Honing The Art of Romance Travel

Written by Marilee Crocker

Whether you’re a longtime specialist or new to selling romance travel, there’s always room to refine your skills.

Where better to look for inspiration than your peers? From tech-savvy millennials to unabashed romantics, the travel professionals profiled here offer deep pools of knowledge and experience, a treasure trove for any agent looking to boost his or her success selling destination weddings and honeymoons.

If you’re a travel advisor who’s looking to break into the coveted millennials market, you might want to develop a niche in destination weddings. That’s what Marcie Boyle has done, and it’s working like a charm.

“Every time we do a destination wedding, we cultivate new clients, especially in the demographic we’re all challenged to get to––those younger ones who don’t even know how travel agents work,” says Boyle, founder of RSVP Events & Travel, a Travel Leaders agency in Chesterfield, MO.

“Destination weddings seem to breed. After someone goes on one, then they want to do one too.”

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Boyle also benefits from the “pied piper effect,” since the wedding couple’s endorsement of her services tends to carry big weight with millennials accustomed to asking for recommendations on social media.

To cultivate the weddings market, Boyle launched the Destination Weddings by RSVP Events division in 2013.

“I knew destination weddings was a niche that was going to explode. When I started hiring new agents, I had them trained in that.”

Boyle also has a background in corporate event planning and incentives, which lends itself well to destination weddings: “It’s all in the details. Having that experience helps me help them navigate those waters.”

Typically there are much more details than brides realize. Boyle maintains color-coded spreadsheets to keep track of it all so her brides don’t have to.

“Whether it’s making sure grandma has a handicap room or that guests have an itinerary––we go down the list of details and say, ‘Have you thought of this?’ It’s a lot of moving parts.”

Tight organization and keen attention to detail also allow Boyle to go above and beyond in her service delivery, which is key to attracting new clients from among wedding guests: “We want to give them the room upgrades or whatever it is they need so that they become excited about going.”

But first, the agency has to make sure guests don’t book themselves online. That can be a challenge when dealing with younger clients.

“That demographic doesn’t really want to talk to us. They want to start it all online at 11 at night,” Boyle says.

For every wedding client, Boyle sets up a simple one-page website that contains pricing, information about the resort, photos and a video. The website also collects information about site visitors and sends it to Boyle so she can “start that conversation and start personalizing.”

The goal is to engage site visitors and keep them from straying to the resort website.

“If I can keep them entertained for a hot second, then we’re good,” Boyle says. “Once we explain to them that we have the expertise and it’s not going to cost them more, or much more, they grasp that. Now we have that client.”

Upwards of 95 percent of her clients’ wedding guests end up booking their stays through her agency.

‘Being detail-oriented and organized is more important than anything.’

Boyle and a handful of affiliated independent agents in St. Louis, Denver and Florida work with brides from all over the country. Many find her via word of mouth or online search.

The agency maintains a heavy presence on Facebook and Instagram, regularly posting photos of clients’ weddings.

“A new bride or engaged couple loves to see pictures of other brides,” she explains. She also places print ads targeted to brides’ mothers in glossy community magazines.

Bridal shows are another source of business. Boyle only participates in those that charge consumers an entry fee, as she finds them to be “a little more serious.” Boyle also insists that her agents be proactive about engaging with attendees at shows, and the approach pays off.

“We usually average two to three couples, either destination wedding or honeymoon, off a show.”

When clients are local, Boyle meets with them in person to create a personal connection: “I take them out for wine or coffee to get to know them a little bit.”

When that’s not an option, she’ll FaceTime with potential clients.

While Boyle has arranged weddings in destinations all over the world, most couples opt for all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. Challenges, when they arise, typically stem from the complexity of planning travel for guests coming from multiple cities.

“We had one in Riviera Maya that was quite large, and she chose multiple resorts with multiple room categories. You should have seen that spreadsheet,” says Boyle.

When Shannon Leblanc talks about selling honeymoon travel, her comments skew heavily toward the romantic.

“I believe in love, and I believe that travel strengthens your relationship,” says LeBlanc of Paradise Vacation Escapes in Prairieville, LA.

