Those in search of new ways in which to boost their sales would be well served to turn their attention to Apple Leisure Group Vacations (ALGV), which has long served as an advocate of the travel advisor community.

“ALGV provides exceptional built-in benefits, an incredible depth of product offerings, the latest booking technology, and superior educational and training programs for travel advisors to help grow their businesses,” said Scott Wiseman, the company’s senior vice president and general manager.

Although the company is best known for its all-inclusive beach vacations in destinations such as Mexico, the Caribbean and Orlando, the company’s product line also extends to Europe, Africa and Asia, as well.

“Our signature buying power means that we can deliver that incredible airfare and resort rate, and combine that with transfers and excursions from Amstar DMC,” an ALGV sister company, he said. “Travel advisors’ clients will have a fabulous vacation at a great value.”

BDM Support

Wiseman noted that advisors can begin to build their business with ALGV by contacting their business development managers (BDMs) to establish a working relationship.

“You’ll be in the loop for our latest promotions and incentives, and your BDMs can make sure you know about local training and upcoming fams,” he said.

For those who don’t know who their BDMs are, they can find out by visiting www.algvacations.com/bdmfinder.

Additionally, ALGV’s Account Implementation Team provides advisors with a range of virtual educational sessions on a variety of topics, including how to use Tips and Tricks with the VAX VacationAccess reservations platform, as well as educational sessions with resorts and destinations. The team can also help advisors launch their agencies if they are new to the brand and provides refresher courses for those who already selling ALGV brands.

Wiseman encouraged advisors to contact their BDMs if they are interested in working with the Account Implementation Team.

He also suggested advisors take advantage of ALGV 360, which is a one-stop-shop for all things relating to marketing.

“ALGV 360 provides a world of marketing at advisors’ fingertips with access to customizable, ready-to-use social posts emails, flyers and more,” Wiseman said.

Get Paid to Upgrade

ALGV’s Get Paid to Upgrade program enables advisors to earn 2 percent bonus commission on the land portion of vacations when booking higher room categories at select hotels in Mexico, the Caribbean and Hawaii.

Through the company’s price-matching program, if advisors “find a lower price somewhere else we’ll gladly match those prices against competing tour operators, hotels direct, airline vacations brands and OTAs,” Wiseman said.

The WAVES rewards program enables advisors to earn points on bookings across all ALGV brands, which can be redeemed for hotel stays or converted to a virtual Visa gift card.

New Advisor Campaign

In May, ALGV launched a travel advisor campaign with a consumer-facing Facebook page where agents can answer questions and convert conversations to bookings. “There’s also a dedicated advisor web page with quick access to deals, BDM support and shareable content,” Wiseman said. “And we have a new travel advisor finder as well on there so someone who comes to that site and is looking for an advisor will be able to find one based upon their area.”

“The website – traveladvisorsgetyouthere.com – is a dedicated consumer page highlighting the benefits of using an advisor,” he said.

The campaign, which features celebrity endorsements from Carson Kressley and Ice-T, “was built to drive more consumers, as many as we can, to the travel advisors, knowing that now is the time more than ever that they need the expertise of an advisor,” Wiseman said.

Elite Advisors Program

In 2022, ALGV consolidated its agency status accumulation for its individual brands – Apple Vacations, Funjet Vacations, Travel Impressions, United Vacations, Blue Sky Tours and Southwest Vacations – into the ALGV Elite advisors program.

“We’ve received great feedback so far,” Wiseman said. “Advisors like the ability to consolidate all their business among all the brands to qualify for the different Elite levels.

“I think the biggest proof that we have about how positive the program is is that we already are anticipating, based upon the way the advisors are booking, over a 22 percent increase in people reaching our highest category even though the program just launched this year,” he said.

“That just shows the motivation and willingness for them to want to reach the higher categories.”

Strong Group Bookings

One of the strongest growth areas for 2022 is groups, including multigenerational family and destination wedding groups.

“I think people were restricted from seeing large groups of people for a very long time so it’s natural that they would want to get together as a large group,” Wiseman said.

“We offer two types of groups. There’s contracted groups, which is just like it sounds,” he said. “It allows travel advisors to organize and contract room blocks and hold them.

The second option, Group Ease, enables agents to book groups with a minimum of just five rooms. “The group is booked by the agent directly in VAX Vacation Access 24/7, which is great,” Wiseman said.

There’s no group contact but there is a promotional discount code that is given to the people attending the group, which provides perks and savings and works toward ensuring groups don’t shop around.

Group Ease is ideally suited “for multigenerational groups, particularly when people are coming from multi-origin areas or with different itineraries,” Wiseman said.

Ascend Conference

ALGV’s Ascend conference is slated to be held at the Cancun Convention Center Oct. 20-23, 2022, with 200-plus suppliers in attendance, along with one-of-a-kind workshops with diverse content for travel advisors to choose from. “We’ll have panel discussions on travel advisor-focused topics,” Wiseman said, as well as a range of pre-Ascend fam options.

“We always have good mystery guests and other surprises,” he added.

Four partner hotels, which have yet to be announced, will be available for accommodations.

Rebounding Business

ALGV’s business is continuing to increase year over year, Wiseman said.

“There’s a huge number of Americans who are ready to travel and those that are actually pulling the trigger and doing it.

“Prices have gone up for a lot of the airlines and at some of the resorts, not just due to inflation but also demand, and advisors are reporting that their customers are willing to pay for it.”

Furthermore, destinations across are the board, including Cancun, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Hawaii and domestic destinations, are thriving.

Wiseman said such properties as Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen and Nickelodeon Riviera Maya, which ALGV recently added to its portfolio, are selling particularly well.

“This year is going to be a better year than 2021, which was a very good year, and 2023 looks like it’s going to continually add to that as well.” Wiseman said.

Destination Weddings Tip

“We’re making sure that travel advisors let the bride and groom know if they really don’t want so many people to show up at their wedding they should be careful about how many they are inviting,” ALGV Senior Vice President and General Manager Scott Wiseman said.

Due to pent-up demand for wedding groups, the attrition level is considerably lower than it was prior to the pandemic, he noted.

“Traditionally you would expect about a 50 percent attrition for a destination wedding so if you sent out 200 invitations you would expect maybe 100 people to show up.

“Because it’s been so long since people have traveled and seen each other, the attrition rate is much smaller,” Wiseman said, adding that in some cases it’s been reported that 90 percent of guests have accepted destination wedding invitations.