“Ignite your inner athlete”: TDC conference unpacks trends & strategies for a changing industry

STORY BY JESSE SHIP 

When it comes to performance, who knows better than an elite Olympic athlete, or their trainers?

It’s with this mindset that Transat Distribution Canada (TDC) kicked off its 2024 Ontario conference on Saturday (Sept. 21) at the Sheraton Airport Hotel’s conference centre, inviting 240 travel professionals, owners, managers, suppliers and preferred partners to ignite their inner athletes.

While the sports and corporate worlds are very different, “as humans, we all have a need to need to perform,” said Karine Gagnon, general manager at TDC.

“Our advisors have so much knowledge, whether it’s on travel products or destinations. If they can take that knowledge and find the right motivation, the fire that motivates them from within, then they can elevate themselves to extraordinary performances, like an Olympic athlete.”

All-star lineup of speakers

This year’s conference revolved around TDC’s fundamental pillars of networking, professional development and the contributions of preferred partners.  

To stoke agency owner performance fires, the TDC team brought in keynote speakers, Giovanni Di Girolamo, business coach and lecturer at HEC Montreal, who provided owners with guidelines on how to manage sales, balance commissions and salaries, and other tools.

Agents also heard a keynote from business coach Michael Vickers, best-selling author of Becoming Preferred: How to Outsell Your Competition.

Alain Brouillard, senior director of finance at Transat, also gave a talk on helping owners evaluate their agencies for either buying or selling.

Mental performance coach Jean Francois Menard, best-selling author of How To Train Your Brain Like An Olympian, helped drive home this year’s “Ignite your Inner Athlete” theme with a keynote that drew parallels between sports, professional athleticism and the corporate world. 

The presentation earned him a standing ovation.

More time to network

This year’s conference saw a bit of a switch up with tailored morning partner sessions of 20 minutes each. “We address the needs of travel agents and survey them every single year after the conference. We use the feedback quite a bit,” said Gagnon.

READ MORE: Winter Is Coming - From Tulum to Lima to Marrakesh – Joseph Adamo unlocks Transat’s strategy

And listen they did. “Every year they ask for more time. More time to network, more time with partners, extended breaks. So that’s just what we’ve done,” said Marc Pelletier, TDC’s senior director of marketing.

“And now we know the people in the room are actually there because they’ve chosen that partner. This sounds basic but to offer it to over 60 partners is a pretty big deal.”

Focus on social

Recognizing the popularity of TikTok and other short-form video platforms, TDC invited G Adventures social media specialist Michelle Dloomy to deliver a masterclass in content creation.

To ignite people’s inner creator, an incentive of $2,000 in G Dollars was offered to the agent team that produced the best video.

“Producing original, authentic content is a big focus of ours,” said Pelletier. “From the franchiser or TDC, but we’re also encouraging members themselves to produce content. They are their own brand, especially the owners.” TDC is also planning a new content library for agents to use at their own discretion on social channels, that will include Instagram support.

Pelletier also wants to encourage agents to take advantage of the low digital advertising costs available on social media platforms and launch a series of digital marketing webinars.  

“I heard about an owner yesterday who sold three cruises on a $50 media placement on Facebook. Her talking about that to her colleagues really opened their eyes. There are things we can do for our agents, but there are more things they can do in their own market if they know how to do it, and do it well,” he said.

As part of their focus on social media, TDC has created a new internal content creator role.

There’s also an online reputation management tool in the works that will allow owners to be proactive when it comes to addressing positive and less positive reviews, in addition to encouraging more customers to leave their own feedback.

Industry growth in 2024

Bringing on new agents continues to be a challenge but there are new perspectives.

According to Gagnon, “owners are opening up to recruiting talent with good experience but not necessarily in the travel space. Someone with a good customer experience or sales background has the potential to learn and grow in the industry.” 

Another way of adapting has been to reassign the workload.  

“Instead of looking specifically for 360-degree travel professionals who do it all, some agencies will hire admin support to take the burden of invoicing off of the agents,” Gagnon said.

Cruises & luxury is booming

Cruises are still booming in 2024, the team said, with sales growing year over year and younger generations getting on board.  

In response, TDC has been diversifying and adding new partners to their lineup.

Self-vacation packages are still TDC’s bread and butter, but multigenerational family trips continue to be hot in the post-COVID travel world. Agencies with themes that cater to large groups continue to thrive, especially when it comes to luxury, the team noted.

