Travel Agent is on location in Minneapolis attending this year’s MLTUniversity. As part of our coverage, we sat in with top executives to find out what is new for travel agents this year.
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| Pictured: Elizabeth Moriarty, vice president of product development; Tina Iglio, senior vice president of marketing; John Caldwell, president, MLT Vacations; and Terry Williams, vice president of sales. |
One of the biggest pieces of news is MLT Vacations’ new marketing hub.
“Home-based agencies especially were looking for tools and processes to better market themselves and the tour operator brand they were working with,” John Caldwell, president of MLT Vacations says. “For years we had done it through a manual process and it took a long time to get a quality piece.”
Today, MLT offers an online tool that allows agents to get approval for a marketing idea, whether it's a traditional ad that will go in a Sunday circular, an e-mail blast or a radio ad - anything that involves the MLT brand, Delta or Aeromexico. This can be combined with an offer and a pre-approved set of logos. Agents then take the co-branded online material and can blast it out through social media sites.
“We showed it to our advisory board and they loved it. They told us it was exactly what they were looking for. It will save them time and money and allow them to market themselves while getting our brand out efficiently,” Caldwell says.
Stay tuned to www.travelagentcentral.com for a step-by-step breakdown of the new hub.
New Partners
This year MLT has existing hotel partners that are looking to expand. Riu, which is one of MLT’s biggest partners, is opening a property in Aruba that is looking to become part of the MLT family. AMResorts is buying additional properties in the Caribbean. There are hotels in Barbados, St. Croix and Grenada that are being added to the MLT fold.
“We are looking to expand our hotel portfolio, particularly in Europe, specifically with four-and five-star properties,” said Tina Iglio, senior vice president of marketing for MLT Vacations. “Our agents are telling us that they want to be able to offer higher-end properties.” Some of the ones to look out for are the Shangri-La at the Shard in London and the Shangri-La, Paris. There will also be Shangri-La properties available in Asia. “Europe continues to be very strong for us, and we are continuing to look to find more properties that the agencies are looking to book.”
Visit www.mltvacations.com.