PHOTO: Contiki has prepared infographics to help guide travel agents toward its target market of 18- to 35-year olds. Released today and available in full at the end of this story, this graphic highlights strategies for planning successful events. (Courtesy of Contiki Vacations)
A year ago, Contiki Vacations, the tour operator for 18-35 year olds, set out to increase the business it gets through the travel agent channel, and now it can report a 25 percent increase in that business as sales for 2015 stack up.
Contiki put a team of five sales people on the ground, operating regionally, engaging with travel agents and agencies. Now the company is trying to push the campaign to another level, with a concentrated push on educating travel agents how to reach the millennial market.
According to Melissa da Silva, Contiki's president, "As they've been out on the ground and really starting to engage with our partners, the number one thing that we hear from the travel agents is that they don't see the millennials coming in the door, that they wish they could sell the millennials, but they don't see any millennials."
Contiki's research, however, has shown that millennials are actually using travel agents even more than baby boomers as a percentage of the generation.
"There are 80 million millennials out there and they have a massive spending power," said da Silva. "It's a market that needs to be tapped. So what we've tried to do is to try to equip our partners with some tools so they can help bring the millennials into their stores."
Contiki has created a four-part how-to series on how to reach the millennial market.
[BLURB]"There are lots of ways that agents can be engaging with these customers and we've tried to give them some tools to do that." - Melissa da Silva, president, Contiki Vacations[/BLURB]
"We have tried to break it down to easy-to-execute things that travel agents can do," said da Silva. "It's everything from how to reach the millennials on social media - and we give them very specific tips and tricks for what to do on Twitter, how to set up your content calendar - to things like how to pull off a successful grassroots event. It doesn't all have to be digital. A lot of the millennials are out there participating in events where we can reach them, whether it's on campus or at honeymoon shows or at travel shows. There are lots of ways that agents can be engaging with these customers and we've tried to give them some tools to do that."
Contiki has released two parts of its how-to series as infographics, the third, on how to run a successful event, is being released today, Oct. 23.
Sizing up the Contiki Client
Contiki is also making available the results of an extensive survey it conducted of its own customers.
"We surveyed just over 3200 of our customers who had booked with us but had not yet traveled," said da Silva. "What we wanted to understand was the motivation for booking Contiki in the first place, before they were coming back with all these fantastic travel stories and not remembering why they booked with us. We wanted to capture them before they actually traveled."
Of the 3,200 surveyed, a healthy sample of 720 responded, enough to create a fairly reliable profile of the Contiki customer.
"One of the big takeaways we got from this is that our customers are not actually students," said da Silva. "That's a huge misconception. About 30 percent are, so it's not an insignificant portion, but 70 percent of our customers are actually young professionals. They're people who have graduated from school. They're working. They're very fiscally responsible - not surprising having come of age during a recession. They're not putting their trips on a credit card. They're saving. Or they're getting an extra job or they're taking on extra hours. And it's probably not surprising that our absolute number one bestselling trip is 14 days long. They have a two-week vacation. That's what they can fit in and they want to absolutely see the most, do the most, have the most cram-packed experience that they can possibly have."
Contiki is trying to alert its travel agent partners to a robust market that is all around them and can be accessible to them if they know what to look for.
"We have taken that information and are using it to educate our trade partners about our customers," said da Silva. "We don't know everything about all the millennials - it's a massive market - but we do know about the customers that are buying Contiki. So we've also given them some tips and tricks on how to reach those millennials that are young professionals, and who they are and things they might be interested in."
New Destinations for 2015
Contiki is offering tours to several new destinations for 2015, including Portugal and Morocco. "We are constantly listening to our customers and they are telling us these are places you guys need to be," said da Silva. "We were there many many years ago, when it was out of style so to speak. And it's definitely back with a vengeance."
Other new destinations for Contiki for 2015 are Japan, Guatemala, Belize and Colombia.
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