We got so many great stories, we’ve divided this article into two! Read part 1 here.
You know it’s going to be a great year when a story about what’s new ends up being about how to cope with all the business coming our way.
On the drawing board for 2024, many travel advisors report, are strategies to focus on high-end clients; hire assistants; host more groups; charge fees—or raise them. Some are taking a step into new technologies; others are building new kinds of road maps and vision boards to keep track of where they are. And a couple are looking to train not only themselves but also their customers.
Arguably the most forward-thinking is Belvin Baldwin II, owner and CEO of Showtime Travel in Atlanta, who is checking out cutting-edge technologies from cryptocurrency to artificial intelligence. After hearing a presentation on crypto at an Affluent Travel Collection symposium, and owning some himself, Baldwin is “definitely interested” in learning more not just about Bitcoin but also the many forms of this new payment system, and its applicability to the travel industry.
Crypto is “pretty much just a way to transfer fiat money (paper and coins) to a crypto wallet and then to the currency of the supplier,” he says. “It’s not just Bitcoin, there are so many different styles of crypto out there – but the main thing is you are really investing in blockchain technology.” In his Affluent Travel Collection customer base and even among his staff, “there’s a growing niche of people who have loads of accumulated cryptocurrency and are extremely eager for opportunities to spend it in 2024,” he says. “We’re just researching and looking into ways to collect it on our end. We’re always open to new technologies.”
In the meantime, Bevin definitely will continue to use artificial intelligence and ChatGPT to create and enhance his marketing and online content. He particularly likes Opus, an AI platform that scans your video footage and produces highlights and clips he can repurpose on a variety of social media platforms.
Shannon Bonadurer, meanwhile, is looking more for new ways to keep her team focused and organized. For 2024, the CEO of Destinations to Travel has replaced the traditional marketing plans her 120 agents drew up each year—that “seemed like a lot of words that no one could really follow”—with vision boards outlining five goals: one for each quarter and one “cherry on top, the one that’s hardest to attain.” She paired that with individual meetings to talk about what they each needed as far as revenue, training, and destination visits, and what their final outcome would be.
“Whether they wanted to join the local chamber or needs training, they had to put that in pictures,” Bonadurer says. “Some produced physical vision boards, and some made videos; then we broke it down into quarters and weeks. As the weeks pass the vision board will become green, like when you have a charity fundraiser and the arrows goes up.”
Rather than make New Year’s resolutions “that by March 75% aren’t doing anymore, we hope this will make their goals a little more concrete and we’ll see a much more intense increase in revenue.”
Many of the boards include more travel, she notes; her staff “seem to feel they can sell what they have experienced and they are ready to invest in themselves.” Seventy percent plan to visit at least five destinations or try five new types of travel – tours, all-inclusives, river cruises, etc. So she has reached out to her suppliers and asked them to partner in an agency blitz, where she gets a number of agents together for a fam, hopefully hosted at least 75%.
For 2024 she’s working with Apple Vacations, taking 25 agents for five nights to Jamaica in July. There will be training and site tours at seven different properties, excursions and restaurants—and the attendees will build content via live photos, blogs and videos, while they’re there, “because we’ve seen that the more they go live at a destination, the more inquiries they get, as opposed to waiting until they get home.” There also will be a scavenger hunt where they search for four unique details about the destination, the location and the resort—four things that will motivate a client to want to visit, such as scenery, amenities, excursions, and food.
Bonadurer also hopes to do more hosted groups, like her 14-day itinerary on NCL in Italy that started with 10 cabins and ended up with 7, “one of the largest groups we’ve ever had on NCL,” she says. “I’m noticing that clients feel a little more comfortable when they travel in a hosted group; it’s a little of that all-inclusiveness with your own personal flair. They don’t want to be part of a tour with 50 other people. With our Italy itinerary, we went to 11 ports – they were off the ship 12 hours a day, and everyone could go see what they wanted.”
What are you up to in 2024? TRO is always looking for interesting stories about travel advisors—and maybe we can include you in Part 2! Email Cheryl any time at crosentravel@gmail.com.
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.