Travel Agent recently had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Marc Kazlauskas, president of Insight Vacations, who shared Insight’s new 2010 catalogues with us. Most notably, he announced the new Select program Insight will be offering—a program designed for people who want the nitty-gritty details of a tour already arranged for them, but who want free time to explore destinations at their own pace.
For example, he said, a Tour Director might meet a group at the airport and guide them to their hotel (always four- or five-star, he assured us). After breakfast the next day, they might take a half-day orientation tour of the city—and then be on their own for the next day-and-a-half, with freedom to choose where they go, what they see and where they eat. (Naturally, the Tour Director would be available at all times to offer advice and make any necessary arrangements, but very little on the tour would be pre-packaged.)
Select tours will launch in April, with packages available to destinations in England, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Russia. The 10 available Select tours were chosen by popularity from what travelers and agents alike recommended. He also added that the tours would be fully commissionable to agents. “We listen to agents and customers,” Kazlauskas said. “That’s why we developed this.”
