In an unprecedented collaboration, five of the nation`s top tour operators have reached an agreement to co-promote a series of guaranteed departure tours spanning North America and the world…
In an unprecedented collaboration, five of the nation`s top tour operators have reached an agreement to co-promote a series of guaranteed departure tours spanning North America and the world. The partners are: flemming tours and cruises of St. Louis and Branson, MO, and Cedar City, Utah; Incredible Journeys of San Antonio, TX; Main Street Tours of Torrance, CA; Pacific Northwest Tours of Seattle, WA; and TOURCO, headquartered in Nobleboro, ME, with offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Toronto. The new entity is called Encompass Tours and Cruises.
Each company brings to the partnership a different geographic specialization; one is a major packager of special events; and one is a major cruise specialist.
A year of planning has gone into this, said Bob Hoelscher, president of flemming tours and cruises, along with a lot of give and take on all sides. We have seen some major travel industry consolidation efforts fail over the past several years, and we wanted to ensure that we didn`t travel the same path!
This is not a merger, says Jerry DiPietro, TOURCO President. We are taking the best of each company`s tour offerings, and bringing to the market an attractive mix of tours and cruises throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean…. even Europe, Central America and China! Each individual company has contributed five or six itineraries with GUARANTEED DEPARTURES, so the exposure and risk is fairly minimal.
Chris McCool, President of Incredible Journeys is very excited about the potential. We have agreed to pool our sales resources, print one catalog which we will all sell from, and increase our individual profitability!
At the same time, we are able to better serve our markets…. from consumers to Group Leaders and Bank Travel Executives, says Laurie Lincoln, President of Main Street Tours. We can tell our customers that there is absolutely no risk of cancellation, and we are offering booking incentives to travel planners, as well.
Bryan Boice of Pacific Northwest Tours adds that all tours include Comprehensive Travel Insurance and Create-A-Video, which provides a lasting memento of the tour.
The partner tour operators are all National Tour Association member companies, and among the principals are five past and present NTA Board Members, including an NTA Past President.
The five companies worked for months to establish required standards for all the tours included in the new Encompass brochure. These include commission structures for travel agents and incentives for group and Bank Travel leaders, the inclusion of comprehensive travel insurance, and quality standards to ensure that the new brand is consistent.
DiPietro muses. If this works the way we think it will, we will all profit by the economies of scale… but we want to do it right, and really take the best ideas, systems and products from each company. That really hasn`t happened before… all those other consolidations were involuntary, and not managed strategically. This kind of collaboration has never been done before!
In the coming weeks, Encompass will launch a website and take the product line to group leader shows across the country. And now Bob Hoelscher and I will no longer be competing…. in fact only one of us needs to attend any show! says Chris McCool. What could be better!
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
