Wendy Wu Tours unveils new rewards and £1,000 incentive for agents

Wendy Wu Tours has unveiled two initiatives to support travel agents, offering them the chance to earn points towards a free holiday and to pitch for £1,000 to spend on joint marketing.

Wu Breakaways is the new rewards scheme for agents, replacing the Bamboo scheme next week, while Wendy’s Den is the name of the campaign offering cash to support three agencies to promote the escorted tour operator’s holidays.

Chief executive Glen Mintrim outlined the details on a Travel Weekly webcast, saying he hopes to raise awareness among agents of the operator’s new European tours as well as its traditional Asian offerings in China, Japan and Vietnam.

“Trade bookings are much, much lighter than they ever were before,” he said.

“Our volume is there, but it’s coming direct. So our direct customers are getting the message of what we’re doing. But the trade is still seeing us very much as Japan and China.”

Wu Breakaways will give points for 10 land-only tours – five in Europe and five in Asia – which can go towards a free trip or a trade-rate holiday.

“One passenger, one point – simple as that, it doesn’t matter where it is: Portugal, Scotland, China, Japan,” he said.

Just two points will be enough to qualify for a trip and the rewards will be allocated to individual agency branches.

Agents who don’t make bookings can still take advantage of trade rates and take a partner on a tour, he added.

Wendy’s Den is being offered via the operator’s three regional business development managers, who each have £1,000 to give to a winning agency.

“An agent knows their customers better than anyone else in their community so why not give them the opportunity to get kickstarted?” he told the webcast.

Mintrim said the operator is looking at other ways to help agents with cash flow and encourage bookings.

“We’ve got to come out of this together,” he said.

“I want [agents] to still tap into high-end touring. EasyJet and all these cheaper holidays are great, and they’re focused on them because they’re going now – I also want them to be able to focus on the high-end stuff, and reward them quicker.”

He told the webcast how the operator had to develop its style of all-inclusive tours for European itineraries as the pandemic meant its traditional destinations in China, Japan and Vietnam were off-limits.

It started with tours in Scotland and has expanded to Portugal, Italy, Greece, Russia and the Baltics.

For the Travel Weekly Globe Travel Awards (March 22), it will highlight the historic links between Portugal and countries in the Far East such as Japan and India, to promote both the European and Asian aspects of its new portfolio, he added.