TravelBrands' Agent Appreciation evening comes to Ottawa

In front of an attendance of nearly 300 travel agents from the regions of Ottawa and Gatineau, the TravelBrands team – led by its CEO, Frank DeMarinis – hosted an event to thank agents and present the new features of its Access program.

TravelBrands invited agents to the Infinity Convention Centre, not far from Ottawa International Airport. Upon arrival, industry professionals had the opportunity to speak for about an hour with around 50 suppliers, car rental agencies, airline and cruise companies, tourism offices and other large hotel groups.

The presentation kicked off at 6:30 p.m. when Erminia Nigro, sales manager in Ontario, spoke. She recalled that it had been a long time since TravelBrands had organized an event of this type in Ottawa. “We will not forget you, Ottawa,” she said. “I am here to meet as many travel agents as possible tonight! This year, for Canada’s 150th birthday, we want to travel across the country and meet with every travel agent,” she vowed.

She then passed the microphone to Frank DeMarinis, who wanted to send a strong message. “There would be no TravelBrands without its travel agents,” he said. To thank the professionals for their commitment throughout the year, the TravelBrands team offered gifts – consisting of three nights’ stays or cruises – throughout the evening. Winners were selected either by the luck of the draw or through being active on social networks with the hashtag #TravelBrandsLovesAgents.

The evening also offered an opportunity for TravelBrands to unveil, to an Ottawa audience, some of the much-anticipated new features of the B2B Access platform.

Kristin Erz, business development manager, listed the new features, which were warmly applauded by the audience. “New improvements are constantly being put in place,” she said. She said that the new features had also been made possible by the input of agents since the launch of Access last year.

The new features include:

My Bookings: on this new page, agents will have access to all of their bookings (including cruise, air, hotels and more) in one place, which can be sorted by product type client name or payment. Commissions on each booking is also displayed, along with contact information for their local BDM. Agents can now reserve airfare via My Bookings.

Live chat: in response to travel agent feedback, agents can now chat with a TravelBrands representative online and get quick answers without phoning the call centre.

Air Enhancements: agents will now be able to select seats for clients as well as filter their searches for air bookings by class, price or carrier. Agents can also search for the best prices on airfare by displaying departures within three days before or after a selected date.

Multi-cities: bookings involving multiple cities and connections can now be made online. In addition, agents booking clients to multiple destinations can now make those bookings via TravelBrands Travel Genie portal.

During the event, Jim Elmslie, Quebec sales representative at Bahia Principe, and Christian Roussin, director of business development at Westjet, took the microphone to remind the audience of their respective companies' offers.

TravelBrands continues its tour of events this evening in Montreal, before heading west to Edmonton on April 11 and finally Vancouver, on April 12.