What Advisors Need to Know to Get Started on Selling Group Travel

Group travel is one of the most lucrative niches that travel advisors can specialize in, but it can be intimidating to anyone who has never planned a group before. Many advisors erroneously assume groups have to be large, when, in fact, a group can be as small as five cabins on a cruise ship or 10 rooms in a resort.

The fear of the unique logistical requirements of group planning and travel can also seem overwhelming, as does the idea of finding people who would like to travel together. To help advisors get started on group sales, most consortia and Host agencies offer group planning training, pre-contracted groups that advisors can sell into, and marketing help.

Envoyage, the rebranded independent travel advisor division of Flight Centre Travel Group, recently held a mini-conference at the Hyatt Zilara Riviera Maya that focused solely on group travel. As part of the line-up, a panel of three group travel experts – moderated by Travel Market Report‘s Dori Saltzman – offered group travel and planning advice, best practices, and insights from their own experiences.

The Bottom Line

“Profit is definitely the bottom line when you do groups,” said Sherriann Keaton, president, Live2Travel, who added groups account for about 25% of all business at her agency. “Instead of all these individual bookings, you can concentrate on one massive group and make your target for the month.”

While the average commission on group bookings within the Envoyage network falls between $6,000 and $10,000, that’s not even close to how much advisors can make.

The most Keaton said she’s ever made on one group was $30,000 for a 60-room destination wedding at the Royalton Negril in Jamaica.

“It was a lot of work, but it was so worth it in the end. I said I’m not going to work for the whole month after this,” she said.

Maureen Murphy Cook, owner of Lifetime Travel told attendees the most she ever made was back in 1999, when she earned $180,000 in commission for a 185-person religious pilgrimage to Rome. Money like that, she added, is life changing. She used that profit to adopt her son from the Ukraine.

Affinity vs Speculative Groups

In an ideal world, travel advisors can and should be doing a mix of affinity group travel and speculative travel. Affinity groups are more frequently talked about during group travel education programs. Advisors are told to look to their communities and their own interests to find likeminded people who might want to travel together.

This is often where advisors hear about pied pipers, people who have a following of their own that they can go to, to fill a group.

“Having a Pied Piper helps because they have this great network that they’re in. Say you’re Irish and you want to put together a trip to Ireland, you can go to your local Irish club in your town and talk to the manager there,” Sara Purdy, owner of Purdy’s Journeys explained.

But speculative groups can be just as lucrative, and, unlike affinity groups, makes the travel advisor their own pied piper.

“Speculative is great for us because we’re known to our friends as the travel gurus,” Purdy added. “People want to come with us. They say, ‘I wish I could come with you in your suitcase.’ And that is a huge bingo to me. Great, let’s put a group trip together.”

Purdy fills her groups with a combination of her past clients and their friends and family, who then become new clients.

Keaton does much the same.

“I think for me and my group, we definitely are our own pied piper… It doesn’t hurt to get on the phone for an hour and call your book of business that you have and let them know, listen, I do group trips… Get the word out there. You can be your own pied piper.”

Keaton added that she uses incentives to push past clients to help her fill her speculative group trips.

“I have already incentivized half of my repeat clients, let’s do a trip, let’s go on a cruise, I’ll get you half your cabin for free,” she said.

Organizing and Managing Group Travel Logistics

There are a lot of moving pieces when it comes to group travel. The larger the group, the more moving pieces an advisor has to keep track of. Whether it’s room inventory and not dipping below contract levels in order not to face the prospect of having to pay for rooms out of your own pocket, or keeping track of which amenities a group should be receiving, some of these moving pieces have high stakes for advisors.

Complicated logistics are one of many reasons some advisors are intimidated by group travel.

“It’s a little nerve wracking,” Purdy admitted, talking about the first group she ever did. “I definitely read my letter of agreement a million times.”

But there are many ways advisors can stay organized.

“There’s different ways that my subagents handle their groups,” Keaton said.

She has one advisor who uses Microsoft Notebook, which she shares with her clients for back-and-forth communications. Another uses Excel – the most commonly used method for managing groups. Another uses actual paper binder.

“You have to find what works for you and what works for you will determine how successful your group is,” she said.

Purdy also uses Excel.

“I like to keep track of all of the client’s information, my commission, the total transaction value, the room categories, everything goes into my Excel spreadsheet for the group. Also, insurance too.”

Additionally, Purdy talked about the importance of having things on the calendar.

“Our calendar is super important. I’m sure we all live and breathe by our calendar. So, noting all of the deadlines for the group dates, two weeks before the date comes. Make sure you have it in your calendar so you’re ahead of the game and you don’t get into any trouble.”

Murphy Cook said she uses a mix of tools including Excel, notebooks, and ClientBase Online.

All three panelists also mentioned Soft Trips, a proprietary software available only to Envoyage members, which helps track room inventory and contract details.

Marketing Groups

Marketing groups isn’t that dissimilar to marketing any other type of travel that advisors book for their clients. Social media, particularly Facebook, can be helpful in getting the word out about your groups and make it easy for past clients to share the information with their friends.

However, all three panelists enthusiastically spoke up the value of using flyers to get the word out.

“Flyers are really fantastic,” Keaton said. “You can make a flyer or have someone make a flyer for you and do an email blast.”

Purdy added that many suppliers will actually supply flyers for advisors.

“Most of them will put your logo, your business name on it, and then you can send that out to your clients via text, social media, whatever you prefer. Also local Facebook groups,” she said.

First Steps for Advisors to Take

The panel wrapped up with each advisor offering one thing attendees could do when they got home to start themselves on the journey to booking groups.

“Identify your interests,” Purdy said. “We all have interests other than travel… If you’re interested in gardening, join your local garden club. Join an online group of people interested in gardening. It doesn’t matter where they live. Maybe they want to go to the Netherlands, to Keukenhof. You can book them on an Avalon tulip time cruise. Identify what you’re interested in and where you want to travel to and go with them.”

Keaton told the audience to start with their own inner circle.

“Know your demographic. You can do groups for your friends, your family. Incentivize them. Start small and every year it will keep growing and growing,” she said.

Pamela Scott, director of Envoyage Group Center, also reminded the audience to start small.

“Start small… get your feet wet,” she emphasized. “As you do that, your groups will start to grow and snowball and get larger and larger.”