National Geographic Expeditions (NGE) has been a tour brand that has not marketed itself extensively through the travel agency trade. But that changed this week when NGE announced that it has formed an alliance with Virtuoso, the luxury travel network, to promote and sell the NGE brand through Virtuoso's travel advisors.
That means Virtuoso advisors can sell and be paid a commission, usually 10 percent or more, for selling National Geographic Expeditions programs, which include active adventures, family trips, natural history and cultural explorations, small ship expeditions, photography workshops and trips, and private jet expeditions.
NGE also said it is working with Virtuoso to develop and launch a new line of programs geared to individual travelers called National Geographic Private Expeditions. The new line, to be unveiled this fall, will be sold exclusively through the Virtuoso travel advisor network.
National Geographic Private Expeditions will include roughly 20 specially designed itineraries. Guests will be able to select the dates they want to travel and with whom they wish to travel. The new product line will focus on meaningful and transformative travel experiences, based on National Geographic's network of experts around the world.
For their part, Virtuoso advisors will be trained to become NEG specialists. They must apply and be approved to part of the NEG program. In turn they will receive enhanced commissions as well as access to the Private Expeditions inventory.
"This alliance provides a fantastic opportunity to showcase our broad spectrum of unique and experiential travel programs to Virtuoso clients worldwide," said Lynn Cutter, executive vice president-travel and licensing at National Geographic Society. "We are thrilled to collaborate with Virtuoso to tap into the strong growth we have seen in the independent travel sector with the introduction of our new line of Private Expeditions."
David Kolner, executive vice president-consumer for Virtuoso, said Virtuoso was pleased to be teaming with such an iconic organization as National Geographic. Indeed, National Geographic also is participating in another Virtuoso program designed to develop leads for a select group of Virtuoso travel advisors.
"National Geographic's history in providing unique adventures aligns perfectly with Virtuoso's expertise in planning experiential travel," said Kolner.
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