by Brian Major
Last updated: 3:55 PM ET, Fri October 20, 2023
"Dream Big, Travel Far" is the timely theme
of this week’s ALG Vacations’ Ascend 2023 conference. The travel advisor and hospitality
network giant premiered programs, initiatives and services designed to position
its advisor members for continued success amidst surging
consumer wanderlust.
“We think the most important job we have is to invest [in]
you to make you better and make your businesses stronger,” said Mark Hoplamazian,
president and CEO of Hyatt Hotels, which purchased ALG Vacations for $2.7
billion in late 2021.
Speaking to the more than 650 travel advisors in attendance
at the four-day event in Cancun, Mexico, Hoplamazian said the organization’s scale is a valuable benefit
for travel sellers.
“The first thing we have available to us is our volume. We
served over 2.6 million passengers last year and for the first half of this
year, 1.4 million passengers,” Hoplamazian said. “So we have volume [and] scale.”
ALG and Hyatt have also targeted potentially lucrative premium
and luxury travelers, said Hoplamazian. “We serve a higher-end customer, so the
average package revenue is $1,500 dollars, and that's up 13 percent year-over-year
and up 24 percent from pre-pandemic times.”
Hoplamazian added, “We're continuing to push on that
high-end traveler [and] the higher the value of the travel package, the higher
the commissions, the higher revenue stream and the better and healthier your
businesses are.”
He continued, “It's unambiguous in my mind that when you
win, we win, [so] we're trying to make sure that we deepen our access to a lot
of really high-end customers."
Pushing Profitability
He said the organization’s success is boosting advisors’ bottom-line
results. "We are investing directly behind your businesses. In 2022 alone, we
spent over $270 million in commissions and advisor rewards."
“The pandemic was a scary moment. It’s very rare when the revenue just turns off.” – Ray Snisky (left), with Hyatt president and CEO Mark Hoplamazian. (Photo by Brian Major)
The company is also launching technology tools to ease transitions
for agencies, Hoplamazian said.
“In technology, we are improving the base every quarter
that goes by. We’re working to make our platform more effective and more suited
to what [advisors] do and allow you to have more powerful and more successful
businesses,” he said.
“It’s a really good show,” said Nadia Henry, owner of award-winning
luxury travel advisor firm Travel With Sparkle. “I like the value of not only connecting
with the suppliers, but I like the value of the breakout sessions.
A conference session focused on “Using Social Media to
Engage” was particularly valuable Henry said.
“I don’t do my social media; I hired a content creator,”
she explained. “But there are little things in between that I wanted to learn
how to do, and they showed us. There were so many things I learned on that
panel that I didn’t know.”
Productive Partnerships
ALG’s ability to work cooperatively with travel advisors
and its internal divisions enabled the organization to emerge strongly from the
pandemic, said Ray Snisky, ALG’s group president, distribution. “The pandemic was
a scary moment. It’s very rare when the revenue just turns off, so we had to
have clarity and make sure everyone is aligned.”
Said Snisky, “My initial thought was, ‘Are we going to deal
with a bunch of processes?’ You know this business, you have to move on
time you have to be decisive. That was one of our great strengths; we’re very
decisive.”
“We never stop raising the bar or experimenting.” – ALG’s Jackie Marks. (Photo by Brian Major)
Snisky said ALG relied on its advisors to share information on
their business needs and goals post-pandemic, and as a result, “The last two
years has been record-breaking from the standpoint of delivery, we’re at four
times the previous record of the company.”
The advisors who attended the gathering were part of an
exclusive group, said Jackie Marks, executive vice president of ALG Vacations. “This
conference actually sold out in three weeks; we have over 650 advisors here and
over 200 suppliers and we have over 100 of our team members out there [and] 50
unique workshops to keep you learning and growing,” Marks said.
“I can tell you that does not include the hundreds and
hundreds of advisors that sat on the waiting list hoping to get one of your
spots now,” she said.
ALG has consistently worked to provide more value to its agency members, according to Marks. “We never stop raising the bar
or experimenting,” she said.
“In fact, it is one of our values as part of Hyatt and I
really think we've tried to do that in a lot of different ways. This past year
we added CRM [customer relationship management] to our call center and added a
speech analytics component to our quality assurance.”
The company has also expanded its global portfolio, said Marks. “A lot of you have seen we've been growing our European products. We
added some more salespeople to help your businesses be strong and successful, and
we've also invested millions of dollars into technology security and fraud
prevention.”
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