Distant Dreams managing director Peter Traynor admits he does not face the easiest task. Launching a long-haul brand in today’s increasingly consolidated marketplace at a time when established players such as British Airways Holidays are making redundancies would seem like a risky thing to do, particularly when there is no in-house retailer to fall back on.
But he believes it is an easier task than trying to establish a charter-based programme in the even more competitive short-haul market as Virgin Sun is doing.
“We knew it was going to be a long-term project. It is going to take two to three years to establish the name and to get steady and profitable business.”
Parent Globus did initially look at acquiring an established brand, as First Choice did with Hayes and Jarvis. “We decided a lot of what we were buying was just a name. We also felt that we had the knowledge and buying power to develop the product ourselves,” said Traynor.
Traynor also believes by using Cosmos’ Distant Dreams name for its new brand he is not starting completely from scratch. However, even that has its drawbacks. Visits to a number of agents in the South East over the last few weeks has revealed some were actually stocking the old Cosmos Distant Dreams programme, the newly branded Cosmos charter-based programme Tropical Paradise, and the new scheduled product Distant Dreams.
He declined to reveal how many bookings the new operation had received since the first brochure was launched in December. He is not obsessed by market share – the only requirement is to make a good profit. But he is targeting 10,000-15,000 passengers by the end of the three-year plan.
Traynor’s focus is on developing relationships with agents to promote the new product, which he admits is essentially very similar to every other long-haul scheduled product on the market.
He believes it is a case of building up the trust of agents who are used to selling other more established brands.
The operator is communicating with around 2,500 agents but actively supporting 1,000 with special offers, enhanced commission levels, promotions and roadshows.
But Traynor says the key to establishing a good relationship is down to providing the quality of service and personal touch of the operator’s reservation staff.
All have been given extensive product training and will also accompany agents on forthcoming educationals.