Pietro Molica Lazzaro recently joined the Unforgettable team, and spoke to Travel Bulletin on the brands efforts to double down on its success with the trade.
Last month's announcement of Unforgettable Travel Company's dedicated trade team sees Pietro Molica Lazzaro shift from a role as European specialist to partnerships manager and a trade portal on the horizon.
Travel Bulletin heard from the new partnerships manager on the impressive potential the trade represents for Unforgettable, what agents can expect from the dedicated trade team and more.
Why was now the time to launch the dedicated trade team at Unforgettable?
We've certainly seen that in the last three years, with no dedicated business development team, we've successfully managed to build nearly £4m of annual business with the trade. Part of that is due to the growth of small ship cruising and our position in the market operating the most sought-after vessels in Croatia and Greece. We are increasing our fleet size and with that additional capacity, now feels like the right time to proactively work with the trade and introduce them to a very strong product.
Cruising's recovery has been impressive and momentum is building rapidly, how can agents work with you to capitalise on the demand?
A lot of agents are still fairly unaware of the small ship cruise market and they are more accustomed to selling ocean and river cruises. When you look at the year-on-year data, river, expedition and small ship cruising is significantly outgrowing the ocean cruise market. Post Covid, clients are looking for smaller, more intimate cruises and we would love to work with agents to help them to understand this market. We are more than happy to provide in-store or online training and FAM trips necessary to facilitate this.
How do you intend to reach out to more agents and build the important relationships that have been so successful thus far?
We're looking at a variety of ways to build our trade business including attending trade events and getting out on the road to visit agents. Part of why we've been successful is because we treat our agent partners like they are part of the unforgettable family. We're all about personality, personalized service and going one step further than the rest.
What can agents expect from the upcoming trade portal?
There is a lot we are working on but I feel the main areas we are looking to focus on is education, marketing support and incentivising on-going bookings. We've increased the size of our marketing team to help build a content platform which will provide agents with beautiful white label videos, online brochures, email and social media assets they can use to promote our cruises. We're also working on our loyalty club which we feel will make us really stand out.
