TTC Tour Brands makes travel matter

Travel is still a top priority for North Americans even in the face of high inflation.

“We just did a survey of about 16,000 of our guests. One of the things I thought was most interesting that came out of it was even though we’re all sort of staring down the barrel of high inflation and a potential recession, only 8% of people that we surveyed said that that was going to impact their travel plans,” Melissa DaSilva, president, TTC Tour Brands, North America, tells Travel Courier. “I found that to be a really positive sign that people are saying I’m still gonna go.”

Notably, DaSilva says the tour operator, whose umbrella of brands includes Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Brendan Vacations, Luxury Gold, Costsaver and Contiki, is set to achieve healthy growth targets over 2019 levels by 2024.

“People are choosing to travel longer and spend more money and so that is a great thing,” she shares. “From a destination standpoint, we’re seeing a return to some of the old booking patterns. So the places that were very loved are the top sellers again, your Italy your Great Britain, your Portugal, your Spain [itineraries]. They’re absolutely flying off the shelf right now.”

TTC Tour Brands has also made a conscious efforts to be more sustainable not only for the environment but also in terms of the destinations they visit. First of all, every itinerary now includes a Make Travel Matter experience, which are conscious travel experiences that make a difference in the communities visited.

“One of our goals was to get to 50% [of all our itineraries] by 2025 and we hit 100% by 2023,” she says. “So it doesn’t matter what brand, what itinerary, you’re going to get to have one of those experiences.”

DaSilva recently got to experience one of the newest Make Travel Matter experiences herself by visiting a bee keeper outside of Delphi, Spain.

“They are so important when it comes to all of our food supply and ecosystem. He’s just got away with them. He’s literally petting the bees and if you are not aggressive towards them they’re not aggressive towards you. It was a very cool experience and he explains how they move the boxes to create different kinds of honey,” she says. “Those are the kinds of things that we do that we get to show how to make a difference on the planet, but also have a really cool experiences in destination.”

TTC Tour Brands is also pushing offseason travel and establishing itineraries in more off the beaten path locations. 

“When you have destinations where they’re only getting visitors in during peak times of the year it’s not good for the people that are running the shops, the hotels, the restaurants, because they can’t plan on a sustainable income throughout the year,” she says. “It’s really important to us to make sure that we’re getting guests going year round into destinations, but also outside of the main gateways. A significant number of the destinations that we visit are outside of main gateways. And so we’re really getting to those smaller towns and villages who are dependent on tourism.”

Interestingly, DaSilva also noted that travel agents represent the most important distribution channel for the company.

“There’s just so much information out there, that it’s nearly impossible for somebody who doesn’t know what they’re doing to sift through all of it and figure out the right place to go, the right time to go, the right product to go on and their travel professional helps them do that,” she says. “And we’re just thankful that they choose us when they’re giving some of those recommendations to their clients.”