AmeriMarket: AmeriMarket’s Guide to Successful Group Tours

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AmeriMarket’s Guide to Marketing Successful Group Tours

John T. Peters, CTC / President & Managing Partner

AmeriMarket, Inc.

Putting together a successful group tour is a lot of work, but once you get the hang of it, you should be able to make quite a bit of money. Here’s our suggested plan for successful group marketing organizer program.

As a Group Organizer, you enlist your travelers and act as their main contact for the trip. In turn, you are the tour operator’s link with the group. But don't be too concerned, in most cases, the pre-trip process is easy and the tour operator’s experienced staff will be there to help you with every simple step.

If you pick the right tour operator, once you depart for your travel experience, it'll be time to relax. You are on holiday with your traveling companions — the tour operator’s on-site professional staff handles all the rest. Your only job is to enjoy the trip.

Here are helpful hints on how to make your group tour more successful.

Group Organizer Guide - Steps to Creating, Selling and Marketing a Group

STEP 1: Select a destination and a theme

You select the type of travel, focus and destination that best fit the interests of your potential traveling companions. As you look through various tour operator websites and the myriad of travel programs that are offered, please consider the following as it pertains to enlisting and traveling with your group:

Special Interest — Do you want to concentrate on a particular theme?

Destinations or regions to be experienced — Where do you think your group would like to travel?

Length of tour — You could consider programs for as few as 4 days to as many as 30. Ideally, you should consider a 7 to 9 day drip.

Price — What is the approximate budget, per person, for your group? This is just an estimate. The tour operator’s group staff is will work with you to fine tune the program before you contact your potential travel companions.

Time of year you plan to travel — When do you want to travel? Some people, like teachers, have very defined travel times while others are flexible. Traveling during off-peak times can help you greatly reduce the program cost while still allowing you to have a wonderful travel experience.

Number of included activities and excursions — How much of your program do you want pre-arranged?

Look for a tour operator that specialized in group travel – they’re knowledgeable and professional and work with Group Organizers as their main responsibility. They will assist you with every part of planning a group.

STEP 2: Enlist group participants

Whom should you approach to join your group?

Everyone loves to travel and everyone is a possible traveling companion. Think about asking:

 Your family — everyone from your brother to your distant cousin. What about a family reunion in some special place?

 Your place of worship. You might even consider a religious pilgrimage or spiritual journey.

 Your friends — who better than your friends as travel companions?

 Other places you socialize; work, community center, with your fellow alumni, country club... you get the picture — talk to everyone.

Spread the word!

It takes time to gather the troops, so you should start promoting your trip well in advance; at least six months or more before your departure. Once you have decided on your itinerary and departure date, we suggest that you get everyone together to talk about the trip. We will help you with collateral material and, if your gathering is large enough, we could even send someone to help.

How can you promote your group? The possibilities are endless, but here are a few proven ideas.

 Put a small ad in your local newspaper or church bulletin, advising people about the trip and the date and place of your informal get-together.

 Give the group itinerary to everyone you know. People love to see details and it will show that you are serious about promoting your group. You should also include the details about your get-together.

 Send a personal email out to your potential group participants about your trip.

 Put it up on the web.

 Create a flyer and have it included in your church or synagogue bulletin. You can even drop off a supply at your library, country club, etc.

STEP 3: Get Everyone Together

Getting ready for your get-together

Once you have created enough interest for the group, it's time to get everyone together to really talk things up. Your tour operator will prepare the detailed itinerary and supporting materials for you. They'll even create sign-up forms and other items that will really make the meeting a success — just make sure you discuss all of this with them in advance so they can prepare everything for you.

Get all your ducks in a row. Just before your meeting, the following items should all be finalized:

 Itinerary and travel dates

 Airline information

 Final price per person

 Travel Insurance Protection Plan

 All important deadlines including those for sign-ups, deposits, etc.

 Plus anything else you may want to address.

About the meeting:

The main focus of the meeting is to create excitement about the trip. Make sure you keep a list of everyone that attends, along with all of their contact information. This will make follow up easier.

Nothing sells travel better than passion. Be sure to share your excitement with the group. Tell them why you selected the particular destination and about all the wonderful, enriching experiences they will come away with if they join you.

Some things you need to be sure to cover are:

 Describe the itinerary and go over the departure and return dates.

 Give out the detailed itineraries and reservation forms.

 Mention clearly the cost and when deposits and final payments are due.

 Go over each of the group itinerary components that are included in the cost.

 Mention the advantages of a Travel Insurance Protection Plan.

 Get firm commitments from people early on. You may even want to offer an early booking discount to encourage sign-ups right there at the meeting.

 Follow up with anyone who you thought was interested but had not yet confirmed their participation. Sometimes, people just need a little push to make a commitment.

Group Organizer Guide - Making Reservations

Step 4: Follow up after your meeting

After your meeting, you should send a thank-you note out to all the people that attended. At the same time, this is a great opportunity to give a little push to those fence sitters.

Reservation process

You need to review all the reservation forms and make sure they are complete and signed. Each application should be accompanied by a check or credit card form. After the tour operator receives payment, they’ll process all the reservations and send out confirmations to you and your group participants. This should take approximately 21-30 days. You and your group participants should double check the information they send you. If you have any questions or comments, call the tour operator right away.

Collateral and other material:

Upon confirmation of each participant's trip, the tour operator should send each of your participants the following:

 A detailed, day-by-day itinerary.

 An invoice / confirmation statement which will highlight all payment information.

 A pamphlet explaining the Travel Protection Program.

How to Get More Group Travelers

There are many ways you can get more travelers to join your group. Tour operators should always encourage signing up as many people as YOU feel comfortable with, keeping in mind that sometimes people have to cancel their trips, so having extra sign-ups is a good idea. The more people on your group, the more benefits you will normally receive.

What about those people who were interested but couldn't make your meeting? Now would be a good time to contact them. If you have enough interest, you might even want to set up another meeting.

The best source for more group participants is those people already signed up. Word-of-mouth is a powerful marketing tool, so encourage your group participants to talk to THEIR friends, family and co-workers.

Follow up, follow up and follow up again. Contact people who attended the meeting but have not yet submitted a reservation form. They may have questions about the tour that you can easily answer. Some groups might want to hold regular meetings, say once a month, to help them prepare for the trip. This is a fun way to bolster positive energy about the group. If you feel you don't need to physically meet with the participants monthly, you should at least communicate with them via phone, mail or e-mail. This is important to keep the momentum and word-of-mouth marketing going.

Good luck!

AmeriMarket.com – Headquartered in New Jersey and w ith many years of experience in destination and travel product marketing, AmeriMarket (www.AmeriMarket.com) provides strategic planning services for tour operators, cruise lines, hotels, travel agencies, international government tourism offices and other travel related companies. Specifically, AmeriMarket assists international tourism products and service companies to reach the North American Marketplace in the most proactive, efficient and cost effective manner possible.

In addition, AmeriMarket’s new Maximum Exposure program helps organizations find new customers through unique, cost effective solutions, including targeted consumer lead generation programs, discounts on consumer and trade newspapers and magazines, search engine marketing, email campaigns, online media advertising and a host of other consulting services. CLICK HERE to find out more.

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