In 2018, when U.S. immigration policy cut Mexican travel to U.S. destinations by 30% to 70%, PR Central designed a 360° travel trade strategy for Visit Orlando. That year it trained 5,000 travel agents in person, 250% more than in 2017, and the work earned a SABRE recognition in 2019.
| Client | Visit Orlando |
|---|---|
| Period | 2017 to 2020 |
| Market | Mexico |
| Services | Travel trade relations, travel agent certification and training, B2B communications, tour operator partnerships |
| Recognition | SABRE Awards Latin America 2019, Certificate of Excellence, Travel & Leisure category |
What was the problem in 2018?
- Mexican travel to the most visited U.S. destinations fell by 30% to 70% in the first half of 2018, mainly because of the new federal administration’s immigration policies.
- Tour operators and travel agencies lost interest in promoting U.S. destinations because their sales were falling.
- For many Mexicans, Orlando was “the city of the two parks”: Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World. The travel trade knew little about the rest of what the destination offers.
What did PR Central do?
The strategy set out to influence every stage of the sales path, from the moment an agent learns about the destination until the client buys.
- Tour operators as partners. Tour operators were invited to choose their peak sales seasons to promote the destination, on the basis that a partnership with Visit Orlando would help them sell more passengers and room nights.
- Online certification first. Each tour operator was asked to have 100% of its agents, and 10% of the agents at the agencies it works with, certified in the Orlando Travel Academy program.
- In-person training next. Face-to-face sessions were held with agents who already knew the destination, which made room for specific questions. Partners such as SeaWorld, Universal Orlando Resort, Simon Shopping Destinations, Kennedy Space Center and jetBlue joined, so that Orlando would be seen as a complete destination and not as two parks.
- B2B communications through each tour operator’s channels (email, social media and website), before, during and after each sales campaign.
- Wrap-up meetings with each tour operator to review results and measure the campaign’s effectiveness.
What were the results?
| Agents trained in person (2018) | 5,000, 250% more than in 2017 |
|---|---|
| Agents certified in Orlando Travel Academy (2018) | 4,000, against an annual goal of 800 |
| Cooperative programs | Visit Orlando began investing in promotion with tour operators who matched the investment 1 to 1 |
The underlying change was one of method. Negotiations with tour operators and online agencies came to follow a train, sell and measure logic, and the destination’s communications stopped revolving only around the theme parks.
What recognition did it receive?
In October 2019, the campaign “Visit Orlando – A 360° approach to the Mexican travel trade” received a Certificate of Excellence at the SABRE Awards Latin America, presented by The Holmes Report (now PRovoke Media), in the Travel & Leisure category. The award was presented at RADICAL, the 12th International Public Relations Congress organized by PRORP in Mexico City.
“For large agencies it may be an everyday thing. For us at PR Central, it means that after five years we are ready to compete in the big leagues with the dedication and gratitude that define us.”
— Alethia García, managing partner of PR Central, quoted by Turistampa, October 18, 2019 (translated from Spanish).
A year later, PR Central won the Gold SABRE Award in Travel & Leisure at the SABRE Awards Latin America 2020 for Radar Turístico, a study of how travelers and the travel industry in Mexico experienced the COVID-19 crisis.
Do you represent a destination that wants to grow with the Mexican travel trade? Contact us or read our frequently asked questions.