CIE Tours - Ireland, Britain and Beyond

can you see my screen Devon yes I can awesome hi everyone welcome to Travel Week webinars i'm Devon Canaz i'm the publisher of Travel Week magazine we are very dedicated to getting agents the information they need and we put on this webinar series to bring in presenters today we have CIE Tours who's going to give us a great presentation on all the product they have to offer but before I introduce them I just want to say first of all we have a prize it's $50 Amazon gift card so make sure you stay all the way to the end and then one of you lucky winners will get that and also please put your questions in the Q&A box and we're going to save them up until the end and get to all of them so thank you so much for being here today i'd like to welcome Jennifer Bond she is the sales director for CIE Tours hello Jennifer hi everybody hello hello thank you so much for being here today we are really looking forward to learning about CIE tours excellent oh I'm so happy to be here today it's fantastic and for anybody who can see me on the screen I was just saying earlier I I'm not sitting in a movie theater even though it looks like it um I'm currently on the road and and I had a choice between fully well-lit sunshiny room or darkness so you'll you'll take me like this today apologies so um let's get started uh shall we and let's have a little chat today about CIE tours and who we are and what we do now I know in the description I it I I said that I was going to cover so many things and I really am but I do know that um time is precious and uh there's lots of stuff going on in your lives so I will try to be um you know pretty uh uh g giving lots of information but hopefully trying to keep it nice and compact and succinct so that you can you know get some get some good stuff and then continue on with your day so who we are and what we do of course for those of you who are familiar with CIE Tours of course for those of you that sell CIE tours I thank you so very much for your continued support and obviously the the next couple of slides might be you know a a little you know old news for you but for those of you who are maybe new um to the industry or maybe new to hearing about CIE Tours let me give you an idea of of you know what what it is that we do so we are an Irish company and we are a destination specialist to Ireland of course that's where our roots are with our headquarters being in Dublin um we've also do offer Britain so Scotland England and Wales and we've been offering those two products since 1932 then in 2018 we also added in Iceland and Italy and then brand new uh in 2025 we have one brand new tour in Spain so again Irishowned um local guides local drivers um all of those things one of the things I think that definitely sets us apart from the co competition and you can see it in that little orange medallion there is that we have what's we call the all-in advantage so essentially if it is written in the brochure that says that we are going to do something it's actually included in the cost of the tour now what that means for your clients is that when they board the coach in the morning there won't be any additional things that they can purchase like you know oh if you want to go to a you know an Irish kitchen party tonight not a problem we can offer that but it'll be an additional cost so really for your clients they are really getting everything they're paying one price and they're getting everything included um in the land cost um otherwise uh what it also means for you as an agent is that we're not selling things to your clients and then have it be of no benefit to you so you know uh think of it as you know there there aren't any NCFs uh with CIE tours um so quality hotels quality locations uh we are a four-star or higher brand um we do have a couple of tours and of course our private and custom programs um can be or are all fivestar um if that's what your clients choose on a customization we do have a couple of five-star tours as well and we do have a guest satisfaction rating of 95% actually last month I believe it was 97 something and what that means for you of course is that um when you are booking you're booking with confidence of course CIE the parent company CIE group is actually part of the Irish government it's the Department of Transportation cie translated is public transport of Ireland um so when you're looking at that you're looking at a very solid product um you're looking at a very stable product obviously and then of course with that guest satisfaction rating of 95% or higher um you know that your clients are are going to return and and be very satisfied with the product which you know really translates into a lot of things for you um hopefully repeat business in the future so we are a guided vacation escorted holiday whichever term that you want to use that is our that is the type of company and that's the style of travel that we do offer so under guided vacations we have 45 itineraries and that is exactly what you think it is motorcoach 44 passengers is our maximum on board the coach um and it is you know scheduled itineraries 45 of them that of course you see in the brochure we also do have some small group departures so that is maximum of 26 guests but we still offer it on the full-size coach so kind of think of it like everybody gets a window seat um and so if you're looking for those small groupoup departures when you're in the travel agent portal you can find those denoted by very straightforward SG when you're looking at the calendar and the prices we also do have custom private driver vacations and I will delve a little bit deeper into that um