ACV Celebrates Fun In The Sun

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Travel agents were out in full force at Muzik Nightclub last night (Sept. 7) for the Air Canada Vacations (ACV) Sun Collection launch event in Toronto.

Close to 1,000 people were in attendance at the second annual #ACVDreamMakers celebration to learn about the 2016/2017 Sun Brochure and the latest news and developments with ACV, as well as to meet with 80 supplier and hotel partners, take in special entertainment and even hang out with the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster.

“This is really about sharing with the trade and with our agency community everything we have coming up for the winter 2016/2017. First and foremost it’s a fun night, it’s an appreciation opportunity for us to mix and mingle and see a lot of important trade partners,” says Craig Landry, president, Air Canada Leisure Group. “It’s an opportunity for the travel agency community to learn and get engaged with what it is we’re doing.”

While new routes have been announced as part of the winter flight schedule (from Montreal to Puerto Vallarta on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays onboard Air Canada rouge; and Halifax to Puerto Plata operating on Fridays onboard Air Canada) Landry told PressToday the focus is more on the growth in capacity and lift.

“We already have a pretty mature network into the sun markets, but we have a lot more flights, so rouge is growing, we’ve just had our third anniversary so we have more aircraft that have been added into the system, so we will be doing more flying, and we’re coming back again with our Privileges program. Privileges gives you some guaranteed attributes when you stay at one of our properties, things like early check-in, late check-out, Wifi access, a la carte restaurants and so on,” he says.

This year a new collection called Spotlight was also launched for the winter season, which provides value added options for guests from additional dining options to access to special sections within the resort.

“It can vary sometimes from property to property, but what’s common about all of it is that they provide a really exclusive and unique experience to our customers,” he says. “Of course for our families the Play program is back this year, which we recently introduced, there’s a lot of growth in that program, it was very successful last year… We’re growing significantly. Our challenge isn’t so much that we’re worried that we’re going to grow year over year, it’s can we grow enough to meet the capacity increases.”

The 2016 winter flight schedule features service to Mexico and the Caribbean from all of ACV’s major gateways, including Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver.

The ACV crew was also on hand to announce the members of the Travel Advisory Board, featuring 25 travel agents from across Canada.

“These people are going to become advisors that are going to work really closely with us. We will meet with them every month, they will really help us understand even better than we do today what’s on the minds of travel agents, how can we become a better tour operator and partner for them, how can we help them sell,” he says. “A night like tonight is not only a good chance for people to learn about our product, but it’s also a great opportunity for us to connect and talk to travel agents, which we’ve been doing all night, hear what’s on their minds and what it is that they’re looking for. The Travel Advisory Board is another example of that so that’s what tonight’s all about.

The Sun Collection events hit Halifax on Sept. 9 (be sure to visit our booth to get your photo taken on the cover of Travel Courier), Montreal on Sept. 12 and Vancouver on Sept. 15.

Pictured at the event are: George Platanitis, VP of sales and partnerships, ACV; Craig Landry, president, Air Canada Leisure Group; Dina Bertolo, VP product development, ACV and Nino Montagnese, managing director, sun markets, ACV, with flight attendants.

 

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