Africa, Asia & agents: Trafalgar looks ahead to 2019

The addition of Africa, 10 new Asia itineraries and additional resources for travel agents are among the highlights of Trafalgar’s 2019 season, now available for booking.

The tour operator’s latest program was launched in Toronto yesterday, with representatives from the tour operator joined by Brett Tollman, CEO of The Travel Corporation. Attendees got a taste of the Trafalgar experience through a guided tour of the grounds at The Guild Inn (which hosted the event), followed by a traditional drum performance highlighting the company’s new Africa tours.

“The most important part of change is being in sync with it,” said Wolf Paunic, Trafalgar Canada’s president. “We’ve continued the evolution of the coach tour to the point where we’ve outgrown the coach category – it’s all about experiences.”

READ MORE: Trafalgar introduces 10 new Africa trips

Africa & Asia

That focus on experiences will now come to Africa, Paunic told PAX, with the launch of 10 new trips in several African destinations, including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania. These trips will offer smaller group sizes (an average of 12-15 guests per tour, with some itineraries accommodating as few as four travellers) across three trip styles: ‘Country Explorer,’ for clients interested in one destination; ‘Regional Explorer’ styles, for clients interested in exploring a number of countries; and ‘Mini Stay’ styles, for those who want to extend their trip.

“It’s long overdue that Trafalgar brings Africa to past guests as well as new ones,” Tollman told PAX. “Wolf and his team have done a brilliant job launching it. With all of the partners we have in southern Africa, we certainly believe we’ll do it as well or better than anyone else. The value and the local experiences are going to be fantastic for our guests.”

In addition, 10 new Asia itineraries were recently launched, including new adventures in Nepal, China, India, Japan and Thailand.

The new trips will now bring Trafalgar to 302 worldwide itineraries across seven continents.

Sustainability is key

With The Travel Corporation marking 10 years of The TreadRight Foundation in 2018, sustainability continues to play a key role for the company, Paunic said.

“From the point of view of sustainability, we’ve received fantastic response,” he said. “One of the elements of our research is that 33 per cent of respondents want to travel with a company with very little environmental impact: values that they can share.

"Part of our experiences in our new Africa program includes meeting orphaned children in Kenya and seeing how the community supports them; the question we pose is ‘how do we, as travellers, help make a better tomorrow for our destinations?”

ACV: “a natural, organic relationship”

In 2017, Trafalgar partnered with Air Canada Vacations to offer air-included European itineraries; with the partnership a success, Paunic said that it will expand to include the tour operator’s Canadian offerings in the coming year.

“Our partnership with ACV is a natural organic relationship,” he said. It’s an interesting opportunity to access a segment of the market which may not be aware of Trafalgar; through Air Canada, they’re exposed to our product. It’s been a new business for us and we’re looking to deepen this relationship in new destinations.”

Agents First

Described by Paunic as “the cornerstone of our philosophy,” Trafalgar’s Agents First initiative has seen a number of new developments, including investments in the company’s sales teams as well as new technology – including online training and an enhanced agent website - to make it easier for agents to sell Trafalgar to their clients.

“TTC and Trafalgar have invested in a consultative selling process, which we’ve adopted as our main process which we’re also eager to extend to our agent partners,” he said. “The key to that is developing the relationship between our sales managers, executives and retail partners, where we attentively listen to their needs and what they’re asking for and ensure that we can deliver training and selling techniques, destination knowledge and full access to the key points that make the Trafalgar difference.”

And returning in 2019 is Trafalgar’s popular Love To Talk Travel event series, showcasing the tour operator’s offering to agents and their clients across Canada. Response has been very strong, Paunic said, explaining that when registration opened on Monday (Oct. 15), Trafalgar received more than 1,110 registrants that day.

“Agents know that we can help them close the sale,” he said.