Why Foodies Love Umapped
The world has an appetite for food travel, and successful travel advisors are those who know how to point their cuisine-minded clients in the right direction.
Global experts across a variety of organizations from tour providers to researchers to travel agencies have predicted “continued growth in nearly every aspect of food travel—from gourmet to street food,” according to the 2020 Food Travel Trends Report by the World Food Travel Association.
In fact, the report found that “95% of leisure travellers have participated in a food tourism experience in the past two years”! So, if your clients aren’t already asking you about vegan food tours in the golden triangle, baking classes in Paris, and cruise recommendations based on the wine selections… it won’t be long until they start.
But how do travel advisors take on their clients’ foodie-cation demands without putting too much on their own plates? With a little help from Umapped.
The Easy Way to Create a Foodie Travel Itinerary for Your Clients
Umapped’s Trip Publisher itinerary management platform is designed for speed. Simple navigation, instant data importing, and built-in travel vendors mean advisors can create beautiful, interactive trip proposals and templates in a mere fraction of the time it would take to do manually.
Trip Publisher’s interface allows you to map out more than just flights and accommodations. You can take your clients’ itineraries to the next level with:
Personalized recommendations for local restaurants
Dinner reservations
Downloaded menus from restaurants of interest
Instant destination guides, including “Where to Eat”
Food tour booking details
Food & Drink festival tickets
Chat functionality for seamless communication while in destination
Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen? We Beg to Differ
The collaborative nature of the Trip Publisher allows travel advisors to easily add a tour provider as a collaborator on a Trip. This will allow those third parties to make detailed updates to client itineraries. All of those vineyard tours, brewery visits, and cooking classes will become a breeze for you; while your clients will appreciate the streamlined itinerary experience.
A collaborative itinerary platform also means your travellers can continue to customize their Trip themselves with exciting new bookings or possibilities as they come up. Since about four out of five travellers are “actively seeking out information on local food and drink… [via] social media or through their friends and relatives … and when they visit a destination”, Umapped can help you provide your clients an easy way to keep track of their research and wish lists.
Go Ahead. Ask for Seconds.
As pointed out in the 2020 Food Travel Trends Report, foodie experiences simply never get old: “Food travel engages more senses than other travel activities. Travellers can also participate in multiple food activities in a single day. Returning visitors can explore new food and drink offerings, while other visitor attractions (the Eiffel Tower, for example) may remain the same. Travellers even return to their favourite restaurants, pubs, and food stands on subsequent trips.”
Your clients love returning to their favourite food trucks, underground cocktail bars, and brunch hotspots. Luckily, travel advisors who take advantage of the Trip Publisher’s Template features, can harness this to their benefit.
Follow up with your clients post-travel to get invaluable insights about their trip highlights. Then, turn their winning vacations into Templated itineraries, ready to be enjoyed again on their next getaway. You can also keep this Template handy when a new client is looking for fresh travel recommendations. Everybody wins.
There are countless ways your team can use Umapped to boost productivity and wow clients. Be confident that you’re using our travel solutions to their full potential, and register for an interactive webinar today.