The flagship B2B brand of dnata Travel Group UK have revealed their latest agent tool, Curated Offers. The long-haul specialist identified that thousands of quotes are created every week in their contact centre and on their website, and realised that these quotes can be utilised to support agents.   From today, 09 September, Gold Medal are allowing agents to access these quotes within a matter of minutes, for them to utilise on their channels and share with their clients. Agents can filter these price points by specific regions, departure airports, dates and by star rating.   Simon Applebaum, Managing Director shared, “Even on our best weeks we don’t convert every single offer that we quote on Gold Medal, although I am sure all operators and agents wish that was the case. These offers are then obsolete and despite the work that goes into making them the most competitive possible and with specific criteria in mind, they are effectively left on the cutting room floor, and we move onto the next one. We felt there was an opportunity here to amplify the number of offers agents have access to, and hence Curated Offers was developed.”   Applebaum continued, “Not all offers that we quote would be suitable for our marketing, nor will every offer be suitable for every agent or their client, but within the thousands of quotes that are currently sat in our database, agents can filter their way through and utilise whichever they wish and use this content to develop their own marketing.”   The Gold Medal team presented Curated Offers for the first time to agents at their Gold Medal Big Day Out event in June, explaining the concept and sharing tutorial videos to a selection of agents. The brand has since been hosting multiple webinars to train targeted agents on the new platform and have received exceptional feedback.   The operator has confirmed that it is currently only available for their Gold Medal brand but aim to extend this to their specialist brands Pure Luxury, Cruise Plus and Incredible Journeys in due course.

  Gold Medal, the award-winning B2B long haul operator, is kick-starting September with a brand-new campaign and book that showcases a huge variety of destinations and resorts – Your Holiday, Your Way by Gold Medal.   This specially curated collection of holidays has been hand-selected by the experts at Gold Medal, based on their personal recommendations and years of travel experiences. Agents and their clients can discover a world of possibilities with the brand’s 2024 and 2025 holiday selections, ranging from tranquil beach breaks, vibrant city breaks, exhilarating self-drives, multi-centre adventures, the best all-inclusive resorts and destinations perfect for some theme park fun.   The 40-page book showcases a range of Gold Medal’s top selling destinations including Maldives, Dubai, Orlando and Thailand with Top Tips for each destination featured throughout the pages.   Your Holiday, Your Way will be landing with 200 Gold Medal agents from today, and agents can find more about the campaign on the brand’s website homepage and across their social media channels throughout September and October.   To celebrate the launch of Your Holiday, Your Way, Gold Medal are giving agents the chance to win a holiday for two to New York, with SUMMIT Experience tickets at SUMMIT One Vanderbilt included. For the chance to win, agents must register a Gold Medal package booking between 03 September and 31 October 2024. The lucky winner will be announced in November 2024.   Gold Medal also relaunched their rewards scheme last month, meaning agents can earn Farebank Rewards of up to £1,500 per package booking they make with Gold Medal on the web or over the phone, awarded at the time of booking.   Sarah Lancashire, Marketing Director shared, “We know that September is a very busy time for travel agents and that’s why we are delighted to be launching Your Holiday, Your Way; an expertly crafted piece of marketing that we are very proud of and most importantly, a tool that we know will support agents in securing dream worldwide holidays.”

