VIP class vacations (Elite, de Luxe, Premium) are becoming increasingly popular among Russian tourists who are ready to pay for a high level of service, increased comfort and other additional services. So, many tour operators sell this type of service in addition to traditional tour packages.
A lot of tour operators, operating mainly on mass destinations, organize work with VIP clients in different ways.
So, Coral Travel tour operator has opened the Coral Elite Service department to service the premium segment. Its specialization is work with orders costing from $ 12,000 or where the cost of one night is equal to or exceeds $ 1,000. In Elite Service, each order is processed in manual way and experts not only help to book a tour, but also take care of the wishes of each particular tourist. The customers of Coral Elite Service automatically become the members of the World of Privileges program, which is operating in 4 countries: Greece (10 hotels), Maldives (4 hotels), UAE (9 hotels), Thailand (5 hotels) and Turkey (10 hotels). In these VIP-hotels the guests get various free of charge privileges, such as a welcome bottle of champagne and fruit, express check-in, room upgrade, chargeless spa treatments or discounts, priority when booking restaurants a la carte, early check in / late check out and others.
Intourist tour operator has a PRIORITY CLASS program - a new class of service for tourists and travel agencies who book certain premium-class hotels. Currently, the PRIORITY CLASS program includes orders in the destination of Turkey Antalya and Turkey Marmaris, where the cost of the tour is above $ 7,000.
There are additional privileges for tourists under this program:
- Intourist Priority transfer, including a meeting at the airport with a sign "Intourist Priority" with the names of guests, flowers and small gifts for children, transfer by a comfortable bus to the hotel, during which guests are offered soft drinks, champagne and Turkish sweets.
- Concierge service (personal guide for the whole trip).
- Chargeless selection of premium seats on the certain boards of Atlas Global airline and transfers from an airport by helicopter.
TUI tour operator has an own department of individual and VIP tours - TUI Prestige. There are no cost criteria for the trip and customers have privileges in hotels in the UAE, Turkey, Cyprus and the Dominican Republic: VIP service at the airport and VIP transfer, a large fruit basket and welcome drink upon arrival, room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out, 10% discount for all Spa-services, TUI Concierge (round-the-clock customer support during vacation).
The largest mass travel operators such as Biblio Globus, Pegas Touristik, Pas Group, ANNEX Tour, Russian Express and Karlson Tourism are engaged in VIP-holidays and have special structures for VIP tourists. There are no cost criteria too.
The tour operators, which deal exclusively with the organization of premium-class leisure activities, such as Art Tour, A-Class, Allure, VIP Tour Exclusive and others, also offer a full spectrum of VIP services. They traditionally have a constant circle of clients, financially wealthy people, who prefer individual trips and high-quality service.
VIP tours are also offered by one-destination tour operators.
ADM Solar is a tour operator in Bulgaria, Amitour in Vietnam, lSeagull-Tour in Germany, ARONA TOURS in Spain, as well as Greek tour operators Kourtidou Travel, Vilar Tours, GR Travel. They do not have special VIP departments, but in these countries de luxe vacation lovers can always order VIP services at the airport, rent the most luxurious cars and private jets, individual excursions with a Russian-speaking guide, exclusive transfers, VIP trips, helicopter excursions and luxury yachts with a professional crew.
The exception is the leading tour operator in Greece Mouzenidis Travel, which has its VIP department “Elion Club”. The Club has its own website and offers services in the field of the most high-tony holiday in Greece to everyone, whose ideas about recreation are out the framework of standard programs and tours.
Working with VIP-clients, the approach of the capital's travel agencies in choosing of priority partners is this - they contact mainly with major tour operators. The explanation is simple: big brands, as a rule, provide good prices, use modern booking systems, they have stable business processes, which insures the consumer from all sorts of mistakes and misunderstandings. And most importantly, travel agents, in cooperation with market leaders, have a feeling of reliability: if something happens, the “big brother” will find its own means and solve any situation.
It is clear that in practice everything does not happen as smoothly as we would like, but the magic of large figures plays an important role in deciding who will service the most valuable thing a travel agency has - a VIP client.