PHOTO: Elephant transortation in India. (photo by David Cogswell)
On Nov. 10, Travel Impressions and Wendy Wu Tours will be rolling out a new India escorted tours product. The joint roll-out is the latest initiative in a two-year partnership between the Asia specialist tour operator and the mega wholesaler.
TravelPulse spoke to Rachel McGee, director of product for parent of Travel Impressions' parent company Apple Leisure Group and an eight-year veteran of Travel Impressions, and Mark Grundy, president of Wendy Wu Tours, about the partnership and the new product roll out.
TravelPulse: So what is the news today with the Travel Impressions-Wendy Wu partnership?
Rachel McGee: The partnership has existed a little over two years now. Travel Impressions launched a China product, which we started with about 15 tours two years ago. Last year we added Indochina to complement our China product. And now Monday, Nov. 10, we'll be launching India.
TP: Can you tell us about the new product?
RM: We're starting with two tours. We're offering the India Discovery, which is a nine-day tour, and then we're going to the total other end, which is the Essence of India, an 18-day tour.
Our mutual big seller with Travel Impressions and our partnership with Wendy Wu Tours has been the ability to completely customize these experiences. When we were vetting all the companies for Asia tours - because there were quite a few providers out there for the product - one of the big selling features for Wendy Wu Tours was that the opportunities were really limitless.
Outside of the bus tours we offer - and we're probably up to 35 tours between short and long stays for Asia - was the ability to completely customize. That was to utilize the Wendy Wu expertise and the service levels of Travel Impressions to really customize a client's experience to any of these Asia destinations.
TP: So you're offering 35 tours for Asia?
SM: That's correct. We're offering 35 tours, both short stays and long stays to China, Indochina (which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand), Japan and now India.
TP: You mentioned the merging of Wendy Wu's expertise with Travel Impressions' service levels. Where do the two operations meet?
RM: When going through process of determining the partnership we were looking at what Wendy Wu could offer, not only from a tour and product level, and what they would be handling and managing on the ground, but also the kind of support they could give us through their level of expertise on the day to day, even throughout the call process, everything.
Some of these longer haul destinations can be a bit cumbersome. You really need that expertise, especially to support the level of client that books with Travel Impressions. So we really needed that skill set and that's what Wendy Wu's staff was able to provide us. During the day-to-day throughout the call process, they are there to support us through the booking process.
TP: Travel Impressions has its own phone number for these bookings. If I call that number, who do I reach?
RM: You would call Travel Impressions and Travel Impressions would support Wendy Wu through other departments, our documents department, our customer service department, our air department. But when you call into Travel Impressions, you will be supported by a Wendy Wu expert.
TP: So if I call who am I speaking to?
RM: You'll be speaking to a Wendy Wu expert if you're going through the booking process and it's your first connection. Then if you have any other needs through any other department, we work together.
Mark Grundy: It's like a private label for Travel Impressions.
TP: Does Travel Impressions offer programs for anywhere in Africa?
RM: We do. We offer South Africa.
TP: And with that do you work with another tour operator?
RM: No, everything is handled in house. Wendy Wu is the only relationship that we have where we outsource calls.
TP: Some people would assume that if you add another link in the supply chain, a "middle man" so to speak, the price would be higher, but that's not the case, correct?
RM: No, Mark and I work very closely to make sure that doesn't happen. At the end of the day we're another distribution opportunity, so we want to be very careful to keep the price the same.
MG: The price is always going to be the same and the inclusions in the product will always be the same. The advantage on the Travel Impressions side is because of who they are and their relationship with travel agency community. They do extra things above and beyond what we would do.
TP: What kinds of things?
RM: Things like commission structures, rewards programs.
TP: And things like being preferred suppliers for certain consortia?
RM: Yes.
MG: And you look at the history of Travel Impressions and its trusted relationship with the travel agent community. Travel Impressions has decades of history and Wendy Wu is still relatively new in the market. There's a trust factor there that Travel Impressions brings to the table.
TP: Where is the partnership heading from here? Will there be further expansions? This is pretty much the whole Wendy Wu product line now, isn't it?
RM: Yes, close to it. This is our big expansion at this time, the India product. And then as our partnership evolves, we'll see. Our confidence has grown so much with this partnership. And Mark, India is new for Wendy Wu in the U.S. too, isn't it?
MG: It's new for the U.S. market, but we've been servicing India for 12 years now out of our offices in Australia and the U.K.
RM: So as they expand their portfolio and bring more product to the U.S. I'm definitely on board with opening up the Travel Impressions portfolio to that product as well.
TP: Mark, are there other possibilities there? Are there other products that Wendy Wu is offering elsewhere that it is not offering in the U.S.?
MG: The big area of growth across all these product lines, whether it's China or India or Thailand or Vietnam, is the type of business. Travel Impressions is one of the best positioned to handle custom FIT work, because more and more passengers who are looking at long-haul and exotic destinations want to do that, but don't necessarily always want to travel with a group.
The group business is still our core business, but we're seeing a slight shift. There is more and more customization going on. So if you take India, for example, Travel Impressions is offering two of those tours. We actually have seven tours. They can sell the other tours, they're just not in their catalog. But on the FIT side we just promote cities that we suggest, whether it's Jaipur or Mumbai or Varnassi, and then we will customize programs for individual passengers.
That's where I think you're going to see the real growth in the coming years. As an operator, Asia is our specialty. You're never going to see Wendy Wu Tours selling in South Africa or Europe. Asia is a big continent. There's a lot of product there to sell. So I don't think TI or Wendy Wu are going to run out of ways to promote product.
RM: As Mark mentioned, the group tours versus the Wendy Wu Concierge customized experiences, we offer all these options. It really has given the clients a starting point to develop a private experience that is completely off the map to what Wendy Wu would provide for an escorted tour.
So to Mark's points, the majority of bookings that we are taking are the Concierge product, the customized programs. So there is that confidence level with Wendy Wu's staff that we can completely customize an experience around. This is a big differentiator.
TP: So there is a lot of room for growth within the regions you are already in.
MG: One other thing, the way Wendy Wu has rolled out in America and the way Travel Impressions has. There is a lot in Asia, but we started in China, added Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and now we're adding India and we are now starting to see repeat business where someone has gone to China and said, "Hey that was great. What else is available?" So now Travel Impressions has the opportunity to say not only you can go to Europe on one of our tours, but you could go to India, etc. There's a progression in maintaining a client's interest, and there is plenty of product here.
RM: What we've also come across is actual group requests. We've been able to work with some of our agency partners to help them build out these custom tour experiences for them to sell to their clients, making group business an interest as well.
TP: So you're seeing an increasing group business?
RM: The first year we got a handful of group requests, but I can confidently say that over the last year and a half we've seen that number grow quite a bit.
MG: The group affinity market is definitely growing and with Travel Impressions now they've had some groups depart of their own in 2013 and 2014. Those groups come back and have a great experience and people start to talk within those networks.
For example Travel Impressions has a great relationship with AAA. If people start talking about that within that organization, it spurs growth. We've had groups that operated in 2014 that have already booked for 2015. So it is definitely something that, as time passes and experiences are had, people come back with very positive ideas and want to rebook.
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