TravelAge West asked travel agents, “What are some of your tried-and-true sales techniques to boost Hawaii bookings?”Eric Maryanov, All-Travel.com, Los Angeles, Calif .
We constantly do outbound e-mail marketing to our database of clients with the latest and greatest offers from our preferred Hawaii suppliers. If a supplier has an agency-partner booking Web site, we e-mail that site to our clients. Our agents stay proactive as they call and e-mail clients with hot Hawaii deals from preferred suppliers. And, we make sure that our agency Web site has the most up-to-date Hawaii promotions posted.
Filomena Andre, Signature Travel Network, Marina del Rey, Calif.
Signature members have embraced database marketing. They can dive into their customer data and identify those loyal customers who are frequent travelers to Hawaii. These agents reach out to their clients via e-mail or telephone asking, “Isn’t it time to make arrangements for your trip to Paradise?” Hawaii hotels are offering great specials to aid agents in presenting value. Plus, one of our partners, Pleasant Holidays, is offering great air deals. It has a two-for-one air special from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Honolulu and Maui, which is a terrific value, and it’s paying full commission to agents. In addition to the outreach that our members are doing, we are promoting Hawaii especially the current deals by e-mail campaigns to our members’ customer database.
Steve Pomranz, AAA Washington, Bellevue, Wash.
We have had excellent success promoting Hawaii through events such as office presentations and regional shows. These kinds of events generate enthusiasm and excitement for the public, and they energize the members of our own travel team. By partnering with Hawaii preferred suppliers, we have access to promotional items, additional marketing support and presentation materials (like exotic decorations, Hawaiian music and authentic leis), which allow us to create a unique atmosphere and environment that plays to the senses and entices people to get away on that vacation they have been dreaming of. Add in our travel agents’ sales expertise and some booking incentives, and the result is a successful sales effort.
Larry Peters, Modesto Travel Company, Modesto, Calif.
We e-mail custom slide shows of resorts to our clients. It’s a tried-and-true technique for us, and a good way to show clients pictures that we’ve taken of different accommodations in Hawaii. Clients really like the fact we have been to the resorts that we are selling. We also have a library of our own digital photos taken while conducting site inspections of Hawaii properties. We can e-mail slideshows of our photos to clients or direct them to our online slideshows, which are posted on Flickr.com.