Designer Travel is embarking on an in-house education programme to drive up sales of touring, adventure and group holidays by 50% in 12 months.
The new Designer Travel Explorers programme, themed Beyond The Beach, has gone live this month and will run until the end of March 2024.
Currently, sales of touring, adventure and groups make up less than 10% of the homeworking group’s sales. A target of at least 15% has been set for a year’s time.
Managing director Amanda Matthews said: “The target is a sizeable amount, but I am confident we will reach it. We now have such good technology to drive this on social media platforms.”
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All the group’s 110 homeworkers have signed up to take part in the education programme, which involves more than 20 suppliers.
The move follows the travel agency’s successful Cruise Designers project, which saw the group almost double cruise sales to £5 million in less than a year.
The new programme includes webinars, training, special offers and social media activity with a range of supplier sponsors, including headline sponsors Riviera Travel, Travelsphere and Just You.
Every month the group will work on training with two suppliers in the sector. Suppliers will offer product webinars and bespoke deals to increase homeworkers’ knowledge and confidence to sell more tours, adventure holidays and group bookings. Each month the top seller will be named Explorer of the Month.
Matthews said: “We were already investing in training and promotions and will be doing lots of this with the suppliers. We will also do a lot of social media and learning.”