Ramble Worldwide announces ‘targeted approach’ to increase trade sales

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Ramble Worldwide has announced a “targeted approach” to increase trade sales as part of a three-year plan as it trials the replacement of its traditional brochure with a magazine.

The trade currently accounts for around 7% of sales, up from 5% last year, and the tour operator has seen growth in passenger numbers of 15% year on year.

Managing director Wayne Perks, who started in September last year with a remit to turn the travel business around, said he hoped to gradually build up agent sales.

“My remit is to turn the business around. The travel part of the company has always been loss-making. One of my strategies is to grow distribution through the trade; in my opinion it’s a perfect product for the trade,” he said, adding: “A lot of the [company’s] growth is [now] coming through the trade distribution.”

Commercial agreements have now been put in place with both The Advantage Travel Partnership and Hays Travel, while the operator is also continuing to work with Aito Agents.

Perks said the operator would focus on working with the most suitable independent agents within the two consortia, with the aim of broadening out to work with other consortia in time as it raises awareness of the company’s product.

“I want to focus on making these consortia work first – to test and learn – and then look to expand. We need to find the approach that works for us,” he said, adding: “We already have the biggest walking programme to the Canaries in the winter from the UK; we should be shouting about this.”

He admitted it could take a year to work out who the right partners are in the trade and said the company was focused on training agents on its product, giving presentations and webinars.

Pictured: Hassness House

Perks also revealed plans to trial the publication of a new magazine in May, with separate versions for trade and direct clients.

The trade edition will feature dedicated phone numbers for agents to make enquiries and book and there will be five or six copies sent to each agency.

Each magazine will contain features on walking and destinations and contain a full list of the walking specialist’s tours and itineraries.

Perks said: “Even the existing brochure only has some of our itineraries and prices. This will be a sales tool but also a magazine with a mix of features.”

If the trial is successful, the magazines could replace the operator’s annual brochure, normally launched in September.

He added: “I’d like to try a magazine that comes out three or four times a year so we can give updated information and agents can learn about us and our product. If it is sent out several times a year we are more likely to be front of mind.”

Perks said the operator has also reduced its prices by around 4% overall this year through tactical discounting to make its product more accessible and made all its offers available to the trade as part of a concerted effort to ensure the same prices are on offer to agents as direct customers.

Since joining, Perks has also made other changes, including an internal restructure of the operator’s product and commercial teams and the introduction of “high adrenaline” three-night weekend adventure breaks designed to attract younger, experienced walkers and fit around clients’ working lives. The first of these operate in June.

The company hopes to run agent fam trips later this year, abroad and in the UK, where it also owns its own 11-room property Hassness House in Buttermere in the Lake District and offers walking, yoga and wellness weeks.

The company also has a charitable arm, the Ramble Worldwide Outdoor Trust, which invests in projects to preserve the countryside and take disabled children on walking holidays.