Feed: Actual Travel News
Posted on: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 23:08
Author: Actual Travel News
Subject: Virtuoso Plans Consumer Facing Website with Reviews of Suppliers, Agents
Virtuoso, the luxury travel network, unveiled plans to debut a consumer facing Virtuoso.com that will give customers of Virtuoso member travel agencies the chance to review Virtuoso travel suppliers and individual Virtuoso travel advisors. The announcement came at the Virtuoso Symposium being held this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "Up until now Virtuoso provided a set of tools to members that they used to go straight to market," said Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso, in a session during the Symposium. "Now Virtuoso will go straight to market as the Virtuoso brand…never to book travel but to get people into the Virtuoso community so we can connect them with Virtuoso members." The move, described as a fundamental shift in strategy, is part of Virtuoso's plan to attract more high-end customers through its website and other marketing devices. One way the group intends to do that is by introducing verified customer reviews of Virtuoso suppliers and agents. Another way is to have profiles Virtuoso's individual agents, complete with specialties, where they've traveled, agency experience and more. In addition, the website will have Virtuoso supplier product information and attractive photos of hotels, cruise lines and destinations in order to draw in potential customers. Virtuoso.com also will serve as an internal website where Virtuoso agents and suppliers can interact and communicate. The new website won't be unveiled to current or potential customers right away, but Virtuoso agents and suppliers are already testing it and suppliers will be able to access initial customer reviews as of June 20. The new website is expected to go live later this year. Virtuoso also has been busy collecting customer data from its member agencies so that it now has information for travel transactions totaling $15.5 billion since 2006. Indeed, Virtuoso has found that 10 percent of its member agencies' customer drive 54 percent of its sales and the top 1 percent of its customers average nearly $110,000 in annual travel spend. According to Upchurch, the idea is to segment this data to see who is selling what, when, where and how in order to better target luxury products for different client segments. Virtuoso also is gaining a much better handle on how much it produces for its preferred suppliers and at what rates. |
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