It might sound sappy, except that coming from LeBlanc it doesn’t.

“I am genuinely excited that they are starting their lives together,” she says of her honeymoon clients.

The ability to convey enthusiasm and nurture clients’ own sense of excitement is one of the most important things agents can do for honeymooners, says LeBlanc: “As an agent, you can make it even more exciting.”

One way LeBlanc does this is by sending a steady stream of personal emails to honeymooners during the months and weeks leading up to their trip. Many contain useful information like travel tips and pointers about their destination, but she also sends fun stuff designed to build excitement.

“For Jamaica clients, I send a personalized video of a Jamaican on the beach telling them, ‘Thank you for booking with Paradise Vacation Escapes.’ I’ll create little memes for them, like a picture of a beach chair with their names on it. Then they share it on Facebook with their friends. It makes them feel special, and it helps to show your value.”

LeBlanc launched her home-based agency seven years ago, bringing to the business experience as an entrepreneur (she owned a photography studio at the time) and 10 years’ experience in corporate travel. At the suggestion of a business coach, LeBlanc gave herself the whimsical title of “chief romance officer,” a title that “catches people’s attention” and “makes them listen,” she says.

LeBlanc’s ideal honeymoon clients are brides ages 28 to 34 and up—an age group that she finds tends to appreciate the value of hiring an expert more than their younger counterparts. This client “knows she can’t do it all.” Most spend between $5,000 and $8,000 on their honeymoon.

So far most of her honeymooners are local, but recently she’s been taking steps to grow the business further afield. Earlier this year LeBlanc participated in a bridal show in Washington, DC., an effort that has already netted four or five honeymoon bookings from that area.

Others find her through Facebook, where she is “an open book,” posting about her trips with her husband, about their Friday evenings spent cooking together at home, and the like: “I’m open about my romantic relationship. They know that I’m real about it.”

A few years ago, to help position herself as an expert LeBlanc wrote the book “Say Yes to the Honeymoon: The Expert’s Guide to Planning the Perfect Honeymoon” (available on Amazon). She displays the book at bridal shows and uses it as a giveaway. Just the fact of having written a book makes a strong positive impression, she says.

“I’m always working on finding ways to market,” LeBlanc says. “I send out a weekly email that has a personal note from me and a feature article that I write. I take time to work on that every week and on learning new ways to reach clients and refine my sales pitch: ‘Remember what it was like to be a bride and to believe in love.’"

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LeBlanc begins her consultations with most honeymoon clients via email or Facebook messaging. Early on she sends them a questionnaire that asks about things like the marriage proposal, a typical date night, which social media platforms they’re active on, honeymoon budget, and their dream honeymoon if money were no object.

The answers, together with the initial consultation and her follow-up research into the couple’s social media activity, give LeBlanc enough of a sense of their personalities for her to start matching them to resorts and destinations.

Before she sends recommendations and price quotes, she asks clients to pay a nonrefundable consulting fee––$147 for most honeymoons and $250 for Europe. LeBlanc explains the fee by outlining to customers what they’ll get when they work with her.

“I tell them I’ll find out their priorities, wants, needs and expectations, that I’m working for them not the resort, and that I’ll manage everything. I let them know that they’ll have my care and attention from start to finish.”

Working with brides can be taxing. LeBlanc says it helps to remember that young brides are often planning a wedding they’ve been dreaming of since they were little girls.

“As long as you’re patient and excited for her, that will show and she will appreciate your value.”

You might not think of Fargo, North Dakota, as the best place to build a destination weddings business that caters to same-sex couples, but that’s exactly what Lisa Brasgalla of the Travel Leaders franchise Travel Travel has done.

Brasgalla, director of romance travel for the firm’s Vows in Paradise division, says the agency decided to focus on the destination weddings market four or five years ago, after noticing that no other travel sellers in the Fargo area were doing so. When the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in June 2015, the same logic prevailed.

“No one in the area was specializing in that either. I really just jumped on that,” Brasgalla says.

Today about 20 percent of her destination weddings are same-sex marriages, nearly all for gay men. Establishing a foothold in the traditional destination weddings market was relatively easy.