  Gold Medal, the flagship B2B brand of dnata Travel Group UK, have proudly launched their Dubai & Arabia brochure today, the fifth brochure of their 2024-25 portfolio. Featuring time-honoured favourites, plus a variety of new hotels and experiences, Gold Medal’s latest publication has been carefully designed to give agents maximum confidence to sell these inspiring destinations to their customers.   Dubai remains one of Gold Medal’s top sellers and is a key focus of the brochure, as is Abu Dhabi. The brochure also delves deeper into the unique landscapes of Arabia, with the likes of increasingly popular Oman, Qatar, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman and Fujairah featured too.   The long-haul operator celebrated the launch of the brochure this morning with over 30 travel agents who joined them for training sessions at their HQ in Leyland. Twelve Dubai and Arabia suppliers including Jumeirah, Miral, Dubai Tourism, Banyan Tree, Arabian Adventures and One&Only Resorts hosted face-to-face training for the attending agents who had all registered to experience the brochure launch activities, network and grow their knowledge.   With the launch of their Dubai & Arabia 2024-25 brochure, Gold Medal are also giving agents the chance to join them on a FAM trip to Abu Dhabi, with one of four places up for grabs. Three places will be awarded to an agent who registers a Dubai or Arabia package with Gold Medal between 20 Aug and 15 Oct 2024, with one wild card place being awarded at the end of the campaign. Agents can discover more information at goldmedal.co.uk.   Deborah Wadhams, Head of long-haul product shared, “Dubai has always been a top selling destination for us and as demand for the region increases, we’re keen to showcase some of the lesser-known destinations in Arabia that offer excellent hotels and resorts in a variety of settings, as well as celebrating the firm favourites.”   Wadhams continued, “A focus on providing new inspiration for agents was very important too, when developing this brochure. We have had requests for more multi-centre holidays such as pairing Dubai and Arabia with a multitude of other destinations, so agents can discover a selection of itineraries to showcase this including Dubai and Mauritius and Oman and the Maldives.”

 

Discover the third of our 2024-25 brochure collection... USA & Canada. Bustling cities, stunning beaches,  verdant landscapes and sprawling mountains.

The USA and Canada will be sure not to disappoint. Where will your customers choose?

   

  Gold Medal, the flagship brand of dnata Travel Group UK, have today launched their second brochure of 2024, Caribbean & Mexico, showcasing their expanded portfolio of products and the variety of unique experiences that the B2B operator can offer.   Featuring a range of stunning destinations across 116 pages, including Antigua, Barbados and Jamaica, the new brochure features ever-popular resorts plus several newly opened resorts and a series of renovated properties. There is also a great choice of family-friendly and adult-only options allowing customers to choose their perfect escape. The brochure provides inspiration for smaller islands too, such as Aruba, St Vincent, The Grenadines and Turks and Caicos.   The brand identified the demand for a new brochure, as Barbados and Antigua sales have increased by 22% and 26% year on year, while Jamaica and Grenada have shown significant growth by over 40%, greatly impacted by the increased flight capacity to both islands.   To celebrate the launch of the Gold Medal Caribbean & Mexico 2024-25 brochure, Gold Medal are giving agents the chance to join them on an FAM trip to Barbados. In partnership with Barbados Tourism and Aer Lingus - there’s one of four places up for grabs.   To be in with a chance of winning a place, agents must make a Caribbean or Mexico package booking with Gold Medal, between 14 May - 15 July. Double entries will be awarded for packages with Aer Lingus flights.   Deborah Wadhams, Head of Long-Haul product shared, “This brochure has been created by our passionate team who have so much knowledge to share. With an outstanding selection of all-inclusive properties throughout the portfolio, agents’ need look no further for assured fun-filled and stress-free holidays to the Caribbean and Mexico.   Wadhams continued, “With the increased global focus on sustainability, we were also keen to highlight some of our resorts that are showing meaningful commitment in this area, so agents can discover these resorts for their more conscious travellers too."

The top performing six Vertical Travel Group sales agents for Gold Medal, Pure Luxury, Incredible Journeys and Cruise Plus were recently hosted on a VIP reward trip to Thailand. The agents from the Holiday Elite and Your Holiday Booking brands were invited on an eight-night break from 17 - 25 March, organized by Gold Medal and Vertical Sales Manager Suzanne Brunt. Experiences included Elephant Hills, Khao Lak as well as free time to explore Phuket. Brunt said: “This trip is the second dedicated incentive from Gold Medal and their sister brands which has been launched at our two most recent conferences.” “We are very lucky to work within an industry which sees well deserved reward trips such as this” Holiday Elite homeworker Kerry Kitto added: “I had the most amazing time visiting Thailand and witnessing first-hand the different resorts and hotels.” 

