Top travel agents awarded
Published:Friday | March 10, 2023 | 12:39 AMJanet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
AS JAMAICANS continue the staycation trend, the island’s local travel professionals are touting bragging rights as top producers among the country’s finest resorts.
Leisure for Pleasure, Go Jamaica Travel and Island Trotters walked away with top prizes last Wednesday night at the H10 Ocean Coral Spring and Ocean Eden Bay resorts awards presentation in Trelawny, outpacing sales output by 17 other agencies.
The three were among the 20 best travel agent partners hosted by the resort group over two days. They took home coveted trips to Spain, vacation credit and trophies.
“The competition was stiff, and the agents’ interest and support of our two Jamaican resorts have grown considerably,” the hotels director of sales and marketing, Tanesha Clarke, told The Gleaner.
She said the local market was important to Ocean by H10 hotels in Jamaica. “We see the value in our local travel agencies, the work they do and the business they are able bring to us year over year. They are an essential part of our travel industry and we commend them for their resilience, creativity and support for our hotels in Jamaica,” Clarke added.
Leisure for Pleasure won three awards – Top Producing Local Travel Agency for 2022; number one sales production for Ocean Coral Spring; and Groups Guru; while Go Jamaica Travel, which placed second, was recognised for overall room nights and revenue; number sales production for Ocean Eden Bay and Best in the Meetings and Incentive market.
Island Trotters placed third for overall sales productions.
The hotel group opened its first Jamaican property in December 2019, and closed it in its first year because of COVID-19. By November 2021, the H10 chain unveiled the adults-only Eden Bay.
STRONG CLIENT
Excited by the recognition, Leisure for Pleasure’s owner, Judith James, spoke of how easy it is to sell local properties to Jamaicans. “We have built a very strong client base since 1999 and are known in the marketplace to offer great products at really great rates. Moreover, the service at the Ocean Coral Spring and Ocean Eden Bay has significantly improved since opening,” she noted.
According to James, the hotels have a dedicated team of workers and the sales, reservations and accounting teams are very responsive, which makes it much easier to sell them.
Go Jamaica’s Dave Chin Tung was just as complimentary, stating that 2022 was a great year for their agency, especially for meetings and conferences. “Most of our meetings were booked at Ocean Eden Bay as the hotel offers a great product for our clients, and management is very accommodating.”
Their overall sales, he said, is a show of confidence in the brand.
Clarke, in the meantime, said the rewards were above par, with the top producer receiving a five-night stay at an H10 hotel in Barcelona, Spain; US$1,000 travel credit, plus a platinum award in addition to other prizes; while the second-place winners took home a four-night stay in Mexico or the Dominican Republic and US$500 travel credit, a key award of eight complimentary nights and 10 day passes.
Island Trotters received three nights stay at Ocean Coral Spring or Eden Bay.
H10’s vice president of sales and marketing, Juan Carlos Fernandez, flew into Jamaica for the event, showing his personal appreciation to the agents.