shortly in a few more slides but it is for passengers or groups of nine passengers or less and it is a customized itinerary we also have an independent adventures which is our self-drive program in Ireland only so for those of you who have seen some of my webinars before and or maybe have seen me at shows or whatnot you know how much I love our documents so this is yes this is still our documents so we do provide each passenger with a knapsack um the water bottle with the sleeve uh luggage tags a luggage strap the little blue pouch there is actually a little rain poncho and the little orange box is a plug converter for the destinations that you're going to love it my favorite thing one of the things too sorry I I flipped slides but one of the things about the documents for you to know is that we actually send them directly to your client so obviously your client is providing address during final payment uh and we will send it directly to them usually around 14 days or so prior to departure so just so you know that it just in case if your clients are calling going "Guess what I got today?" Um in addition if you wanted to have those sent to you directly maybe you would like to do a little document evening with your clients um just let us know uh the address to send them to and we can uh fix you right up so there's our breakdown of tours for 2025 let's talk a little bit about our core audiences um people ask me a lot like you know is it still you know old people who go on motor coach tours and it is definitely not um well I I I would I would say that um I don't think of myself as old maybe other people would differ but I still absolutely love motor coach tours and you know we have all ages i I always say from 8 to 88 absolutely who are coming on our tours and we definitely have some tours that I think are more for um you know definitely do attract a younger crowd irish Pub Tour tends to be a little bit of a of a younger demographic but 54 is our average age and so I think that's actually um you know pretty pretty reasonable um definitely not old so who does travel with us really kind of we we see you know really four different types of travelers that that are attracted to the motor coach um journeys or attracted to custom itineraries where they are set up and and they get to do the exploring in our destinations obviously those heritage seekers those people who are wanting to you know go back to their roots go back and find out where their grandparents or great-grandparents or even great great grandparents are from they are looking into their ancestry into their history and are very interested in that of course we've got those dream trip chasers i don't call it a bucket list i know some people do but those people who have you know they've really waited for an opportunity to do it upright um we get a lot of people who uh do custom programs um as their dream trip uh and and heading on over um into into Europe knowledge questers um I also find too that um people who are you know very much into you know History Channel um or who like reading about you know history and and certainly history of of Canada you know obviously being part of the Commonwealth and we have you know very strong attachments to um certainly to uh Ireland as well as to Britain but I mean of course Canada is just such a wonderful multicultural country um I mean the biggest Icelandic population outside of Iceland lives in Manitoba so um there is definitely uh those people who are wanting to go and and find out and then of course we've got people who are you know who are film and book uh you know uh enthusiasts and um we get a lot of Outlander requests tours for Outlander we get a lot of Game of Thrones request um and and of course you know special interest uh knitting groups and reading groups and wine clubs and whiskey clubs and things like that then of course our explorers now of we are not a company that offers anything you know hardcore adventure we will not be jumping off cliffs or kayaking through fjords um even though that sounds grand uh that is certainly not us i would say that we are more of uh anything that we would be providing would be more of like soft adventure right bicycling going for a little bit of a hike that sort of thing so our groups now of course by the very nature of our business we are quite conducive to offering groups and there is groups surprisingly enough if you just you know maybe take a look around local groups community groups um things along those lines school groups of course a group is always seems to be there and available to be found so a group with us is 10 passengers and you will be assigned a group specialist um and of course I'm always willing to help you out there's 50/50 co-op dollars available if you wanted to do maybe a an event a consumer evening if you wanted to print some flyers things along those lines always happy to assist you with that and lots of discounts um for those groups certainly early booking bonuses and whatnot so our group options there there are uh three that you can choose from so a shared group is really the best value for dollars so essentially pick something out of the brochure one of the itineraries out of the brochure um call into groups email into groups block the space we can usually turn it around within 24 hours to confirm of course uh tour conductor so that free seat is at the 16th passenger but we also do offer half a tour conductor at 10 so as soon as you get 10 the 11th seat is at half so um we are not uh you know necessarily particular in what you want to do with that seat if you are wanting to host the tour um the group then that's fine of course you can use it for yourself