VISIT SCOTLAND Grow your tourism business internationally Karin - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

VISIT SCOTLAND

Grow your tourism business internationally

Karin Gidlund, Product Manager October 2018

• Is my product ready for the travel trade?
• How can I explore new markets?

QUESTIONS

• DMC
• Founded in 1978
• 5 offices in 3 locations - Dublin, Edinburgh and London
• 186 members of staff
• Bring 200,000 international visitors to Britain and

Ireland each year, from 62 countries

• Main markets: North America, Europe, Australia
• Part of Abbey Group

WHO IS ABBEY IRELAND & UK?

• “Destination Management Company”
• B2B
• One-stop shop for anything international tour
• perators require

WHAT IS A DMC?

Tour Operators Worldwide Abbey Suppliers

• Contract products
• Create itineraries / packages
• Price the itineraries / packages
• Promote to our clients

– Newsletters – Online – Webinars – Tariffs – Trade shows – Sales calls

• Book and operate everything for them

HOW DO WE WORK

• Small groups
• FITs – self-drive and train

FIT = Foreign independent / free international traveller

• Experiential, unique
• Meet the locals
• Convenience, one-stop shop
• Quick turn-around on bookings

TRENDS WE ARE SEEING

We need to identify:

• Gateways to suit markets

– International airports – Ferry ports

• Locations where there is a good selection of hotels

and B&Bs

– B&Bs, guest houses, unique properties – 3-5* hotels / group hotels

• Attractions and suppliers that work with the trade –

groups and FITs

ITINERARY CREATION

• 1. Group rates
• 2. BAR rates
• 3. Group hotel space
• 4. Pre-book
• 5. Pre-pay
• 6. Booking forms
• 7. Misc.

CHALLENGES

• Not just discounted group rates, we also

require FIT rates

• “Travel trade rates” – discounted rates for

any business we send you When do we need your rates? March 2018 for 2019…

• 1. GROUP RATES

• Need fixed rates
• Not BAR (best available) rates
• With fixed rates we can quote without

contacting you

• Only book once confirmed

Saving on time and staff resources

• 2. BAR RATES

• Lack of group hotels in some locations
• To grow our businesses, we need to

encourage individuals (not just groups)

• Support smaller hotels, B&Bs, unique

accommodation etc in your local area

• 3. GROUP HOTEL SPACE

We pre-book groups If we need to pre-book individuals: a lot of admin and time

• Free-sale: clients turn up on the day, exchange
• ur voucher for a ticket, you invoice us
• Freesale notification: you receive a

notification when someone books with us  Sample voucher  Client expectation: confirmation within 4 hours

• 4. PRE-BOOK AND FREESALE

PRE-BOOK VS FREESALE

Client books

• nline or by

email A request is sent to us We contact the supplier / book online Supplier re- confirms booking We arrange payment We issue a voucher and send to client The client visits the attraction Client books

• nline

Download voucher The client visits the attraction Supplier invoices monthly / weekly

5 seconds, no staff involved Can take days, staff involved

• To enable free-sale for FITs, a DMC would need

credit and be invoiced regularly (monthly)

• For groups – time and staff consuming to arrange

pre-payment for each individual booking

• Abbey Group - named as one of Ireland’s ‘Best

Managed’ companies by Deloitte 2010-2018

• Credit with a DMC – one UK based company,

instead of hundreds of overseas companies

• We take the financial risk
• 5. PRE-PAY OR CREDIT CARD

• If you want volume bookings, let us send you

a list of our bookings

• Booking forms are time consuming, and

draining on staff resources

 This would also apply to online bookings for FITs

• 6. BOOKING FORMS

National Trust for Scotland Rates Trade rates – discounted rates for both groups and FITs FITs Free-sale Groups Email bookings Payment Invoice monthly Staff Highly trained, understand travel trade Similar organisation in England Discounted group rates Public rates for FITs Pre-book Fill in individual forms for each group Pre-pay Volunteers

• Languages
• Images
• “Blurbs”

“Free of charge visit”  No - free admission  Meet & greets, cream tea etc (groups)  Expert tours (groups and FITs)

• 6. MISC.

• Online booking platform
• Sales calls and trade shows
• Annual marketing spend
• Overseas representatives
• Clients across the world in 62 countries
• Get you into brochures overseas
• Promote you – tariffs, online, sales calls, trade

shows, webinars, e-zines, newsletters etc

WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU IN RETURN?

• Promotion of your products in international

brochures

• Access to a worldwide client network
• Extensive sales network
• Innovative business development teams
• Regional spread of business
• Security – we take the risk for you
• Partnership approach

THE BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH A DMC

• Discounted “travel trade rates”
• Free-sale instead of pre-booking for FITs,

where possible

• Work together to streamline booking and

payment process, to make it less time- consuming for all  Work in partnership to promote Britain and your products

SUMMARY

• Is my product ready for the travel trade?

 Do you have trade rates? Do you offer free-sale? Do you offer credit to UK based companies?

• How can I explore new markets?

 Let us help you!

QUESTION

THANK YOU!