Last week, the national Dream Vacations and CruiseOne conference unfolded on Norwegian Encore. Some 600 franchise agency owners’ and associates participated in General Sessions, training programs and discussions with executives of World Travel Holdings, parent company for both brands.
Among the notable announcements throughout the week was the unveiling of the new Group App. In addition, Alicia Linden, director of marketing for Dream Vacations and CruiseOne, took to the stage to showcase new marketing initiatives that will help advisors “transform their businesses through marketing initiatives and lead generation tools,” plus enhance their visibility and credibility.
New Marketing Tools and Enhancements
Agent Directory: The marketing team will soon roll out a new and improved Agent Directory. With the new platform’s SEO capabilities, this Agent Directory is expected to increase the advisor’s organic search results. In addition, advisors can build more robust profiles and post blogs to enhance search engine optimization.
Revamped Welcome Home Surveys: Historically, one of the quickest ways to find new customers is via word-of-mouth, but Linden said that in today’s techno-world, word-of-mouth isn’t always face-to-face. Instead, it’s done via online business reviews. So, the "welcome home" surveys that Dream Vacations and CruiseOne customers receive upon returning home from a vacation will now be linked to a Google My Business or Facebook profile. That way, customers can leave public reviews. To increase customer participation, a sweepstakes for those who leave an honest review will provide an incentive—with one customer winning $1,000 every quarter of the year.
Personalized Videos: Video templates now will incorporate the advisor’s business contact information: Name, phone, email and so on. That way, the advisor will have a professionally produced video that can be promoted on YouTube, social media and blogs. That's designed to help generate leads.
Creative Asset Redesign: The Dream Vacations and CruiseOne marketing team has redesigned everything from automated trigger emails to custom website banners. Among the enhancements are increased diversity and representation in marketing assets, plus more cohesive, professional branding for the travel advisor or agency.
In addition to these announcements, the marketing team hosted and recorded three workshops during the conference. They included “5-Star Ratings: Capturing Customer Reviews,” “Video as a Marketing tool: Ready, Set, Edit!” and “Facebook Messenger – Get Discovered.”
Franchise of the Year Award
Also last week, Dream Vacations and CruiseOne recognized the top travel advisors of the year during an awards ceremony, hosted by Drew Daly, senior vice president and general manager; Joelle Delva, vice president of operations; and Dawn Gillis, director of network sales and service. The star-studded and emotional evening included an interactive ceremony that featured a game show with company leaders.
Taking top award honors was Trapper Martin, Shane Smartt & Associates of Orlando, FL. That agency received the “Bobbye Haupt Franchise of the Year Award.” Martin started the franchise agency 11 years ago and Smartt, while assisting from the beginning with marketing and back-office support, has been full-time in the business since November 2019.
Last year, the “Franchise of the Year Award” was re-named the “Bobbye Haupt Franchise of the Year Award” in memory of a beloved franchisee who passed away in September 2021. Company officials say she led by example, inspired many and left a legacy for the network.
In announcing the award, officials say that Martin’s and Smartt’s engagement with headquarters and their peers within the network, as well as their commitment to the franchise organization’s Advisory Council, community involvement and willingness to help others were key factors in the award decision.
Martin has been featured in Entrepreneur magazine for selling more than $1 million in vacations. Martin also was highly visible after the pandemic as he discussed the importance of using a travel advisor during a WESH-TV (NBC – Orlando) interview.
Experts at Working Remotely
Another decision factor for the award was Martin and Smartt's ability to run a highly successful business while always being on the move. They’ve been constantly traveling since October 2021. It's actually easier to track how many days they’ve been at their home in Orlando—only 57 days over the past 15 months—versus time spent on the road, in the air, at a resort or on a cruise ship.
"So, that feels almost like a world cruise,” Martin says. Favorite experiences for the duo as travelers? He cites the Galapagos Islands, Iceland and a Mekong River cruise.
Dream Vacations said the agency's ability to successfully run a business remotely reflects both the current corporate trend and the way that the duo have tapped that approach to achieve sales success. Martin notes that when the agency opened, yes, the ability to work remotely was available but the technology of the era wasn't of the speed and reliability needed.
That’s changed immensely over the years. In fact, Travel Agent witnessed Martin and Smartt’s ability to work skillfully first-hand during a recent Seabourn Venture cruise from Barbados to Callao (Lima), Peru. Both advisors were on laptops or smartphones throughout the voyage—always handling client bookings and service.
One example? While on Seabourn Venture, Martin mentioned that staterooms on Royal Caribbean International's Icon of the Seas were expected to open for sale the following morning and that consumer demand was strong. So, he stayed up past midnight, just to be ready to book clients if the bookings opened a bit earlier than expected in the wee hours of the morning. He wanted to capture the right staterooms for his clients. In fact, the agency booked eight Icon of the Seas' staterooms/suites within the first two days after the bookings opened.
Martin focuses primarily on cruise sales and service while Smartt handles mostly land vacations and all the agency’s social media postings.Together, the advisors handle 75 percent of the agency’s business, while seven associates handle the rest.
Phone service, at times, can be dicey overseas and voicemails can be delayed. So, Martin sets up a voice message that tells clients that the duo is traveling on "XYZ" line and to communicate via text, email or social media instant messaging. He notes that "it’s really new clients that we’ll talk on the phone with most, but then they can go into email and other forms of communication.”
Concurring is Smartt: “Most of the times they’re emailing, texting or using social media, so with that it doesn’t matter where we are in the world as long as we’re connected in some way.”
The agency business is approximately 70 percent cruise and 30 percent land. Land vacation bookings grew sizably during the pandemic but now cruise is back. That said, “we don’t think [land] has necessarily slowed down,” said Martin
This year’s awards ceremony included a virtual and in-person component, so that allowed all Dream Vacations and CruiseOne advisors to participate. The at-home virtual ceremony feature departmental awards where advisors were recognized for sales, marketing, public relations, social media, IT and more. Onboard, the ceremony honored those who served the network by participating on a committee, those with milestone anniversaries, and top-producing advisors.
For 30 minutes after the ceremony was over, other Dream Vacations and CruiseOne advisors as well as suppliers and home office and World Travel Holdings executives stayed to congratulate Martin and Smartt on their award achievement. “It is really a supportive organization,” Martin said, with Smartt adding: "It's family.”
For more information, visit www.dreamvacationsfranchise.com.
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