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APLBC announces partnership with Founder of The Travel Coach Network to drive understanding of Wellness Travel

By Events, Industry Insights

APLBC announces partnership with Founder of The Travel Coach Network to drive understanding of Wellness Travel. 

Our sister company APLBC are renowned as a global hotel representation and co-sourcing company that provides sales, integrated marketing and revenue management for independent hotels and managed apartments. Through using their extensive reach to target over 160,000 corporate, MICE, hi-end leisure and entertainment organisations globally, they help partners achieve their objectives by delivering greater brand awareness and positive sales growth.

Constantly paying attention to the global market to make sure we always stay ahead of developments allows us to understand and respond to the changes in direction that will benefit our partners. 

Becoming a vital hub

And today we’re excited to announce the first in a series of new partnerships that enhance and widen the APLBC offering. Something that will see us move beyond a representation company to become a vital hub for our partners. This move will enable more businesses to benefit from more expertise and complimentary services that help them to stay at the forefront of the competitive travel industry. 

One of the most important developments happening now that will influence and shape the future of travel comes not from technology or disruptive new entrants, but from travellers themselves.

Significant shift in direction

Within the last 2-3 years, a significant shift has taken place in traveller behaviour and their demands. And it’s vital to understand that this behaviour change isn’t confined to leisure travel. Business travel is also experiencing the same shift. No longer is it simply about the comforts within a room and the hotel facilities. The needs of travellers are evolving, moving from what they do. or want to do. to how they feel when they travel. 

This much deeper need that’s emerging is centred on wellness travel. Something that ties in directly with where we want to go and what we want to offer our partners. Because understanding what wellness means now, and adapting to how wellness can be integrated into their whole experience, will ensure our partners meet the needs of travellers.

A new partnership

To ensure our partners thrive and grow with us, we’ve come together with one of the leading experts in wellness travel: Sahara Rose De Vore.

Sahara Rose De Vore

Sahara Rose De Vore is an influential Certified Corporate Wellness Travel Coach & Consultant, Founder of The Travel Coach Network.

Having spent over a decade traveling the globe, studying the holistic ways that travel can help improve our mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and overall wellbeing, she runs a global network of travel coaches, is a global speaker, a published author, and has been seen in over 100+ media outlets including Forbes, Travel Weekly, Skift, Business Insider, Corporate Wellness Magazine & USA Today.

It’s this unrivalled experience and expertise in wellness travel that we wanted to bring into the APLBC offering.

Using Sahara Rose’s expertise, APLBC will help travel professionals, destinations, and hospitality & tourism companies adopt a different approach to providing wellness-centric and transformative experiences that enable them to stand out amongst their competitors. And meet the demands that today’s travellers now want fulfilled.

What is wellness travel?
Wellness travel is centred on a holistic approach to travel that extends far beyond the features and services offered by a property. It’s approach and focus revolve around a property embracing its surroundings to be in complete harmony with it’s environment. In turn helping people fulfil their needs and achieve their desired personal and professional outcomes through intuitive and intentional travel. Wellness travel is about how someone feels.

Designing programs around a unique signature Travel Coach Approach™ framework that helps empower and educate, we’ll guide our travel partners to better understand wellness travel, find their niche to attract their ideal clients, and provide meaningful travel experiences that keep clients coming back for more.

Through a range of wellness webinars, articles & insights and business packages that we’ll announce shortly, our partners will have the opportunity to work with Sahara Rose on a personal level. Together they’ll be able to redefine their current position, implement travel storytelling, and incorporate meaningful and transformative travel into their services and offers.

Start your wellness journey

If you know you need to respond to this significant shift in traveller behaviour to stay ahead of the market, register your interest in one of our upcoming sessions and we’ll let you know about the first one very soon.

May 5, 2022
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The Ultimate Guide To Online Dating

By Dating Tips

The app Hornet, which caters to the gay male community, has seen a 30-percent increase in social feed engagement since social distancing measures began in mid-March, according to CEO Christof Wittig. And the dating app Tinder reported that it saw more engagement on March 29 than on any other day in its history, with more than 3 billion users swiping to connect with people, according to an April 1 press release. In 2020, online dating revenue in the U.S. amounted to 602 million U.S. dollars, and it is projected to reach 755 billion U.S. dollars by 2024. The number of users is also expected to see an annual increase, with 53.3 million Americans expected to use internet dating services in 2024, up from 44.2 million users in 2020. That year, paying customers accounted for approximately 15 percent of U.S. online dating users. While many dating sites and apps are free, some platforms use a freemium pricing model that supports online purchases.

  • Some online dating apps have been working on implementing new features to prevent catfishing—other companies are even producing AI intelligence to fend against it.
  • The revenue from this industry and its frequency of use are astronomical.
  • Even if the person you’re meeting volunteers to pick you up, avoid getting into a vehicle with someone you don’t know and trust, especially if it’s the first meeting.
  • OkCupidwas created in 2004 by a group of friends from Harvard University.

When you engage in social events where you’re likely to meet new people, the pool of those who are single and looking is much smaller than when you’re on an app or dating site where everyone is in the same boat as you. Research shows, however, there are negative side effects of online dating, particularly for young women. People cite the obvious reasons for being on dating apps, such as seeking a long-term partner or a sexual encounter; the split is fairly even.

March 25, 2022
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Accommodation in Lights

By Industry Insights

I can’t believe we’re in the third month of the year. It feels as though we’ve already done so much. I was trying so hard to ease into the New Year! However, this didn’t happen and we started the year with a bang.

