Exoticca is hoping to take on a sales executive to visit travel agents in the near future after starting to work with a representation company for certain regions of the UK.
The tour operator is now working with The Travel Representation Company, run by former Abercrombie & Kent and Cox & Kings head of agency sales Richard Hey, to represent the tour operator in the Midlands and in the north of England.
Exoticca managing director Neil Sealy (pictured) said he was now “hopeful” of recruiting a representative to visit agents in other regions of the country to further build on this.
He said: “It’s about finding the right person and making the role work for them. I hope that in the next six months we will get another person on the road.
“Now Richard is starting to represent us in the north of England we have got more presence on the ground. We want to get more face to face time with agents on the ground.”
He said the operator was already seeing the benefits of attending more trade events after recently joining The Truly Independent Professional Travel Organisation (Tipto). It also joined the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (Atas) a year ago.
“We are already seeing the benefit of going to events and we want to be at more. It’s a case of educating agents on what we do and being there for them,” said Sealy, who added that confidence was starting to build among agents after building brand awareness.
He added: “Sales have been really strong. We are still getting lots of new agents signing up. Not only are we getting great feedback from agents, they are also saying they are ready to book another trip.
“One of the challenges we have is agents don’t have confidence in an unknown brand. It’s a case of letting confidence build up, but now more of their clients are travelling with us, when they come back and tell their agent it was amazing, it is much easier for the agent to sell it.”
Sealy said there had already been “an encouraging start” to sales of the brand in the trade so far this year, adding he was “quietly confident” of reaching the already stated intention of doubling last year’s sales.
“My plan is to do a lot better,” he said.