Did you know there’s a ‘secret season’ for sales? According to Insight Vacations & Luxury Gold’s Head of Sales, David Farrar, there is & apparently, it’s the best time for your clients to travel.
While tourism is booming, this can impact local communities in both positive and negative ways. With Venice recently announcing changes to its ports, literal queues to reach the Mount Everest summit and Santorini limiting its daily visitors, it’s more important than ever to ensure we’re sustaining the communities we visit by providing off-peak travel opportunities.
Travel Agents also often experience ‘low season’ with their booking patterns, and can help themselves, their clients and the destinations by promoting the ‘Secret Season’, as we like to call it.
We’ve put together three tips to help Agents capitalise their off-peak business.
1. FOUR WORDS: COMMISSIONS ALL YEAR LONG
Europe in winter.
We all know there is a high and low season, and often our Travel Agents have the task of explaining the magical experiences of travelling in the Autumn, Winter and Spring months. But imagine extending your selling season all year long too!
With continuous commissions, you’ll have a much more sustainable business model and won’t have to depend too much on one season alone. It also helps to know you’ll positively impact destinations by providing them with constant business too.
2. SECRET SEASON BENEFITS
While some clients will walk into your store specifically asking to travel off-peak, the idea might have to be introduced to others. It’s great to ask your client what their expectations are.
Are their dates flexible so they can enjoy savings and still have nice weather? For instance, travelling to Europe in October still has beautiful weather but is much more comfortable to experience, and with fewer crowds, travellers can enjoy shorter queues, better value and no other tourists in your photos.
3. LOCAL & AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE
Dubrovnik in the morning.
During the ‘Secret Season’, our travel directors tell us they see the nature of interactions change – locals are more engaging as they dine out and our guests can have truly authentic experiences and human connections as they explore the world.
Visiting Dubrovnik in March, for instance, has been described as peaceful. Whilst there are alternative opening hours with certain museums and attractions during off-peak, we ensure we do the leg work for our agents, so our guests can have all the benefits and agents can sell with ease.