Michelle Baran
It's a buzzword heard over and over again in the tour industry: custom. Increasingly, travelers and the agents who serve them are looking for tours and tour products that they can customize to their different tastes and interests.
"Everything people buy nowadays, from coffee to cars to food to homes to clothes, is increasingly customized," Mike Schields, managing director of groups and emerging markets for the Globus family of brands, recently observed. "Fewer and fewer people want off-the-shelf stuff, and travel is no exception."
So perhaps it comes as no surprise that the Globus family of brands this month launched a personalization service for its river cruise brand Avalon Waterways and for Globus tours, called MyAvalon and MyGlobus, respectively.
Using MyAvalon, cruisers can go to an online service center to choose and prepay select optional excursions; request bed configurations; list dietary preferences; purchase beverage packages; and buy celebration packages for such special events as a birthday, anniversary or vow renewal. Similarly, MyGlobus enables travelers to prepurchase optional activities and excursions. Globus and Avalon travelers can also use the portals to provide information such as emergency contacts.
According to Globus, the online customization tools are meant to cater to the increasingly individualized world we live in, but also to give agents more commissionable opportunities for prepurchased items.
In 2010, the company launched a similar concept for its independent travel brand, Monograms, called MyMonograms.
Travelers can set up accounts at www.avalonwaterways.com/myavalon, www.globusjourneys.com/myglobus or www.monograms.com/mymonograms. To update these portals on their client's behalf, travel agents can access these new personalized programs through the travel agent portal, www.globusfamilypartner.com.
For news on tour operations, wholesalers and river cruising, follow Michelle Baran on Twitter @mbtravelweekly.