This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia
Trafalgar Tours is the best known escorted touring company among the public and agents alike. But this has not translated into being recommended above others, so the company is changing tack, as Justin Wastnage reports
Money can't buy you love, as fans of the Beatles know all too well. It is a message that Trafalgar Tours, the largest escorted touring company in Australia, is apparently taking to heart now, too. <[etk]>
The company commissioned research across some 2500 travel agents in ten countries, of which around 1000 were Australian. It found that three out of every five inquiries from customers for a coach tour end without a specific recommendation from consultants.
Of those inquiries where a recommendation is given, Trafalgar seldom is pushed more than others. Other escorted touring brands (including others from Trafalgar's <[stk -5]>Travel Corporation family of brands)<[etk]> have niches, but among <[stk -4]>generalists, Cosmos is recommended<[etk]> to budget-conscious travellers while Albatross Tours has some caché among those looking for tailor-made tours, the research shows.
This is a problem for Trafalgar, which transports more Australians around Europe than any other operator by far. In fact, its tagline used to boast <[stk -4]>of being the world's favourite coach<[etk]> touring company. Indeed, 95% of agents, when asked to name escorting touring brands, <[stk -4]>named Trafalgar, making it the most<[etk]> recognisable brand. The trend is repeated among the general public, with Trafalgar being the most requested brand by customers.
<[stk -8]>But this is true of repeat customers.<[etk]> First timers tend to be given two or three brochures to mull over. Paul McGrath, the practical managing director at Trafalgar Tours has identified as a problem this lack of brand cut-through, as the jargon has it. He senses that Trafalgar is seen as safe and reliable, but a little boring. There is little to distinguish the brand from others in agents' <[stk -5]>minds, he says. APT, Globus, Insight<[etk]> Vacations and Scenic Tours all get muddied in the middle ground, he says. "We are all pretty much in the same space," he admits.
The company is now back on the offensive, launching a new mini-movie and introducing a new tagline, both of which revolve around the joy of the destination, rather than the journey. The most recent slogan, "Dream, pack and leave… the rest to us" was a step in the right direction, McGrath says, but its replacement is more direct. "Rediscover the romance of travelling" complete with a new heart-shaped logo, will be used across all brochures, advertising and internet marketing next year.
For a while Trafalgar Tours has been uncomfortable with the promotion of its actual modes of transport (which now includes trains and sea ferries in addition to the former Uniworld river cruisers). Just as the more innovative airlines such as Air France and Emirates no longer feature aircraft in their adverts, Trafalgar has realised that luxurious as its coaches are, customers want to reconnect with the places they visit. Travel, as the new mantra goes, is about experiences, not how you got there. McGrath points to the company's Be My Guest options to dine with locals, which have become "wildly popular". This year it has been expanded from Trafalgar's Italian and Spanish itineraries into Ireland, France and even the US. "People want to experience something. We have to position our brand so agents know an experience is part of our offering," he says.
Trafalgar now wants to become the first tour company agents recommend. The company has invested heavily in reaching the agents, through sales staff, promotions and commission drives, but this has not yet reaped dividends. "We need to find a positioning that lifts ourselves into a different space," McGrath says. Trafalgar may now find that money may bring it love, if it is better targeted than before.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
All eyes on the price
The ACCC has named and shamed three travel agents whose advertisements misled the
public. It is a sign the commission is keeping tabs on our industry, as Justin Wastnage writes
Despite being the “least liked”
airline in the world, Ryanair
has also grown to become
Europe’s second largest. Its
customers are irked, a recent poll
by Tripadvisor found, either by
landing at airports far from the
cities they purport to serve or by a
miscellany of hidden charges.
After many court battles with
Europe’s competition watchdogs,
all European airlines now have to
include in advertised fares any non-
optional fee, such as government
taxes, airport charges, wheelchair
levies, insurance surcharges or
airport security charges.
Here, the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
has kept a watchful eye on travel
advertising for some time. In May it
published guidelines specifically
targeting the travel trade, after
changes to the Trade Practices Act
meant the total cost of a holiday,
rather than its components, must
be used wherever possible.
