Saturday, 19 October 2024
Sharpe to the point on Australia: ‘It’s an incredible market to be in’
by Rose White
Signature Travel Network‘s vision to expand its reach, awareness and membership in Australia and New Zealand is gathering pace, with a number of prospects in the wings for the US-based luxury consortia. Driving brand awareness for Signature down under since her appointment was revealed by LATTE in April, Lisa Harrison says new potential members, and even existing ones, have been blown away when they learn the co-op generated an enormous US$11 billion in sales in 2023.
In Australia last week meeting Harrison in the flesh for the first, Alex Sharpe CEO/President of Signature Travel Network says among his primary reasons to be in the country was to discuss and meet current and possible future members, and to develop a strategy forward with the ANZ market.
Signature’s initial entry here was through Platinum Travel which connected the consortia with Magellan Travel Network, and a subsequent group deal was struck… more than a decade ago. However, Magellan’s alignment with Helloworld shortly after their deal was done, froze any significant growth down under for Signature.
The organisation has maintained a tight partnership with Platinum Travel for more than 10 years, and has a number of other existing arrangements in place. Two years ago, TravelManagers Australia joined Signature as a member, lured by the tools, technology and lucrative hotel catalogue. In all, Signature Travel Network has 7 members in Australia, 2 US-based affiliates and 1 in New Zealand.
“We’d been strategising a growth path but the change with Magellan (joining Helloworld) was pivotal in terms of what we’d originally envisioned,” Sharpe explained to LATTE. “They did what they had to do, selling their company, it changed the dynamics.”
“Between that and COVID we’ve been on a little bit of cruise control for a number of years. There was value for what we were providing to the members, but we weren’t focused on growing.”
“Helloworld has a massive infrastructure, so they weren’t looking for us to offer more services,” he said. “But, it was part of the value proposition they had with the Magellan folks, and in an effort to retain them through renewals, they kept us.”
Subscribe to LATTE’s free eNewsletter to keep up to date with everything in the luxury travel industry.
“But now we have an opportunity to really think about it and create something that fits the market, that fits our culture, that allows Lisa the things she needs to bring in the people that will add to this,” Sharpe said.
Sharpe told LATTE his trip to Melbourne and Sydney had involved meeting numerous prospective partners that left him inspired “to have a relationship so that I can learn more, not just about the Australian market, but about the travel partner.”
Harrison said Signature offers members great flexibility and is able to tailor a business solution to suit their agencies’ need.
“We are able to tailor the program for members and collaborate to ensure we’re delivering what they need,” Harrison said. “We have a huge suite of programs in America, and partners, products, amenities and we’ve only just scrapped the surface,” she said.
Within the suite is the ‘Sig Cruise Pro’ cruise booking engine. As LATTE revealed in August, a localised version of Sig Cruise Pro – read about the program here – was launched, initially with 12 cruise member partners. As Julie Howard, VP Cruise Partnerships explained, expedition cruising was a growth market.
Sig Cruise Pro offers a direct connection for the advisor to the 12 partner cruise lines in Australia (currently 10, but will be a dozen imminently, including Crystal which is in beta testing) providing access to dynamic rates and pricing in Aussie Dollars.
“Now members can search across the cruise line by ship, by destination, by vessel, by duration… whatever they want to search by. And it will identify all the Signature Collection sailing with amenities and will email the confirmation directly to the client.”
“Agents are loving it,” Harrison adds.
Among its armoury of tools, Signature has a total of 38 cruise partners, 60 land partners and “some digital tech and tools”.
“I’m not suggesting all of it can come, or should come, or will be here tomorrow, or even next year, but let’s have that discussion,” Sharpe said.
“In the US people have this ‘all or nothing’ mentality. There, the consortia path is much cleaner. You’re this, you’re this or you’re this. You might get your airfare somewhere else but everything else goes through the consortia.”
“What we’ll be offering is not going to be an all or nothing. It won’t be, “you only play with us,” I don’t think. But I want people who are committed,” he said.
Harrison says she has been impressed by the member advocacy. She has been actively attending events and conferences, including CLIA’s Cruise360 in Sydney and TravelManagers conference in Cairns.
“Increasing member engagement has been the priority. Supporting our existing members in growing their sales.”
“All our Australian member are introducing me to potential members. I’m having lots of conversations, which is wonderful, and they’re in varying stages of consideration. Some have said yes, we want to. We’ll have some news to share soon!” she said.
Sharpe summarised: “The intention here is, first and foremost, find the right members. Provide them great content and the portfolio to sell which will ultimately help us be a better partner to the cruise lines and the hotels and helps us grow the hotel program and destination specialist program.”
“I’d like to think that this will be big growing market over the coming years. It’s an incredible market to be in, but we have to solve it and really make sure we are delivering what they need.
“Right now, I think people are excited to get what we have. To me, the strength of the new member is telling me what you really need. Aussies aren’t shy. We’ll get the feedback from them and we’ll be completely transparent what works, what doesn’t work and why, and we’ll look to solve that.
“And its great to now have someone on the ground,” he says, referring to Harrison, “that can connect us and navigate our way once we figure out what we want to do.”
Meanwhile, the annual Signature Travel Network Conference returns to Las Vegas next month, with Sharpe revealing its another sellout, and will be the biggest annual conference in the consortia’s history. Around 2,000 advisors and 1,000 partners are expected to attend.
Among the partners will be representatives from Tourism Australia and every Australian state.
“Australia, as a tourism destination, is our largest tourism board relationship,” Sharpe noted.
Sixteen Signature Travel Network members from Australia and New Zealand, including Lisa Harrison.
The post Sharpe to the point on Australia: ‘It’s an incredible market to be in’ appeared first on LATTE Luxury News.
