Vacation.com Increases Free Marketing for Agents

Vacation.com’s Engagement schedule will include new suppliers in 2010, including Delta Vacations, Cruise West, and Paul Gauguin Cruises. The program provides more than 30 million supplier-funded marketing pieces for member agents, the marketing group reports. Members of Vacation.com are expected to benefit from the significant increase in the diversity and number of free, supplier-funded marketing pieces. The marketing tools are included in the just-released 2010 schedule for Engagement— Vacation.com’s direct mail and email consumer marketing program.

“The support Engagement receives from our Preferred Suppliers is unprecedented. They know that Engagement works at motivating clients to contact our member agents and purchase travel,” said Stephen McGillivray, Vacation.com’s vice president of marketing and public relations. “Members enthusiastically use this free benefit. With consumers watching their vacation dollars more closely, our members know it’s essential to market relevant offers that speak directly to their clients’ lifestyles.”

The award-winning Engagement program turns exclusive offers from Preferred Suppliers into professionally-designed consumer direct mail and e-mail promotions with the member agency as the sole call to action. For 2010, more than 30 million of these promotions will be sent for free, giving Vacation.com members greater opportunity to market their services to clients as well as increase their Preferred Supplier revenues. More than 35 Preferred Suppliers are included in the 2010 schedule, including its new suppliers. In total, more than 120 direct mail and e-mail promotions will be sent to travelers throughout the U.S. and Canada in the upcoming year.

Available free to all member agencies, the Engagement program witnessed dozens of program enhancements in 2009, including the innovative use of Digital Variable Printing, personalized URLs (PURLs), and the opportunity for each agency to acquire new customers from a rich database of travel-interested consumer prospects for free.

“Here’s the bottom line,” added McGillivray. “If you are an agent who is currently paying for your consortia or network’s marketing solution, then you have an unnecessary cost. To eliminate that cost and market more effectively, all you need to do is give us a call.”

Vacation.com members can visit AgentNet to download the complete 2010 Engagement calendar or to enroll in the program. All other agents should visit www.JoinVacation.com for more information.