Team ACV: Denise Graham, Sabina Guzel, Krista Cardona & Dianne Pegrogo
The ever-popular Sal Buccellato of Bahia Principe with Jill Dickie & Elizabeth Grundon of Travelsavers
KAI's Annika Klint with Bernadette Pakert of Progress TravelPlus
Mississauga was the place for agents to be on Tuesday night as ACV launched its big (and we mean BIG) winter program to agents. Le Treport banquet hall was a busy place with 49 suppliers and scores of agents all exchanging, learning – and having fun.
It’s no exaggeration to say the ACV program is huge for winter – with an additional 23,000 seats from YYZ alone. This winter’s program features some 500 properties in 40 destinations with non-stop flights from 7 cities in Canada and feeder flights to those from some additional 60 cities.
As Denise Graham, ACV’s General Manager of Sales told me, “We are up to 27 Rouge aircraft – including our huge program to Las Vegas which is operated exclusively by Rouge.” (Hint: you can tell it’s a Rouge flight operated by ACV when it’s a 4 digit number – and the paperwork will always read “operated by Air Canada Rouge.") The company is also back to Hawaii direct from YYZ on board a Rouge B767.
Also new is Panama, with a range of 9 hotels. The company has also stepped up service to Grenada to twice a week and has increased the size of aircraft used on its daily flights to Barbados. “Essentially, anywhere there is a Beaches or Sandals Resort, we have upped the capacity,” Graham says.
She also pointed out that groups business is “going through the roof” – a sentiment echoed by a number of exhibitors at the trade show, including Annika Klint of KAI who says that groups are up 50% at Coconut Bay, her #1 St. Lucia seller for ACV.
Among the most exciting news from ACV is its new agent incentive: for every 75 passengers sold on sun ITC – including groups – between September 8th and October 31st this year, agents will receive 1 free seat good for travel between November 1st this year and October 31st next year. And no limit!
Now that’s a crowd pleaser!