“We just dominated the bridal and wedding shows,” Brasgalla says. To this day the agency is often the only retail travel seller in attendance at area shows, which generate a lot of business.

‘I’m the advocate for my clients before, during and after their weddings.’

When the agency decided to pursue the gay and lesbian weddings market, Brasgalla already had friends and a client base in the LGBTQ community. Once she started handling same-sex destination weddings, word spread. Word of mouth referrals continue to be important in the LGBTQ community, says Brasgalla, who has been selling travel for 13 years.

The agency is proactive about staying visible in the community, hosting a booth showcasing its destination weddings services at an annual Fargo-Moorhead Pride in the Park celebration and other LGBTQ events. Brasgalla also drops off flyers for wedding shows at the downtown Fargo office of the Pride Collective and Community Center.

The agency communicates its support for marriage equality on social media by including photos of same-sex couples in its Facebook and Instagram posts. Brasgalla also lists LGBT honeymoons and weddings as an interest on her Travel Leaders profile page.

In many ways, planning destination weddings for gay and lesbian couples is no different than for traditional couples, Brasgalla says: “It really comes down to qualifying them, getting to know what is important to them.”

One big difference is the importance of agents being knowledgeable about which resorts and destinations are welcoming to same-sex couples. For instance, Brasgalla steers same-sex couples away from Jamaica, which has a history of intolerance toward gays.

One destination that surprised Brasgalla was Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic: “There are only a dozen resorts in Punta Cana that will do a same-sex wedding, and there are only four or five that will allow them to take place on the beach,” she says.

But policies and laws change, and not all supplier and destination training materials are up to date. To make certain couples don’t encounter restrictions, Brasgalla contacts resort wedding coordinators by phone or email.

“You almost have to treat each wedding request as brand new. I do my research ahead of time and get it in writing before I tell my clients,” says Brasgalla, who uses spreadsheets to keep track.

As with traditional couples, Mexico, the Caribbean and Hawaii are popular wedding destinations for her same-sex clients. Destination weddings for her male couples tend to be smaller than for traditional couples—often 30 or fewer guests—but that’s offset by a higher per person spend.

“They select nicer properties, so typically it’s a higher dollar amount.”

“A lot will do a big reception dance after the wedding, where the majority of my traditional wedding groups will have the dinner and that’s it. There are more excursions and tours and group activities, a mimosa breakfast the morning of the wedding, a private party after the ceremony and possibly an event the next day. They’re thinking outside the box, doing something different, something unique, something memorable that’s going to stand out.

That makes the wedding a little more labor intensive, but they also yield more commission, says Brasgalla, who charges a $100 planning fee per couple for all destination weddings, plus $30 per guest.

Agents who establish a positive reputation in the LGBTQ community will gain lots of referrals and repeat clients, Brasgalla says. Her advice?

“Do as many online trainings and certifications as you can. Be open-minded and nonjudgmental.

Will Medina has an open and disarming personality, an easy warmth that serves him well when consulting with brides about their destination weddings.

“I like to work with friends. I make that come across from the first interaction. It’s a very friendly approach, very casual––professional, but not stuffy,” says Medina, an independent contractor with LoveShack Vacations, the romance travel division of host agency KHM Travel Group.

Medina doesn’t rely on personality alone. He stays active on social media, continually hones his email marketing, is super-responsive with clients and, just as importantly, understands brides’ concerns in the months leading up to their wedding.

“You have to be knowledgeable about weddings and keep up with it because brides are overwhelmed. They have questions about how to word the invitations, how to tell people in a tactful way that it’s an adults-only wedding (etc.). I really try to understand what they are doing during the 12 months, because travel is not all of it.”

Medina’s sensitivity to the full range of brides’ concerns informs his approach to social media and email marketing too. He uses Instagram for posts focused not just on travel but on “wedding inspirations,” dresses, jewelry, and the like.

“I’m at just over 1,000 followers on Instagram, but I have a lot of engagement. If I post two or three times every day and I get one bride a month, it’s totally worth it.”

In his email marketing, Medina works on keeping leads alive. The usual approach to follow-up emails with new leads leaves him cold.

