The Advantage Travel Partnership, UK’s largest consortium of independent travel agents, has launched its Turn of Year campaign, aimed at driving consumer demand and bookings by highlighting the great value available when booking with an independent travel agent.  

Titled ‘Value Packed’ the campaign puts a focus on the added value available at every stage of the booking journey and the service independent travel agents provide their customers. When booking with an Advantage member there is value added at every step of the process using the expertise of the agent, including recommendations on the best times to travel, who to travel with, which resorts to stay at and even the room type best suited to the customers needs. The campaign will also focus on the obvious expectations consumers have for getting a deal when booking in peaks – the discounted package prices, free room, board or flight upgrades and free child places. Advantage will help their members source these offers from their supplier partners, ensuring there is a good spread of holiday types covered to meet the demands of different customer types, from everyday travel to bucket list trips.

The campaign will run through to the end of February and will be underpinned by a Value Packed Guarantee. The Value Packed Guarantee will form a consumer message used across marketing assets, to make customers aware this is not just about securing best prices, outstanding value for money and financial security but also the exceptional customer service offered when customers book with an Advantage member, which saves time and hassle when booking a holiday whilst also offering a wide range of additional benefits.

2023 was predicted to be a tough year for the travel industry with the cost-of-living crisis expected to bite hard, and significantly reduce the disposable income of consumers across the country. Whilst in the main this has been true, travel, and specifically the booking of holidays, have by and large remained unaffected by the economic situation. With the rise in interest rates beginning to show signs of slowing down Advantage is predicting that bookings will remain strong, but consumers may be more cost conscious than they were in 2023. Advantage’s campaign will therefore focus on highlighting that booking with a travel agent adds value to both the everyday consumer and those looking to spend more on a bucket list holiday.

Advantage’s campaign highlights how independent agents will find the best deal for their customers no matter what the budget. Through their extensive knowledge, tailored service and unrivalled access to product, travel agents can not only make budgets stretch further but can also offer supplementary benefits such as potential upgrades at airports and hotels, lounge passes, preferable flights and discounts on subsequent bookings.

A key focus of the campaign is to support Advantage members with a wide range of quality aspirational content and marketing collateral to encourage bookings. Their hugely successful Journeys magazine returns with a special bumper issue focused on value, presenting everyday travel inspiration and bucket list wonders. The magazine will come in digital and agency overbranded printed versions for members to distribute to their customers. Advantage will also email personalised copies to members customers on their behalf to make it even easier for members to circulate and generate new business. There will also be a full digital version of Advantage’s cruise focused consumer magazine, Navigate, promoting the cruise elements of the campaign.

A plethora of other marketing materials will also be available to members from digital assets that will enable members to create their own content under the campaign message and aspirational point of sale banners to inspiring E-newsletters and Hot Offers emails featuring up to 10 holiday offers/promotional offers. For the first time, Advantage is also running a re-targeting campaign for members, contacting ‘lapsed’ customer by who have not booked for some time by email, with the intention of enticing them to book again with the agent. They will also be using their new omni-channel content distribution channel that forms part of their customer website solution for members, to make it easy to share offer and aspirational content across their members websites, social media pages and email.

An additional targeted social media led activation has also been created focused around celebrating the booking and creating ‘FOMO’ underpinned by the hashtag #ThatJustBookedFeeling. The campaign is designed to generate FOMO amongst members social followers, inciting the need to book with independent agents to get the best value holiday deals for 2024 and beyond. The activation and social posting, supported by a campaign theme branded Instagram filter, and ready-made shareable content for members to use, will advocate booking with an independent travel agent, using testimonial pictures and quotes from customers who have just booked, instore or online/over the phone.

David Forder, Head of Marketing at The Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “2023 was a successful year for travel. What we saw was that regardless of cost, people still had the desire to get away. What we have seen overall is that UK consumers perhaps see a holiday as their given right, or a need they often put above many of life’s other essentials. Looking ahead to 2024 it may be that while this desire to travel persists some consumers may be more cost conscious than they were in 2023 whilst others are looking to spend more frivolously. Therefore, our 2024 Turn of Year campaign focuses primarily on these two segments of the market – the everyday consumer and those looking to splash the cash whilst all underpinned by demonstrating that when booking with a travel agent value transcends service levels and that monetary value is given back to the consumer. Independent travel agents are best placed to find consumers an amazing great value holiday next year regardless of their budget, and we want to give our members the tools and guidance they need to convey this message, drive demand and implement a sustained campaign that suits their business and customers.”

Forder continued, “We are leaving no stone unturned, providing a wide range of activity for members to use to make their lives easier during the busy peaks period. We will be using customer data to target activity and increase response rates and putting a focus on digital content creation and social media, as we know this channel in particular works well for many of our members. We are really proud of the campaign and thankful for the huge amount of support from our supplier partners who are taking part in the activity. We will be going the extra mile to communicate everything that is available for our members to use through all of our communication channels and making it simple for them to access all the tools and content available through a dedicated turn or year member’s intranet hub.”