Top 3 tips from the Canadian Rockies Convention Tour

During the Canadian Rockies Convention Tour, our veteran Group Coordinators, new-to-the-game Group Coordinators, and Go Ahead Tours staff talked a lot about the importance of traveler loyalty. Take a peek below to find out how to create a network of loyal travelers that benefits you and your group members!

1. Make your tour memorable

When your travelers are reminiscing about their recent tour, they’re probably also dreaming of jetting off on another adventure with you and your group. As one Group Coordinator put it, “Happy group members turn into ‘travel ambassadors’ for me and then more of their friends begin to travel with us, too.”

One way to foster this sense of loyalty among past travelers is to keep your tours top of mind. Need some ideas on how to do so? Group Coordinators at the Convention Tour shared these tips:

• Offer extra assistance that helps group members feel comfortable and confident, and makes your role as a Group Coordinator invaluable to their future travels. For example, if you plan transportation to the airport for the group or organize a night for everyone to get together and get their visa applications in order, you’ll solidify yourself as a part of their stress-free future travels.
• Treat particularly loyal group members to an excursion when they book their tour.
• Host regular get-togethers to build a tight-knit group—some Group Coordinators include trivia or excursion raffles to make these meetings extra fun.
• After tour, bring everyone back together to share photos, exchange favorite memories, and start the conversation about where to go next.
• Mail little surprises to your group members after a trip, like photos, small souvenirs from the destinations you visited together, or a DIY calendar that shows off everyone’s pictures from the tour. That way they’re thinking about their amazing memories—and where to go next—all year long.
• Send birthday and holiday cards throughout the year to keep the connection strong.

2. Talk about your travels

As all Group Coordinators can attest, the Group Coordinator community is a fun, welcoming group—look no farther than the Convention Tours, your Facebook page, and the Ambassador Program. Know someone who would be a great addition? It pays to refer! With Global Rewards, you’ll earn $500 or 500 Global Points for every Group Coordinator referral who leads a tour with 6+ travelers. You can then put the points you earn toward attending a Convention Tour.

The crew at the Canadian Rockies Convention Tour passed along these ideas on how to recruit a great fellow Group Coordinator:

• Talk to people while you’re out on the road—whether they’re friendly folks you meet in the airport or at your destination, you’ll already know they love to travel!
• Refer friends who have different networks than you or who live in different cities.
• Consider current or past colleagues. You’ll already know if they’re organized and social, and they’ll likely have different social circles than you.
• Talk to organizations in your community, like churches, senior centers, and local clubs.

3. Incentivize your group members

Club Go, our new loyalty program, offers new discounts that your group members will love. Plus, it rewards them the more they travel, so they’ll keep coming back to you for more. Get the full scoop on Club Go here and hear how other Group Coordinators will be using the new loyalty program to help recruit for future tours:

• For repeat group members, the tour credits to put toward future trips will be a huge incentive for travelers to join your group!
• The program will be particularly helpful to re-engage travelers who haven’t traveled with your group in a few years. They have credits just waiting to be put toward a future trip.
• The loyalty program is a great benefit to all Go Ahead Tours travelers—use it as a way to show potential group members why they should be traveling with you and your group.

Feeling inspired? Check out our upcoming Convention Tours!