The Travel Corporation Consolidates Its 6 Brands Under Single Loyalty Program

25.08.2023 - 14:09 / skift.com / North America / Selene Brophy / Brendan Vacations

The Travel Corporation has merged its six brands into one Global Tour Rewards program, with brand awareness behind this seemingly vanilla approach to loyalty. Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold, Costsaver, Brendan Vacations, and Contiki are now aligned under one rewards program. 

All very different brands appealing to unique travel customer bases, but now offering the same benefits. It includes a five percent discount on tours, that can be used with existing deals such as group tour discounts. Customers will also enjoy exclusive access to new trips and member-only events. And a final benefit is listed as special recognition from Travel Directors during their next trip. 

While some travellers might value the guaranteed five percent discount, does a special nod on a trip count as a benefit? It certainly doesn’t, if it’s only lip service.

Melissa Da Silva, President of TTC Tour Brands North America, who has been looking after the brands for the past 10 years said, “Our goal is to try and get better recognition from our guests and our travel agents so that they can use these benefits across all the different brands.”

“Trafalgar’s 50 percent repeat rate shows they love our brands. But if you look at the data of how many people travel between brands, it’s only about six percent.”

The type of traveler that books with the company does so because they have brand trust, but they won’t book with the same brand every year, added Da Silva. Now the company wants to offer more diverse choice, irrespective of age or lifestyle.

“Somebody may want to take a family vacation with Trafalgar. But the following year, I use myself as an example, I celebrated my 50th birthday last year and I wanted to do something special with my girlfriends. So I did a private chauffeur vacation with Brendan Vacations,” said Da Silva.

The merge also means agents are in a better position to re-engage past guests and to cross-sell brands within the portfolio as TTC Tour Brands in-house booking engine has been customized to list all available deals in one place. Previously agents would’ve had to go to the Trafalgar agent site to look for Trafalgar or the Insight agent site, to look for Insight Vacations.

According to one Club Travel advisor Stephan Nieuwoudt, who has more than sixteen years experience in the business, taking the administrative headache out of searching travel product across 6 different sites is fantastic. Offering customers five percent discount not so much, never mind the in-trip shout out.

Using an example of a Britain and Ireland Delight Cost Saver tour at $1 096 for an 8-day itinerary, the five percent saving would be about $54. “That kind of discount isn’t a deal breaker when it comes to booking complex