In the spirit of new beginnings and living better lives, let’s reflect on the assets we want in abundance and keep our eyes on the prize.

There’s a routine to get into if you plan on abundance in 2020. Adopt some healthy habits to get your business in tip-top shape, with good karma rippling prosperity throughout the new decade.

Time

It slips through the fingers when you’re not vigilant. Get into the habit of saving as much of it as you can, with plenty in reserve to develop existing and new products, and client relationships.

Trim the fat

Get your business in shape by streamlining your work processes this year. You can start by cutting down on the time it takes to design and generate proposals. Send them out faster to clients and respond faster to enquiries or queries. Quickly edit and iron out itinerary details, and confirm those reservations.

Increase output, not workload!

Putting all your time and energy into building a once-off, knock-out itinerary, only to repeat the process over and again with each enquiry, has no place in 2020. If your collateral can’t be repurposed, it’s not worth your time. Copy it, reverse it, share it with colleagues and partners, embed it on websites, translate it, reinvent it through customised themes, and take back control over time.

Knowledge and Expertise

In travel, it’s all about who you know and what you know. Exercise constructive sharing and caring to get your team working in synch. Let that abundant destination knowledge and product expertise work for you and your community.

Share the goods

Get everyone on board with your brand’s regime by sharing what you know and ensuring the good stuff in your head is accessible to everyone on your team. Like fiber to digestion, it keeps your proposals consistent and professional-looking.

Stay on trend

Fear of missing out is a major travel motivation feeding wanderlust. Conduct research on what’s popular and trendy, then incorporate it in your offerings. From destinations to activities, tour types and special interests, it’s good practice to stay clued up on what’s the buzz. It’s your business to know what travellers are raving about or warning against on social media.

What’s up with your product suppliers?

Life happens to everyone – climate, politics, economics and other dull realities – including your preferred accommodation, restaurant and activity suppliers. Is it business as usual, do they have anything special or new on offer this season? Maybe they have fresh marketing material for you to use, or juicier commissions to pay! Old news is bad news in travel; so make a habit of checking in with them.

Content

On tap at your fingertips, in detail and comprehensive, is how you need travel content, abundantly. Beautiful, highly-visual and interactive is how your traveller wants it, abundantly. Invest in plentiful digital travel content to sell your destination(s) better.

No pain, just gain

Like touching your toes after a good stretch, it should be easy to reach. Searching through a mishmash of online content in lots of different places is so last decade. Get into the habit of accessing the right piece of content in the right place when you’re crafting itineraries and new tour products – one touchpoint for all your content needs.

More is the new more

From access to excess, you want choices, alternatives, translations, more info on old favourites you can use to tempt the traveller. More and better-quality pictures, more emotive product videos, more voyeuristic virtual tours, more in-depth descriptions, all add a touch of luxury to your service offering and the buyer journey.

Innovative Tools

Those sparkly digital accessories that make you more efficient at work and make you look so good… Your business needs a healthy injection of smart technology to differentiate its service from other similar brands. Earn your tech savvy, progressive reputation among travellers and trade members worldwide.

All aboard the tech express

Tourism is like the party bus all the cool kids took on New Year’s Eve – you wanted to go along and collaborate with your tech-forward trade partners. As for the tech savvy travellers we’ve always described as a growing minority, they no longer are. They live online, comparing travel brands on service and convenience. Both prefer to deal with cutting-edge, progressive brands. Wear your innovations with pride and let the world know you’re open for business.

Cultivate better tech habits

From laying content foundations to creating and distributing your products, to developing skills within your team, to the way you engage with travellers, incorporate mindful routines into your workday. Get into the habit of organising your business intelligence and sales collateral to enable easier access for all. It serves your team and your clients, and gets everyone in your community comfortable with the tech savvy culture.

Prospects and Conversions

For all the joy you want to spread around helping people travel more this year and beyond, the sale is where the buck stops. Speedy service, mouthwatering content, professionally-crafted products and digital convenience, combine persuasively to take them from looking to buying. Lay some groundwork for plenty of new and repeat sales.

All-in-one package

Spoil them, spoon-feed them, whatever it’s called, give travellers every reason to buy from you, and none to look elsewhere. An end-to-end service should cover all their content, logistical, pre- and during-travel needs, with post-travel follow-ups and engagement on social media. If it’s easier with you and memorable in a good way, they’ll stick with you and recommend you.

Speak simpatico

As the world moves away from everything in English, get your content into the habit of speaking multiple languages. You can attract more agents that service multilingual travellers and expose your products to markets you have never accessed before. There’s a better conversion rate and higher returns on investment in store when you reinvent existing tour products to create new sales opportunities.

Competitive Edge

With the advent of a new year and decade, you’ll feel the urge to expand, improve and scale up. When you’ve got time, knowledge and expertise, content, sales prospects and innovative tools in abundance, that’s your leap of faith justified.

Serve better, sell better

Trends come and go but experiential tourism has been consistently important to travellers from one decade into the next. Get into the habit of meeting the demand for a superior travel buyer journey and empower your sophisticated client with the personalised experience they expect. All the little extras that exceed their expectations, develop relationships, show your expertise and the humanity in your brand, should be standard practice. They believe they’re paying you for it.

Serve more, sell more

The more enquiries you can respond to, the more money you make. And the more staff you can employ (and employ more effectively). Opportunities to expand and scale up your operations exist within the time you save and your prolific work rate. Get into the habit of producing good quality proposals quickly – abundantly – and get more proposals out to attract more prospective sales.

There’s a change in the air: people seem less keen on making the usual resolutions, and more inclined to act! Just like you need an exercise programme to reach your fitness goals, there’s a routine at work that activates abundance. Here’s wishing you and your business a year (and decade) of plenty.

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