LEISURE TRAVEL October 2011 Prepared By: Rosemarie Payne, CHME Director Leisure Travel, USA & Canada RECAP Trade Shows/Missions October 2011 10/2-5 MLT University St. Paul MN 10/5 GOGO Worldwide Showcase, Cleveland, Ohio 10/08-15 UK Sales Mission 10/13 JetBlue Vacations Call Center- Salt Lake City, UT 10/13-16 Southern Women s Show Orlando, FL 10/25-26 Midwest ASTA Fall Travel Agent Trade Show Chicago, IL TRADE SHOWS/SALES MISSIONS MLT University Conference and Trade Show - St. Paul, MN October 2-5, 2011 ATTENDANCE: 2000+ Travel Agents attend the 3-day show PARTICPATION: Sirata Beach Resort, TradeWinds Island Resorts, Holiday Inn Clearwater Beach, and Sheraton Sand Key Resort DISTRIBUTED: 432 Visitor Guides, Area Guides, Logo Bags, and Dolphin Pens MLT Vacations is one of VSPC s top domestic tour operators and they sell 4 brands; Delta Vacations, United Vacations, Continental Vacations, and Worry Free Vacations. The University is MLT s annual conference and trade show and they fly in groups of travel agent professionals from around the country to attend. Every day another new group of travel agents arrives at the show. This is the eighth year VSPC has exhibited and our theme for the trade show booth was the new Dolphin Tale movie which opened nationwide the week prior. In addition to our destination display, we incorporated large movie posters and a balloon arch that featured inflatable dolphins. Our booth attracted a lot of attention and stood out from the other exhibitors due to the size of our exhibit space and colorful visual components. Most of the agents are familiar with our destination and were excited to learn about the true story of Winter". Many of the agents recommend our destination for the great beaches and close proximity to the Orlando attractions. The overall consensus was that leisure travel has been up over 2010 to our area. MLT Vacations continues to be one of our top domestic accounts and therefore it is essential that VSPC showcase our destination at their annual University each year. 1
GOGO Worldwide Showcase Cleveland, OH October 5, 2011 ATTENDANCE: 80+ Travel Agents PARTICIPATION: N/A DISTRIBUTED: 100 Visitor Guides & Area Maps VSPC had the opportunity to meet with over 80 Travel Agents from northeastern Ohio at this show. These agents sell our destination through GOGO Worldwide Vacations, one of our largest domestic wholesale partners. Agents were interested in monthly family home/condo rentals for winter 2012 and their clients are tending to research and book further in advance than in the past few years. They are booking close in to their intended travel date. Several of the local AAA office Branch Managers would like in-house destination training for both the Auto Travel Counselors and Travel Agent staff members. VSPC will consider adding this to our 2012 spring travel schedule. VSPC will continue to work with GOGO Vacations at trade shows throughout the year to educate travel agents on our destination. Gail Yeager UK Sales Mission London, Scotland, Ireland October 8-15, 2011 ATTENDANCE: Over 40+ Industry Partners at the Luncheon Events, training to over 100 Travel Agents and Call Center Staff PARTIUCIPATION: TradeWinds Island Resorts, Sirata Beach Resort DISTRIBUTED: All VSPC Collateral provided by the UK Office Industry Lunches in both London & Dublin were very well attended and provided excellent venues for networking with key clients in both markets. Training at the following offices was also well planned and executed. Barrhead Travel, Glasgow, Scotland 35 Branches in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Glasgow Airport opening soon in the UK - New Castle. 500 Staff total, 50 Home based agents. 36 years old, the Glasgow store is their flagship/other branches are niche. They have Selling USA Specialist Departments, clients can walk-in, call or book long haul vacations online. Agents sell taylor-made vacations a lot to our area, especially if air prices vary. Sent the Dolphin Tale Press Release from CMA for them to release to the local press the week we were there. Always looking for exclusives for Barrhead Travel, staff incentives, FAM s advise events of particular interest to Scottish clients. 2
Funway Holidays Popular value adds are upgrades & free breakfasts. Always looking at experimental offers. 1 st Edition Brochure 8 page tactical brochure out in December another version will come out for summer 2012. BA allocation for December; preview brochure for FL still pending. Virgin Holidays Opening travel centers inside Debenham s Department Stores. November 2011 Virgin s 2 nd Edition Brochure comes out. The staff know our area well and they do not need any additional collateral at this time, prefer an online version. Sirin training 30 Virgin Retail Managers in Late Oct. for lunch (postponed until January 2012) sent 3 new VSPC consumer canvas beach bags with beach towels, VG s Area Maps to use as give-a-ways for the agents. Sirata & TW also sent 3-night stays. Gold Medal Thomas Cook s numbers are up - they contract direct and through Hotelbeds. They are changing their computer system to a version better suited for the USA product; this system should address the human errors that have led to major payment issues. They want this new XML system to streamline their bookings and eliminate errors. Net Flights are their retail shops 1500+ shops and the agents call the call center in Preston with questions. Payments come from 2 sources: Gold Medal & Thomas Cook Signature. Thomas Cook Signature FL Brochure to release by WTM valid 1/12 6/13/12. 