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.
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