KING OF PRUSSIA, Pennsylvania -- Apple Leisure Group
Vacations
has created a new rewards program that lets advisors earn points that can be
used for travel or converted to dollars.
The Waves program was one of several agent initiatives announced this week at ALG's first
Ascent conference for advisors, which replaces the annual summit that was held
by Mark Travel before the companies merged last year.
The company said the new rewards program is easier to use
and has better redemption options than previous programs.
With Waves, advisors earn points for bookings with Apple
Vacations, Funjet Vacations, Travel Impressions, United Vacations, Blue Sky
Tours and Southwest Vacations that can be used for hotel stays, air credits and
seats on charter flights. The points can also be converted to currency on a
virutal Visa card.
Waves also has a tiered system that will recognize
top-selling agents with bonus points and elite customer service access for
top-selling agents.
ALG also is launching a new portal, ALGV360, that will make it easier for advisors
to create personalized marketing content and promotional materials for Apple
Leisure Group Vacations destinations, hotel partners and brand-specific sales and
promotions.
"Selling travel in the digital age requires that agents
not only be veritable experts in a variety of popular destinations, they must
also devote an increasing amount of time to social media, advertising and
digital marketing," said Wendy Hoekwater, senior vice president of
marketing for Apple Leisure Group
Vacations. "ALGV360 distills what would be hours of work into as little as
30 seconds, resulting in professionally appearing posts, flyers, banner ads,
emails, selling guides, radio scripts, print ads and more--with images invoking
the client's dream vacation,"
ALGV360 features a
training and support section to help agents get up to speed and begin creating
dynamic, results-driven marketing collateral with their own logos.
Additionally, ALG will launch a simplified travel protection
program for Apple Vacations, Travel Impressions, Funjet Vacations, Blue Sky
Tours, and United Vacations for bookings beginning in December for travel
taking place next year.
The new program is based on destination rather than length
of travel, with prices starting at $79.99 per traveler.
ALG also announced enhancements to its group booking tool.