travel tech insights

Be good to your resellers and they will be good to you.

After all, the relationship between a given agency and its resellers stands to be a mutually beneficial value proposition. Agencies that rely on resellers help to ensure their content is reaching the broadest possible audience, which in turn helps to boost sales. Resellers, meanwhile, stand to earn considerable revenue from commissions by establishing valuable partnerships with agencies. But the key phrase here, however, is value. How can an agency provide value for its resellers? More specifically, how can an agency help to boost resellers’ sales of travel services?

Imagine you’re driving through a new city trying to find a specific destination - a restaurant, a bookstore,  etc. You’re using your GPS but the street names on the GPS don’t quite match the names on the street signs: Sate Street instead of State Street, Min Avenue rather than Main Avenue, and so on. You make your best guess to align the names on the GPS with the names on the street, but this ultimately results in confusion, frustration, and wasted time, and it’s not long before you’re completely lost in an unfamiliar place without the resources to get to your destination.

The 37th annual World Travel Market London is quickly approaching. The 2016 tradeshow is set for Nov. 7-9 at ExCel London and is primed to be one of the biggest conferences in the organization’s history. Seminars, guest speakers, demonstrations, and meet-and-greets with travel industry professionals from across the globe are just a handful of the events attendees can look forward to, along with a wide variety of business networking and contract opportunities with travel professionals, government ministers, and the international travel press.

It’s an exciting few days for the travel industry, but the sheer number of events, discussions, and exhibitors can be overwhelming for both first-time attendees and returners. It’s easy for exhibitors, speakers, and attendees alike to over-schedule, under-schedule, and even miss out entirely on events and opportunities.

Let’s face it: The travel industry is built on responding to disruption. Whether it’s inclement weather  forcing cancellations of flights, hotel accommodations, or tours, or overbookings due to sudden spikes in demand, travel companies must be agile enough to handle these and other temporary breakdowns in calculated, efficient ways to retain customers and continue operations in as normal a way as possible.

Just like in life, planning ahead is good practice when considering a vacation or trip. Researching and completing bookings well in advance gives travelers peace of mind, keeps them organized, and allows travel agents and tour operators the opportunity to offer additional bookings to complement a customer’s existing itinerary. But the sad fact is the travel industry is prone to unpredictability and cancellations happen.

Weather. Personal struggles. Changes in availability. All these elements factor into why travelers must sometimes postpone, alter, or altogether cancel bookings, accommodations, and tours, and a travel company’s cancellation policy can go a long way toward either enhancing or remedying a traveler’s disappointment.