Audley Travel, a U.K.-based tour operator that organizes tailor-made itineraries, has sharpened its focus on travel advisors by hiring Cathy Kusuma as vice president of trade and partnerships. Kusuma, who came from Atlas Ocean Voyages and before that held positions with Cruise Planners and Holland America, will lead Audley's plan to bolster its relationships with the trade as it expands its presence in North America. She spoke with tours editor Brinley Hineman about what advisors can expect from Audley, which has typically worked directly with consumers.
Cathy Kusuma
Q: Why the change from Audley's direct-to-consumer approach?
A: Our corporate office is based in the U.K., and things are a little bit different in Europe and how they book travel there. The majority of people tend to book direct in Europe, and travel agencies -- although they are there -- are not nearly as popular as they are in the U.S. Over time, as they've grown the business, they've looked at it and said, "OK, how can we grow in a significant way?" They've seen a really great opportunity getting in front of the trade. I think there are people that just want to book directly. But then you've got the others, especially in the U.S., who have trusted travel advisors they've worked with for years and who take the hassle out of everything for them. It presents a really great opportunity for us to get in front of that audience.
Q: For advisors not familiar with Audley Travel, what should they know?
A: Audley has made a really deep commitment to being travel advisor friendly and trade friendly. They're making a pretty sizable investment in our department to make sure that we really focus on this. We're putting a lot of resources and time and effort and energy into making sure we have programs in place that benefit the travel advisor. We want to help them build their business, too, because maybe they're very familiar with a handful of more popular destinations, but they may have a client come to them and say, "Oh, can you take me on a trip to see the orangutans in Borneo?" -- which we had last week, and so we can do that. We can do gorilla trekking on an African safari. We can do some unique things that maybe not all suppliers do.
Q: What goes into building a new approach largely from scratch?
A: I'm treating it a little bit like a startup. Audley is nowhere near a startup company at all, but we're so relatively unknown to the U.S. travel trade that I'm kind of treating it that way. Our first order of business is exposure for the Audley brand. We want to get out there. We want to make sure that travel advisors have heard of us and know that we are a credible brand that offers an amazing product. Once we have been in the realm for a little bit with trainings and getting our footing with some of the established agencies out there, then we'll start honing in on those advisors that have the type of clientele that we're looking for.
Q: What does an Audley traveler look like?
A: It really runs the gamut. We have travelers from age 30 all the way up to in their 70s. We've got people that want to just do your typical sightseeing and maybe a little bit of history, a little bit of culture, and then we've got others that are very specific, maybe they have a unique type of interest in mind. What's been fun, and the thing that I enjoy most, is helping the advisor identify that they have Audley travelers already within their own existing database. They may not look like the typical Audley traveler to them because they've only booked them on a higher-end luxury cruise, or maybe they booked them on a river cruise. You just have to introduce a new concept to them about custom travel.