Agents know this question is like
asking the length of a piece of string,
as holidays are made to customers’
requirements. So it came as a shock
when the commission singled out
three agents for legally-enforceable
action over their advertising.
Backpacker agents Wicked
Travel, Peter Pan’s Adventure
Travel and Adventure Travel
Bugs each advertised Whitsundays
and Fraser Island tours for $299,
when that price did not include
mandatory charges such as
insurance, national park fees and
Great Barrier Reef environmental
charges that typically took the
minimum cost up to about $450,
the ACCC says.
The watchdog was spurred into
action by mass-market, price-led
packages. In its guidelines it cites a
10-day Get Hot in Hawaii package
offered by a retailer at the end of
last year for $799. On top of this,
the customer would have to pay an
airfare with taxes and charges,
taking a realistic total to $3099. The
package advert would “raise
concerns” under the new regime,
the ACCC says.
Despite airfares varying widely
to Honolulu, travel agents will be
expected to advertise a total
price, albeit with a ‘subject to
change’ caveat allowed. In reality,
few cases will be as clear cut as
the budget tropical Queensland
tours, but by firing a few warning
shots, the ACCC is letting us
know it is watching. n
public. It is a sign the commission is keeping tabs on our industry, as Justin Wastnage writes
Despite being the “least liked”
airline in the world, Ryanair
has also grown to become
Europe’s second largest. Its
customers are irked, a recent poll
by Tripadvisor found, either by
landing at airports far from the
cities they purport to serve or by a
miscellany of hidden charges.
After many court battles with
Europe’s competition watchdogs,
all European airlines now have to
include in advertised fares any non-
optional fee, such as government
taxes, airport charges, wheelchair
levies, insurance surcharges or
airport security charges.
Here, the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
has kept a watchful eye on travel
advertising for some time. In May it
published guidelines specifically
targeting the travel trade, after
changes to the Trade Practices Act
meant the total cost of a holiday,
rather than its components, must
be used wherever possible.
Agents know this question is like
asking the length of a piece of string,
as holidays are made to customers’
requirements. So it came as a shock
when the commission singled out
three agents for legally-enforceable
action over their advertising.
Backpacker agents Wicked
Travel, Peter Pan’s Adventure
Travel and Adventure Travel
Bugs each advertised Whitsundays
and Fraser Island tours for $299,
when that price did not include
mandatory charges such as
insurance, national park fees and
Great Barrier Reef environmental
charges that typically took the
minimum cost up to about $450,
the ACCC says.
The watchdog was spurred into
action by mass-market, price-led
packages. In its guidelines it cites a
10-day Get Hot in Hawaii package
offered by a retailer at the end of
last year for $799. On top of this,
the customer would have to pay an
airfare with taxes and charges,
taking a realistic total to $3099. The
package advert would “raise
concerns” under the new regime,
the ACCC says.
Despite airfares varying widely
to Honolulu, travel agents will be
expected to advertise a total
price, albeit with a ‘subject to
change’ caveat allowed. In reality,
few cases will be as clear cut as
the budget tropical Queensland
tours, but by firing a few warning
shots, the ACCC is letting us
know it is watching. n
This is child's play
This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia
Imitation, they say, is the
sincerest form of flattery. So
when a competitor enters the
niche that you had carved out as
your own, it can be taken as proof
that an idea has worked.
providing an agency with one
customer via an online lead
generator; it’s about providing
agencies with a customer for life.
They will refer friends and come
back for a holiday every year,” she
says. In these days of niche finding
for agencies, there is no greater
proof of a trend than when more
companies jump on.
Imitation, they say, is the
sincerest form of flattery. So
when a competitor enters the
niche that you had carved out as
your own, it can be taken as proof
that an idea has worked.
Thus the news this month that
the travel agent affinity group
Travel With Kidz (TWK) is to be
joined by BYOKids (BYO) goes
some way to proving both the
concept of affinity groups and the
sheer market potential of family
holidays. Both TWK and BYO offer
agencies the chance to specialise in
this niche by way of co-opted
marketing that runs alongside the
store’s existing branding.
