Face to Face: Richard Hanson, TrekAmerica
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Richard Hanson, managing director of TrekAmerica discusses competition, youth travel and doing away with accommodation payments en-route…
How was 2012 for the company?
We had a great 2012; with the economic climate and increased competition we have had our challenges but we upped our game and this benefitted us. Things are heading in the right direction with our two brands TrekAmerica and Grand American Adventures (GAA). We’ve found GAA is even more relevant to travel agents as it takes an open-age approach and can be offered to a wider market. TrekAmerica is known for its road-style trips for the mid-20s where GAA is more about the national parks and cultural experience. We are seeing more growth in the GAA brand.
How has the start of 2013 fared for TrekAmerica?
Both brands have seen an increase in bookings from the UK particularly from our key partners such as Trailfinders, STA Travel and Flight Centre. Combined with consumer bookings our sales are up 30% and we are out-performing so all in all the situation is very good.
There has been a lot of growth in our new three and four-day Mini Adventures tours, with the trip from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon the most popular. We are seeing a trend that people go more often for shorter periods of time and these Mini Adventures are great because they can be tacked onto another tour or a city stay.
There is a lot happening for us at the moment and this is an indication of the momentum we are growing in.
There has been increased competition in tours to the USA recently form other UK tour operators. Does this worry you and what other challenges do you face?
For us it is all about maintaining our position as number one. We are not in defence mode but it stands that we are the only destination specialist. There are others in the space but they are global players and we’ve been established in the US for 40 years. We are 16 people [TrekAmerica employees] 100% focused on North America and should play on that more. We have three times more departures and for us the focus in 2013 is not product development but product refinement and concept.
The challenge now is the perceived value of US dollar to GBP. The key message is really to book now and pay in pounds as we have not adjusted our prices to the fluctuation so there are significant savings out there.
What product changes have you made to stand out?
For TrekAmerica we have always collected a small local payment to cover the cost of en-route hotels, but after considering feedback from our consumers and the trade we have decided to include all accommodation commencing with departures from October 2013. However we will continue with our collection of a ‘food kitty’ as it really is the cheapest, easiest and most flexible option for preparing meals whilst camping
For GAA there will be more premium departures to offer a full service and we will introduce a new fleet of comfortable vehicles. Also single supplements will be offered on request as there has been an increase in these.
What is your travel trade strategy?
We have filled three new roles here, there are only 16 of us and this now includes a product development manager, a UK marketing manager and a UK development manager, Toby Baxter, who is focused on the trade. I admit we had a direct initiative three or four years ago but 60% of our holidays are sold through the trade and we are now keen to maintain and develop our partners.
We do not need to re-establish ourselves with the trade but there is a renewed interest and we are upping our efforts as we are seeing the most growth from the UK. We are working with BP and Tradegate and putting together online tutorials plus a training programme with OTT. There is the occasional fam trip held with our key partners but there is an on-going incentive that any agent who books a tour with us can go on a Mini Adventure for free.
Have you noticed any other booking trends?
Southern Sun is still out most popular tour, we were founded on this and it is still our best-seller. What we are seeing is more focus on shorter tours and more accommodation which fixes into our BLT brand which has seen growth. GAA has also seen the most increase in full-accommodated tours, with the trend towards premium accommodation or unique, quirky options.
We also receive loads of enquiries for the family market and GAA is really branching out into specialist areas such as Adventure Cruising and walking holidays. More are also staying pre- and post-tour and increasing their add-ons so they can explore the cities they are staying in.