5 properties featured for VSPC: Hyatt, IG, SP, Postcard & SSK Sirata sold thru Gold Medal via Hotelbeds. Gold Medal bookings up to St. Pete/Clearwater 30%, approx. 100 room nights to the area YTD (1/1/11 10/1/11). Thomas Cook has a separate Weddings Brochure Prod. Manager for weddings is in Peterborough. Premier Holidays Middle market bookings are down overall they are up 1% - activity with VSPC earlier in the year took our numbers up slightly, even though the rest of FL is down (except ORL) consistent marketing helps! 12 res. staff sell the USA exclusively - they use an XML link with Hotelbeds for inventory. XML works in price order to find the best price for their clients. FL is booked in-house and on their website and the USA Brochure has 52 pages with only a few FL hotels featured. This sales mission was very well received by tour operator partners and travel agents. 2012 overseas mission is scheduled for the German market. Rosemarie Payne JetBlue Getaways Reservation Call Center - Salt Lake City, UT October 13, 2011 ATTENDANCE: Over 70 Call Center Agents and Supervisors attended PARTICPATION: Alden Beach Resort 3
DISTRIBUTED: 100 Visitor Guides, Area Bags, Logo Bags, Highlighters JetBlue Getaways is the vacation packaging component of JetBlue Airlines. This is a new account for our destination and JetBlue currently features eight properties in our area. Three PowerPoint destination training sessions were conducted throughout the day. VSPC provided a catered lunch for their staff to show our appreciation for their efforts in selling our area. All of the agents are home based, however, we were given the opportunity to have all of them come to the headquarters on the same day which allowed us to train the entire staff in a time effective manner. The reservation agents asked a lot of questions and were very interested in learning about our destination. Overall this was an excellent first training visit and VSPC should return annually to update new destination highlights and to keep top of mind awareness. Southern Women s Show - Orlando, Florida Oct 13-16, 2011 ATTENDANCE: 35,000+ Consumers PARTICPATION: Holiday Inn Harbourside, JC Resorts DISTRIBUTED: 1,500 Visitor Guides, 800 Area Guides This was the tenth year VSPC participated in this annual consumer show. This year the show had record breaking attendance. A craft pavilion was the latest addition to the event which offered a new target audience. Numerous people talked about seeing the movie Dolphin Tale and were planning a trip to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to visit our famous movie star "Winter" in person. Florida destinations were well represented. Tallahassee, Panama City Beach, Ft. Myers/Sanibel and VSPC were among the many travel related venders. This is a fantastic show to target the in-state market. VSPC will attend in 2012. Gail Yeager Midwest ASTA Fall Travel Agent Trade Show - Chicago, IL October 25, 2011 ATTENDANCE: 180+ Travel Agents PARTICPATION: TradeWinds Island Resorts, Sirata Beach Resort and Innisbrook BROCHURE DISTRIBUTION: TRS Inc. DISTRIBUTED: 145 Visitor Guides, Area Bags, Logo Bags, Highlighters 4
This trade show was produced by the Midwest chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents. This organization is very popular and has a large and active membership in the greater Chicagoland area. The show was well attended by quality travel professions that we see throughout the year during the numerous sales initiatives VSPC conducts in this market. The agents in this area are some of our top performers and most are reporting increased bookings to our area. This was an excellent trade show that was well attended. Due to the low exhibit costs, VSPC should return again in 2012. CANADIAN MARKET UPDATE March 2012 Sales Mission planned for Ottawa & Quebec City. Joint sales mission with PR. Consumer trade show, travel agent sales calls & VIP dinner. November 15 th & 16 th VSPC hosted the product manager for WestJet Vacations for an in-market destination training visit. Madeleine Brydon had not been to our area in over 9 years. She visited several attractions and all the hotels they currently contract. The WestJet video, that features St. Pete/Clearwater, will begin running on ALL WestJet flights December 2012 and go live on their website. VSPC is working on the details for a special Canadian Delegation dinner at Florida Huddle. UPCOMING EVENTS Sales Missions November 2011 11/4-6 Fall Fiesta in the Park Orlando, FL 11/7-10 PTANA Trade Show DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia & Boston 11/14-16 Eastern Travel Association Camp Hill, Scranton & Breningsville, PA 11/18-20 AAA Superbowl of Knowledge Greensboro, NC 11/19-12/3 Travel Impressions Best of the Best Trade Show EDUCATIONAL VISITS 10/9-12 Willy Scharnow Foundation - Germany 10/14 Comptoir des Voyages FAM - Paris 10/15 Virgin Holidays UK 10/24-26 Mark Travel Corporation 10/28-30 Travalco/Voyageurs du Monde French FAM 5