Intrepid Travel aims to almost double the number of agents signed up to its trade incentive programme to 4,000 this year.
The adventure tour operator currently has 2,250 members registered with its Intrepid Loves Agents programme, which launched a year ago, having initially targeted 1,000 agents.
Michael Edwards, Intrepid Travel managing director for the EMEA region, said: “We ran some trade incentives in January and we had a higher number of participants than we expected.
“We have upped our target to 4,000 by the end of this year.”
Edwards said the website (intrepidlovesagents.com) had become a “meaningful resource” for agents looking for product training, videos, and information on incentives and fam trips.
“We will adapt it to what agents need and want,” he added.
The operator also revealed plans for 15 new training videos by the end of June to help agents learn about Intrepid’s products, and six fam trips this year, compared with three last year, with around 90 agents on each.
Also planned are more face-to-face trade events at the operator’s new offices in Brixton, London, and regionally, including question and answer sessions, themed events and inspirational speakers.
“We want to do more. We still believe in the trade; if we do our job well agents become advocates for our business,” said Edwards.
The moves come as the operator reports a 67% increase in sales in January, the first month UK sales have outperformed Australia, Intrepid’s largest market.
Edwards said the growth was in part due to increased investment in its marketing teams for both trade and direct business.
The operator has also appointed a new head of industry sales. Andrew Turner has been promoted from business development manager and will take over from Joy Lacana who left Intrepid Travel after eight weeks in the job.