Travel agency group seeks to turn hassle of booking online to its advantage

Travel agency consortium Advantage has launched a new holiday offers system allowing members to push deals out on their websites in social media and offline.

Travel agency consortium Advantage has launched a new holiday offers system allowing members to push deals out on their websites in social media and offline.

Although taking advantage of technology and the web, the mid-year marketing push comes with the message that buying holidays online is not all it’s cracked up to be.

The consortium’s 800 travel agency members will be encouraged to exploit the marketing campaign with messages including:

   – Log off and make a real connection
   – Why search millions of holidays online, when we will find the perfect one for you?

The marketing material can be used in-store as window displays or on television screens, as well as online.

In addition, direct mail leaflets will be sent to existing customers and 460,000 door drops targeted in participating members’ areas to attract new business.

Mark Rowe, head of marketing at The Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “Our core aim is to assist members to increase their profitability, and marketing plays a key role in this.

“By understanding our members and their customer profiles, we are able to develop campaigns that deliver real substance and results.”

A door drop campaign in January resulted in an average of 12 new customer bookings and 25 bookings from existing customers per participating member.

Over £6.6 million of additional revenue was generated, averaging £89,000 for each member involved in the programme.

The direct mail leaflet in January resulted in a 7% response rate compared with only a 3.5% rebooking rate for those customers not mailed.