I don’t care if your niche is cruise travel, luxury travel, or backpacking-hostel travel; if you’re not getting in on the Destination Wedding market, you are missing hundreds of thousands of dollars of business. When you add destination weddings to your repertoire, I guarantee that you will reap the benefits. Yes, they can be high maintenance; yes, they require a lot of time and attention compared with other types of travel; and yes, they are worth every minute. Here’s how to land them, and why you should.
1. By Hook or By Crook: Get Into Bridal Shows. Bridal show booths aren’t cheap, but you can get them for free with some clever leveraging. What I do is to offer the bridal show a honeymoon giveaway by partnering with one of my top resorts, and in exchange, I not only get a free booth, but have my logo (and the resort’s logo) on every piece of marketing material that bridal show publishes. You can’t buy that kind of exposure, and fortunately, you don’t have to.
2. Work Your Women’s Groups. One travel agent who’s new to the business took my advice and started spending her free time meeting professional women through groups and clubs. At her very first meeting this agent spoke to a future mother-in-law who gave her number to her son’s fiancé. The fiancé called the next day and that wedding has been booked!
3. Weddings Are Like Buffalos. Native Americans knew that they didn’t need to bring home a whole herd of buffalo – they just needed one big, fat one to feed the tribe. Destination Weddings are like that big, fat buffalo, because not only are you handling the travel arrangements for the happy couple, you’re helping their friends and families book their resort stays too. Even though Destination Weddings are smaller than weddings at home, you can still feed the tribe well on just a few. One of the travel agents I mentor landed an unusually large 150 guest wedding at a Dreams resort – which was worth more than $180,000.
4. Spreading Weddings. I’m sure you’ve noticed how weddings come in waves. First one couple gets married, and within months, five other couples in their group of friends get engaged. And they’re all discussing their wedding plans with each other online. This means that if do a spectacular job on one wedding, not only will everyone there remember you, want you, and recommend you, but all the pictures of the event will be posted on social media and blogs for weeks to come as well. Also, be sure to ask your couples to give you a review on their favorite review site (if you don’t ask, many forget). One of my recent weddings has already referred three other weddings to me, for a total revenue of $380,000.
5. Weddings Are Worth the Pain in the Bustle. Brides – and their mothers (mostly their mothers) – are high-maintenance clients. It’s true. They’re working hard to ensure that everything is perfect while navigating family drama, crabby relatives, misbehaving bridesmaids, and in-laws who think silk flowers are just terrific! If you give these brides (and their mothers – mostly their mothers) the support they need to make their weddings stress-free and lovely, they will sing your praises to the honeymoon and back.
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Tammy Levent, Public Speaker & Business Mentor
Click here to read Tammy’s bio and a sampling of her achievements.
