Two of travel’s up-and-coming entrepreneurs are targeting trade growth to boost their Florida sales. Lee Hayhurst reports.
Trade distribution has been targeted as a key growth area for destination specialist Ocean Holidays as it strives to grow turnover by 50% in 2015.
The firm, which claims to be the biggest operator to Florida that does not own an airline, has secured several significant supplier deals with major UK partners including Travel 2.
These are with its Ocean Beds division, a ‘receptive’ or inbound US operator, which was set up in March 2013 and which also contracts hotels in other US destinations and the Caribbean.
Brothers in arms
Ocean Holidays is run by four directors who are two sets of brothers: Daniel and David Ox and George and Harry Hastings.
With the support of its consortium, the Travel Trust Association, Ocean Holidays emerged from Como Street Travel, which was forced into administration following an alleged internal fraud.
Harry Hastings said the firm expects group revenues to rise to £45 million this year from £30 million last year, when Ocean Beds more than doubled in size, growing by 125%.
He expects to see similar growth this year, with Ocean Beds already accounting for 15% of overall business after just 16 months.
“We are all about becoming the voice of Florida,” he said. “We estimate there are more than 25,000 privately owned vacation homes in Florida and we have access to the vast majority of those available at wholesale rates. Orlando has the biggest concentration of vacation homes on the planet. But one of the issues has always been about consistency. It’s not regulated.”
To address this problem Ocean Holidays, which has a US base in Kissimmee, Florida, has set about creating its own quality standard for properties. It is using specialist platform Pass and will carry out its own quality control and health and safety audits.
“We have our own full-time inspectors and within the next 16 to 18 months if a trade partner asks ‘what’s your USP?’ we will be able to say we have reports on all our homes,” said Harry Hastings.
“Everyone has standards, but no one is dropping that data into a platform saying this address has been quality‑controlled on this date.That’s where our difference will lie in a fragmented market.”
Ocean Beds aims to expand overseas, with the big inbound Florida markets of Canada and Brazil being considered.
TV campaign
Romford-based Ocean Holidays’ business-to-consumer division Ocean Florida, which has to date driven the firm’s growth, will make its television debut this month.
Experience Kissimmee and Brand USA are partners for its turn-of-year campaign, which has the strapline ‘Stay with us and we will stay with you’ and social media hashtag #staywithus.
A TV advert featuring genuine customers was filmed in Florida last month and will air on most of the main commercial channels bar ITV from January 21. Shorter videos for the web have also been created and a second bigger TV push is planned for September.
Daniel Ox said Ocean Florida’s model of transacting offline – customers cannot book on its website – means the biggest challenge is recruitment of call centre staff.
In November the company had to switch off its online advertising because it could not handle the volume of leads, he said. “We cannot recruit, train and deploy staff quickly enough,” said Ox. “The more complex, the better – people want to talk to an expert.”
Ocean Holidays has 110 staff in the UK and US – 30 were added towards the end of 2014 – and 15% of these are apprentices recruited through a government incentive scheme. Apprentices come in initially to work on sales support before taking on roles in other departments. Ox said the firm has retained all but one and plans to take on more, with 14 due to arrive in the next tranche.
Long-haul brand
A third arm of Ocean Holidays is upmarket brand Winged Boots. It has seen success offering a concierge-style service to celebrities and City workers.
Like Ocean Beds, it represents 15% of the business, but growth is expected to be more modest.
However, next year it will offer its first mainstream programme, with directly contracted product under consultant Diane Mosson, formerly of Seligo.