XL Sandown Travel unveiled its brand new concept store on May 2. The store, which it has dubbed the “next generation travel agency”, has been designed to provide customers with a more exciting and engaging travel booking experience and at the same time provide them with great prices on a wide variety of packages.
Situated in Sandton City’s Banking Hall, the store greets customers with a wide-open entrance and digital touch screen from which they are able to browse different products that the agency has put together. These are grouped together under different headings such as interests and destinations.
Key to the success of these packages is that they offer clients rates that they would not be able to negotiate on their own. Md of XL Sandown Travel, Marco Ciocchetti, says suppliers are often hesitant to drop their rates because they fear it will set a standard at a rate they cannot afford to maintain. However if those rates are hidden in the security of a package, they are able to grant special deals. “Clients won’t easily be able to reconstruct the same all-inclusive deal online, which will have flights, transfers, hotels, meals and/or sightseeing included,” he notes.
Also significant is the type of packages that are available, which Marco says will introduce clients to new and exciting experiences they may not have thought of themselves.
Once clients have selected packages they are interested in, they are then engaged by the hostess to determine their personal client profile to arrive at a decision about which holiday will suit them best. From there they are directed to the relevant specialist booking consultant.
Each booking consultant is equipped with a large screen so that clients can view their holiday bookings as they come to life. “We want the excitement of a holiday to begin right there and then…not just when you get on a plane,” says Marco.
Clearly marked specialist stations have also been set up in four separate booths under the headings of Sun and Ski, Southern Africa, Guided Tours and Bucket List, both so that clients can easily find the expert they require and to give them ideas for vacations they may not have considered.
Marco firmly believes that this new brand of concept store is the way forward for travel agents in SA. He maintains that many clients step into travel agencies for information and then go home and book directly from the Internet. But with this new model, which provides clients with better deals, highly specialised advice and a more exciting and interactive experience, he hopes to usher in the next generation of travel.
- Debbie Badham
