NEW YORK -- Charles Mest, senior director of sales for the
northeast at Travel Impressions, said he has been on "maybe 150 fam
trips" but never anything like the recent American Airlines
IslAAnds Experience, during which 150 agents traveled on three
charter aircraft to five Caribbean islands in five days.
According to Robert Troni, American's managing director of
international sales and marketing, that's because there never
before has been such a trip.
"It came out of a conversation with Peter Dolara [American's
senior vice president for Miami, Caribbean and Latin America],"
said Troni. "We were thinking about what we could do with the
smaller islands that don't get that much attention."
The way to sell the islands, they decided, was to fall back on
time-proven methods: bring top-producing agents to the islands for
first-hand experiences.
American asked its top three wholesalers -- Gogo Worldwide
Vacations, Travel Impressions and its own vacation-packaging
division, American Airlines Vacations -- to each select their top
50 agents.
The airline wanted results, and fast, Troni said.
"These [agents] are the ones who can turn the switch now," he
said.
American approached the tourist bureaus and a number of hotels
in Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Maarten. American Eagle,
the airline's commuter aircraft division, provided three planes for
shuttling the agent groups around the islands.
Each group was assigned its own aircraft; the groups were
staggered so that each island had one group at a time.
The agents all met in Puerto Rico on Oct. 29 and flew to St.
Maarten on Oct. 30. From there, they split into separate
itineraries to spend one day each in St. Kitts, Antigua and St.
Lucia.
The trip was no mere fam but an educational crash course. There
wasn't any time for lounging on the beach; it was a full-blown
itinerary, packed with activities.
"This will be a working trip," Troni told the agents at the
opening ceremony in >St. Maarten. "There will be a lot of moving
around. There will be some built-in time for relaxation, but this
is not a vacation.
"This isn't a fam trip; it's not like that anymore. With the
stresses we are all under, this has to be productive time."
The program began with an afternoon flight from San Juan to St.
Maarten. The regimen essentially was the same every day: Upon
arrival at the destination, the agents went to their assigned
hotels and met for dinner and an evening function featuring
speakers from the destination.
The next day began with a 6 a.m. wake-up call. After a quick
breakfast, agents attended a minitrade show with area suppliers,
performed hotel inspections, had lunch, took an island tour and
then headed to the airport for an afternoon flight to the next
island, where the process would begin all over again.
Even meals were restaurant and hotel inspections. There was
virtually no downtime.
Though it was a grueling itinerary, there were few complaints.
It was a serious group of agents, and they were there to increase
their ability to sell.
"I've sent clients to St. Kitts before, but I never really knew
[the island]," said Joe Goodman, owner of International Tours &
Cruises of Philadelphia. "Now I do. I'll be more confident about
selling it now."
The agents said they found the interaction with their retail
colleagues to be valuable.
"I think my self-esteem as an agent went up," said Joelle
Villar, a cruise and travel consultant with GalaxSea Cruises and
Tours of East Brunswick, N.J.
"I feel much more confident. I have more firsthand experience of
the different properties on the islands.
"And we had a good corps of people. It was good to know the
seriousness of what we were all trying to do as a group to keep the
industry going."
George Selden, president of Sunshine Direct in Avoca, Pa., said,
"It became evident after a short period of time that this was not
the typical mix of agents who usually accompany most fam trips.
"These were experienced, successful, and sometimes hardened
front-line agents, managers and owners. They were concerned and
intimately interested in the future of this industry."
American received kudos from an unlikely source: North Carolina
travel agent Sarah Hall, who is preparing a class-action suit
against the airlines over commission cuts (see sidebar below).
"I think this is a very positive thing, agents and airlines
working together to promote a destination," said Hall. "You don't
see that much any more. This is how it used to be."
The suppliers and tourist bureaus expressed satisfaction with
the IslAAnds Experience program.
"This is so vital for us because we're always chasing travel
agents," said a spokeswoman for the St. Maarten Hospitality &
Trade Association. "So to get them all in one room like this, you
can't put a price tag on that."
Troni said ultimately it would be the wholesalers that would be
the ones to track the success of the trip.
Mest of Travel Impressions said he was confident the trip would
achieve its objective.
"We'll definitely see a spike," he said. "This will pay for
itself in a few weeks. You've got to see it to sell it."
Sarah Hall an unlikely participant
NEW YORK -- Probably the last person you would expect to find on
an airline-sponsored fam trip is Sarah Hall, the North Carolina
agent who is taking on the nation's carriers in a class-action suit
over commission cuts.
But there she was, among the guests on American Airlines'
whirlwind jaunt to the Caribbean.
How did that happen?
Robert Troni, American's managing director of international
sales and marketing, said he didn't know Hall was on the trip and
was only vaguely aware of who she was.
"I haven't really followed the case," Troni said.
She was on the trip for one reason, Troni said -- the airline
told the participating wholesalers: Give us your best
producers.
"We left it up to the wholesalers to invite the most important
people they have," he said. -- D.C.