Travel Leaders Franchise Group, the franchised travel agency brand, unveiled major enhancements to SCORE, its customer lead generation and destination specialist training program launched in January. At its 2011 National Meeting in Las Vegas, Travel Leaders said the newly released SCORE 2.0 program will enable prospective clients to more easily connect and engage with participating agents through Travel Leaders’ online marketing campaigns using a new “Agent Profiler” that is maintained and managed directly at the agency level.

Travel Leaders also announced that SCORE 2.0 would feature leading suppliers focused on selling top destinations in South America, including Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. In addition, Travel Leaders executives said they would look to expand the program to Asia, Africa and the Middle East, citing Hong Kong and South Africa in particular as two potential new destinations.

When complete, SCORE 2.0’s Agent Profiler will offer consumers an opportunity to browse Travelleaders.com for the travel agent specialist who most fits their needs. Participating Travel Leaders travel agents will be able to use the Agent Profiler to provide a full representation of their expertise and knowledge, along with photos and biographies. Agent Profiler also provides Travel Leaders Associates (franchisees) with a quick and easy way to manage the skill sets of their agents and easily know the areas of expertise for the entire agency.

“One year ago, we proudly announced our SCORE Program, which matches our cadre of top Travel Leaders leisure specialists nationally with qualified consumer leads through highly targeted online marketing,” said Roger Block, CTC, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group. “Our enormous success over the past year enables us to very publicly and confidently take the wraps off of SCORE 2.0. SCORE 2.0’s innovative ‘Agent Profiler’ provides our participating members and their staffs with greater control over their destinies in determining how to amplify their destination and lifestyle certifications. In turn, this level of engagement will ultimately serve as a springboard for further niche marketing.”

Travel Leaders’ SCORE 2.0 program will continue tapping directly into participating travel agency members’ expertise by providing these agencies with qualified leads from travelers already interested in a particular destination. Block said the biggest success story to date has been with Australia, where a full 25 percent of all certified Aussie Specialists are Travel Leaders agents. Working with Australia and Qantas Vacations, Travel Leaders was able to train more agents as Aussie Specialists, take roughly 100 of them on a fam trip to Australia, and generate more leads from customers interested in traveling to the destination. According to Block, the efforts resulted in a 900 percent increase in sales of Australia by those agents.

Block also indicated that Travel Leaders hopes to replicate that success by working with suppliers focused on selling South America. “Based on the tremendous success we’ve had in matching consumers with specialists who thoroughly know travel products spanning the globe, we’re proud that we’re joining with key suppliers in adding points in South America as part of SCORE 2.0,” Block said. “As with our previous SCORE endeavors in which we’ve added new specialists for destinations like Australia, Mexico, Germany, Alaska and Hawaii, we’ll be working closely with suppliers to provide our travel agents with exclusive fam opportunities so that each specialist will personally know the associated destination inside out.”

Through SCORE, Travel Leaders systematically develops creative marketing hooks using online key word searches, banner advertising and third party campaigns. In turn, each offer is designed to generate qualified consumer leads. Travel Leaders also has been providing training and tools to empower members with the skills to close each sale.

 “Anyone can place destinations and promotions on a website, but we’re moving consumers from an online experience to a one-on-one marketing experience with specialists ready to speak with personal expertise and passion,” Block said. “The human contact with a specialist is an essential part of the Travel Leaders difference.” For more information on Travel Leaders’ SCORE 2.0 program and Travel Leaders in general, call 866-225-9026.