Luxury cruises and river cruises are the largest-growing travel segment forecasted for the next five to ten years, Gagnon said. “We’re seeing more agents specializing in niche areas, and more and more want to specialize in luxury,” she said. 

More than 300 agents have completed TDC’s LuxeXperts certification modules and more than 30 agencies are now affiliated with Virtuoso.

TDC’s LuxeXpert program, which launched in 2021, teaches advisors how to effectively sell luxury travel and navigate the marketplace.

“Luxury doesn’t necessarily mean expensive,” said Pelletier. “It means personalized, custom, the time agents and advisors will spend with clients to tailor a trip. Dollars don’t equal luxury. It’s a completely different way of selling.”

What’s next?

March 2025 will see TDC’s bi-annual National Leadership conference, which will see preferred partners and leadership participate in professional development activities.

The next twelve months will also see the launch of new tools and training programs for succession planning.

“We are building a succession planning program that will have training and support in how to sell your office, how to transition, along with tools for new acquirers. Think finance, legal, marketing, HR,” said Gagnon. “For incoming partners, it’s about making sure they understand TDC and how they can really leverage the business.”

Joe Adamo’s take 

Joseph Adamo, Transat’s chief sales and marketing officer and president of Transat Distribution Canada, was also on site to participate in the conference.

In a recent interview with PAX Nouvelles in Quebec, Adamo said morale is good throughout the network, even if sales are starting to normalize after last year's revenge travel phase.

One of the biggest challenges for agencies right now is returning to business development mode after the peak of revenge travel, he said.

Workforce recruitment is also a pain point. “As an operator of around thirty agencies, we encounter the same difficulties as our owner members,” Adamo said.

Unfortunately, there is no miracle solution to resolve this issue, he admitted. “We test different approaches and, when they work, we share them with our members. We also draw inspiration from the initiatives of our franchisees.”

In terms of agency owners finding future successors, Adamo said that TDC and its management play a constructive role as a “matchmaker.” The objective is to encourage transactions, allowing the proceeds of the sale to remain within the network.

He refuted the idea that many agency owners are currently looking to withdraw due to the difficulties of the profession or fatigue exacerbated by COVID.

“It’s not my reading,” he told PAX Nouvelles. “I rather see that some owners, having reached a certain age, are ready to move on, which is completely normal.”

Baby boomers & millennials

As for travel trends, Adamo stressed the importance of the baby boomer and millennial markets.

“Baby boomers remain a very important driver. There are many of them, often financially comfortable and they have time, because many are retired. In addition, many are at an age where they receive an inheritance from their parents. These people allow themselves little luxuries,” he said.

Adamo added that millennials represent a key segment for luxury, despite generally having more modest financial means. “Millennials have integrated travel into their lifestyle. When they travel, they look for unique experiences, sometimes even luxurious,” he said.

Adamo reminded advisors of the saying that “a good salesperson does not sell with his or her own wallet, but of the clients.”

In other words, a seller should not judge a customer's purchasing abilities or desires based on his or her own means, but rather focus on the customer's needs and financial capabilities.

“Not all travellers are looking for luxury, but there are enough of them for this market to become significant,” he said.

Adamo was recently featured in PAX’s Winter Is Coming series, in which he discusses the introduction of Tulum, a new booking trend in Europe, along with Transat’s recent expansion into Lima, Peru and Marrakesh. Click here to read that interview.

Transat’s Elevation Program

Earlier this month, Transat A.T., reporting a third-quarter loss, announced a comprehensive review, called the “Elevation Program,” that aims to accelerate its long-term growth.

The program, initiated this summer, will review Transat’s operations and business practices, and further implement tools and processes for its teams to optimize its overall execution and efficiency.

Speaking to PAX Nouvelles, Adamo clarified that the program does not mark a change in strategy, but represents an effort to accelerate existing priorities.

“Achieving the objectives will allow us to better navigate difficult economic conditions,” he said,

Regarding the potential impact on TDC’s network, Adamo said the optimization will address NDC (New Distribution Capability), a standard that he says will improve the efficiency of air distribution without disrupting the existing distribution network.

Through its Elevation Program, Transat’s target is to achieve a $100 million improvement over the next 18 months.

With files from Michael Pihach and Serge Abel-Normandin. 

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