Brand USA unveiled its revamped consumer website, enhanced online training and an incentive program for agents in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland and expansion of the MegaFam program at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London earlier this month.
Accompanied by a large delegation, Brand USA representatives attended the WTM, one of the leading events for the travel industry which allows the international travel trade to meet, network and negotiate business. The three-day event, on Nov. 7-9, drew thousands of travel professionals, travel organizations and international and domestic buyers who engaged in pre-scheduled business appointments that generated future travel.
At WTM, Brand announced three new initiatives – a USA Discovery Program incentive for agents in the UK and Ireland with five new training modules, a brand new global.com site and plans for an online USA Tool Kit, and the growth of the MegaFam program.
“The USA Discovery Program continues to inspire agents across the globe and our aim is to provide them with the knowledge they need to sell the USA as a premier holiday destination,” said Brand USA Chief Marketing Officer Thomas Garzilli. “Our goal is to deliver as much easy-to-access information to agents as possible to assist them in driving more bookings to the United States on our behalf and to enable us to reach our goal of 100 million visitors to the USA by 2021.”
The UK version of the USA Discovery Program, Brand USA’s official travel agent training platform for the U.S.A., allows members to earn any five badges of their choice on the site to be entered into a prize drawing where one lucky USA specialist winner will receive return flights to anywhere in the USA with American Airlines and British Airways as well as a state-of-the-art GoPro camera. Each badge provides an overview of a destination, products and attractions, with in-depth sections about accommodations, food and drink, nightlife and must see/must do experiences. The competition aims to draw new users to the award-winning training platform, as well as to engage existing users ahead of the holiday period. Three runners up also will receive GoPro cameras in the prize drawing. The incentive runs from November 10 to December 15.
Brand USA, meanwhile, is increasing its MegaFam program, which brings travel agents to the U.S. for mult-itinerary tours and gives them firsthand knowledge of the destinations to enable them to better sell USA travel to their clients.
MegaFams currently involve agents from the Australia, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK. In 2017, Brand USA will expand the program to include agents in Canada, China, and Mexico. German agents, meanwhile, will take part in the first coach-based MegaFam. Brand USA’s largest ever MegaFam from the UK and Ireland, in partnership with American Airlines and British Airways, will be held May 11-18 with an 107 travel agents taking part in the tours. Seven groups will travel to New Orleans, Louisiana; Oakland, California; or Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, ending their travel with a final event in Chicago, Illinois.
“Each year, the Brand USA MegaFam sees more and more agents across the UK and Ireland vying to secure a spot, demonstrating both incredible sales skills and consumer demand for the United States,” Garzilli said. “We are delighted to be working for a fifth consecutive year with our valued partners at American Airlines and British Airways in developing another exciting set of routes. By working closely with destination partners, we aim to showcase the very best each destination has to offer.”
Since the program began in 2013, about 700 agents from five countries have participated, Garzilli said, adding that the MegaFams in 2017 are expected to increase that number to 900.
Of the revamped consumer website, which follows the recent relaunch of Brand USA’s corporate website (TheBrandUSA.com), Garzilli said the site will “allow us to push out a lot more, and better, content and help our destination partners push out and put up a lot of their content.”
The new dot com version of the USA Discovery Program website, for agents operating in global markets without Brand USA offices, will include the USA Trip Kit, which will provide the travel trade with itinerary suggestions, imagery and travel information as well as 20 suggested regional itineraries to, through, and beyond gateway cities.
Brand USA also continues to promote its giant-screen National Parks Adventure, “America Wild America – National Parks Adventure,” which celebrated the centennial birthday of the National Park System this year. The film, premiering in 100 cities worldwide, has been viewed by almost 2.5 million people, making it the highest-grossing documentary film of the year, Garzilli noted.
“Our mission is all about moving international travelers to, through, and beyond the gateways to see much more of the country,” Garzilli said. “So the whole great outdoors platform is something we created to do that and the film, I would say, is one of the biggest and boldest pieces of a deep marketing campaign.”
The film, which has garnered $16.8 million in gross worldwide ticket sales, will continue to be shown in the current theaters for the next 18 months, while other theaters will be added over the next two years. The expectation is that the film eventually will have a global audience of 10 million viewers.