More than 800 travel advisors from Dream Vacations, CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. attended the virtual 2020 Vision Conference last week. Advisors from the three World Travel Holdings (WTH) brands celebrated trade accomplishments from the past year while looking to the future with optimism. The conference also raised more than $50,000 for Make-A-Wish Southern Florida.
Drew Daly, senior vice president and general manager, told Travel Agent that he was “blown away” by the level of engagement by travel advisors during the four-day virtual program, while Debbie Fiorino, chief operating officer, said: “They needed this right now.”
From one travel advisor's perspective, "The Dream Vacations conference was chock full of interesting general sessions and a wide variety of break-out sessions," said Candie Steinman, franchise owner, Dream Vacations, Fort Myers, FL, who added that "both the franchise owners and members and the suppliers were very engaged."
She said many dressed in the theme of the day and posted photos on social media, including Facebook and Instagram, and thus, "I even had a few [inquiries] on trips in 2021 and 2022. It was an amazing experience."
Beyond advisor engagement, "Martech," or marketing technology had its moment too. Sandi Szalay, the group’s vice president of information technology, outlined the line’s 2020 marketing technology enhancements, including:
- Development of a program to track Future Supplier Credits for cruise and land vacations
- A new sales reporting tool for tracking business more effectively. It shows cancellations and how much revenue or commission one should make based on any time frame
- A process for online consumer payments allowing people to book and pay directly on consumer websites.
Also, in collaboration with marketing, a new personalized luxury villa website, has been developed in response to the increased demand for ultra-private, domestic vacations. Another WTH brand is Villas of Distinction.
Szalay and Alicia Linden, director of marketing, also unveiled a robust, new mass email marketing tool—providing on-demand and automated email messages designed to strengthen customer engagement, retention and loyalty.
Alicia Linden, WTH's director of marketing
“With a focus on customer engagement, we not only leveraged internal analytics and performance indicators to make data-driven decisions, but we listened to our travel advisors, who in our business are the ‘frontline’ heroes…the one’s speaking with clients every day,” said Linden. That maintains customer engagement rates by providing help, comfort and joyful distractions.
As a result of using a new virtual platform, advisors now will receive detailed information about who attends the corporate-hosted Virtual Travel Events, a way for Dream Vacations, CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. to partner with suppliers on exclusive offers and to educate consumers about supplier products.
In addition, complementing the group’s “shopping cart abandonment” program, which triggers a series of automated emails to customers shopping on websites. Advisors also will now receive real-time notifications about customers who are receiving these emails and shopping on their websites.
Daly, in his keynote address, also motivated attendees to take a holistic approach to personal and professional development. He encouraged attendees to take an introspective look at the past year, live in the present, stay positive, express gratitude and seize ownership of one’s own time as they build their 2021 business plans.
He and Fiorino both cited humongous pent-up consumer demand for travel and the need to be prepared when the industry is back on track and people are traveling once again.
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