Look at the data and you can see
why. The Australian Bureau of
Statistics underlines what most
people would guess: the majority of
Australians still live in families of
two parents with children and
the proportion is rising again
after dipping down to 52% in
2001. Additionally, some 12% of
the population live in single-
parent households. By contrast,
only around one-fifth of
Australian households are the
dual-income couples so often
courted by advertisers.
But despite being a massive
market, little has been done
traditionally for the family segment
of fully-independent travellers (FIT).
Family holiday packages for too
long revolved around resorts on
the Gold Coast, in Fiji or Bali with
more adventurous families
relegated to doing their own
research, explains Wendy Buckley,
TWK managing director.
She says there are also new travel
trends, such as multi-generational
travel with grandparents tagging
along, or blended families where
two divorced parents bring their
combined offspring together for
one vacation. These kind of larger
groups present unique challenges,
but also are much more likely to be
booked through agents than via a
website, she says. “Those people
who want Gold Coast resorts are
price-driven and will just shop
around until they find the best
deal, but there’s a whole group of
parents out there who want to
take their kids on meaningful
holidays,” she says.
The lack of interesting family
holidays was the one that David
Tonkin, former founder of the first
Sydney Flight Centre, Just Flights
and travel.com.au, came up against
when booking his family holidays.
In 1996 he founded TWK as a niche
division of Travel Specialists
Mosman, a Travelscene American
Express (TSAx) agency. The
clientele in the affluent
experienced travellers who were
not going to be limited by having
had children, Buckley says.
But three years ago TWK took
the step of franchising its brand out
to other agencies. Affinity groups
had long existed among specialised
wholesalers and products (such as
Club Med’s dry resort weeks aimed
at Alcoholics Anonymous
members, wheelchair-friendly tours
of the Holy Land or the
NaviGaytion cruises aimed at
homosexual men). But branding
travel agencies as specialists was a
new concept. The US-led Virtuoso
had emerged in
badge of honour for high-end
travel consultants, while CruiseCo
was an extra shingle agents who
specialised in cruising could hang
above their desk. As part of this
wave, TWK decided to license out
its brand to those agencies
specialising in family holidays.
“There are great Trafalgar Tours
trips to
up as gladiators when they visit the
colosseum, or you might want to
take your teenagers to Angkor
Wat,” Buckley says. Having an
expert to turn to about the product
available for families was what
appealed to the 48 agencies who
have become TWK-licensed
affiliates, she adds.
TWK also collates product
information and vets it for child-
friendliness, suitability and child
safety, giving it a star rating. TWK’s
entry criteria are straightforward.
The agency must dedicate two staff
to selling family holidays, one of
whom must be a parent. TWK
charges a $400 monthly marketing
fee which covers TWK stationery,
website buy-in and signage, plus
around the same again in
membership. Members are given
access to training in specific family
holiday matters such as vaccination
requirements for toddlers to
general sales tips like listening
skills. In this way TWK augments
the role of the franchise group,
Buckley says.
In mid-September the Sunshine
Coast-based Travellers Choice
agency Tewantin Travel threw its
hat into the ring, announcing a
plan to license its BYOKids
concept to other agencies. Its
founder Leah Squire has an
ambitious plan to sign up 100
agents within 12 months.
Essentially BYO is a similar
proposition to TWK, albeit “not
aimed at the high-end,” says Squire.
“We sell anything, anywhere, from
cheap-and-cheerful to luxury,” she
adds. Around 70% of TWK
members are drawn from TSAx,
although there is no formal link to
the Stella Travel Group. Squire says
that while BYO “will be open to all
agency owners” TSAx is likely to
form a smaller proportion.
BYO has a $400 monthly fee,
which gives access to the 1300
number, similar to TWK. Where
Squire thinks her proposition has
the edge is in web marketing. The
author of an internet marketing
book, Squire says the idea behind
expanding BYO came from
attending a national travel
conference where franchisees
were complaining that their chains
did not have an effective enough
internet strategy. “They were
saying, ‘we don’t have Twitter, we
don’t have Facebook and we don’t
even have a good website’ so I
knew there was a niche.”
