Travel planning may have been minimal in the past year, frustratingly replaced with endless admin around rebooks and refunds, but some luxury agents vowed to focus on positive projects, shift marketing ideas and look to strategic plans that could ensure they keep their business – and sanity – alive.
From ensuring Instagram accounts were on-point, attractive and engaging, to developing new CRM systems, running virtual events for clients with key suppliers, or launching an entirely new business model, five agents share how they have kept busy, stayed focused and tried to develop their brands in these most testing of times.
Rebecca Puttock, Wanderlux
The founder of this agency turned to Instagram to keep clients engaged, creating unique targeted posts and running campaigns – and through her efforts she has managed to grow followers for her @wanderlux.planner account by more than 1,000 in the last six months.
“That’s been a huge success in my eyes,” she says. “I use templates through apps such as Canva and Unfold that make the content and stories more engaging. Most of the inspirational travel content I have been using comes either from my own library of pictures, or from suppliers, including videos.”
Puttock says she also leveraged existing partnerships for campaigns such as Wellness Raffle – with Dorchester Collection – and the Win my Wedding honeymoon giveaway with Lux Resorts and Mauritours.
“Win my Wedding was set up by hospitality industry colleagues early on in the crisis when lots of events started being cancelled, with 32 suppliers donating a wedding service, such as photography, wedding dress, flowers, DJ, and so on – Wanderlux was invited to take part and we were thrilled to help, organising a prize of six nights half-board in Mauritius for a honeymoon,” she explains.
With a growth in domestic travel last year – a trend which could well continue this year too – Puttock says she sought to leverage relationships with GP Associates, SLH and Mr & Mrs Smith to ensure she had lots of options to offer clients in the UK.
“Before Covid-19 hit, Wanderlux never did any domestic travel, so it’s been really lovely connecting with beautiful properties right on our doorstep while borders have been closed, and those partners are particularly appealing for my clients,” she says.
She has also become a Traveller Made agency, which she says was “a fantastic introduction to new suppliers”. “Over the year, I also made sure we were IATA registered, became part of Leading Hotels of the World’s Very Important Travel Agents club, and also SLH’s withIN programme,” she adds.
With sustainability rising higher on people’s agenda, Wanderlux also made a point of becoming one of the first wave of agents to sign up for membership of the Conscious Travel Foundation. The new collective was established during the pandemic with an aim of championing the positive impact of the travel industry on global communities, cultures, wildlife and habitats, raising funds for grass-roots charities and high-impact projects around the world.
“The webinars have just started, but it is a group of travel fanatics banding together to try and brainstorm better travel practices moving forward,” she says.
Mark Swords, Swords Travel
The managing director of this Wimbledon-based business has also decided to introduce greater consideration around sustainability, galvanised by the pandemic and shifting attitudes, including his own.
Ian Weir (pictured above, bottom left), a new member of the team under the agency’s blossoming Associates initiative and another pandemic project, approached Swords and asked “what are we doing as a business to be more sustainable, and how are we educating our clients on how they could also do the same, and offset emissions”?
“My answer was simple – ‘we’re not doing enough’, but let’s look at how we can change it,” says Swords (pictured above, top right). “I have been conscious myself that we needed to do something for a while.”
A donation per booking will be contributed to a project every year and Mark and his husband and business partner Stuart will pay to offset their own travel when the time comes, with the team of associates asked to suggest ideas on how they and the business can think more sustainably. “We’re also keen to create and compile a preferred sustainable partner list that can help us and our clients make greener choices,” says Mark.
Swords Travel also ended up moving to an entirely new business model as a result of the crisis – something Mark says he probably wouldn’t have thought of doing otherwise. The Swords Travel Associates initiative allows for homeworkers to plug into all the admin, marketing and creative support of HQ, with seven people now signed up, with Swords waiving joining and admin fees initially.
The Swords have also used quieter times this year as an opportunity to refresh their CRM and back office systems, and focus on website updates and social media strategy.
They have also been running destination webinars to give clients inspiration, which have resulted in some healthy bookings.
“We never stopped marketing and remained proactive throughout – I noticed lots of companies just stopped posting things and I think that gives the impression you have given up,” he says. “We plan our marketing every Tuesday and schedule content for the week ahead, bearing in mind relevant topics and destinations. We’ve always been proactive within ‘mum’s groups’ on social media, and secured two bookings recently based on one of my Maldives posts. It just shows people always have you in the back of their mind.”
Mark has also looked into the possibility of LinkedIn, to good effect. “We’d never used it much before, but when everyone started talking about ‘workcations’ we posted a few things there promoting various packages, and as it’s more of a platform for work, we got a one-month booking to Ritz-Carlton Abama for a family of four. I was shocked, but it shows the power of talking about certain products on different social channels.”
Charlie Craig, Paper Plane Travel
Some agents have used this strange time to get stuck into a new project, including Charlie Craig, founder of Paper Plane Travel, who launched her new brand Tide, initially specialising in the Maldives.
“Tide was born out of the idea to build the “fly and flop” side of my business, as Paper Plane has always focused on tailor made itineraries,” she says. “I don’t want to change that, but I did want to showcase my knowledge on the Maldives without totally overtaking Paper Plane’s core ethos.”
Working with specialist Indian Ocean DMC Hummingbird, Craig has handpicked 40 resorts in the Maldives to focus on for Tide, and also managed to organise a fam trip for herself to the destination in December.
“That was obviously very helpful in bringing all this together, and I feel fortunate I managed to make that work in the time frame [between lockdowns]. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to see more than 20 of the hotels I am focusing and I’m combining that with a strong belief that you need to match clients to their perfect hotel,” she says. “I am also trying to steer people away from the common misconception that the Maldives is for only for honeymoons and special occasions.”
She says that Tide is a work in progress, but that it’s been great to have something to sink her teeth into. “The plan is to build up with further destinations but for the time being, it’ll be just be the Maldives.”
