PICTURE: ISTOCK
BUSINESS ADVICE
Debbie Goffin,
head of sales and
marketing at Premier
Holidays, gives her
tips for driving sales
www.travelweekly.co.uk
HOW TO...
make clients’
money go further
OFFERS, OFFERS, OFFERS
Last year was the year of tactics
and this year we will see this trend
increase even more.
Subscribe to your tour operators’
newsletters, stay in touch with what’s
happening in the market, get the
offers in your window and send them
to your customers before anyone else.
This tactic has been successfully
executed by Double S Travel in
Luton, which uses latest offer
posters on a weekly basis in its shop
windows and also uses a database to
email out latest offers to customers
every fortnight.
Other agencies, including Knowle
Travel in Solihull, West Midlands,
Wanderers World Travel in Pershore,
Worcestershire and Cannon Travel in
Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire regularly
use weekly deal posters in their
window spaces – driving the best
deals direct to customers.
SWITCH-SELL
Consumers are looking for value for
money and are open to suggestions
on alternative destinations.
For example, in the past few weeks,
we’re hearing more from agents who
are switch-selling.
An example of this is Sue
Bryant, senior travel consultant at
Bailey’s Travel in Wellingborough,
Northamptonshire, who switch-sold
a winter-sun break in the Canary
Islands to a 12-night holiday
to Thailand.
The Thailand package came in at
only £50 per person more than 12
nights in Tenerife and for a much
better standard of property.
WEB HELP
O Gazetteers.com – visit this site for impartial
and up-to-date destination information and
hotel reviews.
SHOW THE VALUE
It’s all about value for money and
clients may not realise the value they
will get on some faraway holidays.
The Post Office Long-Haul Holiday
Report 2009 claimed that the Far East
offers the best value for a winter-sun
break at the moment.
It declared Thailand the cheapest
destination for the third year running.
For example, a cup of coffee in
Thailand costs just 50p, while a threecourse
meal for two, including house
wine, costs about £28.
Following Thailand, Bali and
Malaysia were cited as bargain
destinations. In terms of mid-haul,
the report also said that Kenya
and Egypt also offer great value
for money.
SEE IT ALL
As a result of airline routing and
stopovers, your clients can take in
three or four destinations on one
holiday for little more than the
cost of a single centre. Research the
best airfares on the market and get
your clients a great deal.
For example, of the tickets available
at the moment, customers can do
routes such as Los Angeles, San
Francisco and Las Vegas for nine
nights for under £900. Alternatively,
they could do Dubai, Hong Kong,
Bangkok and Phuket for two weeks
for less than £1,200.
GO FOR LONGER
Encourage clients to stay longer –
hotels are offering the most generous
free-night deals at the moment
and the longer clients stay, the more
they will save. This is because hotels
want to entice their customers to
book now, rather than later.
At many properties, especially
in Thailand where there is an oversupply
of hotels, customers can
generally pay for seven nights but
stay for 14 – a very generous offering.
The flight is the biggest element of
the holiday cost with the price of the
accommodation relatively cheap.
Once clients have paid for the flight
the extra cost of staying additional
nights is insignificant.
KNOWLEDGE
Keep up to date with destinations.
Many places that you think you know
well are changing – and failing to
keep up might mean losing out.
With revamped destinations,
generally the best bargains are to
be had in the first two to three years
of the destination changing.
Peace in Sri Lanka has opened
up areas that were closed off to
clients before, such as the Yala
National Park. Indochina is also
evolving, with the introduction of
more coastal resorts in Vietnam
and also Cambodia.
PROFILE
Debbie Goffin started with
Premier Holidays 10 years ago
as US product manager after
working at Thomas Cook
Holidays and British Airways
Holidays. Her remit now includes
sales and marketing and she is
responsible for overseeing all
channels, including online.
O Travelweekly.co.uk/destinations – read all the
latest features and product updates from the Travel
Weekly team on this site.
January 29 2010 | Travel Weekly | 37
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