Family travellers often do more
research online, but many then go
to a bricks-and-mortar agency to
book, Squire says. It will be up to
the independent agencies that join
to convert the leads provided from
the website, she says. BYO has less
strict joining criteria, although
Squire says they will prefer agents
who are also parents themselves.
“They should have first hand
experience of travelling with kids,”
she says. BYO also mailshots 20,000
customers who have registered on
its site as being interested in
travelling with children and in time,
each inquiry at head office will be
routed to the relevant suburb.
“Access to the list justifies the
monthly fee in itself,” Squire adds.
The online lead generation is
also a theme taken up by Holidays
With Kids magazine, whose
electronic distribution list has
been used to promote wholesalers
and properties directly via a click-
through advertisement.
TWK goes closer into the
franchise model with parallel
preferred arrangements with 13
wholesalers, including Tempo
Holidays, Sunlover and Island
Escape, complete with overrides
unique for all bookings including at
least one child. It also holds an
annual meeting for all its agents to
get together and swap notes.
Destinations are courting the
group such is the level of business.
Each preferred wholesaler has to
add some new child-friendly
product into its offering each year
to retain the TWK deal, Buckley
says. “They have to complete a
checklist with us on things such as
kids’ clubs, food availability,
bedding configurations, emergency
contacts and all the other things
that parents will ask us,” she says.
The company also worked with
child protection agency Child Wise
on a questionnaire aimed at vetting
child carers overseas. The
questionnaire checks whether the
staff employed to look after children
are qualified carers or “off duty
massage therapists,” Buckley says.
All online airlines (except Qantas)
have completed a questionnaire on
child seats, child-friendly in-flight
entertainment, boarding
procedures and transit times. It is
this level of service for families that
Buckley believes will keep them
coming back to TWK agencies.
providing an agency with one
customer via an online lead
generator; it’s about providing
agencies with a customer for life.
They will refer friends and come
back for a holiday every year,” she
says. In these days of niche finding
for agencies, there is no greater
proof of a trend than when more
companies jump on.
What's the big ID?
This article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia
Last year identity theft cost Australians $1 billion. Travel agents have been singled out as a high risk profession, due to the personal data they hold, as Justin Wastnage writes
Travel agents like to be considered alongside other consulting professionals such as solicitors and doctors. But they mightn’t be happy to find themselves on a new watch list for businesses most at risk of identity theft.
Last year identity theft cost Australians $1 billion. Travel agents have been singled out as a high risk profession, due to the personal data they hold, as Justin Wastnage writes
Travel agents like to be considered alongside other consulting professionals such as solicitors and doctors. But they mightn’t be happy to find themselves on a new watch list for businesses most at risk of identity theft.
Crime Stoppers Australia, a national body liaising between state and territory police forces, held the first National Identity Fraud Awareness Week from October 5 to 9, highlighting the risk of identity theft. Small businesses are placing their customers and staff at risk through the sloppy handling of sensitive personal information, the body’s chairman Peter Price has warned. Travel agencies are listed as high risk small businesses.
And the risks are indeed great. In 2001 a man used up to 50 false identities in a $7 million property fraud spanning
Vanessa Coussias, product manager at shredder manufacturer Fellowes Business Machines says that in
In the
Peter Campbell, national marketing manager of Fellowes
Armed with passenger travel dates, thieves can commit the fraud while clients are on holiday. This has a double attraction because credit card preferences are relaxed by card holders and the fraud has more chance of going undetected, Crime Stoppers Australia says.
Coussias recommends all travel agencies invest in a high-tech shredder to deter thieves from fossicking in their garbage. Handing documents to clients in person wherever possible can help too, she adds. Only 30% of households in
There is good news for agents, however. Mike O’Mally,
In some cases, sensitive materials are disposed of in recycling bins meaning thieves don’t even get their hands dirty to steal people’s identity. “It is crucial that businesses educate their staff about the safe disposal of sensitive information,” he adds.
The law states that a company must take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed. “Shredding is not only the easiest and most cost-effective way for business to comply with the law, it’s the only way to ensure that someone’s identity doesn’t fall into the wrong hands,”
Other steps to protect your agency from being the source of ID theft are to check the identity of both consumer and business customers via credit reference agencies; limiting access to sensitive documents only to agency owners and managers; and to inform staff about the risks of corporate identity fraud. Businesses should also ensure that their firewall and anti-virus software is kept up-to-date.
