As part of our TIPTO partners in profit series, Lisa James hears how Kyle Travel and Premier Holidays brought together a successful flycoaching project
Victoria Culling, sales manager for the north, Premier Holidays
“I joined Premier last September, and part of my remit was to look at ways of building up the business in the north, and this is a prime example of a successful partnership.
The ball had already begun rolling before I joined and I knew Carol well through my previous job.
We helped finance the adverts they took out in the local newspaper, as well as designed and printed flyers and produced posters for Kyle Travel to put in its window, specifically giving details of this departure.
Throughout the process, Carol and her team have had all the backing they needed from Premier head office, including access to Beverley Starr, Premier general manager for the Channel Islands.
Carol promoted the trip locally – a lot of it through word of mouth – and it really took off.
We’re really confident that this initiative will just grow and grow – we are looking at adding Guernsey next year from Manchester Airport.
The project was so successful because we all got involved and we all kept each other in the loop.”
Carol Hunter, branch manager, Kyle Travel
“Our agency is in a rural market town and most of the clients live in the town itself or the outlying area.
We always find that people want to go on holiday and are prepared to spend money, but the problem is that they have to drive such a distance to Newcastle or Manchester airports and it’s a 45-minute drive to the nearest railway station.
We thought that by combining a group departure to a destination that we thought they would like to go to, but provide local pick-ups by coach, it would be a selling point. And it was.
We did a marketing mail shot to our database and the conversion rate was very good. From the 30 letters we sent out, we got 20 bookings for the May departure.
I went on the coach myself to make sure that everyone was on and to help them check-in at the airport as a group.
It went down very well. One client said that was the easiest way to get through an airport.
I had four in the party who had never flown before, but because they have now done it and it was relatively easy, they’ve said they will do it again.”