward. Adding Egypt was always a part of our longer-term plan. But prior to the pandemic, we were growing so rapidly in our existing destinations that all our time and resources were dedicated to making sure we kept up our high standards as we grew the company.
With traffic having gone down to effectively zero [because of COVID-19], we’ve gone through a lot of internal work revamping some of our systems and doing more training and product development. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, we wouldn’t have been doing Egypt right now — but we’ve had the time to put the product together, do internal staff training and launch it. And it is one of those destinations that is currently open to American tourists.
If it wasn’t for the pandemic, we wouldn’t have been doing Egypt right now — but we’ve had the time to put the product together, do internal staff training and launch it.
How have interest and bookings been so far for the new Egypt offerings?
We’ve already had people travel and come back from Egypt with us, so obviously there is a demand. The numbers are small right now, but we are seeing double-digit inquiries every week for Egypt. People are looking to travel.
Given that Avanti operates long-haul international travel, how has business been during this time? What’s your outlook for the near future?
Our biggest destination right now, and the one that is closest geographically to the United States, is Costa Rica. It’s doing quite well, and we’re very pleased with those numbers. But our major destinations — our No. 1 is Italy, and France and Britain jockey for spots two and three — are not open for international tourism right now. Overall as a business, we’re at no more than 10% of what we’ve done in a normal year right now. However, there’s a huge amount of pent-up demand that we have on our books, just in terms of future travel credits. We are expecting that once the larger [European] countries open up, we will start getting a rapid increase in people utilizing future travel credits to book.
And I do think travel coming out of this, in general, is going to be a little bit different, especially for the custom travel sector compared to [sectors such as] escorted travel or big-ship cruising. We expect to recover quicker than those segments of the market. The needs and the demands of the personalized travel market have continued to grow, and we’re expecting it to come back very strong by the third quarter of this year, in terms of inquiries and new bookings.
We’ve already had people travel and come back from Egypt with us, so obviously there is a demand.
Your Egypt vacations feature a lot of private experiences and activities. Does that have anything to do with clients wanting more private travel options as a result of the pandemic?
That’s just what we’ve always done. We’ve always offered the shared option, but honestly that’s not what our travel agent customers book with us. It’s always the private option. And I would say 90% of all our excursions are private. Opening up new destinations, we’re following on the same pattern that we always do. We even develop some of our sightseeing in major destinations to be private and exclusive to Avanti only.
[That said,] it is on trend. People keep saying we’ve moved toward where the market is, and I say, “No, the market has actually moved to what we’ve always been doing.”
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Among Avanti’s options in Egypt are Nile River cruises. Although those aren’t a totally private experience, are you seeing demand for that offering?
The Nile River cruises are done on very small river ships, and it’s necessary to use shared boats. So, it is a choice that people make, and we have found in our inquiries that people are willing to do it because the Nile cruise is a totally unique experience in the destination. And most of the other services that we offer in Egypt are all private to the individual.
What do you expect people to want from their travels as we come out of the pandemic?
I think they’re going to want to travel with a social bubble of their choosing. I think you’re going to see an enhanced level of small-group travel or family travel, and certainly personalized travel.
People want that personalized experience. If you go on a customized trip with a guide, most of them are really passionate about their country, their culture, their history, their food, etc. You get such a unique experience, and you get to interact with them, ask them questions. It becomes a real experience. You don’t get anywhere near that level when you’re part of a group of 20 or 25 people. And people are yearning for that type of one-to-one contact, which I think is around less in today’s era.
Given the expectation of a very strong second half of 2021 in terms of booking levels, I think 2022 is going to be one of the best years ever for international long-haul FIT travel.
Is there anything else advisors and their clients should be aware of as travel picks back up?
Given the expectation of a very strong second half of 2021 in terms of booking levels, I think 2022 is going to be one of the best years ever for international long-haul FIT travel. The second half of 2021 is when we expect the phones to be ringing off the hook, and for the second half of 2021 and into 2022, the mantra would be to book early. Space is going to be limited. There will be 18 months at least of almost zero travel, so there’s a lot of catching up to do. People are itching to travel.
The Details
Avanti Destinations
www.avantidestinations.com
