Exoticca wants Canadians to go far beyond all inclusive vacations
Exoticca’s managing director for Canada wants Canadians to take their vacations far beyond all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean.
“We know everyone here wants to get out but they think of going down south to an all-inclusive. But when you add it up you are still looking at $8,000 a family. With our Family Collection, now you can go to Portugal for 10 days with flights, touring and some meals included for the exact same price,” Mike Quinto tells Travel Courier. “It gets families to these incredible destinations like South Africa or Italy or Greece or Iceland for the same price that it would cost them to go to an all-inclusive.”
When it comes to price, Exoticca’s offer comes in at roughly 30 per cent less than the competition, leaving some to wonder just how the price can be that good?
“It’s our secret sauce. It’s incredible negotiations and we sell in markets all around the world so because of our immense buying power we are able to get really, really good rates. We negotiate fantastic contracts — we deal directly with the airlines and the hoteliers — we don’t have any middlemen,” he explains. “We’re passing along that savings to the clients.”
The tech-driven tour provider, which features some 300 itineraries in over 60 destinations, is focussed on travel advisors with competitive prices and a commission structure that covers all components of the booking — including air.
“Agents are the bread and butter of the business. Two years ago Exoticca was made up of 95 per cent direct business, meaning that clients were booking directly on our website. Today, 35 per cent of our business [in Canada] is booked through travel agents,” he shares. “Travel agents are super important to us. We have a brand new loyalty program that we launched in January of 2024 and it’s taken off. It’s so competitive, we have one of the best agent programs out there. Once you hit $500,000 in sales, you get a cheque for $10,000. We pay up to 20 per cent commission for our top agents, starting anywhere from 10-16 per cent if you are preferred.”
Quinto says there are also other incentives like agent rates and FAM trip opportunities. For completing Exoticca’s onboarding program, travel advisors will earn an additional $200 they receive as bonus commission on their first booking. Agents also have access to marketing materials and tools.
Coming in the new year is a Travel Agent Website that travel advisors will be able to customize with their details and photo (or an avatar) to send out to clients, who will be able to book directly on the platform with the commission going directly to agents.
Notably, Quinto says they’ve also invested significantly in expanding the team in Canada.
“Canada has been our No. 1 year over year market so every single year sales have gone up and up and up. We hired more BDMs to make sure we can give the travel agents the attention and support they need,” he says. “As far as growth goes, we’ve had a record breaking year. Sales are through the roof. We are up 200 per cent this year, sales over sales, so it’s been a fantastic year and we couldn’t have done it without the travel agents.”
In addition to the newly launched Family Collection, which Quinto says developed from a suggestion from a travel advisor, new tour destinations include Greece, Hawaii, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Southern India.
“We’ve launched brand new destinations — we’re going to have tours in Australia, which is super exciting,” he adds. “We’ve expanded our portfolio over to Chile, we are going to be going to the Easter Islands, which is super neat.”
Looking to the future, Quinto says Exoticca has ambitious plans to conquer the market.
“We are here to be the No. 1 tour operator in Canada — it’s one of our major goals,” he says.
In Toronto recently for Exoticca’s cross-Canada road shows, chief growth officer Alberto Constans echoed his sentiments.
“We want to become the largest tour operator in the world,” he added.
