Travel agencies globally considering aligning with Serandipians will need to have similar values to the luxury consortia, which hosted its biggest-ever annual conference in Marbella, Spain last week. LATTE was the sole Australian and Asia Pacific media invited to attend the multi-day event.“The qualification of a Serandipian agency will have to more closely fit the DNA of a Serandipians agency the way we envisioned it to be now than you might have in the past,” said Peter Conway, Serandipians’ Director of Memberships and DMC Partnerships. As LATTE reported last week, Serandipians is nearing its aspired agency membership tally of 600. It currently has 570-plus members, meaning the last remaining opportunities to join the luxury community of travel designers are running out.
“We’re going to be more selective, and more challenging. There will be more hoops to jump through to get into the network,” Conway said.
“In Australia and the US, we need to be more known. We’ve built this community almost entirely on word-of-mouth recommendations with very little advertising. We just relied on the support of suppliers who brought agencies to our door, saying they should be considered cause they fit the dynamic.”“We have to be very consistent within our DNA as well otherwise we start mudding the waters and people would wonder who it is that fits into your community, and not.”
While the remaining number of agency opportunities appears limited, annually Serandipians reviews its member numbers and isn’t afraid to show non-performers the door. About 5 to 10 agencies leave the network each year should they not meet certification requirements.For travel agencies, there is no cost to join Serandipians. Instead, “certification is like payment through performance,” Conway explained.“Certification is an annual process where we review every agent within the agency to review their activity. The more active they are by participating – at events, accessing the extranet, filing reported bookings, contributing to different forums, and completing the annual Barometer Survey on the state of the industry – all contribute to certification.“We aim to keep agencies motivated. Ultimately, we don’t want to lose agencies. We want to motivate them and it works well.”“We have growing brands. In the US, we have Indagare Travel which has grown quite significantly since they joined.”“In the UK we’ve just accepted Scott Dunn Private into the community,” he revealed to LATTE. Scott Dunn Private, an elite branch of Scott Dunn (which is owned by Flight Centre Travel Group), has members in outposts in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States.“We couldn’t accept Scott Dunn as a group due to its size. It would have been too big,” Conway said.
As an aside, in a statement to LATTE, Scott Dunn Private said it was attracted to Serandipians’ global connections membership brings with the world’s top hotels, private yachts and exceptional service providers.
Simon Lynch, Global Product Director said, “Scott Dunn Private is all about unrivalled expertise, access that matters and seamless execution. When looking for a partner we needed someone who understood these values. Serandipians delivered something truly different. We’re delighted to have become members.”
Conway said Serandipians is constantly receiving invitations to apply, with six or seven submissions received each week.
“I have over 900 agencies on our waiting list at the moment,” he reveals.
The process to join requires an initial interview and “if strategies align” they are sent an application form that profiles their company, philosophy, type of client, what they book, how much they book, the value of bookings, along with samples of some of the agency’s mote creative itineraries designed in recent years. The wannabe Serandipians members also require references from hoteliers and DMCs within the community to support an application.Conway continued, saying “We had another conversation with a large group, worldwide, but it just didn’t fit the model. They were too big. They approached us but we just didn’t feel comfortable that it would really fit well with the rest of the community.”
“Our focus is definitely on smaller volume, higher value clients.”
“If you look at these companies, they are all small, really passionate and creative companies, and then sometimes an organisation can come in and alter the dynamic a little bit, so we are still quite comfortable about who we accept. It’s no insult to them. We’re not saying you’re not worthy, but we need to protect our brand as well in terms of who we are, and that’s also an underlying factor.”“Generally, the agencies are in the region of 10 full-time employees with an average of 9 million in agency turnover .Originally viewed as a European-based luxury travel consortia, as the company has expanded its global footprint, Serandipians now has a significant presence in Asia Pacific and the Americas.“We wanted to reduce the influence of the European market and spread it out to the other regions. We don’t want any particular country or market directing or influencing the organisation.“We want to make sure everyone has input and a voice in the future direction of Serandipians. And to have that, we have to be spread out.”More exclusive content from Serandipians and Conway in the next issue of LATTE.
