Face to face: Amanda Darrington, Funway Holidays sales director
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
What will be your main priorities in your new role as Sales Director for Funway Holidays?
The UK travel trade is vital for Funway’s continuing success. They have built strong relationships with many travel agents over the years, but we are not about to rest on our laurels. I want to do more for our existing partners, and create strong new partnerships with the trade as we move forward. I want to alter the way in which the Funway team themselves view agents. I want to build a sales force that is putting agents first as if they were customers.
Other priorities include reinforcing to the trade the quality of product that Funway can offer, especially with regards to accommodation. I want agents to know our offering is broad ranging. One of the first actions I have done is to improve agent documentation and the introduction of direct-dial numbers for the reservation team.
How will you develop trade relationships and what sales channels will be your focus?
We will continue to advertise in targeted trade-facing publications, both in print and online. Advertising will be backed up by concerted PR and marketing campaigns. Raising awareness amongst the trade will also include more agent training and increasing the number of familiarisation trips. I’m a massive advocate of partner strategies. This includes a new scheme entitled Very Important Agents which will see additional perks for agents. Expanding the membership of this is very much on my to do list. We have 200 agents signed up already, and we are really keen to grow further.
What destinations, products and services are you particularly keen to push through the trade and why?
Consumers are seeking more specialised holidays, with an emphasis on exploring new places and trying something different. I’m keen to communicate more that we are a niche player offering tailor-made holidays. Interestingly, contrary to popular belief, it is not just about offering the cheapest holiday – consumers want more for their money and they are prepared to pay for it. As our business model allows us to tailor-make holidays for our customers, we are able to continue to evolve and meet whatever demands are made of us by consumers. I’m also keen to continue promotion of the MoneyCard travel agent reward programme run by Funway, which has attracted 260 new agents this year already! I’m going to push the agent membership and look to bring new suppliers on board.
What skills and experiences have you gained at Kuoni that will help you in this new role?
I will apply elements of the Kuoni model, but it is important to recognise the differences between the brands. I want to demonstrate the importance of agents, with the sales team being true agent devotees. I’ve proved over the years that agents are always at the centre of my plans. They were at the core of our plans at Kuoni and that will remain the case at Funway. Agents became a huge pillar of our strategic plans and I’m going to take that focus and make it core to the way we do things at Funway.
What trends are you noticing right now? What’s selling and why?
Last year Funway reported record sales – the best trading year in ten years. Figures to the end of 2015 show they generated a £70 million revenue – an
increase of over 10%, successfully achieved profitability for the fourth year running.
These excellent trading results demonstrate the strength of Funway and overall bookings so far this year to the US, Caribbean and Mexico are up 35% year-on-year. This can be attributed to keen pricing and benefiting in particular from high demand for private Homes in Orlando and Florida destinations.
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