you may want to give it um to uh if somebody brings you a group that might be part of your arrangement with them um that that they would go and and lead the group um you can invest the money back into the group for maybe a dinner or something or if you're like me I'm a bit of an opportunist in this way and I would say take the money and run but hey whatever you want to do with it whatever is going to work best for you that is fine by us group option number two is a private group so exactly the same idea you pick something out of the brochure but you actually block the entire coach so we do offer tiered pricing of course you sell it at the first tier price um or the top tier price uh but then obviously the more you sell the more you're going to earn as the tiers um are bringing the pricing down at like 21 passengers and at 31 passengers the price goes into a lower tier and of course that's extra earnings for you and again tour conductor seats at 16 and then there's also the private custom group so essentially what this is is that you come to us maybe you've got an itinerary in mind maybe there is something in the brochure but it's not quite it or you want a different departure date or you want to add a day or take away a day not a problem we can customize tour we can do the sightseeing um you know it's sometimes some groups maybe want to have a castle stay or or stay in a particular town um that's of interest to them absolutely we can certainly arrange that those prices are done net and they are also tiered based on the number of passengers traveling so some group ideas for you um I'm always happy to help uh obviously I've done lots of groups in my time and you can do um certainly uh you know health and wellness um ancestry heritage garden tours uh really there's there's you're only limited by your imagination on this um FNB obviously food and beverage um you know we can do wine tours wine and food tours in Italy we can do whiskey tasting in in uh in Scotland Um we can do a pub every day and a pub every night uh whatever your clients are looking for i did want to add in one other style of touring while this does fall under escorted and of course is motor coach Journey we do also have our day tripper collection um which includes the ones that you're seeing here on the screen and these are hub and spoke so these are fabulous um ideas for motor coach touring for those clients who either they've done motor coach touring they're not you know they they enjoyed it um I mean I still love you know waking up and knowing I'm going to be you know heading out and going to be in a new city maybe like that by that evening but then there's definitely some people who are like well I kind of already done that i think I'd rather stay in a city and these are more hub and spoke as you can see now the Dublin Day Tripper which is the first one we are actually going to change that for 2026 but the other ones look like they're going to remain the exact same for 2026 and of course Dublin Day Tripper is available for the remainder of 25 but as you can see Hubbins spoke so you're spending the entire time within one city and then doing day trips on the motor coach with the group from there this is also great for those cruise clients who maybe said "Well I've seen it from the water now I'd like to see it i'd like to spend some time on land but they still like that cruising feature of you know only unpack once having the same room every night being able to return to it." Um and I think that you know this is a nice um alternative for those people who are looking for something different so our private driver vacations there you go i wanted to point out that middle picture that is our Mercedes fleet so it's either the sedan the minivan or the sprinter coach of course this is for nine passengers or less and this is fully customizable so um you can um ask to mirror something out of the brochure or you can say "What would you suggest my client has seven days and wants to see Ireland." Um or you can say "These are the musthaves my client you know they have to do cliffs of mower they have to stop in you know a particular village because that's where their grandparents are from those sorts of things and again the the nice thing about private driver is that it is yours it it it does belong to your clients um there is some obviously flexibility uh within the tour but we do create the entire tour for them it's just that it's done uh privately with the driver um and you being able to include or uh you know have have have whatever that you know their heart desires um people always ask me what the price point is on this and honestly you could spend anywhere from you know $5,000 to $80,000 i mean it it really does come down to the inclusions if your clients want to stay in a castle or have the castle to themselves or a manor home or something like that of course you know that is going to be a little bit more um on the on on the expensive side however some people are like "No I'm here for the experience to load me up on sightseeing and museums and and private tours and I'll stay in a holiday every night like you know and and really that's the beauty of our private custom program is that they can choose um you know how they want it to look so of course our independent adventures which is available in Ireland only and this is our self-drive program so we do offer eight scheduled itineraries that they can do as private drive now keep in mind that they will be actually I I I hate to say that they're that they're with the with the coach with the tour because they're not really but um they will be in the same hotel as as um as the group who are on the motor coach