I work with a Libyan tour operator that brings tourists to Libya (a
very new travel market for US citizens) and I will need to market to
those in the US travel industry who would be most interested in
organizing or selling trips to this new destination. Due to an
embargo, recently lifted in 2004, Libya has been off limits for
American tourists for a long time (20+ years) - although there has
been a small steady stream of European tourists. Therefore the US
travel industry still has little idea of what the country has to offer
(best preserved Roman and Greek ruins in North Africa, the Sahara
desert, extremely friendly people etc). There are typically two
"distribution channels" to sell our trips; directly through travel
agencies or indirectly through tour operators. Let's take a look at
both of these to help you understand the market better.
1) Travel Agencies: They would sell my packages directly to the
consumer and then earn a commission on that transacation.
2) US tour operators: I would work with them to create trips that
would be listed in their catalogues that would then be sold through
travel agencies or even online. They would pay me for the trips we
organize and then sell with their markup through the travel agencies.
I would like to find out the following:
1) List of tour operators, with email address/contact info/contact
names, working with Middle East/North Africa. I have done some
preliminary research yielding some interesting sites including
ustoa.com (US Tour Operators Association) and astanet.com (American
Society of Travel Agents). icta.com (travel institute)?However I
would still like to find much more information that will help me
launch a targeted marketing campaign.
2) List of travel agencies with contact info/email addresses(of
specific contact people if possible) so that I can email them
information. Preferably these travel agencies would be ones that cater
to those who travel internationally, specifically to the Middle
East/North Africa region. It would be good if the email addresses were
in a format I could take and easily cut and paste into an e-mail
application. If you cannot find any substantially sized list of free
easily available email addresses, maybe you can check out services
that sell email addresses, beyond those that I have already found
(below).
http://www.morebookings.com/positivespace/article2.php
http://www.emailmaestro.com/services.htm
http://www.edithroman.com/dc/leisure.pdf
http://www.datacards.com/cli/CLI67320.htm
http://www.americaint.com/custom_extractions.htm
www.listsyoucanafford.com/travelagents.html
http://www.venturedirect.com/html/press_northstar.htm
http://www.advanstarlists.com/advanstarlists/data/articlestandard/advanstarlists/192004/94209/article.pdf
Any other suggestions on marketing our services, as a tour operator to
Libya, to the US travel industry would be appreciated. |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
06 Oct 2004 08:17 PDT
adrian77-ga,
I don't have enough information on this topic to offer a full-fledged
answer, but I wanted to at least suggest another approach you could
consider.
Let the travel agents and tour operators come to you!
A press release on travel to Libya and/or a well-placed article in a
travel magazine or newspaper would have your phones ringing and your
email lines buzzing. This is the type of off-beat new topic that the
industry loves.
There are a number of services to which you can submit a press
release, and they will distribute it to travel writers throughout the
nation...most of them charge a fee, but there are some (I think) that
offer services at no charge.
There's also an interesting travel-journalists site that you might
want to look into, or even consider joining. It's called Media Kitty
and it's here:
http://www.mediakitty.com/
Contact them with your situation, and see what sort of response you get.
Anyway, let me know what you think of the "let the world come to you"
option that I'm suggesting here.
And best of luck with what sounds like a very intriguing new venture...
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
adrian77-ga
on
06 Oct 2004 10:24 PDT
pafalafa-ga,
Thanks for the bit of advice on approaching the situation from another
angle... a type of "pull" rather than a "push" on the market,
something like "tell them a story, with an interesting hook, and they
will come"
I will consider what is the best way to play the press angle, although
there have already been a few travel writers in Libya (see below).
There is always room for another good article with an interesting
angle/hook.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2004-08-17-libya_x.htm
http://www.travelandleisure.com/invoke.cfm?objectid=FC4C2F14-6A7B-40AD-
B7846C94D174A3EB
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/27/TRG627AO5A1.DTL
However I would still also like to approach of finding out who are the
main players in the ME/North Africa market, both tour operators and
travel agencies, and then contact them directly. I have done some
preliminary searches on the internet, as I have outlined in my
question. However I feel there is much more that still can be done. If
you think that your research can yield enough information worthy of
the $200, let me know. If not maybe another researcher would like to
pick up this project.
In any case thanks again for your help so far:-)
adrian77-ga
|
