We all know that travel is back. But if there was any doubt that travel advisors continue to survive and thrive post-pandemic, the five-city Air Canada Vacations product launch tour erased it.
“We are so happy to do Canada coast to coast again,” said Ana Paula De Souza, ACV’s Director, Sales. “The energy, the people, the quality, it’s truly amazing.”
Halifax, Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal were the first stops before the tour wrapped up in Vaughan, just north of Toronto, last night. There were 900 agents registered for the final event, and the energy in the room was electric.
“The trade is thirsty,” said De Souza. “We ran out of seats in Vancouver and at our first-time launch in Edmonton the crowd was crazy, with some people driving six hours to be there. After last year’s hybrid launch we decided to go big, and it was obviously the right decision. This week has been amazing.”
Gary C. Sadler, EVP Unique Vacations, with C. J. Smith, Director of Sales for Unique Vacations Canada, which represents Sandals and Beaches Resorts. (Photo Credit: Bruce Parkinson)
Title sponsors for the event were Sandals and Beaches Resorts and Bahia Principe. They took their roles seriously, with Unique Vacations EVP Global Sales Gary C. Sadler travelling up from Jamaica for the ACV event, and Bahia Principe Director of Sales & Business Development USA & Canada flying in from Miami. Another 70 hotel partners greeted agents at booths.
“I would not have missed this for anything in the world,” said Sadler, a familiar face and voice to Canadian travel advisors for more than three decades. “Air Canada Vacations has constantly championed the cause for travel advisors and we’re proud to stand with them.”
ACV VP Nino Montagnese speaks with advisors at the operator’s product launch in Toronto. (Photo Credit: Bruce Parkinson)
For ACV Vice President Nino Montagnese, the huge turnout and enthusiastic crowd – estimated at about 2,500 across the country — was a clear indication that the company is heading in the right direction after some very challenging years.
“ACV has gone through the toughest time, and that made us make the tough decisions,” Montagnese said.
Among those decisions was a massive investment in IT, with the goal of giving travel advisors more self-service tools. At the start of the process, ACV’s product was scattered across various systems, making it difficult to access and unite. Agents frequently required human assistance, which led to long wait times during the pandemic and its aftermath.
With ACV’s massive product inventory now all in one place, new self-service tools like the ‘Manage Your Booking’ page on aircanadavacations.com are enabling advisors to make their own booking changes, and on-hold times have declined drastically.
ACV General Manager Erminia Gallina (centre) with travel advisors at the operator’s product launch in Toronto. (Photo Credit: Bruce Parkinson)
The next big step is the release of an Group Insta Quote tool, which De Souza says “is going to blow everyone’s mind.” Montagnese acknowledges that ACV is the last major tour operator to launch an instant-quote tool – and advisors have made their dissatisfaction about that quite clear – but he says the company has the benefit of improving on competitor versions.
With Air Canada’s expanding global reach, ACV has a vast amount of product and destinations to sell. From Africa to the Middle East, Europe to South America, there’s a world of choice – not to mention over 1,000 resorts in traditional Canadian sun destinations and hundreds of cruise itineraries.
“We’ve always been more than sun-soaked getaways,” Montagnese said. “Now with ACV your clients can see the beauty the entire world has to offer. We are everywhere, and anywhere Air Canada flies, we have something to offer you.”
The night kicked off with an energetic troupe of singers and dancers getting the crowd going. (Photo Credit: Bruce Parkinson)
De Souza says ACV is committed to working ever more closely with its advisor partners, including launching a new travel advisory board made up of agents working in a variety of business models.
“The future is bright,” De Souza told TravelPulse Canada. “With our investment in technology, the right product and the talent we have in the biggest sales team of any tour operator, we’re on the right track.”