The Travel Leaders Network (TLN) has never seen booking patterns and strength on the books at the beginning of a new year as is being seen now, said John Lovell, president of the Travel Leaders Group, speaking at a media event.
While some have seen the Wave season (the traditional cruise booking season) as weaker than in the past, he said, that is only because it starts earlier and is longer. The same is true, he said, for tour operators and their high season.
The trend of bookings in the fall for the following year’s travel has accelerated, according to Lovell, and all indications from those bookings are for a banner year in 2024 coming on top of a record year in 2023. He said consumers are seeking "validation, confirmation and affirmation," and that is what advisors can provide.
TLN is part of the Travel Leaders Group, which is a division of Internova Travel Group. It comprises nearly 7,000 travel agency locations, representing more than one-third of North America’s travel agencies.
While Lovell did not foresee any particular issues with the traditional election-year travel dip, he said the major concern now is finding talent within the industry. He said that travel advisor organizations have to ask prospective employees: Why not travel as a career? What other industry, he asked, is certain to grow by 8 percent annually as airplanes, ships and hotels are continually being built?
Last year, said Roger Block, TLN’s president, was the best in the organization’s history in terms of every metric, including profitability and growth. That growth included adding 300 new members—including large host agencies which count as one member although they may have many independent contractors (ICs). These new agencies, he said, bring new ideas and new energy. This is a “golden age of travel,” said Block, noting record numbers of Google searches for advisors and surveys showing an increasing preference for advisors to plan and book vacations.
Stephen McGillivray, chief marketing officer for the Travel Leaders Group, said more and more trips are being booked through advisors—growing from 30 percent of trips in 2019 to 60 percent currently. While some competitors might say TLN’s size is a negative, he said, that size allows the organization to form communities of like-minded agencies, which TLN calls alliances.
Those alliances now include luxury, honeymoon and destination weddings and the newest technology. These alliances have their own events and communications channels. Luxury alliance members, he said, produce an average of $1.4 million in bookings in luxury alone—and that does not count non-luxury products, which they also sell.
There is also an alliance of independent advisor networks (host agencies), which only has 55 members but comprises 46,000 ICs with a total of $2.2 billion in sales. Host agencies, said McGillivray, are the fastest-growing segment within TLN.
And Block added that host agencies are adding thousands of advisors monthly, many part-time. He said that while TLN rejects 48 percent of applicants because of lack of experience, he added that training is “critically important” and is a focus for TLN. Last year, he said, the group conducted 135 live supplier training events and over 1,300 recorded training sessions, up from 300 a year prior. Over 35,000 advisors a month attended a training session; “They are hungry for knowledge,” said Block.
Travel advisor sharing information. (photo via South_agency / getty images)
McGillivray said TLN is testing Toby A.I.—an artificial intelligence solution designed specifically for travel advisors—with about 100 agencies that will get it for free for a year. He said they have been advised to personalize whatever the tool provides them. TLN hopes to soon reach more than 1,000 agencies using the tool, said McGillivray.
Also new is Social Share Pro, said McGillivray. While TLN has offered social media sharing options for years, this solution provides network-generated sharing for members at no fee to them. There are qualifications including that agencies must have 1,000 social media followers or more, need to have business accounts on social media platforms and have to provide TLN with administrative access to their pages.
Cory Voss, chief information officer for TLN, said that since the 2023 launch of Cruise Complete—TLN’s own cruise booking engine—last year, there has been tremendous participation and additional enchantments are being added. The tool enables advisors to book 19 major cruise lines. In addition, there is currently a Cruise Complete B2C beta test where agencies can offer the booking engine on their own websites.
And coming early this year, said Voss, is a redesign of travelleadersbusiness.com – a tool for corporate travel advisors, which will feature a new design. A new technology platform and new content. The content will highlight how TLN agencies leverage technology to ensure their corporate clients receive an elevated level of service, attention and care, he said.
TLN is also building a customer relationship management solution, said Voss, which will expand integration capabilities for members and allow more of them to efficiently load their customers into TLN’s engagement program so the organization can market to those customers on behalf of advisors.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