um you know which means that you know they'll probably see the group and and uh you have breakfast with them and then some of the included sightseeing and things like that would be similar and then of course you can customize this as well so they are they still have the benefit of you know being under that CIE tours umbrella um the the the vehicle in includes insurance of course we're going to do all of the hotel bookings sightseeing and things like that this is really ideal for families who maybe have younger children and want something a little bit more of um less structured than a than a motor coach tour but still want to be able to you know bring the kids um and and have a little bit more of um flexible experience it's also great for um you know for for large f like for multif family um or for people who just want to go off an adventure on their own so I'm going to turn a little bit towards the actual uh booking site i am not going to do a live demo for the travel agent portal um and you know for obvious reasons I think that it's very very straightforward um not unlike most of the portals out there it's pretty um straightforward but I will tell you if you've not had the opportunity to see the travel agent portal or to be able to log in please take a moment and do so it only takes mere seconds um and then that also unlocks for you um you know anytime that there's a flash sale or a promotion we would let you know um through the travel agent portal so first and foremost when you go into uh CIEours or bookings.caours.com you're going to see the login all you do is click on that and then you can go in and build your either log in or build your profile i do want to make note to you that on the top uh lefthand corner is the 1-800 number for reservations that is on every single screen and as you can see the little thought bubble there in the bottom right hand corner that is live chat and that goes to directly to our reservations team um keep in mind uh and it's not it's not a bot it's not it's not a system trying to figure out what you're trying to ask it actually goes to an agent who is manning the chat box right in our res team so anyway you click on login it asks you if you are a travel agent of course you're going to say yes and then you can either create an account or log in once you're logged in this is what your page looks like so obviously there's no reservations uh for Jane Smith down there in the bottom but um on this page you're going to see if you have any reservations it's going to give you all the details on it what the status is if you've paid your deposit when final payment is due when you booked it all of those things and as you can see again 1-800 number top left chat box bottom right and then from here you can go into the education center which has all sorts of things it's got our CIE tours 101 it's got um social media it's got our logos if you wanted to you know do something uh make something up for for social media or whatever um you know please feel free to tag us at CIEours um and use our logo all of those things are available to you we do have a photo gallery in there as well although to be perfectly honest with you I must say while I love our education center and the resources that are available to you Tourism Ireland who of course is one of our partners in this wonderful uh business has the most incredible media library that I've ever seen so if you are wanting to do something featuring Ireland um please refer to I think they have something like 60,000 different images and videos and things so absolutely fabulous also too our video is available for you as a resource too so I think I'm going to come up to what we have new uh in 2025 so we added four new tours this year and one new destination which of course is Spain now we are very much a niche provider as you can obviously tell so you know we are never going to be 175 different tours in 45 countries we love our little niche brand um and for us to expand and add in Spain um we obviously do that in baby steps so we do have one tour the best of Spain for 2025 it starts in Madrid and ends in Barcelona and uh that is the only program that we're offering so like I said baby steps but I'm hoping that in 2026 we will be able to add on some more custom experiences within Spain as well we do have our classic Sicily um so Sicily as a standalone product i actually had the opportunity to do this tour back in November it was fabulous um I think probably the best part I mean you know how do you how do you choose it was all the best part um but I really enjoyed uh you know we do stay right in Termina like overlooking the ocean rather than down um sort of in the beach area we actually stay right up in Termina so um you know restaurants and cobblestone streets and shops and all the wonderful things um you can actually see the Four Seasons from the hotel that we use um and of course the Four Seasons in Satomino was the first White Lotus if any of you are fans so um you can see it and you can go and have a little drink there as well too you can just walk down um to it from the hotel our Irish Supreme is brand new and this is a five-star tour of Ireland so castle stays five-star accommodations private touring all of those things and then of course our Dublin day tripper which again is the hub and spoke where you're spending the entire time in Dublin and then doing day trips on the motor coach with the group during the daytime now like I said the Dublin day tripper we are actually going to be adjusting it for 2026 so you going to have to stay tuned for that and I know in the description I promised a preview of 2026 and everybody ready yeah i'm really sorry