“After the second or third email, you just sound desperate: ‘I sent you an email last week. Do you still want to meet?’ I hated that,” Medina says.

So now if a prospect doesn’t respond to his invitations to set up a consultation, he shifts the conversation and starts sending them useful information like planning tips and links to wedding checklists and an invitation to follow him on Instagram. Even when someone has decided to book with someone else, Medina continues to nurture the lead via automated email marketing, since he knows that a cold lead can turn hot in a flash.

“I’m always trying to learn how to craft this like a funnel, so leads that come in don’t fall through the cracks.”

Once he’s working with a client, there’s little chance of that happening.

“I’m a millennial, so I text with them. They know they can send me a quick message and I’ll respond. I’m the kind of guy that I’m on it,” he says.

Medina, who lives and works in Fort Lauderdale, began selling travel eight years ago at age 24. When a mentor at his host agency suggested he’d be good at destination weddings, the idea clicked.

“I signed up for my first bridal show right away and started doing every online education piece so I could market myself as a specialist.”

He also signed on as a charter member in the newly formed Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA) and invested in coaching through The Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs (GIFTE), both of which he recommends to other agents.

Today, romance travel, most of it destination weddings, comprises 80% of his sales, and Medina has accrued enough experience and expertise to mentor other agents in the niche.

Medina says his “fantastic customer service” and use of technology help set him apart. With new wedding clients—most of them brides from the Midwest—he requires an initial consultation via web conferencing with a video connection. The video connection is important since calls run 45 minutes or longer.

“If they’re not seeing my face they’re going to get distracted.”

Medina uses screen-sharing during the consultations to show brides the technology tools and systems he uses, how he processes credit cards, what their invoice will look like, etc.

“That entire process is part of establishing yourself as the expert, which is why I never skip it.”

He presumes that many first-time callers are still shopping around, so he tells brides that his commitment during the consultation “is to give them all the information they need so that if they decide not to work with me, they know what to ask the next agency.”

That makes a big impression, he says. If prospective clients do decide to talk to another agent, Medina is betting they’ll end up right back with him.

‘You have to be as much of a wedding pro as you are a travel pro.’

Lynn Ciccarelli loves recommending new travel experiences to her upscale honeymoon clients.

“It’s my thing to introduce people to something outside the box, whether it’s zip lining in Costa Rica or learning to surf in Hawaii,” says Ciccarelli, an independent Virtuoso agent with Cassis Travel Services.

Doing so is not without risks: “You’re putting your reputation out there. But I still like to push the box, so I continue to do it.”

Ciccarelli’s fondness for suggesting new experiences is right in sync with the single biggest trend she sees among today’s young honeymooners who have money to spend: “Everybody’s looking for something unique. They want something new, something special, something different than what their friends did.” But since most honeymooners are not experienced travelers, “they have absolutely no clue how to make it happen."

Fortunately, Ciccarelli does. The Pittsburgh agent has been selling travel under the name Bella Vacations since 2004. Honeymoons comprise about a quarter of her business, and custom FITs account for about 80% of her total volume.

Even in luxury romance travel, FITs are all about logistics: "Getting them from Point A to Point B without stress and in a fun way, knowing when to use a train, when a private driver. It’s knowing the location and what needs to be done to make it a flawless trip.”

A well-planned, well-organized trip is the essence of luxury, she suggests.

Ciccarelli also acts as a concierge for her honeymoon clients, booking add-ons like spa treatments and dinner reservations: “If there’s a really excellent restaurant, Michelin star, they want that planned.”

At the same time, she says, honeymooners like to leave some things to chance so they can wing it. Boutique-style hotels, activities, great service and good food are top priorities for Ciccarelli’s young upscale honeymooners.

“You have to know all the really cool little well-located hotels throughout the world. If they want a resort or beach experience, they want options of things to do.”

While it’s usually the groom who contacts her about the honeymoon, Ciccarelli is adamant that both parties participate in the process. Otherwise, she says, the man is apt to defer to the bride and “the honeymoon becomes an experience of one.”

She uses an initial phone consultation to find out if the couple is thinking of a beach or mountain experience, a trip to Europe or an exotic destination.

