Bookings surge for city stays

Trafalgar has reported increased trade bookings for its new city stays program, that taps into a client need to bookend tour and river cruise products in Europe.

New to this year, Trafalgar’s City Explorers are seven-day immersions in Amsterdam, Paris, London and Rome, with Paris making a comeback from negative sentiment following terror attacks.

“They are exceeding expectations,” Trafalgar managing director Matt Cameron-Smith told Travel Weekly.

“The most important inclusion in an itinerary is nothing. The inclusion of free time to go find an authentic fish and chips, for example. We include a tube pass loaded with money to let people explore,” Cameron-Smith said.

Trafalgar is having a strong year beyond projections across the group with the company confident it is picking up market share. “We’ve actually added capacity this year, because the demand is there,” Cameron-Smith said.

Cameron-Smith believes that the brand’s commitment to transparency is key to its growth. Part of this is the 23,000 live unedited reviews, powered by impartial ratings platform Feefo.

“We encourage agents to use it as a selling tool. Flip the screen around, show customers ‘this is what people like you think about the Trafalgar and the trips’.”

The courage to be transparent has been a cornerstone of the brand promise, Cameron-Smith said.

Trafalgar was concerned by a recent story on Travel Weekly where agents criticised the company’s guaranteed departures. “Those agents commenting in the story hadn’t booked with us before, or at best the last booking was two years ago,” Cameron-Smith said.

“This year was the first year that we could guarantee everything by March.”

Another element for transparency has been the strategy to simplify the booking process and marketing.

Steering away from loss leader marketing that sees offers put forwards of fly free, or with very limited dates of travel, Trafalgar instead implemented one airfare for all trips with a recent return flight promotion for $499 to London.

Meanwhile, value is a trend emerging, with Trafalgar’s Costsaver program displaying 30% growth in travellers under 30 years of age.

“More people are travelling in a group, so inter-generational travel seems to be a thing. It makes travel effortless and easy. Booking a trip for six people is time consuming.”

CLARIFICATION: On 6 March, 2017 Travel Weekly published an article that put forward negative remarks from industry sources regarding guaranteed departures. These claims and the accuracy within them have since been questioned and proven to be unfair. Travel Weekly apologises for any hurt and misrepresentation that may have been caused.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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