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  Gold Medal released their first dedicated Florida Private Homes & Villas guide last week that showcases five private rental homes, perfect for a trip to Orlando with the family. The guide launched at a time when Gold Medal Florida bookings and car hire in the destination are both performing well.   Florida Destination Manager, Leanne Davies, visited all the featured resorts firsthand to give agents and their customers a confident insight into the rental properties available in this fun-filled destination.   Leanne shared, “I was lucky enough to travel to Orlando and spend some time with one of our partners - Tropical Escape Vacation Homes, gaining invaluable insight into the communities and homes that we feature. This guide showcases five of the homes I visited, with some personal top tips and recommendations throughout.”   With the release of the guide, Gold Medal are rewarding agents with INSTANT £75 Farebank Rewards on all Florida Private Villa package bookings until 30 April 2024 online or via the sales centre. To discover the guide and for more incentive information, agents should visit goldmedal.co.uk.   Gold Medal have also reported that bookings for Florida car hire are in growth. Bookings for car hire in Orlando have reached almost 50% growth year on year, with data suggesting that customers are starting their holiday with an Orlando Villa stay, before driving across to the Gulf Coast beaches of St Petes, Fort Myers and Clearwater.   Including car hire in a Florida package with Gold Medal means customers can easily see more of the destination on their holiday. Gold Medal ensures customers receive a ‘skip the counter’ service after a long flight, plus they provide the option to add an additional driver free of charge.   Adrian James, Product & Commercial Director shared, “We have worked hard to expand our offering of private homes and villas in Florida and we are now able to proudly share our portfolio with agents. Understanding the different options and breadth of product available for agents and their clients was something our product manager, Leanne, wanted to explore and there was no better way for her to do this than to see it firsthand. The creation of this guide was a result of her visit, and we always strive to ensure the products Gold Medal provide are hand-selected and come highly recommended.”

Dnata Travel Group UK’s flagship B2B brand Gold Medal is bring back its Mega Fam in September.   Gold Medal is giving 24 winning travel agents, in four groups, the chance to experience the Maldives, Mauritius, Thailand or Abu Dhabi. Then they will all meet up in Dubai for a five-star stay at One&Only Royal Mirage for the Mega Fam finale. Gold Medal’s last annual Mega Fam was in 2019. Back this year as the first post-pandemic Mega Fam, the trip includes return flights with Emirates and luxury accommodation. There are 24 travel agent places to be won and a variety of ways to enter. Gold Medal will be awarding one place for an agent who attends Gold Medal's webinar with Emirates on 26 March. Also, every week for four weeks, one winner will be selected in a bookings prize draw and announced on Gold Medal's Facebook page. Additionally, three wild card places will be awarded; and sixteen places will be awarded from a prize draw at the end of the incentive period on 30 April 2024. Agents can enter their bookings into the prize draw by emailing [email protected]. Sarah Lancashire, Marketing Director dnata Travel Group UK said: "Our incentives are always well received and throughout peaks we saw record numbers of entries into all our incentives.” “This trip takes Fam trips as we know them to a whole new level and provides travel agents with an experience no other operator can offer."