“From there I insist that they have a conversation and then each decide separately what their perfect honeymoon is and submit it to me by email independently. Then I incorporate a little of each into the trip so both find it a satisfying experience.”

The most important thing, she says, “is understanding exactly what the client wants, sometimes when the client doesn’t even know. It’s like a mind-reading game. You listen to what they say very carefully and you send them suggestions of what you think they’re asking for. If you do your job right, they look at that and go, ‘Wow that is exactly what we want to do.’”

To deliver the level of service her clients demand, Ciccarelli relies on trusted in-destination contacts around the globe.

“‘What do you do for my clients when things go wrong?’ That’s how I judge who I use, and that’s who I stick with,” she says.

Every year, she deepens her knowledge and samples the services of local suppliers by traveling to two destinations that she believes are up-and-coming. Last year it was Portugal and Puglia in the south of Italy. Next up on her list is Italy’s Piedmont region.

At this stage, most of Ciccarelli’s business is word of mouth, supported by a good website and social media.

“Quick response time also builds your client list and helps to build your business,” she says.

At the end of the day, chemistry plays a big role in whether a customer chooses to use her services. As Ciccarelli says, “It’s such an intimate thing, creating travel experiences for people. You either click or you don’t.”

‘There are two people on a honeymoon. Both opinions should be respected.’

When Zahra Remtulla planned her first destination wedding, she had little idea what she was getting into.

Sure, she’d been selling travel for several years and had experience in small groups and even event planning, plus she’d always enjoyed planning weddings for friends and family. But that hardly prepared Remtulla for the reality of her first destination wedding––a 200-guest South Asian wedding in Los Cabos, Mexico.

“It was a huge learning curve,” says Remtulla, a destination weddings planner with HB Vacations in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Today, just five years later, Remtulla has developed a successful niche in high-end destination weddings, with a specialty in complex South Asian destination weddings. Hers is a labor-intensive, hands-on approach, so she limits the number of weddings she plans in any given year.

“I like to focus on quality, not quantity, instead of taking on weddings and not giving the results they’re looking for,” says Remtulla, whose soup-to-nuts service encompasses everything from travel arrangements and rooming lists to décor and makeup.

“The only thing I haven’t done is put the music list together.”

A self-described “control freak,” Remtulla takes charge onsite as well, usually arriving at the resort two days before guests so she’s there to greet everyone personally, hand out welcome bags, make sure everyone is checked in properly and attend to all the rest of the details.

At her South Asian weddings, there are more than the usual number of such details. Most last at least three days, with Day 1 devoted to pre-wedding festivities and rituals, Day 2 to the wedding ceremony itself, and Day 3 to the reception. Each day involves distinct and often intricate rituals.

While often referred to simply as Indian weddings, the more proper term, "South Asian weddings", encompasses the numerous cultural traditions and religions of India and neighboring nations. Remtulla, who lived in Tanzania until age 12, is familiar with many of the rituals and traditions, but not all. Often she’s learning along the way.

“Being open and learning the culture is very important in mastering this art of Indian destination weddings,” she says, adding, “It’s OK to ask. For example, I have a bride who’s Sikh and the groom is a Hindu Indian from Trinidad. The rituals are different. For that wedding I have to say to the grandmother, ‘You be my teacher.’

“Speaking the language helps,” adds Remtulla, who in addition to English speaks Hindi, Kutchi, Gujarati, Swahili and some French.

Some clients don’t know the traditions themselves; others aren’t concerned.

“Some say, ‘We just want to go have fun,’” Remtulla says.

For those who are more traditional or religious, it’s super-important to get the details right. For instance, certain ceremonies traditionally involve betel nuts and leaves, but these are not readily available in Mexico or the Caribbean, so almonds are often substituted. But not all Hindu priests consider that acceptable. That’s the kind of detail that Remtulla needs to stay on top of.

‘You need to be really sensitive, understanding and open.’

Arranging South Asian destination weddings is a lot of work, but can pay off for agents, in part because groups are large. Remtulla’s biggest South Asian wedding to date was a 225-person, seven-day Hindu wedding at Moon Palace in Cancun. Her smallest was for 45 people.

