FAM trips are the best way to sell your destination, products and services. How could you better persuade a tour operator than in person and on location?
By giving the tour operator the chance to test and experience products they can best decide on the suitability for their clients, gain product knowledge and hence can better sell your products to their clients.
The purpose is to find new international business partners who are interested in selling your region's products and services. In addition, to receive valuable feedback on the suitability of your product offering for international travelers.
We only organize FAM trips detached from our overall export concept in exceptional cases.
The quality of our FAM trips is primarily that high when product development workshops, product manuals and sales tours have been realized beforehand. Hence, we can only guarantee our high standard and customer satisfaction when the FAM trip is one part of our overall service chain.
If you have been on a sales tour with us or met tour operators online in our one-to-one meetings prior to the FAM trip, we will consider those tour operators in the first place.
Second, we select tour operators who expressed their interest in joining FAM trips and are relevant based on their product portfolio and specialization.
We always invite only one person from a tour operator, mostly product managers and decision makers. In case they are not able to join, colleagues from the product, marketing or sales department are likewise welcome.
Invitations are sent out in personal e-mails, ideally with a draft program to arouse interest.
Program example:
We usually organize FAM trips with a duration of 4 days/ 3 nights incl. arrival and departure day.
Most often FAM trips take place from Friday till Monday or Thursday till Monday.
Depending on the destination and distances between different stations we can of course discuss the duration.
On our FAM trips we aim to have a manageable group of 5 to 10 tour operators who are highly interested in your destination. By keeping the group small we enable better possibilities for successful networking and a more personal and trusted atmosphere.
This always depends on the client and project. If the FAM trip is part of a row of services (our export concept) and a product manual was produced before, the program will mainly be based on products presented in the manual.
The aim is to focus on exactly these products and suppliers and promote them amongst relevant tour operators.
Our team gladly assists in program planning if desired. We set the rough timetable based on available flight/ train connections, suggest activities, sights and hotels (from the manual).
For planning we use a standardized form that everyone involved can access and edit:
Tour operators who would like to join a FAM trip need to fill out an online registration form.
Amongst other details the form asks for basic contact information, food intolerances, clothes/ shoe sizes and height (if needed for activities), points of interest and FAM trip expectations.
We share this information prior to the trip with you.
Usually a team member of NordicMarketing accompanies the group. The intention is to support you during the trip. We keep an eye on the timetable, encourage communication and sales talks between suppliers and tour operators, respond to needs and requests of the tour operators, help directing conversations and intervene if necessary. We act as some kind of mediator and if needed also as translator.
In addition, we gather (visual) material during the trip that is needed to prepare the feedback survey afterwards.
It is also possible that we organize FAM trips solely.
You as a destination or project need to cover travel expenses, costs for accommodation and meals for all participants.
We will provide you with a handout containing recommendations on how to prepare best.
What's definitely important: Define your unique selling point and practice your elevator pitch.
Shortly after the FAM trip we gather the participants' feedback in a very detailed online questionnaire.
The feedback focuses on the quality as well as on the relevance and suitability of each tested and seen product/ service for the particular target groups. We also ask for the business potential, resp. how probable products will be offered in future.
Excerpt from the questionnaire:
You receive a detailed and measurable feedback from tour operators as a PDF report.
Of course we aim to gather feedback of all participants but practice might look different sometimes. If people simply do not find time within a preset period the feedback might not complete.
Except from the feedback report:
With organizing FAM trips and helping your company to match relevant tour operator needs we create the base for a possible long term cooperation.
Read this article as well to understand how the FAM trips work and how you can benefit at its best. It also explains how you may succeed in turning contacts into real business.
