Travel has changed dramatically over the years. Travelers have more information, more booking options and more technology at their fingertips than ever before.
Yet for tour operators, one relationship remains especially valuable: the relationship with the travel advisor.
Travel advisors do much more than make reservations. They influence where clients travel, which experiences they consider and which suppliers they ultimately choose.
For tour operators looking to grow their presence in the U.S. market, building meaningful relationships with the right travel advisors can be an important part of that strategy.
Travel Advisors Are More Than a Distribution Channel
A strong advisor relationship isn’t simply about generating a single booking.
Travel advisors develop long-term relationships with their clients. They learn their preferences, understand their budgets, recognize their travel styles and often introduce them to destinations and experiences they may never have considered on their own.
When an advisor becomes familiar with a tour operator—and confident in the experience that operator provides—that relationship can lead to business across multiple clients and multiple years.
That’s why simply being available for advisors to book isn’t always enough.
Advisors first need to know who you are.
The Challenge Is Reaching the Right Advisors
Travel advisors across the United States serve a wide range of clients and specialties.
An operator specializing in luxury African safaris doesn’t necessarily need to reach the same advisors as a company offering European escorted tours, adventure travel or family vacations.
The objective shouldn’t necessarily be to reach the largest number of advisors possible.
It should be to reach relevant advisors.
That may mean identifying advisors based on their specialties, experience, geographic location, client base, professional qualifications or other criteria important to a particular initiative.
Advisor Engagement Can Take Many Forms
Working with travel advisors doesn’t have to begin and end with asking them to sell a product.
Tour operators can involve advisors through:
- FAM trips and hosted travel
- Advisor partnerships
- Focus groups and research initiatives
- New itinerary or product feedback
- Content collaborations
- Ambassador programs
- Educational initiatives and training
- Advisor panels
- Targeting marketing initiatives
These interactions can also give operators something particularly valuable: direct insight from the professionals speaking with travelers every day.
What are clients asking for? What creates hesitation? What information do advisors need before they’re comfortable recommending a product? What makes one itinerary easier to sell than another?
Sometimes the insight gained from advisor relationships can be as valuable as the booking itself.
Visibility Matters Too
Not every tour operator is actively recruiting advisors for a specific initiative.
Sometimes the immediate objective is simply awareness.
A tour operator may have an excellent product, competitive commissions and strong advisor support—but those advantages mean very little if the advisors most likely to sell the product have never heard of the company.
Consistent visibility within relevant advisor communities can help an operator move from being unfamiliar to recognizable, and eventually to being considered when the right client comes along.
Relationships Still Drive This Industry
Technology will continue to change how travel is researched, marketed and booked.
But travel remains an unusually relationship-driven industry.
Travelers trust advisors. Advisors develop relationships with suppliers. Tour operators depend on those relationships to help the right experiences reach the right travelers.
For tour operators, the question may no longer be simply:
“How do we reach more travel advisors?”
A better question may be:
“How can we reach the travel advisors who are right for what we’re trying to accomplish?”
Creating the Right Connections
That’s the idea behind AdvisorVista.
AdvisorVista recruits U.S.-based travel advisors for targeted initiatives including FAM trips, partnerships, research and focus groups, content collaborations, product and technology testing, and other advisor-focused opportunities.
The organization defines the type of advisors it wants to reach and the qualifications that matter. AdvisorVista recruits interested advisors who match those criteria and provides a structured shortlist with relevant Partnership Profile information. The organization then makes all final participant selections.
AdvisorVista also provides opportunities for travel brands and organizations to build awareness and visibility within a private community of more than 15,000 travel advisors.
Because when it comes to building productive relationships within the travel industry, reaching more people isn’t always the answer.
Reaching the right people can be.
AdvisorVista — Targeted Connections.