So when it comes to sensitive information handling, travel agents may not want to join the illustrious company of lawyers and doctors.Thursday, October 1, 2009
Hong Kong Made to Measure
This article originally appeared in Luxury Travel & Style Magazine Spring 2009 issueOUR IMPERFECTIONS, IT SEEMS, ARE MERELY DETAILS IN THE HONG KONG BESPOKE PRODUCER'S GOAL OF MADE-TO-MEASURE PERFECTION, WRITES JUSTIN WASTNAGE.
It is not customary to point out physical defects of customers, least of all if you are trying to sell them clothing. But Manu Melwani is a little different.
I am standing before him and he tells me my right arm is five millimetres longer than my left. A common enough problem, he reassures me. Melwani, whose father Sam opened his eponymous tailor shop in the bustling back streets of Kowloon fifty years ago, is not one to stand on ceremony. His rich and famous clientele, most of whom are displayed in photographs on his pokey shop's walls, do not have time to stand around for the endless alterations and fine tuning your Savile Row tailor might wish to make. John Howard and Mark Latham both attest to having had garments made to measure at Sam's, as do Bill Clinton, David Bowie and, inexplicably, Kate Moss.
Instead Melwani has to size you up from the start. “You prefer not to wear a tie, you generally don't button up the jacket,” he asks rhetorically as a seamstress
is measuring my inside step.
There is nothing quite like a made-to-measure suit to flatter unusual body shapes and hide life's excesses. Normally, though, it is price that drags us
back to prêt-à-porter. But Melwani's team of tailors will generally whip up a suit, with an extra pair of pants, and a few hand-tailored shirts for $500.
Hong Kong used to be the capital of copying. The then-British outpost was doing a roaring trade in knock-off bags, watches and t-shirts. But for the more discerning customer, these days Hong Kong's industrious artisans are put to much better use than clumsy counterfeits. Highly skilled jewellers, milliners and shoemakers can make almost anything to measure.
An auspicious event looming in my life, I had investigated the opportunity of having a diamond eternity ring hand made for my wife. Rushing back to Hong Kong Island by metro (far quicker than any other method, but lacking the romance of the Star Ferry), I sidestepped the lunchtime crowds to reach Central. Emailed correspondence ensured that by the time I entered the premises of David Kingsboro, a discreet jeweller upstairs in a nondescript shopping mall, Cynthia Chan had already picked out twelve quarter-carat diamonds and dispatched preliminary sketches to her silversmiths. I was invited to inspect each one for flaws and told to return in two days to pick up the ring and settle up.
Just around the corner, via the Hong Kong franchise of Harvey Nichols, is Admiralty, where inspiration torn from a magazine page can be recreated into a pair of hand-stitched, leather-soled killer heels that fit your feet like a glove at Lii Lii Shoes. A friend tells me to ignore the Russian hooker footwear piled up around the untidy premises and to focus on the sublime experience of having every millimetre of your foot mapped.
A crooked toe, just like a shorter left arm, is no longer the domain of schoolyard freak shows. Our own imperfections, it seems, are merely details in the bespoke producer's goal of made-to-measure perfection.
------------
LUXE LIST
Lii Lii Shoes, set over a few stores in the Admiralty Centre, will
make custom ladies’ footwear from HK$1800 (A$280) per pair. Allow one week.
Shop 75, 1st Floor, tower 2, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Rd, Central
Sam’s Tailor, a formal wear institution, sits just off Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Beware of numerous touts en route pushing imitators. Suits from HK$2000 (A$310), allow three days.
Ground Floor, Burlington Arcade, 94 Nathan Road, Kowloon www.samstailor.biz
David Kingsboro has a very secure shop right in the heart of the luxury part of Queen’s Road. Jewellery custom made either to order or after consultation. Allow
two weeks from scratch, or one week if pre-arranged via email (davidkingsborojewellery@yahoo.com.hk)
Shops C & D, 2nd Floor, Entertainment Building, 30 Queen’s Road, Central
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