Gold Medal sees demand for US trips double overnight
Trade-only tour operator Gold Medal says enquiries and bookings for the US doubled overnight, following news that the US will reopen borders to travellers in November.
Overall, bookings for the US have accounted for over 40% since Monday evening, jumping up from just over a quarter prior to that – with 30% of those taken for travel in 2021, which is a significant jump from just 5% before the announcement.
New York City shopping breaks in the lead up to Christmas have been especially popular, Gold Medal says.
In response, Gold Medal has promoted two 2021 offers to agents via social media and email.
These are New York Christmas shopping breaks and seven days in Orlando with more offers on the way.
From today, it will launch a US-focused marketing campaign.
The USA Inspire Travel magazine, containing 22 pages of fun facts and itineraries with prices for departure in December 2021 onwards,is shared via email and the Gold Medal Facebook page, for agents to use directly with their customers.
Gold Medal will also arm agents with a dedicated US social media content library, including itinerary suggestions, fun facts and videos all with pre-written text and accompanying images and videos.
As well as posting topical content on its own page that agents can share directly, Gold Medal will also share US offers daily too.
"Monday’s announcement was obviously very good news for us. Even though the US remained one of our top sellers throughout the pandemic, the prospect of the borders reopening from November has given travellers the confidence to book sooner," said Lisa McAuley, Managing Director.
Gold Medal will re-promote its exclusive Disney gift card offer, which includes the Disney Early Booking Offer of up to $950 Dining Credit per room and 14 Day Ultimate Ticket with Memory Maker for the price of seven.
It also includes up to $300 spending money on 2022 bookings for Walt Disney World Resort.
The exclusive Disney spending money offer is available until 3 October.
"It’s been great to see our phones ringing and enquiries come in,and our teams at their busiest for a long time. Critical for us now is ensuring agents have the tools they need to inspire their customers," McAuley added.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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