The Secret Sauce

These days, luxury travel advisors need to appear as though they know all about the finer nuances of travel, particularly in light of many clients’ belief that they have the ability to know everything about it by simply going to Google.

But what rarely comes up on our clients’ radar are the destination management companies (DMCs) and small, ultra-luxury tour operators providing essential features and amenities that turn vacations into transformative experiences.

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SmartFlyer works with such DMCs as dmAfrica, which provides luxury services and amenities throughout Africa and the Indian Ocean, as well as the Atlantic Ocean Islands. Its managing director, Daniel Brown, speaks daily with many of our SmartFlyer agents. He has even taken SmartFlyer calls while watching the wildlife go by on the Serengeti.

A safari is one of the highlights of many of our clients’ Africa travels, but we all know that one cannot hail a cab from JoBurg to the Royal Malawane safari camp!

For dmAfrica, it’s all about VIP greetings, transfers to private airstrips and PC-12 flights to local runways where rangers meet travelers as they deplane.

We also value our relationship with our Virtuoso tour operators and onsites. Our travel advisors access many of the details about these companies through the virtuoso.com portal to equip themselves with information that can turn casual dinner conversations into bookings.

READ MORE: Get On Board With SmartFlyer

For instance, when a SmartFlyer agent was attending a dinner party and realized that a newly minted Goldman Sachs partner wanted to embark on a private yacht vacation through the seas of Indonesia, the agent pulled up Remote Land, an ultra-luxury tour operator specializing in Asia, and emailed (and received a reply back) from Jay Tindall, who heads the company’s Bangkok office.

Such companies as dmAfrica and Remote Lands are our “secret sauce,” so to speak, helping us design vacations that would be virtually impossible to replicate through Google searches.

I would encourage you to push your limits and engage with your consortium and its DMCs and specialty tour operators: They can make you look like a star!

I can’t tell you how valuable the annual Global Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas is to SmartFlyer’s business. We always return home with new tricks up our sleeves to wow our best clients. In the end, it’s all about expanding our knowledge base!