Gold Medal Doubles Us Bookings Overnight Following Reopening Announcement

Wednesday, Sep 22, 2021 0

The UK’s leading trade-only tour operator Gold Medal, saw both enquiries and bookings for the USA double overnight, following the announcement on Monday that the USA will reopen to travellers from here in November.

Overall, bookings for the US have accounted for over 40% of those taken since Monday evening, jumping up from just over a quarter prior to that – with 30% of those taken for travel in 2021 (up from just 5% before the announcement was made). New York city shopping breaks in the lead up to Christmas have been especially popular.

In response to Monday’s news, Gold Medal has promoted two 2021 offers to agents via social media and email (New York Christmas shopping, and seven days in Orlando) with more offers on the way, and will launch a US-focused marketing campaign on Thursday. This will see the USA Inspire Travel magazine, containing 22 pages of fun facts and itineraries including Route 66 self-drives, cruising in Alaska and more of its most popular holiday destinations from New York to Orlando – with prices for departure in December 2021 onwards – shared via email and the Gold Medal Facebook page, for agents to use directly with their customers to help with their planning and decision making.

Gold Medal will also provide agents with a dedicated USA social media content library, giving them an invaluable resource of pre-designed social media posts including itinerary suggestions, fun facts and videos all with pre-written text and accompanying images and videos – just leaving agents to copy, paste and share. As well as posting topical content on its own page that agents can share directly, Gold Medal will also share USA offers daily too.

Finally, Gold Medal will re-promote its market-leading and 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 but in addition includes up to $300 Spending Money on 2022 bookings for Walt Disney World Resort. The exclusive Disney Spending Money offer is available until 3^rd October.

Commenting, Lisa McAuley, Managing Director, said: “Monday’s announcement was obviously very good news for us. Even though the USA 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 – and in many cases bring forward plans and look to travel in 2021.

“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 and convert the increased interest into bookings. We’re ready for them!”