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  Gold Medal, the flagship B2B brand of dnata Travel Group UK, have today confirmed that the biggest multi-centre FAM trip of the year is set to travel again this September.   Gold Medal are giving 24 winning agents, in four groups, the chance to experience the Maldives, Mauritius, Thailand or Abu Dhabi, before all meeting in Dubai for an extraordinary stay at five-star One&Only Royal Mirage for the Mega FAM finale.   The last annual Mega FAM ran by Gold Medal travelled in 2019, and the iconic annual trip was incredibly popular amongst agents, but sadly due to travel restrictions, these came to a pause in 2020. As it returns for 2024, the trip will include return flights with Emirates, luxury accommodation at iconic hotels, and the opportunity to celebrate in style with Gold Medal at exciting destinations.   There are an incredible 24 places to be won on this trip with a variety of ways to enter. Gold Medal will be awarding one place for an agent who attends Gold Medal’s webinar with Emirates on 26 March; every week for four weeks, one winner will be selected in a bookings prize draw and announced on Gold Medal’s Facebook page; three wild card places will be awarded; and sixteen places will be awarded from a prize draw at the end of the incentive period, 30 April 2024.   Agents can enter their bookings into the prize draw by emailing [email protected].   Sarah Lancashire, Marketing Director dnata Travel Group UK shared, “Our incentives are always well received by agents, and this was clear throughout peaks where we saw record numbers of entries into all our incentives. It is for that reason that I am delighted to share the news with agents that our previously popular MEGA FAM is set to return this September, and they can all be in with a chance of winning a place. This trip takes FAM trips as we know them to a whole new level and provides agents with an experience no other operator can offer.”   Lancashire continued, “We are so grateful to our trusted industry partners that help us make these opportunities possible. Our unrivalled programme of FAM trips would not exist without their support and our joint dedication to providing agents with the best possible education. We can’t wait to award places to a whopping 24 agents on this trip of a lifetime.”

  Dnata Travel Group UK’s B2B brands Gold Medal, Pure Luxury, Cruise Plus and Incredible Journeys launched four dedicated peaks campaigns at the start of January, which ran until 29 February. Each brand-specific campaign was designed to inspire travel based on the latest trends, whilst highlighting the extensive long-haul, luxury, cruising, and touring product available for agents to book.   As the peaks period came to an end last week, the dnata brands have reported their discoveries and highlights.   Gold Medal, the flagship brand of dnata Travel Group UK enjoyed a successful peaks period with some of their top destinations - Dubai, Florida, and Las Vegas - all showing year on year growth. The standout performance however came from Thailand, which reached 25% growth in bookings.   The brand saw a 24% increase in muti-centre bookings, suggesting customers are looking to experience more variety and breadth from their holidays, and a significant increase in family bookings, and solo traveller bookings.   Maldives was the highest growing destination for their ultra-luxury brand, Pure Luxury, reaching a 40% growth in bookings year on year. New York also outperformed the previous peaks period, with a 40% growth in bookings. They both sit in Pure Luxury’s top destinations for peaks, alongside Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Las Vegas and Florida.   Most luxury bookings made were to travel in February and March 2024, with a significant number heading into December for festive breaks.   Cruise Plus – the brand that specialises in tailor-made cruising holidays around the globe - had their best week on record this peaks period and saw growth into every cruise type. The strongest performances were reported into the luxury and ultra-luxury cruise sectors, that both reached triple digit growth following advancements made in 2023 by the brand into Luxury by Cruise Plus.   Agents trading with Cruise Plus increased by 15% year on year, with over 60% of their customers being couples.   The touring and adventure brand of dnata Travel Group, Incredible Journeys, recorded its biggest booking to date over their eight-week campaign, and broke their own records three weeks in a row. Bookings for Lapland proved immensely popular as Finland had the highest growth in bookings, followed by Sri Lanka, Peru and Japan.   Agents booking with the brand increased by 34% compared to the last peaks period, and their average booking value grew by over 14%.   Adrian James, Product & Commercial Director dnata Travel Group UK B2B shared, “All our B2B brands had a successful peaks and achieved some exceptional records. It was great to see that agents are picking up the phones and calling our expert teams more than ever before, with call volumes in substantial growth year on year for each brand – Gold Medal (+20%), Pure Luxury (+20%), Cruise Plus (+42%) and Incredible Journeys (over 100%).   Not only this, but it is apparent agents have increased trust in our Gold Medal website. The web alone took over 200% more bookings and achieved an increase of over 200% in sales, which is a reflection of the substantial investments made across the last 12 months.”   James continued, “We are constantly looking for ways to expand our product portfolio and provide agents with the most relevant and competitive offers. As we look ahead to the rest of 2024, this will continue to be a focus of our brands with more exciting campaigns, brochures and opportunities to inspire travel, still to come.”