How to make visiting friends and relatives your biggest niche

“There’s no commitment for them, their life revolves around here, they don’t have to go back to their roots,” Peiry explains.

Though new VFR clients snowball via word of mouth, Peiry also gives talks to local faith congregations about Exploratours’ services, which include pilgrimages to Israel, and the agency sponsors diaspora events, for instance local celebrations for the Hindu Holi festival. 

DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT

Haslemere Travel has noted more VFR bookings since the pandemic. Not only was there a post-lockdown boom in reunion holidays to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the US but also, with increased regulations, those who had booked flights online before now wanted the reassurance of an agent.

A demographic shift is another development. Before, its VFR clients were typically retired and visiting children, nieces and nephews, now there are more travelling families. And some newcomers have migrated from the internet with age.

“It might be four or five years since their last [VFR] visit, they were maybe late-60s, now they’re mid-70s and they’re not quite so confident. It’s a bit more handholding,” explains owner Gemma Antrobus. “And maybe from that they come back and say: ‘Now I want to go to Venice’, or they tell their friends.”

Haslemere Travel also welcomes VFR’s shift beyond flight-only with people increasingly asking, “where else can we do?” and adding stopovers and side holidays. In touring destinations such as Australia, New Zealand and the States, some take their local friends or relatives with them. For instance, clients doing the Great Ocean Road have requested additional hotel rooms and a hire car big enough for two extra passengers.

The agency has also often had clients add safaris to their South Africa VFR breaks or combine Australia with Singapore. “If they go and stay with relatives, it’s not quite the same as staying in a hotel on holiday,” explains Antrobus.

She adds that some clients take a Thailand beach holiday on their return from Down Under rather than a separate summer holiday that year. “I think people are more conscious of the money they’re spending, and they won’t necessarily do both trips,” she explains. 

INDIRECT ADVANTAGES 

Someone with first-hand experience of visiting friends and relatives overseas is Nikki Metcalfe, destination expert at Flight Centre’s Wimbledon HQ, whose partner is from New Zealand. She also books plenty of VFR and is adept at upselling. “Clients think about flying only – and that’s where we, as experts, can really show them how to make it their holiday,” she says. 

Friends or family will likely be working during the client’s stay, she points out, so short tours midweek make good suggestions. Metcalfe has booked the Great Ocean Road for VFR clients in Melbourne and Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays with a “reefsleep” (an overnight on the Great Barrier Reef) for another visiting Sydney. Alternatively, clients might want to plan weekend breaks with their loved ones. Metcalfe has herself taken a side holiday in the Cook Islands with her partner’s family. “Making new memories with them is so important,” she points out.

She always tags on holiday time with her partner en route to or from New Zealand, often in Australia. With the most competitive air fares indirect, it’s good to have suggestions up your sleeve, she says. Transiting through Perth lends itself to Margaret River side trips, while Brisbane opens up the Gold Coast and elsewhere in Queensland.

Metcalfe estimates she upsells about 40% of her VFR flight-only requests. Her technique is to ask clients what they’ll do once they’re there “to have a holiday”. She advises agents: “If you’re sticking to flight-only then that’s all you’re ever going to get. [Ask yourself], ‘why have they come to an expert?’