Video: The Inspiring Travel Company to run first ever TV campaign

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The Inspiring Travel Company is to run a TV advertising campaign for the first time in its 44 year history.

The 30 second ads will run nationwide on ITV and Sky channels for a month from October 1.

As well as showcasing the operator’s product range, from luxury family breaks to adventure trips, the ads will carry a travel agent call to action. This will tell viewers to contact their local travel agent for more details.

The company dropped its Western & Oriental brand in June and merged its product into its Inspiring Travel Company (ITC) brand.

This covers beach, tailor-made and villa holidays. It has a separate specialist division comprising Regent Holidays, Rainbow Africa and ITC Sports.

Director of agency sales Lee Marshall said a “huge part” of telling consumers about the company was encouraging trade bookings, which currently make up around half the business groupwide.

He said: “This is the first time we’ve embarked on a campaign of this size and it’s only natural that we focus our energy on driving enquiries to our agent partners across the UK.”

The campaign is part of a wider programme of trade-focused moves including a new travel agent incentive scheme, to launch next month, and a series of agent events to be held around the UK. New destination focused brochures to the US, the Far East and the Pacific and a worldwide beach collection will launch under the new merged ITC brand, without the Western & Oriental name, in the coming months.

Marshall added: “We’re very aware just how hard we need to work to protect and grow agent business so we’re heavily investing in helping our partners to grow their business with us.

“The market is very crowded and we’re working alongside well-established operators, which means we can’t sit back on our laurels and become complacent.

“Travel agents represent our past, present and future, so with our investment in the TV campaign, I hope this clearly demonstrates our long term commitment to building travel agent business with the Inspiring Travel Company.”