At the end of the peak January period the partner stores were all “well ahead of target for 2018 sales”, Kuoni said, describing 2018 as “the year of agent partners and the travel trade”.
It follows the introduction of joint sales and marketing and training and development plans, as well as design projects between Kuoni and the stores.
Brad Bennetts, national sales manager, said: “This is a fantastic result and reflects the fact that we’ve worked hard together to learn what works to deliver the best business so it works both ways.
“Partners and all agents generally have delivered exceptionally well in January, so now it’s about building on that momentum.”
Destinations that have sold particularly well include the Maldives, Mauritius, Kenya, Thailand, UAE, Sri Lanka and the US.
Bennetts added: “We’ve also made some adjustments to our partner service hub, so we have an experienced support team in place able to respond quickly to quotes and deliver inspiring itineraries which match the client’s brief at great sale prices.
“Our whole campaign [with agents] has been ‘our experience makes yours’, with a message that we’ve got Personal Travel Experts who’ve travelled the world and want to deliver fantastic service to all the travel agents who work with us.”
Kuoni has more partner fam trips planned for 2018 to destinations including the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and The Far East, as well as overseas conferences in the pipeline for partner owners and managers. Agent training programme Worldwide College will also return.
Bennetts added: “We couldn’t be happier with our January result, our partners are absolute stars and we’ll continue to keep up the momentum and investment as we aim to make this our best ever year.”
Partner store Pure Destinations in Sutton Coldfield opened last April featuring the Kuoni branding, and has reported a “strong January”.
The latest partner store to open was Travelmaker by Design in Jersey in November.
