THE NO.1 SALES & MARKETING ALLIANCE… FOR THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY
2020 was certainly a tough year for many businesses and especially so for the travel industry. There’s no need to go into the detail of what happened or still happening, as we all are sick of talking about the dreaded ‘c’ word. Not wishing to state the obvious, but the sooner we get to the end of the long dark tunnel, the better! Each day that goes by hopefully edges us a little closer to a life of ‘normality’ (whatever that may be!).
On a positive note, the last year has given us the chance to review our working processes and consider changes to how we think, move and plan for the future. It’s obvious that we simply can’t stand still and continue as before, as the world has changed.
One of the primary projects the team at Select Representation has got involved with has been improving and expanding our partnership with other representative companies around the world. This time spent was without doubt a smart move, as the saying goes ‘alone we are strong….together we are stronger’. Launched in March 2019, Global Travel Representation Alliance (also known as GTRA) has now become one of the leading collective of independent, trustworthy and result orientated travel sales & marketing companies. Initially consisting of 3 key members, today we stand at 8 and cover most major markets required for hotels, destination management and cruise companies.
Current GTRA members include:
Select Representation – Covering UK, Ireland, Belgium, Holland & Scandinavia
Delivering America – Covering USA & Canada
Complete Travel Marketing – Covering Australia & New Zealand
RMC International – Covering Germany, Austria & Switzerland
Frozen Lime – Covering South East Asia
Wetouring – Covering Spain, Portugal & Latin America
Elev8 Representation & Consulting – Covering GCC & Middle East
MMA Consulting – Covering Russia & CIS
Moving forward, we are potentially looking for 1 or 2 new members to cover areas not represented BUT this must not be detrimental to our true working ethos. The idea is to only work with experienced and reputable representation companies. This alliance is not about having lots and lots of representative companies. Potential future members to join? Maybe representation companies covering Eastern & Southern Europe, India, South Africa, China, Korea and Japan. There’s no rush …..as this is about finding strong partners, who we feel will fit our criteria. Ultimately, the idea is to link ‘like-minded’ independent sales & marketing companies together, to share ideas, use the GTRA stamp of approval and potentially provide new sales / client leads. So far, so good.
So despite 2020 being a torrid time for so many, we can happily say our world association has grown, is still expanding and continues to improve. Here’s to a great partnership in 2021 ….and beyond.
Written by Jonathan Wilkins from Select Representation. Sales & marketing representatives for hotels, villas, cruise and destination management companies in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands & Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden & Finland) and founder member of Global Travel Representation Alliance (GTRA) . Here’s an article about travel trends for 2021 that was featured recently that may be of interest.
