Following up on last month’s post; 5 Great Reasons to Work with Travel Trade, let’s chat more about how working with Travel Trade expands your business’ marketing reach by working with businesses who’ll sell your products for you.
To begin, let’s meet some of the Trade businesses you can work with:
— International Inbound Tour Operators (IITO): located around the world, tour
operators sell outbound tourism experiences to its local market—a tour operator
in Germany, packages a vacation to NL, and then sells it to a German family. Or a
tour operator in the US selling a motor coach vacation to NL. — Receptive Tour Operators (RTO): based in Canada, and considered experts in the
destination, sell inbound travel to Canada—a NL Receptive selling a self-drive
vacation in NL to a couple from the UK. — Travel Agencies, Retail & Online: travel agents may work independently or as part
of a chain, and access package rates from various tour operators—think TPI or
Carlson Wagonlit. Online travel agencies (OTAs) sell trip components or complete
packages online directly to the consumer and have a large reach—think Expedia.
Conventionally, as a tourism business you select your market(s), set a marketing budget, develop collateral and campaigns, and then use those tools to sell directly to your end consumer. In this situation, the onus of selling your product, and the associated cost of doing so, is solely on you.
When working with travel trade however, you have a network of businesses marketing and selling your business to the end consumer—international travellers from different markets who book well in advance, travel longer, and spend more money.
It can be very expensive for a small tourism business to reach new markets. Working with travel trade provides an opportunity to access international markets without having to market to the end buyer directly.
If you decide to work with trade, you will have to commit to compensating this network of sellers through net, or commissionable rates. We’ll get into more about that in a later post, but for now, consider all the costs—human resources and financial—it takes to market and sell your business on your own.
What is it worth to have someone do that for you?
Interested in learning more? Let's chat.
Kristy Hoddinott Director of Travel Trade & Travel Media t: 709.216.0496 e: kristy@gowesternnewfoundland.com