There were four interesting takeaways from the Travel Leaders Network press conference in New York last week, but this one really caught my eye: An air booking system, already in beta testing at new TLN member Avoya Travel, that holds the promise of increasing airline commissions and making it possible to build and price your own resort packages.
Also on the agenda were membership numbers that keep on growing, a new cruise booking tool, and more education around potentially profitable niches.
I found the talk about airline commissions particularly interesting. TLN’s new GDS-free leisure booking tool is designed to make it easy to book end-to-end trips that include—and pay higher commission on—airline tickets. In a press release the same day, new TLN member Avoya Travel noted its ease of use, dedicated support desk staffed by experienced airfare experts, and “vast selection of commissionable airfares.”
“Historically, Avoya focused its efforts on the cruise, hotel and tour portion of leisure vacations, versus air, due to the antiquated air GDS technology that was available and the lack of commissionable airfares,” the host agency said in a press release.
“The air program offers immense new commission opportunities for travel advisors, access to extremely competitive fares for travelers, and a reduced cancelation rate for leisure vacation suppliers, due to the strong link between airfare and lower cancelation rates on vacation products, especially those who offer international travel.”
Indeed, Avoya Travel SVP of Sales Steve Hirshan told me, while Avoya’s Agency Power enabled advisors to book almost everything from anywhere over the internet, “the one thing they had to go outside the system for was air. Some booked directly with the airline and some booked with consolidators—but of course, in most cases, none of it commissionable.”
Avoya’s version of the system, due to roll out next quarter, will offer Travel Leaders’ commissionable fares—but “in the future, I think we also will be able to go to airlines directly,” Hirshan said. “Agents don’t want to book air because, if they don’t earn commission, why take the chance? But if you can find the best air deal and combine it with the best cruise or tour deal to create our own packages, it’s a huge competitive advantage.”
That’s especially interesting this year when most traditionally cruise-oriented agencies have seen a big shift toward land vacations in the wake of Covid. “So that will be another benefit,” Hirshan noted. “It will be so much easier to book resort business.”
Item #2: Industry Growth
The industry is booming, as everyone seems to be aware, and it’s been particularly good for larger consortia, said TL Group CMO Stephen McGillivray. While some agencies cratered during the pandemic, many joined the Travel Leaders fold. “Bigger is better when times get tough,” he said.
In addition to those established advisors looking for a new home, Travel Leaders hosted 1,300 new-to-the-industry advisors in its training course, plus “hundreds” of others who took the time to brush up on finance, accounting, and government regulations.
“It’s a Golden Age of humans and retailers,” he said. “Do we have fewer agents in strip malls? Perhaps. But we have 97,000 advisors, and that’s an all-time high for us.”
Item #3: Cruise Booking
Also on the agenda for 2023 is a new cruise booking tool that will replace CruisePro in favor of a white-label product being developed for TL by Travelport.
Every sector of the cruise market—ocean, river and expedition—is growing, and TL programs too are “back and more vibrant.” The number of suppliers in Amenity Dates, which offers special amenities, and Culinary Collection, which focuses on food and wine, are both up for 2023. The number of departures for Distinctive Voyages, which are hosted by a TL ambassador, is up 39%, with 47 new hosts and a reactivated advisory board. (For more on hosted cruises from different hosts, see A Toast to the Hosts: Travel Advisors Sail Free as Cruise Ambassadors | Travel Research Online).
“About 41% of TLN revenues came from cruises in 2022, as the pandemic closed many ships and ports, said John Lovell. For 2023, he is expecting levels to even out to a more normal 50-50 split.”, said Travel Leaders Group president John Lovell.
Item #4: Also on the Agenda
Beginning this month, Travel Leaders is rolling out a series of specialty programs aimed at niches that can help travel advisors grow their business, beginning with one on honeymoons—not just how to plan one but also the “special little touches that make a honeymoon so unique, and what you can negotiate to make it the most memorable experience,” TLN president Roger Block said.
Direct mail also is booming, with 4,000 agencies sharing their customer lists and a database of over 10 million customers. While written by suppliers, every piece must have a full panel on why customers should use a travel advisor. A fifth of all leads coming in through the website have never worked with a travel advisor before, with the biggest percentage of them being millennials.
The hardest thing for travel advisors is to find new customers, Block noted. So “our site doesn’t sell travel, it sells travel advisors,” McGillivray said.
(Surprise social media facts: the color purple attracts the most hits. Who‘d have thought?)
Also of interest at the corporate level is a carbon-neutral program, which will roll out for corporate and high-end leisure, Lovell said.
Member feedback
Travel advisors had many good things to say about the new programs, and about TLN overall.
With all the group sailings and perks, plus increased commissions, being a TL member pays for itself, said Maxine Ezra at Maxxe Travel LLC in Rockville Centre, NY.
“We attribute our longevity to TL,” says Lynn Clark, owner of a TL franchise agency in Wisconsin. And while she was part of the team that launched it, she does think “the best program is the TL agent profiler program. There is nothing else like it in the industry.”
Wanna Get Away Travel owner Estelle Wilkinson said, “their agent profiler is one of the most lucrative resources for our agency. I have a 99% closing ratio from the leads that come through their agent profile/reviews site,” which lately have been running about two a day.
Toni Day of Toni Tours Inc. in New York loves the perks of the Select Hotel Program and the Distinctive Hosted Voyages—but above all, she loves “their air contracts that pay commission on quite a few preferred airlines that can’t be beat. And did I mention the high commission levels on cruises, escorted tours, and hotels?”
As for a booking engine for air, “I’m interested in seeing more and would love to participate in the beta testing,” she says. For now, she uses the Nexion SNAP system, and makes it worth her while by charging fees starting at $75 per person for a domestic ticket, $125 for international starts simple round trips, and $175 for international connecting flights. “Overall, it adds up.”
Says Corina Johnson of All Points Travel, “We look forward to whatever the new platforms will be. CruisePro has served us well and given our ICs a chance to become more engaged with cruises. I just hired a new agent who had already completed the Travel Leaders of Tomorrow education program, which rivals any junior college travel certificate. I could go on. I’m a walking billboard for TLN.”
She’s not alone; the only hints of dissension came from a few Canadian agents, who wished they had more attention paid to them.
Still, though, it’s a great time to be a travel advisor, Block said. Or a host. “The last weeks have been record-breaking for us,” Travel Leaders Group president John Lovell said. “As a brand, we are over-performing the major cruise lines. Everything is very strong.”
And boy, it was fun to be back at a real-live press conference again.
One last takeaway: If you’re ever planning a meeting at the Ritz Carlton in New York, put the blood orange New York-style cheesecake on the menu.
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.