i I if I could hear the um sorry that was very antilimatic um the preview brochure for 2026 is coming next week so while I have a pretty good idea of what's coming and I will tell you that um that there's going to be uh a couple of adjustments to our existing tours we are only eliminating I believe two tours in Ireland or changing them and we are also looks like in 2026 we're going to be offering what we call more soft adventure so um a little more walking a little more biking those sorts of activities as well too in a couple of the new tours so I hope you weren't sitting around you know waiting oh my gosh I can't wait to find out what's new um I I feel for you uh but I I hope I've given you enough of you know a little bit of a hint and I can assure you that they uh that you will be receiving that preview brochure uh I know I'm scheduled to receive it on the 26th which I think is next Wednesday so you should be receiving it about the same time um and then you can have a look at it now for groups for 2025 there is still space available if you want to plan a group and I also want to let you know that the space for 2026 on the existing tours that you can see in 25 is also open for group bookings and we've already had quite a few so if you wanted to maybe plan uh you're thinking okay 2025 I I I I think I'm going to you know maybe wait till 2026 to do a group that is also available there for you too so I will just wrap it up here before we go into questions with some of our March promotions so this one is another few days you still can get in on it the Emerald Escape Sale which of course was for Wonderful St patrick's Day on Monday and it is ending on the 24th of March it is for travel for the remainder of the year you can save up to $1,800 on land and air bundles or $1,200 on land only and it is on of course select tours in Ireland so if you do have clients who are maybe sitting on the fence thinking about something or you you you know you might want to give them a call or you know send them a quick email say "Hey you know sales ending soon." So um you know just grab those uh those last few few uh bookings before um before the before the 24th of course our group's promotion is still ongoing so any tour that you're booking in 2025 as a group departure um we have $800 booking bonus we have um $600 booking bonus i'm always happy to work with you to help you pull something together um please feel free to call uh yes of course you know busy schedule we all have them but I am more than happy to take you know 30 minutes and and and walk you through the process or give you some ideas on on what's going on so the booking window January 2nd to March 31st on that private driver sale of course is also ongoing um and that is saving anywhere between $6 and $900 Canadian uh that is running until the 24th as well for travel for the rest of the year we always have year- round promotions and last minute deals so keep in mind last minute deals are not for departures next week it could be absolutely but our last minute deals because we do understand that you know certainly just within our product lineup there's last minute deals i had a look um day before yesterday there there are departures there in April and May so um it's not like you know book today leave tomorrow um there is definitely uh you know a good um long booking window for those last minute deals and those are found in the travel agent portal under the promotions tab of course we offer pass guest credit offers so 150 for guided or private driver 75 for the classic um self-drive in Ireland and those are combinable with any of our existing promotions so there we go i think I've hopefully made it in good time and I'm wondering if there's any questions for me thank you Jennifer that was such a lovely presentation and you've got us all excited for spring and going to Europe in the summer okay agents if you have any questions please put them in the Q&A box and we are going to get to them okay first question can you go over a little bit more exactly how CIE can help with marketing um or co-op dollars sure so that was um definitely uh for groups so if you do have a group booking and you're you know you're you're you're sitting and waiting uh okay I've got it together i've got the space i've now I just need to sell it um you know we can obviously produce flyers for it um there's always the opportunity for uh if you wanted to you know maybe uh run a Facebook ad or if you wanted to um you know post it on Instagram we can certainly assist with that um consumer events if you wanted to do a consumer evening to promote your group um I'm more than happy to um to assist with that as well too on a on 5050 share maybe you want to run an ad in a in a magazine or community um you know bulletin happy to help with that so there's lots of things um even too like if you wanted to maybe do um you know a Facebook live uh I I I can certainly assist with that to help promote so um really all of those sorts of things that's what we um would would fall into that 50/50 co-op but in addition to um you know there's myself there's your group coordinator um there is also you know our marketing team um and you know we've all got some great ideas uh to be able to help you make your group a success okay great and what if they wanted to do some kind of consumer event you'll help out out with that as well 100% um you know what you just give me a call and let me know if uh like time and place and what your idea is and I will make sure to find um find time in my calendar so that we can make that happen um I will let you all know this is this is kind of news for you but um I I I'm not making any grand announcements