EC Travel – In bound DMC (Destination Management Company)

The Background

EC Travel was established in 1981 by Esme Cook and has remained a small but dedicated specialist team providing clients with unforgettable travel experiences to Great Britain.

With intimate knowledge of leading UK tourist attractions, five-star Hotels, celebrity Chefs restaurants as well as access to major sporting events, EC Travel creates itineraries and` programmes to suit any group size from 10 to 1,500.

Since EC Travel’s inception, their core revenue has derived and continues to this day from leading ‘Incentive Houses’ in the U.S.A. It currently equates to just over 70%, however, the Director’s felt they needed to explore new and alternative Sales channels.

With their small team of five EC Travel approached GFG in 2009 to create a strategic Sales and Marketing business plan which focussed predominantly on increasing their awareness to the European market.

Output and long-term Results

Our report submission included a broad range of long-term recommendations including amongst many others: –

• Increasing their marketing budget
• Creating a more pro-active sales culture
• Joining various UK trade associations (i.e., London & Partners, Visit London, etc.,)
• Participating in UK Sales Trade missions to various European cities
• Attend and participate at various international Trade Shows (i.e. IMEX Frankfurt + Las Vegas, ILTM in Cannes, etc.,)

As a result of implementing our recommendations, EC Travel’s Directors recognised that they needed on-going advice and support. Simon Cope has now been retained as a non-Executive Director one to two days a month since 2010.