Marketing and business support company 3For is seeking up to 70 more “ambassadors” to work on an ad hoc basis visiting travel agencies nationwide.
The group, which specialises in the travel industry and was set up just over a year ago by former Barrhead Travel director Trevor Davis, already has 30 people it can call on to deliver campaigns on behalf of its tour operator clients. Its ambassadors are self-employed and all have experience in the travel industry.
But Davis, who previously held senior roles at Thomas Cook and The Co-operative Travel, said there was now a need to expand the company’s field sales ambassadors division to between 50 and 100, particularly in the southeast, south, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as it is approached by more suppliers to undertake trade campaigns and product training.
“We are looking for more ambassadors to help us cope with the increasing demand from tour operators who want to better engage with front line travel agency staff by increasing the number of face to face visits,” said Davis.
“It’s not necessarily cost effective for operators to send in their own team on day to day visits and some of the operators don’t have the luxury of a field-based sales team. We can reach 1,000 agents in a week.”
Davis added that ambassadors could be former retail staff who had been made redundant or those looking for part-time work.
3For, which has carried out campaigns on behalf of MSC Cruises and Celebrity Cruises, is currently in talks with operators planning campaigns for the second half of this year. “It tends to be the small to medium size operators that see the opportunity and are contacting us although we can also plug-in to bigger operators’ sales teams,” he added.
The organisation’s ambassadors division is headed by Nicky Mead, a former divisional retail head of the Thomas Cook Joint Venture.