Ensemble EXTRAORDINARY! finishes its third year

Ensemble Travel Group’s EXTRAORDINARY! road show is currently making its way across Canada, offering full-day workshops and seminars for travel professionals in various cities.

The March 3 event in Toronto was sixth in a series of seven events taking place across the country, wherein by the final night, 450 Ensemble travel professionals will be trained through the unique program which includes presentations, training sprints, and a trade show.

“One of the things we try to do is help our members build business in their communities… and the most effective type of training is face to face,” Ensemble’s Co-President Lindsay Pearlman said. “This is about allowing suppliers to reach as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. They probably see more people in a couple of these meetings than they could in an entire year.”

The reason for such concentrated networking is because the program almost exclusively features Ensemble’s niche and luxury partners, including suppliers from Egypt, Spain, Iceland and New Zealand, allowing travel agents to expand on their knowledge of specialty products.

According to Pearlman, “Ensemble EXTRAORDINARY! ensures that travel professionals continue to evolve and train themselves in product that is unique and non-commoditized, and to be experts of the subject matter. That way, agents will have the experience and knowledge to pair consumers with the right product.”

The event is following what has been a dynamite year for the brand, including an expansion into Australia and New Zealand that was announced in 2014. With the program having been well received thus far and poised to begin operating this April, Pearlman said that the initiative just made sense.

“Our value proposition works well. We’re a full service organization with a host of products that can be used anywhere in the world, so it works,” he said.

It appears to be working in all kinds of places; according to Cristie Newell, director of training & development, North America, from a preferred supplier volume perspective as well as the profits that will be returned back to the members by way of profit sharing – 2014 has been Ensemble’s best year to date.

“For us to actually have the successful type of year we had last year, where we were just launching new items, is pretty exciting,” Pearlman added. “Those items got traction, so now it’s about delivering on them, whether it’s through our EXTRAORDINARY! events, our in-house technology, supporting our preferred partner relationships or growing internationally.”

Ensemble’s ongoing goal, as laid out by Newell, is to continue evolving, innovating, and keep asking what can be done differently.

Looking ahead into the upcoming year, Pearlman and Newell highlighted the luxury cruise industry (including river cruising), tour operators, and exotic destinations such as Asia, Africa and South America as being at the forefront of 2015 sales trends.

Newell said that such products represent areas of the travel industry for which consumers are more likely to seek out the advice of a travel professional, the very reason why Ensemble hosts this series in the first place.

“We’re really happy with the relevance of where the travel agent of today is positioned,” she said, “and happy that we can help [our members] continue to be sustainable and successful.”

With 450 travel agents trained in just seven days, it’s safe to say that Ensemble is just warming up for another big year.