Sunwing’s Deana Murphy
Tanja Steinbock of Barrett and Carlysle Travel in Oakville, Ont. (in flowered sweater) receives her cheque for a million Star Points. Joining her from left to right were Sunwing’s
Ben Shannon, Sam Gillingham and
Dave Wright.
If you’re going to get together with 550 of your favourite travel agents and 50 of your best suppliers, when better to do it than on 1MAY -- Travel Agent Appreciation Day?
The coincidence was certainly not lost on Sunwing Vice-President of Sales Deana Murphy as she welcomed the group to the massive Paramount Event Centre north of Toronto. “On behalf of the nearly 20,000 employees of the Sunwing Travel Group, happy Travel Agent Appreciation Day!”
Murphy and her colleagues reminded the attentive group about a number of innovations and incentives currently on tap from Sunwing and its partner airline, hotels and destinations services companies.
- Star Points are a great way for agents to earn cash towards what they want to spend the money on. “Travel, of course,” said Murphy, “But when we polled agents they told us they spend their Star cash on anything from wine to tuition to tires to tattoos!”
- The SunwingCares website is there for your clients before they travel, during the trip and after their return. All they need is their booking number to log in.
- There’s a raft of benefits when you book your family clients at Sunwing’s Smile resorts: special rates for teens 13-17, no single supplement for solo parents and, importantly, no blackout dates.
- Sunwing now flies from as many as 32 gateways across Canada, from Victoria to St. John’s and including even smaller centres such as Mont Joli, Que., and Kitchener, Ont. And don’t forget Buffalo and Detroit!
Groups are clearly a huge focus for Sunwing this year, and the company has put into place a variety of offers that are tempting to client and agent alike. They include the new “Book 10 Hold 20” promo whereby you can hold 10 seats with a reduced deposit and 20 additional seats with nodeposit. The 8thadult travels free with Lopesan and RIU Resorts; and when agents book a group of 10 or more, they could win 1 million Star Points that will convert to a cool $1,800 cash.
This presentation in Toronto (and the day before, in London) were just the beginning of Sunwing’s 18 launches across the country. Find out more at www.sunwingagents.ca.
Martha Chapman Columnist
An OJ columnist since 2006, Martha is responsible for the Biting Questions features as well as special seasonal series. A travel industry lifer known to all in the biz, she frequently covers industry events for Open Jaw.
