Messaging Encourages Travelers to Take Personal Responsibility for their Health and Safety
COVID-19 has dismantled traditional sales and marketing strategies and as part of the National Wellness Month Seller-bration Campaign throughout the month of August, TASC has launched Caribbean Day Dreaming. This initiative provides daily, shareable, thematic, wellness content to help travel advisors elevate their presence on social channels, to better engage and motivate their clients and ultimately increase sales.
As part of TASC’s vision to provide travel advisors with the education and tools to sell the Caribbean, the campaign provides guidance on how to adapt their existing sales strategies to address challenges in the global pandemic and a struggling economy. With the crisis-driven shift to remote sales, effective digital tools have become even more critical in the travel industry. Above all, empathy, transparency, and vulnerability are extremely important elements in the new sales pitch. As travel advisors initiate conversations about travel in the “ new normal,” they can help instill confidence that travel can enhance their clients’ well-being and provide an escape from a stressful environment, if proper health and safety precautionary measures are taken.
In addition to beautiful imagery and videos that highlight destinations, resorts and other attractions, TASC administrators have also crafted daily messages that are structured to promote healthy behaviors. These wellness tips give travel advisors the tools to motivate their clients to take greater responsibility for their physical and mental health and personal safety once they embark on a trip.
The goal is to templetize and share effective messages to strengthen the travel sales pitch to ensure that travel advisors are saying the right thing to build the client relationship, not damage it. Travel advisors can check-in on the wellness status of their clients and set the tone about how they can evaluate their own exposure, symptoms and risks associated with travel. Making real connections with clients is more important than ever during this time of uncertainty.
While suppliers are still expected to put processes in place to keep guests safe and healthy, TASC believes that travel advisors can play an important role in emphasizing individual responsibility among their clientele, as the most effective way to prevent further COVID-19 outbreaks. These daily posts remind travelers to take charge of their health by taking precautions such as wearing masks, using hand sanitizer and obeying social distancing guidelines as part of their journey.
“Communication is key in any transaction and as part of our vision to empower travel advisors, TASC is helping our members better engage their clients during this health pandemic. The likelihood of knowing someone who is either infected or affected by coronavirus increases daily for all of us. Therefore the health risks and personal safety associated with travel decisions have become extremely critical elements of the sales narrative. As clients make travel decisions, travel advisors have an opportunity to motivate their clients to take personal responsibility for their own health and safety. There’s still so much uncertainty about travel and we will continue to support travel advisors as they strive to give their clients the best Caribbean experiences,“ said Kelly Fontenelle, Founder of TASC.
The TASC wellness campaign will culminate with a wellness webinar featuring a panel of Caribbean wellness experts. The theme of the event will be “Wellness Tourism: Health is the New Wealth.” It will be hosted via Zoom on August 25th 2020 from 1PM – 2:30PM EST.
For more information visit www.tastc.org.
Travel Advisors Selling the Caribbean (TASC) is organization with a private Facebook Group that facilitates a peer networking environment to promote Caribbean Tourism. Its 6,000 members throughout North America unite digitally on a daily basis to converse, problem-solve, inspire and learn from each other.
