Building your Business with Overseas and U.S Visitors: A Toolkit on How to Work with Travel Trade
This toolkit was developed as a self-paced learning and diagnostic tool to help you answer these questions:
- Am I ready for the international market?
- How can travel trade help build my business?
- How will travel trade change how I do business?
- Which travel trade partners should I work with?
- How do I gain new travel trade partners?
This Travel Trade toolkit is designed to provide tactics, processes and best business practices on how to develop and expand your distribution, and ultimately, your business. The toolkit focuses on the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and China markets. The information in this toolkit, combined with advice and assistance from your provincial tourism organizations (PMOs), destination management organizations (DMOs), tourism industry associations and tourism operators, will assist you in growing your business on the path to success.
Module 1: Am I Ready for the International Market
This module provides an overview of the international travel trade distribution system; the basics of travel trade readiness; and a checklist to determine if your business is travel trade ready.
Module 2: How Can I Use Travel Trade to Help Build My Business
This module provides information on international markets in relation to Canada’s tourism situation. It includes an overview of Canada’s current situation; why international markets are important to Atlantic Canada; and how working with international markets differs from the domestic market.
Module 3: How Will Travel Trade Change How I Do Business?
This module gives an overview of the key elements that you will need to know to work with travel trade. It explains how the distribution system works; provides tools on how to price product and services for travel trade; explains what elements are included in a contract; and finally, informs on how to develop products and services for international markets.
Module 4: Which Partners and Travel Trade Should I Work With?
This module gives a detailed description of the various types of inbound travellers; the key characteristics to consider when working with international markets; and what travel trade type is best to work with depending on your business.
Module 5: How Do I Gain New Travel Trade Partners
This module provides information on how to develop fruitful partnerships with the travel trade. It lists current contact information for each Atlantic Canada provincial travel trade department; tips for how to market and how to manage relationships with travel trade; and in-depth guidelines on how to get the most value from tradeshows, marketplaces and sales missions. This module also includes practical information on how to create a travel trade action plan.
Module 6: Now Am I Ready for The International Market?
This module contains a final checklist bringing together learnings from modules 1 through 5, to help determine your level travel trade readiness after going through the Toolkit.