TORONTO — Effective Nov. 1, 2021 The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND) will be joining the TL Network (TLN).
Previously TTAND was part of Ensemble.
Says Flemming Friisdahl, Founder & CEO, TTAND: “We spent numerous months researching the consortium to see if TLN would be the right fit for the Canadian host agency. The main program incentives which ultimately felt right for TTAND to make the move were the exclusive Cruise Program, the extensive Hotel Program and the valuable marketing materials.”
The TTAND executive team hosted an exclusive presentation for its 900+ partner agents detailing the program’s features and benefits in detail. A vote was held afterwards and over 98% voted in favour of joining the TL Network.
“Canada continues to be an important market for TL Network and all of Internova Travel Group, our parent company. Partnering with TTAND allows us to continue to provide leading Marketing, Technology and support for our Canadian members while evolving to meet the needs of the market. TTAND is an icon in Canadian travel, and we can’t wait to be a part of their continued success,” says Roger Block, President of TL Network.
Friisdahl noted that one of the founding principles of The Travel Agent Next Door “is [to] continue to look for opportunities that will make it better for our agent partners. I had a number of agent partners join in 2020 and they spoke very highly of TL Network. Based on this we spent close to 80 hours researching the value proposition of TLN versus our present consortium.”
Friisdahl added: “We found we were able to get significantly MORE hotels, cruise booking dates and marketing than from our former consortium.”
TL Network’s SELECT Hotel Program features 1,600+ luxury hotels globally. Hotels include some of the most distinguished and premium hotels, including 117 Four Season properties, 170 Marriott International properties and also features numerous properties from Jumeriah, Belmond, Ritz, Mandarin, Peninsula, Shangri-La, IHG & Hilton and more.
TTAND also notes that on top of the client benefits which include VIP amenities in almost 70% of properties as part of the program, TL Network agents also have major incentives including enhanced commission up to 20%, discounts off best available rates and gift certificates with villa bookings. TL Network also features the Worldwide hotel program offering 42,000 hotels over 169 countries with differentiated and discounted rates.
TTAND says it’s also excited to be joining the unique cruise program with TL Network, featuring CruisePRO booking engine and a consumer version for agents’ clients to use.
The TLN cruise program offers the most groups of any other consortium, securing almost 90,000 cabins with one of the leading cruise lines. The cruise program offers hosted tours with Distinctive Voyages, Culinary and Wine themed sailings, Private Car & Driver programs and include 4,000+ amenity departures.
TL Network’s direct mail program features Postcards Magazines, Luxury Travel and VIP Cruise all scheduled to be printed in 2022. TLN has amended their print marketing to feature Canadian pricing and Canadian wording in order to be TICO Compliant.
Says Lindsay Pearlman, Senior Vice President of International Leisure at TL Network: “We are pleased to bring TTAND into the TLN family as we all come out of this pandemic. We’ve been focused on developing products and services that add value to the traveler while increasing earning opportunities to the advisor. TTAND continues to grow based on their continually leading innovation and focus on their advisors, we are thrilled to be part of that.”
