Three InteleTravel ‘Ambassador’ agents have urged their fellow homeworkers to find a travel specialism on which to focus in order to boost sales.
There are 14 Ambassadors with InteleTravel in the UK, who take on the role voluntarily to support other agents in the group with advice, tips and mentoring.
They wear distinctive red jackets at the company’s conferences and take part in training events.
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Three of them – Gail Stevens, Hayley France and Emma Cressey – took part in a session about specialisms with travel training consultant Debbee Dale, during the InteleTravel conference in Belfast.
France (pictured left) told delegates how she specialises in escorted tours for older residents in her village, many of whom want a travel agent rather than looking online.
“I go to their houses and we look at brochures,” she said.
“It’s my niche and what I enjoy too. I go on a lot of tours – I am going to Borneo to see orangutans, and I take my six-year-old with me on trips too.
“A lot of people can be frightened about going to multiple destinations and knowing all the Covid rules, so they want to book with a travel agent who is confident and in that niche market.
“It has massively improved my quote-to-conversion rate; I am working smarter, not harder, and selling the holidays that I want to sell.”
Cressey (centre) told delegates how she is “passionate” about Christmas, so she specialises in festive trips to Lapland and Northern Lights holidays.
“I focus on it from September to March: when the kids go back to school in September they start thinking about Christmas and then, after Christmas, people are keen to book for next year,” she said.
Stevens (pictured right) said she was “hooked on cruising” after her first sailing in 2017 and started with InteleTravel in the pandemic.
She said becoming a Cruise Master with Clia “helps enormously” as there is so much to learn.
“I visit ships at any opportunity,” she said. “People think ‘she knows what is going on’.”
Stevens also won an Agent Recognition Award at the conference, as the agency paid tribute to her efforts as an ambassador, supporting other homeworkers.
Other Agent Recognition Awards went to Lucy Degen, for the highest sales so far this year, selling holidays worth more than half a million pounds.
Abby Rose won an award for the single highest booking, worth £273,234, for a holiday to Dubai with Major Travel.
Lisa Dufty won an award as the top cruise seller, for making cruise sales of £77,349.
Both Degen and Rose have been with InteleTravel for less than a year.
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