It’s All About Perpetual Demand Generation
While the Vacation.com brand disappeared following the August 2016 merger with Travel Leader Associates and Results! Travel that created the Travel Leaders Network, its iconic URL is going to be around for quite some time.
During its first international conference and trade show in Orlando, Florida last week, TL Network created quite a buzz among both its members and its supplier partners with the announcement that it was launching a new consumer travel site called “Vacation,” reports Ron Pradinuk in this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press.
Roger Block and his executive team spent months in research and development so they could announce the new initiative at the group’s first international conference and have the opportunity to explain how Vacation will be using the completely re-purposed Vacation.com URL to revolutionize the traveller experience – and that of the travel agency community – by becoming the industry’s first Perpetual Demand Generation (PDG) vehicle.
John Lovell, CTC, president of Travel Leaders Network, Leisure Group and Hotel Division, observed:
“When we brought our three agency groups together earlier this year, we did so with the realization that the dormant Vacation.com URL was far too valuable to simply allow it to go away.”
Lovell explained:
“We have transformed Vacation.com into a consumer brand purveyor of quality counsel and expert information … Vacation provides a radically innovative approach for qualified participants to have skin in the game for beginning new conversations with qualified prospects who may never have considered using a travel agent before.”
Travel Leaders Group’s chief marketing officer, Stephen McGillivray pointed out that:
“Taking the URL and leveraging it in a very scientific way, I think, is really going to change the face of the way travel is sold.”
Initially focusing on the burgeoning Honeymoon and Destination Wedding specializations, Vacation will soon be launched as a state-of-the art, interactive consumer-focused lifestyle brand where prospective travellers can research and access valuable information that is credible, objective and insightful — along with various options about specific types of travel — at their own pace.
When they are ready to receive personalized advice, they will be matched with the most appropriate participating Travel Leaders Group travel agent.
Vacation will empower travellers to consume information content from a variety of channels, with Travel Leaders Group’s Ninan Chacko explaining that:
“At each stage of their online journeys, we will provide a level of personalized engagement specifically targeted to them, as opposed to a mass market approach.”
For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press by clicking here.
