Contributed By: The Travel Institute
As global travel begins to reopen, you must be ready to adapt to current trends and destinations. Now is the perfect time to acquire a new niche or think outside the box for your current specialities. Selling all-inclusives is a great example of a niche.
We encourage you to immerse yourself first with the destinations, beginning with the Mexico Destination Specialist Course or the Caribbean Destination Specialist Course. For those of you with Premium Access to The Travel Institute, both of these educational opportunities are included at no charge as part of your benefits.
Before booking your clients, be sure to consult sources, like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. State Department, or the World Health Organization, for the latest global travel updates for individual countries.
As you are pivoting to book new destinations for your clients, you should consider all-inclusive resorts. These might be the answer for clients who feel safer going to one region and staying put. And every one of your current clients is a potential all-inclusive client! Among the most lucrative all-inclusive prospects are previous cruisers, upscale travelers, families, active clients, and singles. Let’s take a look at each of these client types:
Previous Cruisers
All-inclusives essentially offer a cruise-style vacation on land. Clients who enjoy cruising are likely to embrace the all-inclusive concept, given their comparable features. While there are many similarities between cruises and all-inclusives you can point out to your satisfied cruise clients, you also can demonstrate the true meaning of all-inclusive by emphasizing features that may not be included in the price of a cruise, such as gratuities and unlimited water sports.
Upscale Travelers
Do you have clients who insist on all the finest things when they travel? Luxury accommodations? Gourmet, award-winning cuisine and top-notch entertainment? Upscale travelers know what they like and don’t mind spending a little more to make sure they get it, but don’t assume they are beyond the reach of all-inclusives. Some all-inclusive chains have luxury brands offering services and amenities that meet and even exceed the demands of your discerning upscale clientele.
Families
Families today are looking for fun-filled, affordable vacations with a variety of activities for all to enjoy. Parents want to spend quality time with their children, creating family memories while spending time alone, too! Some all-inclusives are designed to satisfy this very need. Some resorts even offer programs designed specifically for single parents.
Active Clients
Do you have clients who complain about how busy their workday lives are but who also make sure their vacations are just as busy? These active-minded clients find nothing more relaxing than a tropical vacation that keeps them going with golf, scuba diving, snorkeling, spin classes, volleyball, dancing until dawn, and so on. Because activities such as these often are part of an all-inclusive vacation, it makes sense for you to recommend all-inclusives to your active clients.
Singles
Many of your single clients are looking for a vacation where the majority of guests are like-minded, unattached, and wanting to have a great time. They may be interested in an environment where it’s easy to shed inhibitions and meet people and, thus, would find all-inclusives where social interaction is encouraged quite appealing. Two resorts that provide a more free-spirited experience include Temptation Resort Cancun and Hedonism in Negril, Jamaica.
For a deeper dive into all-inclusives, enroll in our Certified Travel Associate, which includes the Selling All-Inclusive Resorts module.
A collaborative industry effort created in 1964, The Travel Institute® has continuously evolved to maintain its role as the global leader in industry education and certification while staying true to its mission: dedicated solely to advancing the professionalism of both agents and industry leaders. A trusted partner to industry suppliers and educational institutions, The Travel Institute has educated hundreds of thousands of professionals through its programs. Throughout North America, many successful agents and high-profile leaders credit their success to coursework from The Travel Institute.