A tour operator is bringing a piece of Italy to travel agency shops and events in the form of a custom-built ‘trattoria’ stand.
Magari Tours director of sales and product Tony Flanagan said the operator had received so much good feedback to a larger stand built two years ago for consumer shows that he decided to have a smaller one designed specifically for the trade.
The stand includes an Italian restaurant backdrop and a table with Italian bread, olive oil and pastries as well as plants, the operator’s brochure and its bespoke recipe cards promoting regional dishes.
The 8ft by 6.5ft stand – aimed at raising brand awareness of the Italian specialist – is currently catching customers’ eyes at Peakes Travel Elite in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
“It’s generating interest and the agency is booking in appointments for me to talk to their clients,” said Flanagan, who added: “The whole point of doing this was to turn heads. It’s to give agents the opportunity to use it in their promotions and entice clients in. If we get bookings through Peakes they will be a direct result of this.”
Peakes Travel Elite managing director Claire Moore is planning a ‘meet the expert’ day in July for agency clients to meet Flanagan to talk about Magari Tours in branch following the ‘window take-over’ promotion.
“We’ve had great feedback, a few brochure requests and we’re all booked for his event bar one space so only have positive things to report. We do regular meet the expert events and always use a window take over to promote it,” she said.
Already Flanagan has several agencies booked in to use the stand over the summer or outside their agencies as well as at trade events.
“I’ve had other agents saying they want it, although I may need to reduce the stand’s height to fit in some branches,” he admitted.
