Carrier reports record-breaking year via agents and launches overseas retreat

The luxury operator said sales overall continue to rebound this year, on top of a big year last year where £47 million in sales was achieved. Five independent agents generated more than £1 million each in sales.

A focus on growing “both high value and complex touring bookings” and concentrating on “growing strategic agent partnerships” were key drivers in boosting revenue, head of sales, Rick Milne said.

“Our strategic partnerships with agents were a huge triumph in 2023, recording a growth of 36% in gross sales,” said Milne. “These partnerships are extremely important to Carrier, we put the utmost care and attention into them, and these agents are seen as an extension of our own business; they’re part of the Carrier family and are treated accordingly with business insight, transparency and genuine care. Many of these agents have had successful historic partnerships with Carrier, but I think everyone would confirm that we have taken things to the next level since the pandemic.”

In 2023, Carrier’s own staff took more than 70 fam trips and the operator said it had also made a large investment in its aftersales teams to “elevate service levels”.

Given the success of the partnerships model, Milne added that Carrier would now be “targeting a handful more agencies at this level and investing further in those relationships”.

“While many operators will talk about incentives and offers, especially in the premium luxury space, we’re working with agents who know how important it is to deliver for luxury clients; they simply won’t be swayed by a voucher or possibility of winning a holiday in a prize draw as their clients are too important to them,” Milne added.

New for this year, the operator’s first conference-style event, the Carrier Retreat, will launch and is hailed as an “off-grid style event, by invitation only, designed to foster meaningful connections with the Carrier community”.

Bringing together 30 of the UK’s leading luxury travel advisors, the Carrier Retreat will be held at the Grecotel Corfu Imperial in Greece, where agents will access a “carefully choreographed agenda that combines meaningful business content, with quality relaxation time”.

The Carrier Retreat takes place 13-16 May and attendees will spend time strengthening relationships with members of the Carrier team beyond agency sales, including the senior management team, as well as enjoying presentations and masterclasses.

“We’re conscious the luxury B2B market is now exceptionally crowded with a high number of tour operators looking to engage with essentially the same travel agent audience, and everyone tends to host similar UK-based events,” said Milne.

“We always seek to do things a little differently and offer something to our agent partners that really adds value to their business. We aim to deliver an experience that not only showcases a Carrier-featured resort, but also includes additional content from inspirational expert speakers that can actively help build on the agent’s day-to-day business; we want to inform, inspire and connect people.”

Carrier is also preparing to launch its new website to the trade with preferred partners having access to an agent portal, with marketing assets, sales statistics and a content library available. A virtual launch is happening this month with agents trained on how to use and get the most out of the website.

Carrier will also host its annual awards ceremony for agents at Bafta in London on 7 March, with an event set to be “bigger than ever”, with 140 people expected to attend.

Meanwhile, Carrier said it had seen a significant growth in high-value bookings (those over £75,000), which now equate to almost 20% of overall revenue, compared to 4% back in 2019.

“These higher value trips tend to be multi-generational or special occasion bookings and come with a unique kind of exclusivity and privileged access; they range from private island buy-outs in the British Virgin Islands to once-in-a-lifetime trips such as gorilla trekking in Rwanda,” said Carrier’s managing director Natasha Towey.

“Growing these ‘high-stake’ bookings has not just happened by chance, it has been a strategic focus of the business and we’ve firmly established our place at the top of the market when it comes to facilitating such bookings and the results have been incredible,” she added.

Growing complex touring trips has also been part of Carrier’s strategic growth plans and a success story for 2023, Towey said. 

“These have grown by 35%, with touring bookings now representing over 30% of our business mix. Our new specialist touring team are backed by three dedicated product managers who all focus on finding the right experiences, ground handlers and hotel partners to bring these luxury tailor-made itineraries to life,” she added.