Enjoy Travel Group started over 20 years ago in Barcelona, steadily growing 11 offices in Europe and the Americas. Now they have opened a Canadian office in Montreal to make it an even dozen and are eager to introduce themselves to advisors here.
“We are new to Canada, but we are not a new company,” says Gwendoline Duval, of Enjoy’s PR team. “We are a well established company, and we have our own local DMCs (destination management company) for the destinations that we offer.” By owning DMCs in-market rather than partnering with third parties, Enjoy is able to exercise a deeper level of connection with their destinations and flexibility with booking.
It took about a year of planning to get everything off the ground in Montreal and since the office opened last November things have been steadily gathering steam. First the company listed its offerings to Canadian travel advisors on SIREV, followed at the end of January by becoming visible on Sabre. Galileo is slated shortly.
For air partners in Canada, Enjoy Travel works with Air Transat flying out of Toronto and Montreal to Punta Cana, Cancun, Varadero, Cayo Coco and Holguin, and Orlando (Montreal only). For properties in Havana, travellers fly into Varadero and transfer into Havana rather than flying directly to the capital. Beginning in April, Enjoy will partner with Arajet to Punta Cana. Details of that contract are being finalized now.
When asked why Canada, it is all smiles. “Because Canada is a great place!” says Sabrena Dayle, Enjoy spokesperson. “It’s a great destination and the Canada market to Cuba and the destinations we offer, well, Canadians travel there a lot!” Not only does Enjoy carry offerings for outbound travel, it also caters to those booking travel to Canada. So when conducting the market research to determine where to open Enjoy Travel Group’s 12th office, they had to consider not only if there was sufficient demand for local travellers going to Mexico, Dominican Republic and Cuba in the winter, but also if inbound travellers would want to visit from the European and Latin American markets Enjoy services.
Work is currently underway curating tours and Canadian products for both international and domestic visitors officially set to launch in the summer of this year. Enjoy will also offer tours in Europe, beginning with Italy, Spain and Greece, and more to come.
Enjoy would like to be well known in Canada as a company that doesn’t just offer packages, but also experiences. Using an example of a hypothetical client who has been to Cuba several times and wants to go back, but wants something more, Duval suggests an advisor could book cooking classes or salsa dancing “in the best places in Havana.”
Enjoy is onboarding software to enable each local excursion to be listed and booked as its own product. They are expecting that to be available to advisors within the month.
Presently, excursions are listed as sub-products that can be booked with the rest of the trip. Duval points out how advantageous this is, as it gives advisors a chance to educate the client on some of the fun available outside of the resort giving them a fuller travel experience. It also saves the client from sitting through that “first morning lobby presentation” that goes through every possible excursion. It often isn’t the best use of the travellers’ time. Why sit through the boat tour spiel if you know you get sick on the water?
Another key advantage is the fact that advisors earn commission on the excursions they book.
“We’re a little bit different in the sense that we can offer whatever the client is looking for, fits, a la carte. We can do tailor made itineraries,” says Dayle. “Sometimes people ask, ‘how are we different from other tour operators?’ And I’ll say that’s how we are different. We’re versatile in the sense that we can work with the client in whatever they’re looking for.”
For more information on working with Enjoy Travel Group and its products, see enjoytravelgroup.com.
