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Should you offer clients appointments? Do you always send customers gifts? What matters when choosing suppliers? How do you show you go above and beyond - essentially, what does it take to really be a luxury travel agent in a competitive market?
We asked more than 100 luxury travel agents about all this and more for TTG’s latest Insight Report, so dig into the stats and tips to see whether you match up, already excel in these areas or perhaps have hopes of becoming a premium travel planner yourself.
Be available 24/7
78% of luxury advisors are
Offer private appointments
57% of luxury advisors do so
Consider occasional gifting
25% gift to “some clients”
If you want to be a luxury advisor, it seems being available 24/7 (at least in emergencies, and at least having someone at the end of a call or message) should be part and parcel of your service, with 78% of our respondents agreeing with this (61% said this was the case at any time, day or night regardless of what is requested).
And if you’re a home-based agent, this is definitely likely to be more of an expectation; 78% of our home-based advisors said they were open to clients 24/7 (versus store-based at just 27%).
For bricks and mortar luxury agencies (around a third of respondents), 73% told us their store was open weekdays plus Saturdays, and 13% were open weekdays only; while just 7% said their store was open seven days a week. The higher the booking value, the more likely agents are to make themselves available to clients; 62% of those with an average booking value (ABV) of more than £10,000 were available 24/7.
Perhaps it’s a post-pandemic hangover, when it was a safer/socially distanced way of controlling customer flow for many agents, or perhaps you always offered them to give a quality and private service anyway.
But this is definitely now something more luxury travel advisors do than not – more than half (57%) of our respondents said they offer an appointment service and 13% operate purely on an appointment-only basis. But if you’re in a shop – don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be just appointments, most luxury agents in these environments also still accept walk-ins.
Client gifting doesn’t appear to be essential among luxury travel agents. When done, it’s typically reserved for loyal or high-value clients, and often tied to specific travel plans. About 25% of agents said they gift to “some clients”, with personalised presents being the most common approach.
Agents handling higher-value bookings are more likely to gift consistently; among those booking trips that top £20,000, 63% gave travel guides to all or most clients, 38% gave travel accessories, and 23% arranged personal gifts based on trip details.
In contrast, only 31% of agents booking £10,000–£20,000 trips gifted travel accessories to all or most clients. Travel wallets, bags, or accessories tailored to clients’ interests were the most popular gifts: 15% of agents gave them to all clients, 16% to most, and 45% to some. Traditional gestures such as a bottle of wine or champagne remain popular, with 53% of agents gifting them to some clients. Charitable donations, while thoughtful, were far less common.
In short, while gifting isn’t widespread, when luxury agents do it, the emphasis is on personalisation, relevance, and rewarding top-tier clients.
Luxury travel advisors these days are definitely thinking about how to set themselves apart and communicate the “premium” service they believe they offer. A third are genuinely considering undertaking some kind of qualifications that would allow them to showcase advisor professionalism further; an additional 19% told us they do already have them. These ranged from qualifications in tourism marketing and management, to NVQ/COTAC levels 2, 3 or 4 travel or tourism or travel/customer service and CPD accredited Travel Agent and Consultant Training.
(Credit iStock/Kateryna Onyshchuk) |
Only a tiny percentage of those we spoke to are currently charging a consultancy fee – and they all have ABVs of more than £10,000. A quarter of advisors (25%) are however thinking of doing so in order to highlight they offer a service worth paying for; half of these were in the higher ABV brackets. Of those currently charging them, professional consultation fees among respondents range from £151 to £300.
It seems social media is not the be all and end all for luxury advisors – 23% of those with booking values topping £10,000 said social media was not important. Social media is however still a necessity for many – if you’re a lower average booker (ABV of around £6,000) then social media is most definitely more important to you. And it’s Facebook leading the charge… with even Instagram limping behind. Just a handful of respondents reported LinkedIn as generating enquiries for trips, while no luxury advisors said TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat or X were high enquiry generators.
| Top three platforms for generating enquiries | ||
 |  |  |
| Facebook: 57% | Instagram: 14% | WhatsApp: 10% |
When it comes to generating new business, word of mouth seems the most relied-upon method among the luxury travel advisor community. All respondents view word of mouth referrals as at least quite important (96% extremely so) – this is universal, not specific to luxury, as shown in other TTG research among the wider Top 50 community. 100% of respondents also view “inspiring repeat bookings” as at least quite important (90% extremely so), which is not surprising when it’s repeat customers that often make up the bulk of agents’ bookings.
Networking in social groups has its benefits too, with 92% rating this as at least quite important. And email marketing also has its place, with 71% of advisors rating this as at least quite important as a method for finding customers. And higher value bookers are more likely to consider events as important to winning and wooing clients, much more so than those with lower booking values.
WhatsApp messages were a preferred medium for clients according to 60% of advisors, while 15% said WhatsApp voice notes were their clients’ preferred method of communicating. Be prepared: luxury travellers want to chat how it suits them, with nearly a fifth of respondents saying that sending DMs on social media platforms was their clients’ preferred general communication method.
Agents said a more in-person approach was also favoured by clients in a number of cases – nearly half (47%) of respondents said their clients liked face-to-face meetings, while just over a fifth offer video calls if clients request them.
Meanwhile, some more traditional methods also win out; 95% of respondents told us their clients want to see emails; and 86% said their clients wanted phone calls.
Once a luxury agent has an enquiry, how good are they are keeping clients interested? Very, it would seem – 81% told us the average time from enquiry to booking was “less than a month”. This implies these professionals are particularly good at giving itineraries the client wants first-off.
When it comes to choice of supplier priorities for luxury agents, these include how easy it is to book with them; the agent’s own relationship with them; and the presence of a helpful portal. A third did place extreme importance on the commission offered to them, and more than half said this was “quite” important.
Perhaps predictably, more than nine in ten (94%) of respondents told us that the right supplier for the customer was “extremely important” when choosing who to place a booking with.
Outside of securing the right supplier for the customer's needs, the top priorities are basically related to how suppliers deal with the trade – the above chart details things more than half our respondents said was “extremely” important to them…
Luxury advisors do seem to place a higher onus on this than the norm, and of those surveyed, 21% placed “extreme importance” on a supplier’s sustainability credentials; 43% said this was “quite important” and only 2% said it was not important at all.
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