Travel Leaders launches honeymoon-wedding specialist program

Travel Leaders introduced a Honeymoon/Destination Wedding Specialization initiative at its 2013 Travel Leaders National Meeting in Atlanta last week.

It plans to use the expertise of the more than 300 existing honeymoon and destination specialists and leverage existing supplier relationships to develop the program. Travel Leaders will also use its In-Country Partners to help create more exotic honeymoons and destination weddings around the world.

Travel Leaders is offering training and marketing to help support the new initiative. It will work with suppliers to generate leads for agents and consumer events that will showcase Travel Leader’s agents as wedding and honeymoon specialists.

Travel Leaders will have a proprietary certification program for both honeymoon and destination wedding specializations that will include training “boot camps” and fams.

Surveys of members found that 98.7% of those surveyed consider honeymoons and wedding planning as “very important” or “moderately important” to their business. Sixty-four percent said that a minimum of 10% of their leisure sales is derived specifically from honeymoons and destination weddings.

Additionally, Travel Leaders’ research has shown a dramatic increase in the number of Travel Leaders agents reporting an increase in leisure business among travelers under the age of 35.

“This is an excellent path for these people to get into our agencies and then become customers for life,” said Roger Block.

Block also said that honeymoons generate referrals from family members and friends. One agent booked a wedding with seven bridesmaids and subsequently booked the weddings or honeymoons for every one of those bridesmaids, Block said.