By Lois Shore — In mid-June, Outrigger hosted eight travel agency owners/managers and front-line selling agents from the West Coast for an Executive Travel Agent Forum here in Waikiki. The objective of the meeting was to provide our senior-level managers and executives the opportunity to directly interact with the agents and solicit the agents’ ideas on some of our marketing programs, properties, and business strategies. The participants were hand-selected and represented prestigious, top-producing Hawaii travel agencies on the West Coast. The spectrum of the agencies’ business models ran from moderately-sized to mega-agencies; from traditional retail storefront agencies to ones with predominantly online models.
The agents were hosted at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach and the one-day business meeting included property site inspections, as well as discussions with representatives from Marketing, Interactive Commerce, General Managers, Business Unit Directors of Sales and Marketing, and an Executive exchange.
Site inspections were conducted at five of our Waikiki properties: Outrigger Reef on the Beach, Outrigger Regency on Beachwalk, Embassy Suites® – Waikiki Beach Walk®, OHANA Waikiki Beachcomber, and Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach. Following the site inspections, there was a lively session between the agents and the General Managers during which the agents commented on everything from the arrival experience, check-in process, furnishings, to types of clients that might like each property.
Lois Shore, Dean Nakasone, Brad Anderson, Ellie Agustin, Bob Romano, Paula Quon, Dan Ilves, Constance Williams, Eric Maryanov, Susan Tanzman, and Jill Romano
Most of the agents had never seen the Outrigger Regency on Beachwalk or the OHANA Waikiki Beachcomber. They were happily surprised by the quality of these properties. They referred to them as “hidden gems.” They especially loved the ocean views from the OHANA Waikiki Beachcomber. One of the other fun things the agents mentioned was the friendliness of the Housekeeping staff they encountered at a number of the properties. A big “Mahalo” to the Housekeeping staff for earning us that compliment!
The agents made some suggestions on how we could improve out agent marketing materials, as well as out travel agent website. They were also very helpful in relation to how we can broaden our approach to travel agent trainings and how to make it work to our advantage better in the future.
In the highly-productive executive session, the agents remarked on how we can cross-promote more effectively between properties, how to emphasize our unique positioning in the Hawaii market, and how to deepen our relationships with travel agents to increase market share.
It’s always valuable to speak with the customer directly, and we hope to have future sessions like this one with agents from different geographic locations, as well as a variety of different business models.
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