but it does look like we are also going to have a second person joining us uh in CI tours based in Toronto so um I won't be as so feel like so stretched as thin and we'll have a second resource so that's always good too for those consumer events and for those shows that you may want to be participating in okay so bottom line is you're keen to help agents market and they can reach out to you 100% okay lita would like to know if there are fam trips coming up so um there are uh I know that there have been a few that have been um in the works i don't have anything at this point in time like again no big grand announcements um I believe that there is going to be um couple perhaps in uh either the fall or in um spring of of 2026 so if you are logged into if you've already got a login for the travel agent portal that's how you would be notified so either it would be through um through the portal uh through or through CIE marketing um via the portal as well too like via email newsletter so make sure that you are um signed up in that portal so then you would receive that first off okay we have Suzanne here maybe Suzanne will reach out to you privately because she is planning a castle dream trip five star supreme sounds exciting yes yeah reach out to me this sounds great i want I really want to hear about that i live vicariously through your clients i I I really do because Yeah these some of these some of these trips are incredible i know you know traveling is so wonderful it's so amazing to hear all these stories and everyone come back with you know such a smile on their faces okay Christa would like to know if there's any early bird bonuses for booking into 2027 so 2027 we would not have like the rates quite yet for however if you were wanting to degroup we would obviously bookmark you and then we would um preserve the 26 pricing so so keep that in mind um in addition if you are uh I mean I know this isn't 27 but if you are booking 26 we will be having um some early booking bonuses starting as soon as they as soon as they get launched and released so um keep that in mind as well okay Dorothy has a bit of a of a concern because she says that it looks like there's a bunch of free time in the itineraries but solo travelers might not feel so comfortable being alone um I think you might have already answered this like there's a lot of options like free time or going on tours do you want to maybe just comment about this again so yeah if you're seeing um free time and obviously we do try to to do that certainly um during some of the like late afternoon and evenings and that's just simply because uh some people want to go and sit in a pub and some people want to go to a Michelin star restaurant for dinner um and we want to make sure that people have enough free time for that however if you do have solo travelers um while during that free time obviously we would have nothing scheduled you can always request from the tour manager so either the driver or the tour manager um for activities you know maybe very close to the hotel that you're staying at or something where you know you could be part of a group tour um or even just you know something local in the area where you wouldn't feel like oh gee I'm all by myself right and and and also too for safety and security like maybe it's just oh there's a really cute cute shops around the corner or something along those lines so there's always the the tour manager to be able to make suggestions to fill in that free time if you have a solo traveler if you have tra you know even couples or or whatever that may be feeling a little bit at loose ends during that free time but I must say our tours are pretty and you know there there's lots of stuff to see and do they may you know your clients might just be happy enough to you know sit in the lobby bar and uh and watch the world go by okay thank you we have one final question from Sandra she would like to know if there is a minimum age to join a group tour so yes a minimum age on our motor coach is age eight um however on private driver or self-drive obviously um as long as you provide the car seat we don't have an age restriction but on our regular scheduled motor coach touring it is age eight okay excellent all right well that wraps up the Q&A jennifer do you want to maybe give us one final inspirational pitch um getting agents really excited to sell CIE tours well you know I I would I would hate to get political but um again we are an Irish company um and we do sell uh to Canadians we sell in Canadian dollars uh and um Ireland is probably I I I just saw an article not too long ago but Ireland is one of the safest um most secure and they say most relaxing and pleasant vacations that you could do in 20125 so there's my pitch as it were um but just keep us in mind for for those clients who are looking for Europe this summer um we're happy to help out uh you know and obviously um you know I I love our product um it's gorgeous and uh and you'll be you you you will not regret it and keep in mind 97.8% of our clients are 100% satisfied

wow that's a pretty good number yeah it is okay Jennifer thank you so much for being here today that was a great presentation you're a lovely speaker we really appreciate it thank you so much i appreciate I I appreciate being here and and having having your time and and everybody who joined in today thank you so very much um looking forward to seeing you all at all all the many events during the year okay bye travel agents thanks so much for joining us today and we will see you at another travel week webinar thank you bye everyone take care

2025-04-11 12:08

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