The sharing of best practices between Virtuoso‘s regional offices could see the import of a ‘new to network’ Connects event for the Australia and New Zealand market, LATTE can reveal. The potential new event would be inline with Virtuoso’s mission to be “consistent globally” in standards and strategy, says Michael Londregan, SVP of Global Operations.
In a wide ranging interview with LATTE at Virtuoso Travel Week last month, Londregan spoke of the evolution of the consortia over the past 12 years (during his current term) which has seen the concept of the “best of the industry working more closely together” expanded from a US-centric “great idea” to a global scale.
“Great ideas need to be repurposed regionally to make them great ideas everywhere,” he said.
“Almost everything I’ve done is pinpointed on the ‘great ideas’, and considered how would that work in Brazil, how would it work in China, and 90% of the ideas are unilateral, but you do have to have a team in market to realise the fine-tuning involved,” Londregan explained.
“Consider the Virtuoso product portfolio and the couple of thousand partners that we work with. They weren’t selected in the past 12 months. They have been growing for 30 years. American advisors have been providing input on who the best people to work within the market.
“Our members in the Middle East haven’t had any input into that because they’ve only just started, and thus the portfolio has been designed with a bit of a U.S. flavour because that’s where it started. And so the Regional Partner Program was introduced.”
Virtuoso’s Regional Preferred Partner Program was born in Australia and New Zealand and is now adopted in the network’s other regions globally.
He used an example of Fiji and its appeal to Americans as a romantic destination for loved up couples, whereas “Aussies take their kids there.” “That’s where the Regional Product Program can differentiate between the two audiences.”He suggested Virtuoso needs something more in-depth in Bali and that the Asian market needs Mandarin- speaking hotel staff. “Regions are all different. Their consumers have different tastes, they all like best, but the best has varyinh nuances depending on where they are.”
Londregan says the preferred partner program is performing “phenomenally well”. “We have a huge portfolio of Regional product for Australia and Asia and now we’re opening up to Latin America, Canada, UK, Europe, Middle East.”He highlights that it’s not every supplier or on-site’s mission to expand beyond a regionally preferred partner association with Virtuoso, “and that’s okay.”
“We’ve had partners go from Regional to Global, and others go from Global to Regional. Some people join as Regional and stay in that lane, and others have not been able to make it work and have dropped out.”
“Where we’re trying to be consistent globally is standards and strategy. All companies are going on this journey of being born in one market and then having to go global. They get stuck between what has to stay the same and what could be different.”“Where we’ve stayed consistent is with the standards required to be a Virtuoso-fit, and what’s our strategy in the market, because then people know what you stand for, how it works. Where we’ve been flexible is the execution – how do you operationalise it? “
“Around the world Virtuoso operates three kinds of events. Either a Forum for Owner/Managers where they discuss the strategy; On Tour – which is like Virtuoso Travel Week with Buyers and Sellers; or Connects, which is a tactical event and we might not even know we’re going to do it a year out (it could be hotels, on-sites in a region of the world), but then when it becomes apparent that there’s a burgeoning sector in the market, we assemble our specialists in that field together.”“In other parts of the world – not yet in Australia – we’re doing Connects events for ‘New to Virtuoso’ advisors. A brand new advisor, as it fits that segment and it’s been very successful.”“What you’re seeing in Australia isn’t the only way to segment the market. It’s the way Australia has decided to segment the market.”
Quizzed if he could see Virtuoso’s new advisor event added to the line-up down under, Londregan said: “Yes. I can. We are learning from each other.”He said his task as chief of operations is to observe and to share best practices as quickly as possible.“I’m the bridge between the markets coming back and saying to the marketing manager, I know you do this, here’s a different way that they’ve tried in, for instance, Brazil, and they have a look at it and consider giving it a go.”“Global companies, one of the huge advantages is being able to share best practices. It doesn’t mean what works somewhere else will always work in another market, but it’s great to have had a rehearsal otherwise you’ve got to do everything full steam ahead in your market and you’ve got to learn the same lessons our colleague learned a year ago.”“We’ve told our regions you can’t do everything all the time, these are your three frames of events – Forum, On Tour and Connects.”He said Jennifer Cambpell, Virtuoso’s Senior Vice President, Network Products & Events, provides GM’s with the overview and the purpose, and then provides the team instructions to be as imaginative or creative and be as relevant as possible.
“That was hard to integrate because in the past it was a case of be whatever you want, whenever you want all the time. But after one year of discipline, everyone is being creative inside the box, and not outside the box,” he concluded.
LATTE attended Virtuoso Travel Week as a guest of Virtuoso.