For most wedding guests, Remtulla books an air, hotel and transfer package. She charges a planning fee that varies based on the number of guests and events involved. Clients also pay for her travels. By compensating her adequately for her time, the fees allow Remtulla to provide high levels of customer service and attention.

“I want to give 150% of my time. It’s about the quality of my work and making sure I can deliver,” she says.

That includes ensuring that her wedding parties get the full benefit of the perks that go along with group bookings.

“For one wedding coming up, we have over 100 people booked. The bridal party will qualify for complimentary rooms, upgrades and value-adds worth $10,000 or more. We don’t keep any of that.”

Remtulla finds planning South Asian weddings to be deeply rewarding: “It is so unique. There is so much to learn. There is vibrancy, color and tradition. I’ve had weddings where aunts I don’t even know will bring me a sari as a gift. You really feel like you made a difference.”

No customer has ever called Angee Shields and requested a destination wedding at the Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora. But Shields knows and loves the property so well that last year she booked two wedding clients there.

The point isn’t that Shields pushes that resort, or any particular property, but that her knowledge allows her to make such recommendations to wedding clients with conviction.

“That’s something you just can’t fake. Those conversations really have to start with gaining knowledge yourself,” says Shields, owner of Vacations With Flair, a luxury travel specialist in suburban Chicago.

To that end, every six weeks or so Shields travels to different luxury resorts to meet with their wedding departments, inspect their venues and learn their product inside out.

That kind of deep destination and product knowledge is critical to success in her target market of high-end millennial couples.

“While they value my services, they also have traveled enough to know the destinations. I can’t bluff,” says Shields, whose total sales are on track to exceed $1 million this year.

Shields’ clients may be well traveled, but they are also looking to her for recommendations. Sometimes after qualifying clients, she’ll give them a choice of three properties. But just as often she’ll say, “This will be the best one for you, and here are the 10 reasons why.”

She’s that confident of her product knowledge and listening skills.

“A lot of times I’m proposing resorts that would never have come up on their radar because they’re higher rated. Because I know the product, I’m able to really walk them through and give them a picture of what it’s going to look like.”

Shields, who charges couples a $300 fee for destination weddings, says she never lets budget be the sole deciding factor.

“There’s way more to the conversation than just that.”

One key piece of the conversation is uncovering what luxury means to the couple.

“The Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora is absolute luxury. Then again, the El Dorado properties in Mexico are fantastic and for some that is the highest luxury travel they’ve ever done. For some couples, luxury is making sure that everything is private,” says Shields, who only books properties rated four-star and above and whose average room night for weddings is $225 per person.

“Luxury is always getting what we want,” adds Shields.

Shields came to travel with a background in sales and the well-honed sales skills to go with it. She also has a few other aces up her sleeve. She’s well organized and has set up reliable systems that make it easy to do things like send “save the date” reminders. That’s important when you’re handling 30 or more weddings a year. She also has an assistant who’s “quick and efficient,” and she is looking to hire another.

Shields makes it a practice to impress her clients, and she considers this her most-effective marketing.

“I’m very intentional about wowing my brides, making sure I always under-promise and over-deliver. We send them fun packages with neat gifts before they leave. There are notes from me and a pen to fill out the customs forms on the airplanes, luggage tags –– little things. Their entire group gets mailed travel documents; we don’t just send out e-docs.

“We work hard to wow our couples so they want to refer us, and then I ask them to refer me,” says Shields, who estimates that about 60% of her business is referral-based.

Shields also has developed emotional skills and reservoirs of patience that help when dealing with harried brides.

“There are many times when it’s necessary for me to talk them down because anxieties or fears have taken over. My role becomes somebody who calms. I’m able to say, ‘It is going to be okay. I am here with you. We are doing this together.’

“Really it’s the same skill set I use with my son,” says Shields, whose 15-year-old son is autistic and as a result easily overwhelmed. “I’m always problem solving and looking ahead. I have a thick skin. I’m patient. I remind myself not to take it personally. I’m so grateful for the intense lessons on patience I’ve learned living with my son.

"The most important thing is to know your product extremely well. Get on destination. Ask a million questions. See as much as you can."