Travel Leaders Franchise Group is launching its all-inclusive new Associate (franchise) Web Site Program, enabling its hundreds of Travel Leaders Associates to maintain and improve their own individual web presence. The sites will effectively mirror www.TravelLeaders.com, Travel Leaders’ primary consumer site designed for business and leisure travelers. The sites include a booking engine.
Incorporating all dynamic elements of the Travel Leaders brand, the Associate Web sites are pre-populated with robust default content, but can easily be customized by each Associate for local information. Already, 64 percent of Travel Leaders Associates are enrolled in the new program.
“Now that we’ve successfully completed our rebranding process and are beginning our first full year with all Associates operating as Travel Leaders, maintaining a consistent look and feel across all of our associated Web sites has never been more important,” explained Roger E. Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group.
“Not only do we want to ensure that consumers have a consistent experience no matter which Travel Leaders Web site they access, but we’re also balancing their needs with those of each individual Associate by creating a turnkey platform to allow agencies to populate their own sites with dynamic default content and customize as much as they’d like.” Block said.
Travel Leaders Associate Sharon Davis, Plano, TX, understands first-hand the value of the upgraded customization. “The current editing tool is by far the easiest one we’ve had, enabling just about anyone to customize or add content to our site,” she noted. “Through various templates and a large graphic library, we are able to create new pages with ease and add our own special offers in minutes. We are able to customize our basic Web site with specific agency information, local market specials and tout what makes us unique. At the same time, travel offers, destination information, consumer travel planning information and other content automatically moves through the site without us doing anything.”
The Travel Leaders Associate Web Site Program has long included a booking engine for air, hotel, car and cruise. Now it also features added pages reflecting Travel Leaders expertise in both business and leisure travel, as well as these enhancements:
* Destination Information—Travel Leaders Associates’ sites are populated with a wide range of valuable, detailed information on virtually every destination around the world. The “Destinations” page features all of the top destinations being booked by Travel Leaders and includes individual sections for each on “planning a trip,” “getting to know,” restaurants, attractions, shopping, walking tours, suggested itineraries and events.
* Specials—In addition to Travel Leaders National Promotions and campaigns, Travel Leaders Associates may also opt to add an unlimited number of specials for their local areas on their sites.
* Enhanced Customization—The customizable areas of each Travel Leaders Associate website have more than doubled, enabling Associates to add their own unique content on every single web page if they so desire. Associates also have access to an extensive image library housing hundreds of photographs they can include on their sites. Each Associate home page also features a moving banner image that rotates and can be customized by Associates with their unique information; the motion provides an eye-catching means of displaying local information.
“We are proud that our continual work in further enhancing our primary website has enabled us to offer our Travel Leaders Associates a consistent look and feel for their sites as we strengthen and build the Travel Leaders brand throughout the U.S. together,” Block added.
“Even as the Internet was emerging, we’ve had websites and web tools available through our association with Travel Leaders,” Davis added. “Our resources have evolved with the times and the current Web site builder is our best yet. The result is a content-rich, consumer-friendly agency website with a minimum investment of time in ongoing maintenance. With the web tools available to us, we’re able to present a web presence that reflects our expertise and what we do in an attractive and consumer-friendly way without investing a lot of time and money.
A previous Travel Leaders consumer study showed that an astounding 70 percent of travelers begin researching online before ever calling a travel agent. As a result, Block said that Travel Leaders has been committed to transforming both www.TravelLeaders.com and each Associate’s consumer website to better enable travelers to start their research using Travel Leaders, whether it was as basic as finding the Travel Leaders Associate nearest them through the main site’s agency locator or booking online.
“Travel Leaders’ consumer websites empower travelers with maximum flexibility in researching and booking their travel the way they want, when they want,” Block said. “The key ingredient is and always will be the direct access to the closest Travel Leaders Associate, who may advise them on all aspects of their travel planning.”