This week, Travel Agent attended Travel Leaders Network’s Annual Network News Conference at The W Hotel, Times Square and received the organization's outlook on travel in 2017 and a look at how Travel Leaders Network is performing.
Outlook for 2017
Travel Leaders Network surveyed more than 900 Travel Leaders Network members to get insights into the latest booking trends for 2017. Of those agents, 83 percent said that overall bookings are equal to or higher than the same time last year. As for cruise bookings, 93 percent of agents report that year-over-year bookings are higher than or on par with last year. 2017 is off to a strong start and 81.3 percent are optimistic about the coming year. Another 15.2 percent are neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the coming year.
“What’s really encouraging for us is coming out of every general election, really since 2004, we’ve seen tremendous growth in the next three years,” said John Lovell, president of Travel Leaders Network and Leisure Group.
Travel Leaders has also predicted the top destinations for 2017. These destinations include Caribbean cruises, Cancun, Mexico, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Rome, Italy and European river cruises. The top domestic destinations are Orlando, Florida, Maui, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Nevada, Alaska cruises and New York City.
Roger Block, president of Travel Leaders Network, said that there is no way to predict the future and that uncertainty does hurt the travel industry, especially since travel is a discretionary expense. He explained, however, that Zika is not the same issue it was six to 12 months ago and terrorism is not the same issue it was 12 months ago.
“Nearly 81 percent of our members indicate their overall bookings to Florida are even with or higher than last year. And for the small fraction who indicate their Florida bookings are lower, more than two-thirds of those agents state the Zika virus has had little to no impact,” said Lovell.
Lovell also pointed out that mass-market cruises are seeing a very strong first quarter and second quarter and wave season is off to a strong start.
Another destination that travel agents should keep their eye on is Alaska. Block said it’s set to be even stronger this year than last year.
It was also discussed at the meeting that luxury travel is doing well and that travelers are booking luxury trips into the third and fourth quarter of this year.
The Future of the Travel Leaders Network
Earlier this month, Travel Leaders Group officially combined Vacation.com, Travel Leaders Associates and Results! Travel into one organization, Travel Leaders Network.
Some small adjustments had to be made when the merger went live on January 9, said Lovell.
“From my standpoint I think the integration has come off extremely well, obviously as we continue to go through this we’re going to find other things and we will continue to tweak,” said Lovell.
“The end result, quite honestly, is we’ve now aligned the resources,” said Block.
Now, there are fewer duplicate actions on the back end of the network and more energy is being put into efforts like marketing.
There are now about 7 percent more direct mail promotions than 2016. These direct mailings include the new Postcards magazine that will go out quarterly on behalf of travel agents. The magazine has articles about trending travel destinations around the world. There will be 170,000 hard copies mailed directly to agency clients.
Agents should also know about Social Studio, which can be accessed through the Agent Universe dashboard. This tool provides training on social media and best social media practices. Social Studio includes images and featured content that travel agents can post.
Agent Snapshot was rolled into the online lead generator Agent Profiler on January 9. 40,000 agents now have access to Agent Profiler and about 4,000 agents currently have online profiles. Travel Leaders Network will continue to urge agents to make profiles but notes that corporate agents and agents working on the back end of an agency will most likely not create an online profile.
More than 100,000 quality leads were delivered to members in 2016 from the lead generator and that number is projected to increase this year, according to Travel Leaders Network.
“Those who want to grow are constantly trying to find out how do I do acquire new customers that are profitable,” says Block.
As far as making a profile stand out to potential clients, Jose Ferreira, chief technology officer for Travel Leaders Network and Leisure Group, suggests that agents focus their profile on a niche like selling Caribbean cruises or perhaps adventure travel in South America. He also suggests that agents tell their own story through their profile – make it personal. Lastly, location still matters, so agents should provide their location. Ferreira said that honeymoons, destination weddings, Mexican and Caribbean travel are generating the most consumer searches on Agent Profiler right now.
Looking forward into 2017, Travel Leaders Networks’ 18th Annual International Summit will be held at The Langham in Auckland, New Zealand.