It’s such good news to see borders opening and travel requirements starting to ease up again. With all predictions indicating that we should see an uplift in business travel from Quarter 2. Leisure travel, I think, never really went away. 

So as always, I want to share articles and news that’s inspired me and got me excited over the last month. Kicking off with:

Working from home and changing the way we travel

This article highlights how travel is changing and how we can expect to see longer lengths of stay, and more trips. Check out also the new buzzword ‘Laptop Luggers’. According to Deloitte ‘Laptop Luggers’ will take two to four trips a year, compared with one to two for ‘disconnectors’, and 75% of them will add extra time to their vacation. Only 6% will extend by several weeks but a large proportion (38%) will add from three to six days.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-07/how-working-from-home-will-permanently-change-the-way-we-travel

This can only be a positive for our industry and something we need to capitalise on.

The return to long haul

We’re seeing that travellers are now becoming a lot more comfortable with the new protocols and encouragingly they’re showing a willingness to return to long haul. I must admit, despite the ever-changing protocols for different countries, last year I still undertook 2 trips to New York, 1 to Spain 1 to Ghana plus a Scotland tour, and not forgetting our London staycation!

In fact, I recently returned from Ghana, and to be honest, I’m now so accustomed to what I have to do before I go on a trip and on my return it’s no longer a chore. My thoughts are, if we don’t support our own industry and encourage travel, then who will? Asia is now on my bucket list, I just need to decide where. Travel is definitely returning according to Travel Counsellors. Click here to read where they’ve seen an uptake in travel for January and February. The group have seen bookings of more than £71.2 million in January alone. 

Wellness

This is one of the key trends in 2022. Personally I’m still getting to grips with how we incorporate it into our roles, however I was privileged to have a chat with Sahara Rose De Vore, a renowned Wellness Coach and specialist who’s insight was illuminating. Sahara has also published a must-read article (link below) to learn how to sell wellness better. And next month we’ll be arranging a webinar with Sahara so stay tuned!

https://www.travelweekly.com/Articles/How-best-to-sell-wellness-travel

Business travel boom ahead

And finally, I want to leave you with this positive piece of news. 62% of corporate leaders see an increase in corporate business travel from 2021 levels. Alongside this, a huge 88% of finance managers report their company lost revenue over the past year as a direct result of the inability to travel. A strong indicator that business travel needs to increase for business to be successful. 

And just as importantly, they’re worried they might not be able to cope with the demand and uptake of business travel. For the full article click here

That’s it for now! But look out for future updates. If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on the next one, follow us.

March 23, 2022
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online digital solution - bekoe.com

bekoe.com: the powerful new online digital marketing platform for the travel industry

By Digital Solution

It was in October last year we launched bekoe.com. Our online digital marketing platform created specifically to help independent hotels, chains and managed apartments increase their brand awareness, amplify their marketing and drive their revenue.

Placing clients directly in front of over 160,000 global travel agents, bekoe.com creates, delivers, and manages powerful multi-channel digital marketing campaigns, targeted communications, webinars and RFP’s. Plus a whole host of other support features and even representation on their behalf. 

The travel and hospitality market has been an incredibly tough place for the last two years. Luxury independent brands that don’t possess the resources of large groups and who are trying to promote their properties amongst all the competition to secure their share of the leisure, corporate or MICE travel markets face a difficult challenge. 

bekoe.com helps these organisations in a simple, painless and highly effective way. The access we give offers a wonderful opportunity to generate fresh leads and bring in new revenue in a highly competitive market. And by engaging our services to act on their behalf, we also give back to clients that precious commodity – time. With their digital marketing campaigns taken care of, they’re free to devote more of their focus and attention on other areas of their business safe in the knowledge bekoe.com is working hard for them.

With a consultative approach to any new relationship, we help clients determine the best way to maximise what bekoe.com offers and how to incorporate it into their plans. The flexibility and managed servicebekoe.com delivers is proving to be a compelling combination. With a range of packages designed to meet different needs and suit different business models, businesses of all sizes have the ability to simplify their marketing and amplify their message. 

And in just a few short months since the October 2021 launch, it’s been both exciting and revealing to see how the clients that have come on-board and taken advantage of bekoe.com are working with us. We’re finding they quickly understand the potential for us to build dynamic campaigns and roll out specific activity on their behalf that are designed to deliver the right messages, use the right tactics in the right channels and get them in-front of the right target audience. 

All using the skills, expertise and access we bring to help them quickly recover lost ground and build a solid platform from which to grow. 

For some, it’s about using bekoe.com to help extend their social media presence across the globe. Our platform is helping them reach a new audience and engage with them ‘now’ to develop a community around their brand and their properties. 

Others are using a combination of channels including social, email, newsletters and webinars to deliver a constant programme that builds their brand awareness. Or generate leads for sales teams can follow up on.

Yet more are embracing an integrated channel approach, communicating regularly with an incentivised message to promote specific properties, driving both increased occupancy rates and revenue. 

And one client is taking advantage of our industry expertise when it comes to building strong RFP responses whilst offering agent competitions and agent e-learning modules to communicate the benefits of an on-going relationship with them.

This is exactly what we envisaged when we launched bekoe.com: the flexibility, the ability to create agile marketing campaigns that effortlessly generate increased exposure, the embracing of possibilities by our clients, the time they’re claiming back, and the confidence they have moving forward.

All of which makes the future for bekoe.com and for luxury independent hotels and managed apartments incredibly exciting.  

If you’re looking for support to help you meet your objectives, recover and grow in 2022, until the end of March, bekoe.com will be offering a free consultation service to help you identify the right package for you. All you need to do is simply click here to take advantage.

February 16, 2022
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