Agents often hand their clients a smattering of brochures and let them pick a tour based on something as trivial as the pictures, Trafalgar Tours has found.
Earlier this year, Trafalgar commissioned a global market survey to which 2,500 agents responded.
Trafalgar President Paul Wiseman said, "The most interesting and somewhat shocking news was that six out of 10 agents did not specifically offer a company recommendation to their client when talking about an escorted tour product.
"Trafalgar was not differentiated from other companies," he said. "It didn't have a strong personality different from other companies. The agents saw all the tour operators largely in the same space."
But in a highly competitive market that saw Trafalgar cut 30% of its brochure capacity for 2010, entrusting revenue potential to chance is not a viable option.
In response, Trafalgar initiated a rebranding effort. After more than a decade of proclaiming itself to be "the world's favorite touring company," Trafalgar has changed its tag line to "Rediscover the romance of travel."
The cornerstone of the rebranding, Wiseman said, is a new short film Trafalgar produced that follows a middle-age couple on a Trafalgar tour. The nearly seven-minute promotional video can be viewed on Trafalgar's website, and the company is sending agents a DVD version to use as a marketing tool.
"It's to create a stronger brand personality," Wiseman said. "It's to develop a closer bond with the decision-makers, the lady of the household, the female demographic, to differentiate ourselves from the clutter. Our objective is to have agents recognize Trafalgar."
Trafalgar is not the only operator to have released a video documenting "real-life" tour customers, weaving sit-down interviews with tour video. The Globus family of brands also recently launched a series of videos on its website.
"We acknowledge how difficult it is to put the touring experience into words," Wiseman said. "This is really a breakthrough in terms of how we can explain that experience."
In addition to the video, Trafalgar's website and brochures are dotted with red hearts in an attempt to forge a more emotional connection with travelers.
Wiseman said the design is meant to be "more appealing, warmer, more emotive, less commercial, less corporate, more in touch with the love of travel, why people are doing it. It's not about features and benefits anymore; it's about experiences."
Trafalgar is hoping that the new marketing initiatives will be effective and is conducting follow-up studies in February and June.
Anticipating that response to the marketing efforts will be positive, Wiseman said the company contracted an additional 20% capacity beyond what is in the brochure "to maximize the number of definite departures" and ultimately reduce the number of canceled departures.
Bringing families onboard
Trafalgar is redefining itself in other ways, as well.
After 60 years of taking middle-age couples and retirees around the world, Trafalgar is opening the motorcoach doors to children as young as 5 with the launch of its Family Experiences brochure.
What started as three family-friendly itineraries that have been offered for the past few years in the U.S. is being expanded to 10 itineraries: five in the U.S. and Canada and five in Europe.
"In the last few years, we created unique family experiences in the America program, and in 2009 they sold out despite an overall decline" in U.S. business, Wiseman said.
While pricing is similar to Trafalgar's traditional tours, the inclusions and activities in the Family Experiences itineraries are different.
For example, Wiseman said, "In Paris, on a standard tour, the inclusion is the ascent to the second level of the Eiffel Tower. On a family tour, they go all the way to the top of the tower. They will have pizza-making in Italy rather than pizza-eating."
Trafalgar's new family-focused products builds on an industry trend. For the last few years, operators have been pushing multigenerational travel, which has proven to be highly resilient throughout the recession.
Even family travel is seeing its share of challenges, however. One of the splashiest brands to have entered the family market in recent years, Adventures by Disney, reduced its departures by 25% for 2010, after four straight years of growth.
Still, Wiseman remains bullish about the family market. "First of all, we're experiencing the organic growth," he said. "We are developing our programs based on what we already know is successful. Our price point is around half of what Adventures by Disney is. And, yeah, we're in a position to deliver a very good family product."
Trafalgar Family Experiences is launching with 89 departure dates for 2010.
The five itineraries in Europe are: Magic and Make Believe (London and Paris); Gladiators, Gondolas and Gold (Italy); Kingdoms and Tales (Prague, Czech Republic; Vienna; and Budapest); Spanish Salsa (Spain); and European Wonderland (London, Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome).
In the U.S. and Canada, the five itineraries are: Wild West Cowboys and Buffalos (Salt Lake City, Yellowstone National Park and Denver); Pioneer Adventures of the Old West (Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, Ariz.); Adventures in the Wild Northwest (Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and San Francisco); Rocky Mountain Adventures (Jasper, Banff and Calgary in Alberta); and California Dreams (San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and Monterey).
Prices range from $1,499 per person, land only, for the eight-day Wild West itinerary to $2,985 per person, land only, for the 14-day European Wonderland itinerary.