Despite the rain in Toronto on Monday, Transat still had a chance to shine at the tour company’s first in-person event since the pandemic started. With close to a hundred agents expected over a couple of hours at the socially distanced outdoor gathering in the parking lot outside Transat’s office on the West Mall, it was a chance to get together after far too long, according to a company exec.
The aim of the event, which will also be held in Hamilton, London, Montreal, and Quebec this week, is “to return a little fun to the travel industry,” Transat Tours commercial director Nicole Bursey told Travel Industry Today. “People want to connect, and we owe a great deal of gratitude to travel agents.”
With a DJ pumping out upbeat tunes and a food truck serving burritos and nachos, agents also got the latest news from Transat, which includes the launch of special signage with a QR code for placement in brochure racks to direct users to the company’s latest (digital) brochure, which replaces the paper version this year.
Transat has also launched a hotel sharing tool, which allows agents to send a content rich email to clients.
Bursey says more in-depth virtual training will return later this month.
The events are also an opportunity for Transat to re-engage with the trade after a long pandemic pause that was further complicated last year by the company’s near, but ultimately aborted, merger with Air Canada.
Bursey noted that the corporate intrigue was a definitely a distraction, but said it did little to affect company business. “We never left, we’ve always been here,” she says, “and I think people knew we would be here in some version of Transat; we just didn’t know which version.”
While she believes there would have been new opportunities with an Air Canada deal, she also says Transat is now enjoying a new spirit of energy and renewal.
As for the get-together, Bursey says, “It just felt like it was kind of time and the agents wanted it. This is something they really deserve.”
First published at Travel Industry Today
First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News